Taking its name from Neil Stephenson's seminal book "Snowcrash," the Metaverse Roadmap (MVR) is a ten year project which investigates the intersection of 3D virtual worlds, such as Second Life, with Web 2.0 applications.

The project site describes areas of study as:
"... the convergence of Web applications with networked computer games and virtual worlds, the use of 3D creation and animation tools in virtual environments, digital mapping, artificial life, and the underlying trends in hardware, software, connectivity, business innovation and social adoption that will drive the transformation of the World Wide Web in the coming decade."

After an initial summit last May, they are holding an event, a "Metaverse Roadmap Pre-Release Party," at Eyebeam. Presumably, they will be showing some preliminary findings from May. Eyebeam is located at 540 W. 21st Street, (between 10th and 11th Avenues), NYC. The event is on Thursday, August 10, from 6 to 9 PM. The event is free and open to the public.