Connecting Worlds

Nice coverage for Myrl in the latest issue of Converging Media. The article is about the growing integration between virtual worlds and the web.. here’s an excerpt: ”Paul Jackson, an analyst at Forrester, warns that interest in virtual worlds has waned since Second Life consistently made the headlines last year and says that it’s “time to move to version 2.0,” where these environments will be easier to use. One outfit aiming to facilitate entry to these worlds is UK-based Myrl.com, which acts as a gateway to a multi-tude of destinations. “There is an increasing number of virtual worlds and a growing number of users,” Francesco D’Orazio, founder of Myrl, told CM. “What’s missing is a central hub to make access easier. Myrl allows visitors to discover new virtual worlds based on their interests.” D’Orazio says people often sign up to worlds such as Second Life and then don’t really know what to do when they’re in them. “In social virtual worlds the user participation isn’t structured as much as in MMOG” he says. “Which is great and better for creative and active users, but the question is how do you engage more casual users? We should provide tools to guide people through the process of entering and exploring a new world and stay engaged…”.And Web 2.0 has loads of tools that could make our virtual lives easier and more fun, that’s why we keep working on building integrations with the web. And once you’ve connected a virtual world with the web you can start interacting with with the whole web but also connecting multiple worlds using the web as a bridge. This is what Nic Mitham from K Zero calls outeroperability and it makes totally sense to us.