The Times released their archives for free on the web! I came up with some interesting searches under “world wide wait”, a coinage that is attributed to them on the Internet and I believe has some relevance to where virtual worlds are today. I am also on the trial “free” plan for HighBeam Research, that gives unlimited browsing for free provided you cancel your credit card after a week.

Herewith some interesting quotations:

The problem is that for most Internet visitors, flipping through the pages of the World Wide Web is about as exciting as turning pages of a book or magazine once every 30 seconds or so. (Even some people with fast modems call it the World Wide Wait.) Some pages are fascinating, others are dreary, but nothing really happens on the pages. Browsing is a passive activity once the reader lands on a page.

Imagine, instead, a Web where each page is active and interactive, instead of static. A simple graphic image becomes an animation. A photograph becomes a video clip. Stock quotes and sports scores are updated on screen as the user watches.

-By PETER H. LEWIS, The New York Times,
Published: October 17, 1995

Sloth, the transgression of the slow moving and the unproductive, notorious as one of the Seven Deadly Sins, is alive on the Internet.

I like to read magazine articles while waiting for my next Internet event: 30 or 60 seconds to load a Web page or a minute to access a large news group. Any process that’s easily interruptable qualifies as an Interleavable Internet Activity (IIA). When the most recent command is done, I rouse myself and click on my next selection. Then it’s back to my alternate world for 15 seconds, 45 seconds or two minutes. A few seconds here, a minute there — they all add up.

-”Welcome to the World Wide Wait”, William Casey, The Washington Post, June 12, 1995

READ about the Internet, and thrill to the notion of a world wired at the speed of light, with all the information anyone could want just a mouse-click away. But actually use the cursed thing, and a more prosaic picture quickly emerges. Delay, break-downs and glacial transmissions are part of everyday Internet life. New users are amazed: surely this tepid data trickle is not the fabled “information superhighway”? Veterans shake their head wearily: the Internet has always been swamped, and as long at it doubles in size each year, it seems likely always to remain so.

True? That question-whether the Internet can grow out of stumbling adolescence and become as delay-free and reliable as the telephone network- ultimately comes down to one of economics.

-The Economist (US), October 19, 1996

Business week published an article today titled ‘The End Of Work As You Know It‘ where it was argued the concept of the workplace and the employer/laborer relationship are changing as a result of increased connectivity (virtual worlds, social networks et cetera). The article discusses the evolution of the workplace using a variety of anecdotes representing the forthcoming change.

The reason why I bring up this article, besides its obvious relevance, is because it brings forth an interesting and divisive point at the end of the article–questioning what “technology’s ultimate impact on workers” will be.

In discussing virtual worlds, while asserting my belief in it becoming an essential tool of the future, I often get bombarded with the generic concern that the entrance of virtual worlds marks the end of true social interaction and the ultimatum of superficiality.

In tandem, Business Week raises two pertinent questions:

1) Will this be a new world of empowered individuals encased in a bubble of time-saving technologies?

2) Or will it be a brave new world of virtual sweatshops, where all but a tech-savvy few are relegated to an always-on world in which keystrokes, contacts, and purchases are tracked and fed into the faceless corporate maw?

And their response:

“It’s safe to say we’ll see some of both. But perhaps we can comfort ourselves by realizing that, while technology will change the nature of work, it can’t change human nature. “All of these technologies,” says Charles Grantham, executive producer of the research group Work Design Collaborative, “aren’t going to be a substitute for face-to-face interaction.”"

Business week tackled this point well. Human nature is human nature. The rise of virtual environments and other collaborative and social metaverses are not meant to replace human interaction, but simply augment it (at least for now). This is the underlying supposition of progress.

Click here to read Business Week’s article

Matthew Beller of Ludwig von Mises Institute released an article today titled The Coming Second Life Business Cycle, which critiques Linden Lab’s execution and management of the LindeX and SL economy.

Beller states that SL’s intervention in society, by freely controlling the key commodity: money, will lead to some sort of recession for the SL economy. Beller writes, “[The sales of L$] do not reflect a flow of real wealth into Second Life. Instead, they are created by Linden to represent wealth, but no economic production was involved in creating them.”

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To my understanding, Beller is suggesting since Linden Labs can create as much L$ to make up for their “budgetary shortfalls without ever issuing any debt,” they generate an artificial inflation of the currency and thus point SL towards an unstable economy.

He offers two possible outcomes:

“In the first, Linden will stop running significant deficits at some point. With less L$ available to spend, residents will demand fewer goods and services, leading to lower prices and reduced profits.”

“[And in the second,] Linden will continue running deficits to the point that a sufficient number of residents and speculators will recognize the L$’s frailty…[and] everyone will scramble to redeem his L$ for “real goods,” which, in the case of Second Life, is probably the US$.”

Ultimately, Matthew Beller’s article does not offer a positive outlook for the SL economy, however he does tender his opinion on how to avert an SL recession. “If Linden wants to prevent this from happening and foster a stable, growing economy within Second Life, it should apply the lessons of Austrian economics to its policies: abolish restrictions on content, strengthen the ability of residents to enforce their property rights, and, most important, tie the L$ to a real-world commodity money backed by 100% reserves.”

Chronos Laval

[*http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/03/the_future_of_credit_cards_ear.html#more]