The days of Comdex in Vegas may be numbered. Over the weekend several thousand virtual-reality enthusiasts showed that cyberspace is a viable place for an industry conference.
Contact Consortium, which hosted the last two avatar conferences offline, put Avatars98 online to "test drive the medium and measure its readiness for a truly global happening in human contact," promotional materials read. The Scotts Valley, California, consortium billed the event as the world's first 3-D online convention.
An avatar is an animated figure that represents a person in online virtual realities -- a stand-in in cyberspace.
"We proved that you could really do a conference, in the traditional sense, with the traditional facility, in cyberspace," said consortium member Bruce Damer, who was in charge of this year's conference.
The decision to host the event in cyberspace, rather than in San Francisco, meant that interested parties in far-off countries not only participated, but rallied local resources. "The interesting effect was that that all of these [distant] locations suddenly became empowered," he said. "People in Helsinki brought in their art museum."
The consortium estimated total attendance at over 4,000, with an average 200 to 300 visitors at a time in the main hall and its satellite spaces. Though sometimes slow to render, the virtual worlds were intuitive, surprisingly convincing, and the conversations and lectures were coherent and interesting.
Lecturers included theorists and practicing designers from around the world, including some expected faces, like 3-D luminary Mark Pesce, and some new ones, like Keiran Birmingham, a precocious 11-year-old builder of virtual worlds. Exhibits by representatives of NASA, Boeing, Compaq, and the University of California, along with about 40 others, were nestled in a vast hall, though the range was probably more easily navigated by a 2-D list.
Visitors had only to download the Active Worlds browser, which let them navigate the conference and interact with inhabitants and visitors.
Saturday's default location for the browser was set to the main room of the conference. As soon as one fired it up, the polygons and texture maps -- the building blocks of all virtual worlds -- slowly took form. A hall, not too different from what you'd find at any well-funded convention, appeared. Eventually sound kicked in, and the low rumble of a crowded room, complete with shuffling papers and clinking glasses, added a touch of realism.
Most events took place in large halls. Upon entering the space, many architectural features would slowly appear. In the main room, giant video monitors beamed in pictures of real-world gatherings. A gallery was filled with several partitions hung with pictures from volunteer artists.
Whether from Finland or Argentina, most avatars were dressed alike. The average male figure wore jeans, a T-shirt, and a vest. Females sported skirts of the length and style popular in the original Star Trek series. And there were plenty of bearded wizards in long black robes and several dragons.
The best-looking avatars won Avvy Awards. Sue Wilcox, who organized the awards said she was looking for personality in an avatar, avoiding those that were technically proficient but cold.
"We wanted avatars that we reacted to emotionally as well as intellectually and which performed well on average machines," Wilcox said.
Grand-prize winner Summer, designed by My2Keys and Netropolis (Victoria D'Onifrio and Rudy Galeano, respectively), was a variation on the scantily clad vixen theme. Flimsy swaths of cloth drifted over her nether regions, and she carried a bunny around with her.
Though there was a constant stream of speakers, announcements, and events like the Avvys, the main attraction was just the assemblage of digital bodies.
Much of what happened required some imagination to fully appreciate. Some visitors called the event "glorified IRC chaos." Others complained about download times, which reached 30 minutes or more for many pictures. "Time seems to be distorted," one person wrote. And the banalities inherent in the medium were also in the air, if at a more subdued level than in your typical AOL chat room.
"This was a very nervous and extremely difficult test case," said Damer. Next year, Contact Consortium will do it again, he says, and he expects Avatar99 to be even bigger. The changing of the millennium, Damer hopes, will drive home the reality of this emerging model of human interaction.
