THE Wales-based new media whizzes Craig Morrison and Joel Cockrill are in the middle of building a second world in cyberspace. In the meantime they are having to negotiate this one.

Last week the boys from Bangor took the train up to Toronto from New York to see some new technology for creating 3-D maps.

Along the way they learnt a harsh lesson about US trains: don’t take them unless you want to put up with passengers arguing about whether to become “transgender escorts”. They came back down by plane to attend Virtual Worlds 2008 at New York’s Javits Center.

Not long ago all the world wanted in on virtual worlds - particularly the industry leader Second Life. Firms were piling in to the 3-D universe, setting up stores, opening hotels and offering “free” cars to promote brands. Now, not so much.

In reality, Second Life doesn’t work. As the firm itself admits, the system crashes constantly and the steep learning curve for anyone entering Second Life puts off all but the hardcore.

Nevertheless, virtual worlds are here to stay. Among this year’s Virtual World attendees were Intel, Google, Microsoft and the US Department of State.

Barbie’s maker Mattel gave a presentation on its plans to conquer cyberspace, while IBM talked through the legal tangle of online worlds. In the future, 3-D worlds will not be solely about dressing as a ninja and pretending you have a social life.

“We are at a turning point where the technology is just about catching up with what we want to do with it,” says Cockrill, chief executive of Movix. “But I think people have only just begun to see the real possibilities here.”

Cockrill and Morrison are working with the University of Wales on a 3-D world that will mirror the real one and, they believe, offer scope for distance learning, virtual meetings and other services that could bring a fourth dimension to the internet – touch.

They seem to be on to something. Companies are increasingly turning to virtual worlds not just for brand building, but also to hold meetings and train staff.

Last week IBM and Linden Lab, operator of Second Life, announced that IBM will run Linden software on its own servers so that it can set up Second Life environments, free from the distractions of the open metaverse.

“The Burning Man era of Second Life is over,” says Wagner James Au, author of The Making of Second Life. Phil Rosedale, Second Life’s founder, had been much inspired by the Burning Man festival, an annual freak-fest held in the Nevada desert.

“Second Life is a totally unstructured world, like Burning Man. You turn up, you don’t know what’s going on, there’s a lot of nude people and an 8ft transvestite. Only about 10% of people are going to get past that.”

Rosedale is stepping down as chief executive of Linden Labs. Competition for Second Life is increasing as media and tech firm rivals build more structured 3-D worlds – so a new chief will have to get more people past those 8ft trannies. If he doesn’t, somebody else will.

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