Surfing the web without getting your feet wet

The Blu is an attempt to recreate the world's oceans on the web,as an online social experience. Photo / The Blu

It's not a game, it's not an animated movie, and it's not a social media site. Its creators refer to it as a "geosocial web application", but to you and me it could be the next big thing in online entertainment.

The Blu is a mission to create the ocean on the web as an interactive 3D world where every species and habitat is created by digital artists and developers.

One of the brains behind the project is big data specialist Scott Yara, founder of US-based software company Greenplum, which is now owned by EMC. Yara is convinced the web is developing its own form of native media "which is a really, really exciting direction," he enthuses.

"Big data is not only going to change lives - it's going to change art, and it's going to change entertainment," he suggests.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has already held an exhibition of art inspired by big data, by American computer science graduate Jonathan Harris. But The Blu is something far more ambitious.

With the gaming industry now bigger than the movie industry, Yara sees huge potential for a next-generation, peer-produced entertainment experience on the web. "As a society, we've got very short-term focussed and so one of the things we really looked at is what would be possible if you used the collaborative powers of the web to leverage maybe hundreds of thousands of people around the world, all working together in the same shared narrative; the same shared focus and mission."

The project has already enlisted some of the world's leading digital artists and filmmakers, including Andy Jones, who spent three years in New Zealand working on the movie Avatar, and Kiwi Diane Holland, CEO of Academy Award-winning animation company Massive Software. MIT Media Lab director Joichi Ito is on its advisory board.

Although users can buy art from the site, and can also pay for premium content - a percentage of which goes towards ocean preservation - the project is not intended as a commercial venture, but to provide "a meaningful vehicle for art and storytelling", says Yara.

He envisions users diving into The Blu on their iPads, in museums, in schools, and through public displays, enabling "one connected experience where a billion people could share the same environment at the same time".

The website launched last month, and is still being beta-tested. However, anyone can visit the site and request an invitation.

All that's missing? The mellifluous tones of Sir David Attenborough to explain it all.