🚀 go-pugleaf

                                  BayCHI,
                   the San Francisco Bay Area ACM SIGCHI
          (Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction),
                        announces its March meeting:

                          Tuesday, March 11, 1997
                               7:30 - 9:30 pm


                      Adventures in Avatar Cyberspace:
        Interacting and Designing in Virtual Worlds on the Internet

                      Bruce Damer, Contact Consortium

         with panelists:
           Kirk Parsons, Black Sun
           Reid Hoffman (or another representative from) Fujitsu
           Steve DiPaola, Onlive


                           Xerox PARC Auditorium
                           3333 Coyote Hill Road
                           Palo Alto, CA 94304


         <BayCHI meeting attendance is free & open to the public.>

                   <BayCHI programs are not videotaped,
                 and taping by attendees is not permitted.>


ABSTRACT:

The new medium of multi-user virtual worlds allows ordinary Internet
users to interact as 'avatars' in real time in shared 2 and 3D graphical
spaces.  Avatar virtual worlds are fast changing the notion of the net
from 'interface' to 'place'.  These worlds include vast 3D cityscapes
reminiscent of the Metaverse in Stephenson's "Snow Crash" to virtual
bazaars full of traders in exotic objects to voice enabled worlds
hosting avatar glee clubs.  Currently 350,000 users access virtual
worlds using ordinary home computers with dial-up connections and no
special hardware.  Virtual worlds represent a great new frontier for
interaction design and an opportunity to move boldly beyond the standard
WIMP interfaces pioneered at PARC over twenty years ago.  Many CSCW and
CSCL applications will be made possible with good design and skill in
working with the social issues in the virtual communities emerging
inside virtual worlds.

This presentation will be excerpted from a tutorial and demonstrations
to be given at the upcoming CHI '97 conference in Atlanta.  Live
demonstrations of the environments and research from the Contact
Consortium and its member companies will be presented.  For an overview
of the 'avatar' virtual world medium, please see: http://www.ccon.org.

BIOGRAPHIES:

The coordinator:

BRUCE DAMER has spent his life building both software and communities.
His software includes commercial products for Xerox based on the Star
interface and a new behavior engine for VRML 2.0 called Nerves.  He has
formed creative communities such as a salon for artists in Prague in the
Czech Republic.

Bruce co-founded the Contact Consortium as a force to build community in
Avatar Cyberspace.  He has written and spoken extensively on virtual
worlds and helped produce Earth to Avatars 96, the first conference on
avatars.  If people are the next big thing on the Internet, the
Consortium and its members are working hard to make this a reality.

Bruce formed DigitalSpace Corporation to serve as a catalyst for
applications of virtual worlds in business and education and he
co-founded the Biota.org SIG to bring digital biology into virtual
worlds.

The panelists:

KIRK PARSONS from Black Sun will address avatar design and usability
issues.

REID HOFFMAN from Fujitsu who will support us with his background in
cognitive science and UI studying with Terry Winograd and his community
building experience from the WorldsAway project.

STEVE DIPAOLA from Onlive will join us to talk about character animation
and interaction design in voice enabled 3D avatar environments.


************************************************************************

Directions to Xerox PARC

> From Highway 101, take the Oregon Expressway exit west 2 miles to El
Camino Real.  Oregon Expressway becomes Page Mill Road at El Camino.
Follow Page Mill Road 1.7 miles to Coyote Hill Road (no light) and turn
left.  Coyote Hill Road is just past the intersection with Foothill
Expressway.  Go one-half mile and PARC will be on your left.  Follow
the signs to the auditorium.

> From Interstate 280, take the Page Mill Road exit.  Go east one mile
to Coyote Hill Road (no light) and turn right.  Go one-half mile and
PARC will be on your left.  Follow the signs to the auditorium.

Wheelchair access to the PARC Auditorium exists, but is circuitous.
If you need wheelchair access, please plan to arrive at least 15
minutes early so that you may be escorted to the auditorium.