I have been tracking a development that I believe will have profound impact on product development. I would be interested in your take on the potential economic impact of metaverses/3D such as Second Life. I believe that this new phase of the Internet will have major economic impact to some sectors of the economy. The virtual world is creating communities based on relationships. These communities are global in scope but narrow in focus. Virtual worlds offer the ability to create virtual items. This is much like the beginnings of CAD and CAM. These virtual items are now being bought and sold in virtual economies. Right now artists, jewelry and clothing designers are coping Real Life articles and bringing them into the virtual world. It is only a matter of time before items are created in the virtual world that people will want copied in the Real World. Since many people involved in the virtual worlds communicate using Web 2.0, ideas and concepts from the virtual world spread very rapidly around the globe. These virtual communities are communicating at a level that has never been seen before. These global communities are collaborating to produce things in these virtual worlds. These virtual items are now competing with each other for attention, exposure, etc. The ones that reach critical mass can have Real World demand. In the future Real World companies will rapidly respond to this demand by providing these products for Real World markets. If this happens then it changes the economics by giving an advantage in cost and product cycle to the companies that produce products virtually first. Or the first companies that can turn the virtual demand into real life demand. Virtual products can be created anywhere in the world and the demand can be generated anywhere in the world. HP, Microsoft, IBM, etc. are all involved in metaverses either in the form of games like World of Warcraft or social ones like Second Life. The metaverses are here to stay, technology will improve, and access to high speed internet will increase allowing more people access to metaverses.

I would be interested in what you think about the economic impact these metaverses could represent.

Sincerely,

Alexander J. Keenan

Below are a couple of items to help make my case.

A) There already exists Logistic Networks such as Lee Fung that have greatly decreased the production time required to produce clothing. Toyota now has the production cycle from time of order to delivery down to about 5 days for a vehicle made in Kentucky.

B) Virtual makeup combined with RFID is providing insights into demand without using a real product.http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2088564,00.asp

C) 3D laser body scans are already being used to get exact fits for clothing. This same information can be used to create avatar that match real life body measurements.
http://www.tc2.com/what/bodyscan/index.html

D) Jewelry is now commonly designed by CAD/CAM http://www.jdkjewelry.com/

E) Clothing currently is being designed using CAD/CAM http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/cam/

F) Few new products are still on the shelf a year after they are introduced. Seldom does a product reach a million dollars in sales.

H) Capozzi Winery Island created in Second Life is being used to help promote a wine that could not be available for years. They are building a brand before the product is available. http://www.simvineyard.com/

I) Access to metaverses can be expected to increase due to increased access to broad band http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=14449

There are already two interviews there that discuss business blogging in some detail. Sun Microsystems 003 and SAP 005