The immersive internet: new models and lead users in Australia

The move to develop new visualisation tools for online activities is a response to the complex systems of our expanding, informationalised world and the realisation that graphical representation improves our ability to navigate and make sense of it. But when such tools are combined with social networking and gaming principles, the impact is multiplied, the sum becoming bigger than its parts (Battelle and O'Reilly 2009). Real time communication within persistent 3-D environments (worlds), enable users to engage more deeply with one another and with content. With this, new modes of knowledge building, service delivery, interaction and collaboration are being borne. This paper discusses the notion of 'immersion' and suggests determining factors. It then documents how service delivery in the domains of health, education and business is being re-imagined by new spatial tools and applications. Australian movers and shakers of the immersive web are identified, be they technology innovators or lead users. The proposed National Broadband Network (NBN) is considered in light of the new opportunities it affords: might not the potential of this new technology indeed strengthen the argument to green-light the NBN? With legislators set to argue the case, there is a pressing need to assess the potential of the immersive web, its ability to enhance existing services and create new ones.