2008 virtual world forecasts

Virtual Research

recently conducted a survey on forecasts and trends for 2008. 45 of the leading experts (including K Zero) in the metaverse space were asked the following questions:

1. What are your top 3 trend predictions for 2008?
2. What business goals have you set for 2008?
3. What challenges do you expect 2008 to bring for the virtual worlds industry?
4. A number of new platforms are launching in 2008. What are the biggest impacts this will have on the industry?
5. How will the above changes affect your specific segment of the industry in 2008?

You can see our answers along with the other views and forecasts by requesting the full report here.

Here’s the full list of contributors.

Mark Bell and Alida Fields, Researchers Synthetic Worlds Initiative
Guy Bendov, Co-Founder, Journeys
Erik Bethke, CEO, GoPets
Robert Bloomfield, Professor of Accounting, Cornell
Matt Bostwick, SVP, Franchise Development, MTV Music Group
Dr. James Bower, CVO, Numedeon Inc.
Corey Bridges, Co-founder, Executive Producer, & Marketing Director, The Multiverse Network
Ron Burns, President, ProtonMedia
Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, Director, Broadband & Gaming, Parks Associates
Aaron Delwiche, Founder and CEO, Elastic Collision
Rick Giolito, President, Trilogy Studios
Ben Goertzel, CEO, Novamente LLC
Mike Goslin, Vice President, Disney Online Studios.
Robin Harper, Vice President, Marketing & Community Development, Linden Lab
Erik Hauser, Founder/Executive Creative Director, Swivel Media
Jim Hettinger, CEO, Icarus Studios
Teemu Huuhtanen, President, North America & EVP business development, Sulake Corporation
IBM
Daniel James, CEO, Three Rings
Bruce Joy, CEO, VastPark
Sean Kane, Attorney, Drakeford & Kane LLC
Dr. Michael Macedonia, VP, National Security Division, Forterra, Inc.
JP McCormick, Chairman, Active Worlds
Steve Metzger, CEO, VT&T
Dan Miller, Senior Economist, Republican Staff, Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress
Mattias Miksche, CEO, Stardoll
Nic Mitham, Managing Director, K Zero
Greg Nuyens, CEO, Qwaq
Jerry Paffendorf, Co-Founder and Normative Futurist, WelloHorld
Jeffrey Pope, Senior Manager, Far East Region, Sun Microsystems
Steve Prentice, Vice President, Gartner, Inc.
Kyra E. Reppen, Senior Vice President & General Manager, NeoPets
Ren Reynolds, writer, philosopher and consultant
Craig Sherman, CEO, Gaia Online
Naoyoshi Shimaya, CEO, Metabirds
Yesha Sivan, Founder, Metaverse Labs
Trevor F. Smith, Founder, Transmutable
Tim Stevens, President & CEO, Doppelganger
Reuben Steiger, CEO, Millions of Us
Carl Uggla, CMO, MindArk
Sibley Verbeck, CEO, The Electric Sheep Company
Mark Wallace, Co-Founder/CEO, Wello Horld, Inc.
Michael Wilson, CEO, Makena Technologies
Hui Xu, Founder & CEO, HiPiHi Co., Ltd
Mark Zohar, Founder and Senior Vice President, SceneCaster