mishmap

Small Worlds and the group web

Posted on May 31st, 2008 by Brian.
Categories: mashups, social networks.

I’m impressed by Small Worlds, the virtual world (now in Beta) by New Zealand based Outsmart. Unlike worlds like Second Life, Small Worlds is an in-browser flash application that works without an audience diminishing separate download. As I’ll explain in this post, it has the potential to bring a new social dynamic to the masses.

After creating your avatar, you choose a room and populate it with furniture and gadgets including a radio streaming last.fm, artwork displaysing your flickr feed, YouTube videos or Twitter tweets, and arcade games to challenge your friends. Click on a pool table or a chess board for a quick casual game. The mashup possibilities with other popular Internet services seem endless - I’d love to see an in-game map or globe where I can pinpoint previous or future travel destinations.

But I’m most excited about how easy and natural it feels to interact with other people. The last 5 years of social networking have demonstrated a progression in interactivity. First it was your individual profile - you create a page of self-description (favorite quotes, bands, etc). Then came the testimonial or public wall where you left messages to be discovered by others trolling your page. We then graduated to the Facebook newsfeed, where you can keep tabs on your wide social circle in a less time consuming way (no need to click each profile for the latest updates).

But while a sense of community was formed, it wasn’t real time. With an avatar based paradigm like Small Worlds, it’s natural to communicate with many people in your virtual room and participate in real-time group dialog. The learning curve is much lower than Second Life, where it takes hours to acclimate.

I experienced an AHA! moment, where I envisioned myself sending friends and new contacts a URL link (all rooms have their own web addresses) instead of an email address or Linked In invite. Once clicked, they enter my room and get treated to an online representation of Me - my design aesthetic, latest ideas, projects, photos, playlists, favorite restaurants and reviews. Ringing a bell might alert me through my IM client that I have a visitor so I can open up Small Worlds in my browser and catch up, maybe inviting a few mutual friends to plan a BBQ next weekend.

We haven’t yet reached Snowcrash technology, but Small Worlds is a step closer to a web less about Me and more about Us.

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