The Virtual World

Bruce DamerBruce@Damer.comContact Consortium

Its Origins and EvolutionA Timeline ProjectVWTimeline.org

Bruce Damer – 1970s worlds of the imagination

Bruce Damer - 1980sBuilt one of first GUIs for PCs (Elixir-Xerox)

So where did (digital) virtual worlds come from?We first learned to play together in a digital world

in Spacewar! in 1962 (on a PDP-1)

…and in 1974, the first 3D virtual worlds in Maze War

And then we learned how to imagine and describe worlds, players and objects in text-

based worlds: MUDs, Adventure, Plato, LambdaMOO & etc (70s-80s)

…then in 1986 affordable personal computers are connected to dial-up networks

And Lucasfilm’s Habitat (and avatars) were born

And then… Worlds Chat, 1995: where Avatars first teleported into the Internet

Also in that year Steven Spielberg created the marriage of virtual worlds and Hollywood with Starbright World

Followed by an explosion of worlds in the mid 1990s…

Platform, User, Company & Venture Landscape

The Mid 90s - The Early Adopter “Cambrian Explosion” period

Lets take a look at some of them…

Explosion of Social Virtual Worlds platforms(Book Avatars by Damer – 1997)

Case Study: Alphaworld

Ron Britvich’s design notes(Spring 1995)

Alphaworld 1995“first teleport”

And in-world building

And emergenceof community

And shared building

…learning to meet, greet, build in Summer 1995… 1997 and onwards

AlphaWorld “satellite map” 1995-96

Working out how to meet (talking circle) and working together to build-Sherwood Forest Towne (Jan ‘96).

Roles, Robin Hood, Town Crier, old towne layout,

new town, vandalism, first informal ethnographic

practice

1996-IRL

Building the CommunityThe Avatars Conferences - IRL and

InWorld

2004

19981999

2000

2001

2002 2003

1997-IRL

1996-2004

The Avatars IRL ConferencesEarth to Avatars 96(San Francisco)

Avatars 97(San Francisco)

Design of the first large scale event in avatar cyberspace: Avatars98 Inside Cyberspace

first CyberConference

AW-versionDesign elements: single large meeting space - avatars, chat, web cams,

streaming voice, bots

Visual and functional elements of Avatars98

Virtual Worlds Design enters outerspacein: Avatars 99 & 2000

…and through common media archetypes: Avatars2001

Learning case study: Virtual Walk on the Moon with Apollo astronaut Rusty

Schweickart

Rusty Schweickart in Cyber Space - 1999

Rusty Schweickart in Outer Space - 1969

Rusty became our historical actor and narrator to commemorate the 30th

anniversary of the Apollo XI moon landing

2003-present: “Second Coming” Next Generation Social Virtual Worlds

DigiBarn Computer Museum – the artifacts behind the emergence of personal,

interactive computing (including virtual worlds)

Preview the Dipity VWTimeline& Internet Archive Video Collection

Preview the Dipity VWTimeline& Internet Archive Video Collection

Computer History Museum event March 30th

www.VWTimeline.org

DriveOnMars: DigitalSpace’s simulator/experience for the public (2004)

Lunar Rover Polar Ice Mission – DigitalSpace/NASA MSFC, ARC (RLEP2)

CE &R studies: telerobotically build a Lunar base.

Telerobotically build a Lunar base.

Sending people to an asteroidNASA HQ, JSC, Ames

Sending people to an asteroid

Popular Science,

November 2007

DigitalSpace “DSS”

modular plug-in

architecture – all Open Source!

Now lets jump into Digital Space!(find it all at www.digitalspace.com)

Bonus! From the Digibarn CollectionFinite State Fantasies, 1976This has been a vision of cyberspace for a long time

“Escape” in Finite State Fantasies (1976) by Rich Didday

“The Personal Computer, Use it, Don’t let it use you!