Virtual Worlds Timeline Origins, Evolution and Future of the Medium

A Portfolio of Non-Game Virtual Worlds Applications 1996-2008 Presented by Bruce Damer Founder-Contact Consortium, CEO-DigitalSpace A special presentation to Serious Virtual Worlds 2008, Sept 11, 2008 Some Serious Virtual Worlds Some Serious Virtual Worlds 1996: Sherwood Forest Towne First Sociological Study of Live Online Virtual World Contact Consortium, Cabrillo College, UC Santa Cruz Innovations: Talking Circle, Shared Collaborative Group Building Some Serious Virtual Worlds 1997: Nerve Garden: Generative Virtual Spaces Learning about Biology Biota.org, Nerve Garden, Siggraph, Ars Electronica Some Serious Virtual Worlds 1998: VLearn3D First serious Pedagogical uses of Virtual Worlds VLearn3D SIG and annual cyberconference, Cornell, UC Santa Cruz, U Indiana Some Serious Virtual Worlds 1998: IHI World First use of a virtual world as a corporate support space Some Serious Virtual Worlds 1998: Experimental Collaboration Spaces Datafusion “war room” Some Serious Virtual Worlds 1999: Experimental Learning Spaces A virtual walk on the moon Narrative by Russell Schweickart, Apollo IX astronaut Some Serious Virtual Worlds 1999: Experimental Learning Spaces A virtual walk on the moon Narrative by Russell Schweickart, Apollo IX astronaut Some Serious Virtual Worlds 1999: Experimental Learning Spaces A virtual walk on the moon Narrative by Russell Schweickart, Apollo IX astronaut Some Serious Virtual Worlds NIH funded project with Dr. Dorothy Strickland and Galen Brandt 2002-07: DoToLearn: reaching the autistic child Some Serious Virtual Worlds 2002-07: DoToLearn: Songs and Games, learning spaces for Autistic and FAS children (www.do2learn.com) Some Serious Virtual Worlds 2003: Avatars and Fashion (Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, with Daria Dorosh, Galen Brandt and Steve DiPaola) Some Serious Virtual Worlds 2003: Avatars and Fashion (Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, with Daria Dorosh, Galen Brandt and Steve DiPaola) Some Serious Virtual Worlds 2007: Cyberwearz iDoublet Street World <-> Virtual World Some Serious Virtual Worlds The Avatars Cyber-Conferences First experiments in large scale in-world events 1997 1998 1999 2000 1996 2004 2002 2003 2001 Some Serious Virtual Worlds Avatars ’98 Inside Cyberspace! Creating the first large scale inworld cyber-conference event planning & architecture… Some Serious Virtual Worlds …building, event schedule, speakers, art gallery, webcam wall, avvy awards, policing, reportage. Some Serious Virtual Worlds Going live, November 20, 1998 with 1,000 simultaneous users in 5 platforms, all on dial-up connections Some Serious Virtual Worlds Avatars ’99 Colonizing Cyberspace Some Serious Virtual Worlds Avatars 2000 – Cyberspace for a New Millennium: Metaphor of the Space Station: easier cognitive navigability Some Serious Virtual Worlds Avatars 2001 - A Cyberspace Odyssey Some Serious Virtual Worlds-NASA 2008: Virtual Worlds and Space @ NASA Second Life/CoLab, Will Wright/Spore Some Serious Virtual Worlds Virtual Worlds and Space – DigitalSpace (open source 3D) 2000-2008 Human and Robotic Spaceflight Design Simulations Some Serious Virtual Worlds 2004: Telerobotically build a Lunar base. Some Serious Virtual Worlds 2005-2006: Design simulation of lunar rover for ice exploration. Some Serious Virtual Worlds 2007: Design for a human mission to an asteroid Some Serious Virtual Worlds 2008: Hubble Servicing Mission Public Learning Simulation Some Serious Virtual Worlds 2008: Hubble Servicing Mission Public Learning Simulation Some Questions to Consider: What does the future hold for Serious Virtual Worlds?  Vertical Markets, Small Budgets?  Use Specialized or Common Platforms?  Role of Open Source?  Will Game Play Worlds always dominate?  Are they really useful in business? Fighting the dominant (convenient) paradigms of 2D webex?  What do VWs bring to learning, to communicating, to expression that other media don’t?  How to overcome VWs high cognitive overload, learning and brain processing curves? Acknowledgements and Resources We would like to thank our funding agencies and institutions including NASA, Adobe, Xerox, Boeing, Raytheon, European Space Agency, SGI, Microsoft, Intel, The Banff Center, Cambridge University, UCSC, Cornell, USC, and numerous other collaborators.  www.digitalspace.com DigitalSpace  www.ccon.org Contact Consortium  www.biota.org Biota Special Interest Group  www.vlearn3d.org VLearn3D Special Interest Group  www.cyberwearz.com Cyberwearz Fashions  www.do2learn.com Learning Games  DigiBarn Computer Museum: www.digibarn.com