1. Some Serious Virtual Worlds 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

2. 1996: Sherwood Forest Towne First Sociological Study of Live Online Virtual World Contact Consortium, Cabrillo College, UC Santa Cruz Some Serious Virtual Worlds Innovations: Talking Circle, Shared Collaborative Group Building

3. 1997: Nerve Garden: Generative Virtual Spaces Learning about Biology Biota.org, Nerve Garden, Siggraph, Ars Electronica Some Serious Virtual Worlds

4. 1998: VLearn3D First serious Pedagogical uses of Virtual Worlds VLearn3D SIG and annual cyberconference, Cornell, UC Santa Cruz, U Indiana Some Serious Virtual Worlds

5. 1998: IHI World First use of a virtual world as a corporate support space Some Serious Virtual Worlds

6. 1998: Experimental Collaboration Spaces Datafusion “war room” Some Serious Virtual Worlds

7. 1999: Experimental Learning Spaces A virtual walk on the moon Narrative by Russell Schweickart, Apollo IX astronaut Some Serious Virtual Worlds

8. 1999: Experimental Learning Spaces A virtual walk on the moon Narrative by Russell Schweickart, Apollo IX astronaut

9. Some Serious Virtual Worlds 1999: Experimental Learning Spaces A virtual walk on the moon Narrative by Russell Schweickart, Apollo IX astronaut

10. 2002-07: DoToLearn: reaching the autistic child NIH funded project with Dr. Dorothy Strickland and Galen Brandt Some Serious Virtual Worlds

11. 2002-07: DoToLearn: Songs and Games, learning spaces for Autistic and FAS children (www.do2learn.com) Some Serious Virtual Worlds

12. 2003: Avatars and Fashion (Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, with Daria Dorosh, Galen Brandt and Steve DiPaola) Some Serious Virtual Worlds

13. 2003: Avatars and Fashion (Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, with Daria Dorosh, Galen Brandt and Steve DiPaola)

14. Some Serious Virtual Worlds 2007: Cyberwearz iDoublet Street World Virtual World

15. 1996 The Avatars Cyber-Conferences First experiments in large scale in-world events 2004 1998 1999 2000 2001 20022003 1997 Some Serious Virtual Worlds

16. Avatars ’98 Inside Cyberspace! Creating the first large scale inworld cyber-conference event - planning & architecture… Some Serious Virtual Worlds

17. …building, event schedule, speakers, art gallery, webcam wall, avvy awards, policing, reportage. Some Serious Virtual Worlds

18. Going live, November 20, 1998 with 1,000 simultaneous users in 5 platforms, all on dial-up connections Some Serious Virtual Worlds

26. Avatars ’99 Colonizing Cyberspace

27. Avatars 2000 – Cyberspace for a New Millennium: Metaphor of the Space Station: easier cognitive navigability Some Serious Virtual Worlds

28. Avatars 2001 - A Cyberspace Odyssey Some Serious Virtual Worlds

29. 2008: Virtual Worlds and Space @ NASA Second Life/CoLab, Will Wright/Spore Some Serious Virtual Worlds-NASA

30. Virtual Worlds and Space – DigitalSpace (open source 3D) 2000-2008 Human and Robotic Spaceflight Design Simulations Some Serious Virtual Worlds

31. 2004: Telerobotically build a Lunar base. Some Serious Virtual Worlds

32. 2005-2006: Design simulation of lunar rover for ice exploration.

33. 2007: Design for a human mission to an asteroid Some Serious Virtual Worlds

34. 2008: Hubble Servicing Mission Public Learning Simulation Some Serious Virtual Worlds

35. 2008: Hubble Servicing Mission Public Learning Simulation Some Serious Virtual Worlds

36. 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?

37. 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.digitalspace.com  www.ccon.org Contact Consortium www.ccon.org  www.biota.org Biota Special Interest Group www.biota.org  www.vlearn3d.org VLearn3D Special Interest Group www.vlearn3d.org  www.cyberwearz.com Cyberwearz Fashions www.cyberwearz.com  www.do2learn.com Learning Games www.do2learn.com  DigiBarn Computer Museum: www.digibarn.comwww.digibarn.com