The Next Generation MySpace/Friendster

I'm predicting that in the next five years, ten million young people will be using a online social network similar to Second Life. It's going to be the next MySpace/Friendster.

I think the time delay will be due to the fact that Second Life still takes a good deal of computer resources (at least I'm suspecting that if you don't have a decent video card it will be slow), so it will take a couple years for the computers to get up to speed, someone to hit on the perfect balance between features and ease of use (Second Life is probably too complex), and luck.

Check out Second Life. It's an online universe where you can design your character, meet people, do things, and it's absolutely huge. It's free too. There is a game economy that converts to the real-world economy - an actual exchange rate for game dollars to real dollars.

Now, I'm trying to think what kind of activist uses this could have... I guess you could have virtual conferences, virtual protests, etc.

BTW: Are there any hippie communes on Second Life? Since my character is broke, and because it'd generally be fun, I wanted to join a hippie commune but couldn't find one. I joined a left leaning political group - but that's about it.

I think it might need to be adapted so that it can either run entirely on your browser (eg a very advanced AJAX) or so that the download is very small. Faster bandwidth might also be essential to it catching on.