1	Question… Was there Life before Second Life?
2	"so Let’s take a look" so Let’s take a look!
3	The Origins and Evolution of Social Virtual Worlds Presentation to the Lindens (October 27, 2006) Phase I: 1960s-1980s, Precursors to the Virtual World Phase II: 1990s, The Early Adopter “Cambrian Explosion” period Phase III: Third Generation bids for the mainstream The Social Virtual Worlds Timeline Project The Avatars Conferences Acknowledgements and Resources Discussion
4	Phase I: 1960s-1980s Precursors to the Virtual World First multiplayer graphical game: Space War 1961 Multiple players in 3D: Maze War 1974 Boom in textual virtual world: MUDs and MOOs The dawn of Avatars: Habitat, 1986
5	Phase I: 1960s-1980s Precursors to the Virtual World Space War Film Clip
6	Phase I: 1960s-1980s Precursors to the Virtual World Mazewar
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9	Phase I: 1960s-1980s Precursors to the Virtual World MUDs and MOOs Textually described and navigated virtual worlds Pre-1990 example from TinyMUD Islandia (Mitchell, 1995) >LOOK Town Square A large oak tree spreads its branches over a wooden kiosk covered with announcements in the grassy center of the square. Park benches line the sidewalks amidst flowery shrubs. You see the library to the northwest, the post office to the southeast, the homeless shelter to the southwest, and the hotel and convention hall to the northwest. >SIT You sit down on a park bench. >LOOK WEST The duck pond is to the west, and banners and pennants are beyond it. Lucky for you, there is a wooden bridge upon which you can cross, if you can get past the horrendous crowd on it. >WEST You head for the bridge, hoping to push your way across.
10	Phase I: 1960s-1980s Precursors to the Virtual World Lucasfilm Habitat, 1987 on C64
11	Phase I: 1960s-1980s Precursors to the Virtual World Lucasfilm Habitat: Quantumlink (1987), Fujitsu (1990)
12	Phase II: 1990s The Early Adopter “Cambrian Explosion” period Transitioning into the 1990s
13	Phase II: 1990s The Early Adopter “Cambrian Explosion” period DOOM (1993) – real time 3D on consumer PCs, single user
14	"Lucasfilm 1987" Lucasfilm 1987 – Damer 1997
15	"Multi player gaming vs" Multi player gaming vs. multi user social virtual worlds
16	"Multi player gaming vs" Multi player gaming vs. multi user social virtual worlds
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83	The Social Virtual Worlds Timeline Project Avatars book, version 2.0 Enable the community to tell the history Simple web-based timeline, Wiki entry Scope from 1970s to present A place for SL history to be recorded, within the context of the movement it represents Several universities, companies and individuals being signed up You can be a part of it!
84	"Contact Consortium (1995" Contact Consortium (1995) initial funder and organizer Prototype available now at: http://www.ccon.org/vw-timeline/index.html Project Contact: Bruce Damer, bdamer@digitalspace.com Call for funding support and volunteers, institutional support (academia, companies)
85	"The Contact Consortium organized and..." The Contact Consortium organized and sponsored two in-person conferences in San Francisco in 1996 and 1997, and moved the conference “in-world” for another six events, Avatars98-Avatars2004. We are hoping that third generation platforms like SL will take up the model pioneered by the annual Avatars events.
86	"1996" 1996…
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91	"1998" 1998: Needed a new venue, move into cyberspace? Yes! The “Burning Man of Bits”, user-created event, lasts one day each year, months of prep Elements of conference: speakers, exhibits, art show, webcam wall, grand finale: Avvy Awards, party Carried out across multiple platforms: Active Worlds, Blaxxun, Traveler, Palace, WA, Atmosphere Live audio, video linked physical “nodes” worldwide Media coverage: CNN, Wired, Standard, BBC, etc. Organizational support, companies, universities Peak attendance: 4,000 unique entries Last major event, Avatars2002, held in January 2003 Winding down of second generation platforms, companies removed userbase, motivation. Third generation rising. Will show only the AW versions of the Cyberconferences next…
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163	VIII. Acknowledgements and Resources Philip Rosedale, Robin Harper, Char, Jeska, Dustin and all the Lindens Contact Consortium DigitalSpace Corporation DigiBarn Computer Museum Virtual World Studios All the tireless providers and users of all the social virtual worlds platforms over the past thirty years.
164	Online Resources This presentation is at: www.ccon.org/vw-timeline/ www.ccon.org Contact Consortium www.digitalspace.com The Digital Space Commons DigiBarn Computer Museum: www.digibarn.com Contact: Bruce Damer: bdamer@digitalspace.com 831 338 9400
165	Phase III: 2000s Third Generation bids for the Mainstream
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167	Bonus! (This has been a vision of cyberspace for a long time)
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177	Future of Social Virtual Worlds discussion Make a buck, sustain high development and content creation costs Creating inclusive community experiences, sustainable companies Distributed vs centralized content Shared realities, political organization New medium of artistic expression Learning spaces, research environments Open source? Your thoughts?