Virtual Worlds in China, Asia, the World and the Digital Third Place

Last week we presented the summary of the research on virtual worlds in Asia (covering China, Japan and South Korea) commissioned by the European Commission via the EU-China Information Society Project, in cooperation with the Chinese Government.

To summarize the summary:

• The 2D web of virtual worlds is doing well, while the 3D web is recovering from the “Second Life Aftershock“
• Regulation is going to be very complex as 2D and 3D environments allow the conduct of various “activities” from creation and remix of content to commerce, gambling and more. Of course, Internet is global which makes things VERY hard to regulate.
• Most “digital immigrants” do not understand that the term “virtual” simply means “digital” and that there is no special magic there. Great post here on this topic by Bill Gurley at Benchmark Capital
• Our hopeful conclusion promoted awareness campaigns about the risks associated with digital identities and the celebration of the benefits of what is becoming a “digital third place”.

The presentation is hereunder without the 60 minutes talk but the full report should be made available soon.