ROCKETON
On Monday, July 14th, we started the show by putting David Levine of IBM "On the Spot" to talk about progress toward interoperability of Second Life and OpenSim. Then we launched into an exploration of the web via ROCKETON, the virtual world that layers right in your web browser. Host Robert Bloomfield took his Rocketon avatar to favorite websites, while Rocketon’s co-founders, CEO Steve Hoffman and VP Eric Hayashi discussed Rocketon’s revenue model, marketing opportunities, business challenges, and implications for the metaverse.
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Robert Bloomfield’s tour of the closed alpha test version of RocketOn took the Metanomics audience across a revolutionary virtual world built to provide individual and group navigation across the entire web, with communication and graphic interfaces designed to focus users on existing web content as well as RocketOn’s overlay features.
RocketOn is a plug-in to a standard web browser. Second Life and most other virtual worlds confine users to the so-called “walled garden” of their programs. RocketOn differs by allowing avatars to walk through user-created doors, plunge into game-defined wormholes, and invite their friends to cross from website to website. People in remote geographical locations can meet up in Rocketon on the web to surf together while discussing the website (or anything else!) in Rocketon chat.
Want your best buddies to see your latest video? Invite their Rocketon avatars to join you at the YouTube page, introduce them to each other, and encourage the group to play critic.
RocketOn adds communications and interactive dimensions atop existing websites; without requiring either any permission or any bandwidth from the website owners. The advertising implications are tremendous. By supplying wormholes to certain sites, Rocketon drives traffic there, and upon entry, Rocketon can supply visitors with site-specific “goodies” like simple games, graphic animations, clothing, accessories or pets. When you arrive at the Rocketon room atop, say, a well-known grocery store, your avatar may touch a virtual paper bag and receive a line of dancing carrots for your trouble. Head to another site, and pull out those vibrating veggies to impress new friends. When they ask how to get their own, offer them a link back to the grocery website.
Some goodies are worth RocketOn points, which may be traded for still more stuff. While all navigation choices are up to the user, users are also likely to explore wormholes to websites that they would not normally visit. RocketOn can be a little like a virtual scavenger hunt. While the early business model will likely concentrate on the sale of virtual goods, it may move rapidly to a model more reliant upon corporate dollars spent to increase brand participation by building out the RocketOn real estate atop their existing web presence.
Watch the Metanomics video to get a better sense of how all this works, and read the ChatBridge transcript from the Metanomics show to consider audience reactions regarding privacy, internet safety, website content protection and copyright concerns.
Topic Spotlight
Particularly of interest, since RocketOn functions by creating layers over existing sites, some site owners may question copyright infringement. For example, in the interview, viewers are taken to website and given virtual samples of a generic cola. These samples are distributed without permission from Coca-Cola, which is legal, according to Mr. Hoffman.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: So just so I’m totally clear on this: You can do this without any permission from Coca Cola.
STEVE HOFFMAN: Yes, as long as we don’t infringe on their trademarks.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: And that’s because this is a plug in that just puts basically a layer over my browser and just has content that is tied to the website through the browser you know that I’m at.
STEVE HOFFMAN: Exactly. So as a user, you’re installing on your computer the ability to layer this Virtual World over that site. So that’s your choice, and the website has no say in what you do.
As might be expected from such men as rooted in the gaming industry as these, RocketOn adds dimensions to existing websites; however it may run into some trouble when websites begin to question the legality of RocketOn in relation to their own copyrights.
Links from the Show
- ROCKETON website.
- Read about ROCKETON at TechCrunch.
- Extensive Methodshop Interview.
Guest Biographies
Steve Hoffman
In addition to working with Sega Genesis in Tokyo, Rocketon CEO Steve Hoffman founded LavaMind, which specialized in creating business simulation games, was co-founder of Zannel, which recently won a Webby for its instant mobile messaging platform, ran the North American Games Group for Infospace. Hoffman also served as CEO of Spiderdance.
Hoffman co-authored the book Game Design Workshop,
Eric Hayashi
Eric Hayashi has had extensive product development and management experience working with such companies as Virgin Interactive , Hasbro Interactive, and Vivendi Universal. In RocketOn, Hayashi is the "Big Kahuna" because of his real life Hawaiian roots.
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