3pointD.com

Guest #388

DutchPIPE is a new (alpha-version) free system for creating “Persistent Interactive Page Environments.” The sytem uses DOM, XHTML, Javascript, PHP and AJAX, and is built on an abstract, object-oriented architecture similar to the LPMuds of the late 1980s. While it’s hard to get an idea from the Web site of just what DutchPIPE will be capable of, the site proposes uses including eCommerce, social software and the construction of virtual worlds. There’s some hint that it might become interoperable with other virtual worlds, or that user-owned, DutchPIPE-built spaces would be able to connect to one another. Basically it sounds like an open-source, distributed version of MySpace with perhaps a bit more functionality. This could be an interesting thing to have around, if it were to catch on. Hard to tell at the moment whether DutchPIPE will be it, though. Graphics look pretty limited, but I did find it notable that as soon as I got to the page and became Guest #388 I was assigned an avatar that wore glasses, favored neckties and was blessed with unruly hair (though of a different color), just as I am in real life. Now that’s impressive functionality. [Via vgs-rss.]