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An update from the Metaverse Roadmap: We spent a fun session this afternoon envisioning some of the things that might come to pass in the metaverse in two- to ten-years time. Some tentative conclusions, for your perusal:

More and more virtual worlds will start coming online as venture capital money discovers the space. As this happens, they will wink out with greater frequency as well. The coming and going of VWs will be disruptive to many of the communities that have formed in these worlds, but communities will prove stronger than platforms, and will migrate from world to world in search of a safe and stable home. To facilitate this, more cross-platform applications like Xfire will emerge, ultimately leading to a strengthening of bonds among users.

A few more possibilities, drawn at random from the crowd (though admittedly leaning toward the more amusing), after the jump: (more…)

VRoot flags an open-source 3D desktop environment called True3D*Shell with an OpenGL API. Again, I’m in Metaverse Roadmap sessions today, so I haven’t checked this out yet, but it looks interesting.

The Wall Street Journal’s Reply All column is running a predictive conversation between Esther Dyson and Vint Cerf on the future of the Internet. Mobility, broadband, RFID, distributed decision-making, advertising and the planet Mars all come into play. Interesting reading.

Haven’t had time to look into this, as I’m at the Metaverse Roadmap today and tomorrow, but it sounds interesting. What is it? “A free web Player for sharing interactive 3D objects, scenes and worlds. truePlay enables users to interact, learn and work in real-time in a photorealistic, simulated, 3D space that offers a much richer sense of presence than any 2D technology could provide.” Check it out and let us know what you think. [Via Glitchy.]