Jan is preparing for the Metameets 2012 WebGL talk

Metameets 2012

Meet Jan Northoff at the annual Metameets Virtual Worlds and 3D Internet Conference and Interactive Seminar.

UPDATE: Metameets Live Video Stream and recorded videosand the recorded talk of Jan Northoff

In 2012 Metameets takes place in ‚s-Hertogenbosch in the wonderful Netherlands.

Northoff will start with a 3D Internet Vision, with an example of Futurama, where they discover the 3D Internet of the past.
He will continue with some quick examples from WebGL stuff like „Virtual Worlds Framework“ and tree.js, and will explain how the new HTML5 & WebGL platform Cloud Party is an important step to the vision of the 3D Internet. He also wants to look into security and usability at the end.

The webGL talk and presentation from Jan Northoff can be seen online here on prezi.

Some more great examples how WebGL can be used:

To imagine where the technology will be used for in the future, and to have some nice visual effects, and to show off if your system and browser supports 3D web:
A drivable race car demo
Former Google Body, now ZYGOTEBODY, to dive trough a human body and its inner parts.
and of course the Google Chrome WebGL experiments:

Is WebGL safe to use?

Here some interesting security discussions about WebGL. I would consider webGL as safe to use and i have no concerns in using WebGL at all.

However, as with almost all powerful technology there are risks and problems when entering the mainstream market. Also JavaScript is known to be able to do serious harm, most internet users do not care and do not even know about this. There are just a few actually turning off the Java Script capabilities of the Browser, but the rest of us still can be called surfing safe, when using a modern and updated Internet Browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox with standard settings. I would not trust a suspicious website anyway.

Here are some older posts about the WebGL security discussions anyway
http://www.contextis.com/research/blog/webgl-more-webgl-security-flaws
http://www.heise.de/security/meldung/WebGL-als-Sicherheitsproblem-1240168.html?view=zoom;zoom=1

Last not least, see here about the Kronos Group, the inventors of WebGL. A not for profit, member-founded consortium focused group, creating royalty-free open standards like OpenGL, WebGL and COLLADA.

Who has WebGL already?

A majority already has WebGL installed and ready to go, since it is part of modern Browsers like Chrome and Firefox, but if you want to look closer check out this WebGL stats site.

You can also check if WebGL is running on your system.

My favorite WebGL & HTML5 virtual World at the moment: Cloud Party

You should check out the new virtual world, somehow reminding of Second Life and Open Sim, but also different in many ways. Especially the technology is totally different since Cloud Party uses WebGL and Amazone Cloud services to speed up the world, and make it more compatible and better accessible for everyone. No Download or Plugin needed.

http://web-3d-virtual-worlds-news-blog.berlinin3d.com/2012/09/cloud-party-3d-facebook-link-list.html