Debuting SceneCaster: Mainstream Virtual Worlds through Facebook, Flickr, and Google Earth

On the heels of news that Google might be testing out a virtual world application, here comes SceneCaster, a 3D spaces app from View22 that integrates with, among other things, Google Earth. SceneCaster will be debuting at DEMO this week, but founder and SVP Mark Zohar walked us through the program that takes YouTube's idea of media sharing and moves it into the virtual world. "We started with a singular mission," said Zohar. "It's to mainstream the 3D Web. When we looked around, we saw that the 3D Web was clearly impacting how consumers are interacting and how brands are marketing their products, that's clearly more than a trend. They understand the next generation of the Web will require them to be involved in this immersive experience."

SceneCaster isn't quite a virtual world. There's no avatars of yet, but it does give users a simple way to create 3D spaces (or "scenes") and send (or "cast") them out onto the Web.

"The world, whether virtual or real, is many times a complex, scary, and unfriendly place," said Zohar. "We looked at it and said, 'What is the unit that has the highest level of emotional attachment and provides them a sense of security?' In virtual reality, that's the scene. A scene is something you create. You can build from the ground up to create a virtual world. The thing that's closest to people is their family and home, and in concentric circles, it's the community, town, and world. We can build in concentric circles, but I want to make it clear that we're not a virtual world or virtual world provider."

Setting the Scene and Sharing It.

When you do create a scene, it's an easy process of working from templates, scratch, or setting the dimensions of the room you want. Then, and this is a winning feature for SceneCaster, you can import any item from Google's 3D Warehouse. With a simple, drag-and-drop interface, users can add created content or sponsored content from the platforms sponsors. While the settings for items are limited (mostly describing where it sits in the room), Zohar promises more fully contextual options down the road. More advanced users can create content with SketchUp or 3ds Max and import it to the scene. And while in-scene avatars are unavailable, users can create a Voki avatar to leave on the side of their page.

Once the scene is finished, users can access it through a Web 2.0-style page, complete with favorites, tagging, comments, and rankings, or export it to the world as a Flash file, Flickr photo, 3D pdf, 3DS file, UDS scene, or an embeddable Facebook app.

"In my profile, I can add SceneCaster to my Facebook account," said Zohar.  "Basically you'll be able to view your own scenes and friends scenes directly from Facebook and then launch directly from Facebook.  You can create and enter the scenes directly from Facebook.  There's a lot of me-too stuff going on the Web. There are very few things like this. The viral aspect and the communities of Facebook can be very powerful."

The inclusion of Facebook is a nod to where SceneCaster is aimed at, the mainstream audience. It's designed to fit into formats that users already know, like Facebook, YouTube, and simple email applications. That's one of the reasons Zohar isn't worried about providing real-time collaboration or avatars any time soon.

"When we were looking at the focus groups, we took a different approach with the avatar," said Zohar. "You can create your avatar and have it narrate your scenes. We didn't see it with a mass market initially, and in fact there was some backlash against real-time presence. We do have it on our road map. Right now we're in a Web 2.0, asynchronous approach. We will get to a presence ability on another release. We're calling it Scene Parties where you can invite people into your scene and have collaborative creation and discussion. If our audience says this is absolutely required to make it a comprehensive experience, we'll accelerate it. Right now we're aiming for sometime next year."

Likewise, SceneCaster hasn't been integrated into Google Earth yet, but Zohar says to expect it shortly after the initial release, giving users the ability to create internal, 3D spaces for the virtual world.  It seems like the direction is attracting attention from both enterprise and retail businesses.

"We spent some time with Sandra Kearney [IBM’s Global Director for 3D Internet and Virtual Business], and she really believes that this is not only the platform for IBM's brand, but the way to take this to a mainstream audience," said Zohar. "I've spent a lot of time with brands who are innovators, but they're not convinced that Second Life as it's seen going forward is going to be the platform for them going forward."

The mainstreaming of virtual worlds and their creation is drawing a lot of attention. It's hard not to compare Zohar's description of his vision to the ideas behind Areae's Metaplace. [See our coverage here.] However, Metaplace is still more real-time focused and, at least in early descriptions, more interested in entertainment and social interaction for users. SceneCaster seems focused on the space itself.

The Business Side

That sorts well as a business model. SceneCaster is free to use for users with an advertising model built in from the ground up. Literally. Every item within the scene is linked back to a larger database designed to drive sales to sponsors and through existing affiliate programs like Amazon and eBay.

"There's an economy already in place that we just need to tap into," said Zohar. "The unique thing about it is the contextual nature. We expect this will be of great interest to users."

Other companies like SmartFurniture.com and Kohler have signed on as partners to distribute furniture linked to their sites.

"We're gearing this toward the mass market and thinking about the guy you go have beers with," said Kohler. "There are a lot of social networks who have seen it and see what it can do for their users. We want the business side to be very contextual. And we've built from launch and pre-launch a very strong integration. We want to make this a familiar experience."

SceneCaster will be exhibiting at the Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo, October 10-11, 2007, at the San Jose Convention Center.