Friday, December 21, 2007

More Forecasting on 2008 (part 2)

Two days ago I din't get beyond answering the first of the five questions that the Virtual Worlds News site put up.

To avoid clicking to an fro, here are the questions once more:
  1. What are your top 3 trend predictions for 2008?
  2. What business goals have you set for 2008?
  3. What challenges do you expect 2008 to bring for the virtual worlds industry?
  4. A number of new platforms are launching in 2008. What are the biggest impacts this will have on the industry?
  5. How will the above changes affect your specific segment of the industry in 2008?

Here are my answers (from q2 onward)

2. What business goals have you set for 2008?

  • Have total commitment inside the company I work for (right on schedule)
  • Write a book on NVE's (if my co-author finds time to brainstorm)
  • Organise several techmeetings in Second Life
  • Transfer 10% to 20% of our corporate training to a virtual environment
  • Completing 5 real immersive projects.

3. What challenges do you expect 2008 to bring for the virtual worlds industry?

As more and more companies will be disappointed in the 1st wave results it will be up to the industry to find true business integration. The biggest challenge for 2008 will be to get the metadiscussion on the metaverse going. By this metadiscussion I mean the discussion on the underlying principles of the metaverse.

We need to find suitable businessmodels. In this discussion we should find answers for the economy in virtual worlds, hardware and other infrastructure, portability and interoperability, international or metaversal law and identity management.

4. A number of new platforms are launching in 2008. What are the biggest impacts this will have on the industry?

I'm not sure which impact it will have. Half of the industry will still be on the first upward curve of the hypecycle, while others are on their way down in disappointment and a few will already start in the 3rd stage of gaining maturity.

Of the new arrivals I expect a lot from Football Superstars, but on the whole I'm not exactly impressed by the latest additions.

5. How will the above changes affect your specific segment of the industry in 2008?

Both question 4 and 1 (previous post) and to a lesser extent 2 and 3 read more or less the same: The impact it will have on my segment of the industry is simple: Native MDC's will loose their headstart in projects for the metaverse and more traditional companies with long term relationships and business analysis skills will have to step forward to mature the industry of Virtual Worlds.

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