No, it isn't. I know that so many residents feels so hyped with it to declare the Second Life™ the next big thing and the next step that will replace the web as we know it. I can agree that virtual environments are possibly the next big thing. There is a lot to be discovered about them. There is a lot for us to learn, lot of things to do. Second life does change our feel of the Internet and communication. But it is not going to become a replacement.

There is no need for the web to be replaced by 3D virtual space. Flatworld will develop in its own path. But, those two, flatworld and 3D world(s) are complements. There are things that are easier to be done in regular browser like Firefox. I don't need an avatar to check my e-mail or to read a document. I don't even need it to write this post, though I like to hang in-world while I write. If one wants to access Wikipedia or any other group of documents, there is no need to do that in three dimensions. No need to have an avatar on the screen clicking the pages of a prim book. It just gets in the way. Many parts of our first lives are done in two dimensions eversince we have invented letters. For thousands of years, it is a good way to go. And that is not going to change.

But, let's forget about that for a moment and take a look on the Second Life™ platform. Let's see what our 3D world is missing to be the next web.

You can use any of the existing browsers to access any of the web pages. It doesn't matter which company hosts the website nor which server they use. You easily jump from one site to the other. In the metaverse, it is impossible to teleport from one world to the other. Not even from LL's™ Second Life™ to any of the OpenSim grids despite that you are using the same client for both. If we was to change a browser and relog for each external link we clicked in the past, web would never developed.

Web is based on standards, set of protocols, formats and other stuff. Sure, those are subject to changes but all the changes are done in a way that community benefits and evolves from them. Except when a big company disrupt the system on purpose trying to get monopoly and suck money from common good. But let's not talk Redmond ethics here.

If this is going to be something serious and not just a geeky game and something that media likes to talk about, if it is really going to be the future, then it is going to be planned seriously and openly. If it is going to develop then it will be free for studying and development. If it is going to be usable, then it will not restrict users on one type of client, one type of server and one grid. if it is going to be really widespread, then those 12 millions of registered accounts are not enough. Then we don't need one big grid but a set of grids and freedom to move with the same avatar without reloging and without even noticing that anything has changed under our feet. 

How long we have to wait? 

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