Welcome to the fifteenth episode of On the Inside, Second Life Insider's Official Podcast!

This episode features our interview with Mitch Wagner, writer and blogger for Information Weekly. Intellagirl Tully co-hosts with me, and we talk about Twitter, voice, and kneading invisible beasts. As always, feel free to leave your questions and comments!

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Courtesy of the indomitable Mitch Wagner, we get an idea of what the near future of SL will look like -- or at least, what's being planned.

One of the bigger proposals involves upgrading LL's server structure to accommodate 400,000 concurrent users, rather than the current cap of nearly 50,000 we see today.

What's more interesting to me personally, is the idea of being able to IM residents from outside of SL. There are simply times when you need to speak with someone you know is logged in, but you can't get there yourself. Greater interoperability with the 'Net will help communications in a wide variety of ways. For other bits to anticipate, go check out the rest of the article and say Yea or Nay as your nature dictates.

Mitch Wagner of InformationWeekly has written an article which poses the question "Are virtual Worlds really the Next Internet?" One chief proponent of the 'yes they are' theory is the article's other focus, Corey Bridges, co-founder of MDC Multiverse Network, perhaps most famous for its announcement to create a Firefly MMOG.

Bridges' main point appears to be that the current generation, growing up as it is playing World of Warcraft and enjoying their Second Lives, will come to think of a 3D Internet as the Next Thing simply because they expect that it will be. Given that a percentage of these users will likely go on to develop applications for such a platform virtually guarantees such a vision.

At the same time, take a look at the money and time that big companies like IBM and Cisco are investing in SL alone, and it seems pretty clear that we're headed toward the next wave of Internet browsing standards. VRML, anyone?