When will we see the "year of the avatar" - the year that the internet becomes a fully immersive experience? Some pioneers in three-dimensional gaming and programming believe that this new experience is just around the corner. As 3D open ended environments like Second Life become more accessible and popular, the ability to interact with a network in a "realistic" manner becomes available for more applications.

Taking inspiration from Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash and David Gelernter's non-fiction Mirror Worlds, Jerry Paffendorf imagines a future beyond the web browser. In this talk from Accelerating Change 2005, he presents examples of ways in which 3D immersive experiences are already being used in software, and extrapolates a future using these techniques.

Already Google Earth allows users to share geographical information with a three-dimensional representation of the spaces being referenced. Some meetings of the Accelerating Studies Foundation's Future Salons are held virtually within Second Life. As more users and creators adopt the avatar as the mode of interaction, we will come closer to the virtual reality internet of science fiction.