** Correction** I originally posted this as an “Educause Discussion” when in fact it was merely advertised through an Educause listserv. To more correctly attribute the time and resources spent to facilitate the event for the education community, this event was hosted by Montclair State CHSS Island and facilitated by AJ Brooks

This afternoon, I dropped in on a well attended (26 avatars at the high point) in-world //Educause VW// group discussion focused on reports that Google is developing a virtual world to compete with Second Life. Generally, the story goes that the combination of various Google resources – Earth, Maps with street view, Sketchup – may be combined with other personalization tools to create a virtual environment (more links). More exactly, Google potentially has a development project based at Arizona State.

While I’m waiting on the full transcript of the discussion (which I’ll link to when it’s available), I have a few thoughts; some of which were mentioned by other participants as well.

First, assuming the Google virtual world – supposedly labeled My World - utilizes existing Google “stuff” to generate a virtual replica of the physical world, would it really be attractive to current MUVE users? For me, one of the key affordances of virtual environments is to not be like the physical world – to create new spaces and ideas. From that perspective, a Google apps generated virtual replica of the real world doesn’t seem particularly attractive. The one aspect of it that is appealing is virtual tourism and/or historically relevant locations, but doesn’t a world like Second Life already offer that opportunity through historical recreations? And, if the physical world is the initial genesis for Google’s My World, how are the interior spaces of existing structures going to be developed?

Second, with the big brand backlash against Second Life being what it has been, is Google waiting for renewed interest in virtual worlds? The news and hype surrounding the possibility of My World dates back to December 2006, and the Arizona State reports indicated it was going to be released by the end of 2007. Has the hype curve for Second Life impacted Google’s initial timeline for release?

Third, although I really like Google and the array of tools it offers (I’m a non-compensated Google evangelist), I’m not particularly interested in another standalone virtual world. I’d rather see Google continue working in collaboration with others to develop interoperability between existing virtual environments. I desperately do not want to see virtual environments go the direction of Web 2.0 and social networks – with a new flavor of the month popping up every other half minute when truly valuable additions to the landscape only occur once every six months or so. As an educator, interoperability is key. We need standard protocols that allow for users to roam freely from one world to another with their avatar changing automagically as they cross from one world into the next: i.e. Topher morphs into my WOW avatar as I cross from Second Life into WOW. We need interoperability among different platforms or versions of a virtual grid: being able to move from a private OpenSim grid onto the main public grid.

Further, certainly Google must participate in the evolving online world, and virtual worlds may be the next iteration of that evolution. However, I’ve always read that Google’s mission is to make everything searchable, to make it possible to find anything via Google tools. Is a virtual world within the scope of that mission?

Finally, as an educator, I’d prefer Google invest in Second Life and continue to develop other tools that may be more useful to education – particularly since there aren’t as many “players” in that market as there are in the general virtual world market. To what am I referring? I would rather see Google Sites to be more tightly and logically integrated with all of the other Google tools – gmail, reader, calendar, groups/discussions, picasaweb, blogger, documents, scholar/books, iGoogle, news, notebook, video/YouTube, talk, orkut, gdrive, and translate – and fitted with an assessment engine. All of that will create more personal and social learning spaces that sit neatly within the online lives of learners and teachers, in contrast to current LMS products which struggle to incorporate tools comparable to what Google already makes available.