Second Life joins the metaverse discussion with the return of its founder — and some key patents
A strengthened “commitment to growing an innovative, inclusive, and diverse metaverse” includes Second Life founder Philip Rosedale rejoining the project as a strategic adviser. After launching Second Life, he’s been involved in a number of other efforts, popping up with a virtual marketplace for people to sell their skills and a neuroscience collaboration,
However, his VR project High Fidelity, a telepresence-focused experiment that took a step back from developing its tech for head-mounted displays, will invest in Second Lifeowner Linden Research with cash and “distributed computing patents.” Speaking to CNET, Rosedale said High Fidelity is shifting seven people to work on Second Life. The deal also includes patents, like two covering community moderation in decentralized environments. As we’ve seen with companies like TiVo and Nokia, an early presence in a space could include ownership over technology that becomes much more valuable later on.
...Besides skepticism of NFTs and pie-in-the-sky ideas about interoperable platforms, he suggests that making Second Life usable via phone or using your webcam to animate your avatar’s facial animation would help it grow more than anything that requires users to wear a virtual reality headset.
See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/13/22881864/metaverse-second-life-decentralized-moderation-patent-virtual-reality?fbclid=IwAR1Sgfup6W2xUWqSbO21J7LA1QGJuMcsiuFzCQt9QGOnj_UlRZZmy--xtUc
