Lucent's Live Web Stationery is an old project (SIGGRAPH '97) that shows the concept of "virtual aging": a web page ages as if it were a physical piece of paper. It's a project by Dorée Duncan Seligmann and Stephan Vladimir Bugaj. As described in the press release:

Live Web Stationery is a demonstration of Web pages that "age" based on the amount of traffic that they endure. Peloton is a computer-based simulator that creates virtual environments for bicycle rides. (...) "The Web is a public virtual space that requires signs of life and interaction in order to become more engaging," said Seligmann. "Web pages are touched by thousands of people each day, and there must be a way to convey the age of the 'page' itself, how its texture changes, how its shape is altered. Live Web Stationery conveys a sense of community and interaction that doesn't exist on Web sites today."

Why do I blog this? because I like this idea of digital patina: it's a way to enhance objects (virtual or not) with an history of their interactions (positive history?) by the user or by a group of users. The next step is to find or create affordances based on this. Besides, as Laurie Anderson expressed it, at some point it's good to put more dirt in virtual reality.