Second Life Your Products Through 3DSWYM

It's been well reported on that major companies like Adidas, Toyota, and Reuters advertise in Second Life by setting up camp and getting into the mix with its residents. But is the popular online virtual 3D world taking us into an age of 3D? Will all websites soon, including even, say, your Facebook photo be in 3D, where your friends can see every nook and cranny and pock mark?

Maybe. In Paris, two major companies are taking advantage of the popularity of online 3D virtual worlds by offering companies and consumers a chance to engage in product development online and in 3D. The world's leader in 3D solutions, Dassault Systemes, and the Publicis Groupe, a French global marketing agency, have teamed up to launch 3D S.W.Y.M., as in 3D See What You Mean. This software will allow consumers to play around with products online, in 3D before they go to market AND will do away with the need for an actual physical prototype, eliminating wasted materials. So once the product gets "perfected" in the 3D world thanks to consumers telling a companies' marketers and engineers what they like and don't like and what they want to see from that product, then it goes to the assembly line. Where residents of Second Life create their world, now consumers in the real world can help build their products in 3D using this web service.

3DSWYM is still in the testing stages but you can explore a demo here.

--Kevin Maney and Andrea Chalupa

Paris

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