About 100 people crowded into the Chelsea office of Eyebeam Open Lab yesterday evening to hear a fascinating assortment of virtual world denizens, entrepreneurs, journalists and futurists talk about the present and potential futures of the “metaverse.” Billed as “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Metaverse but Were Too Afraid To Ask” this event was an off-shoot of the Metaverse Roadmap Project, a “public ten-year forecast and visioning survey of 3D Web technologies, applications, markets, and potential social impacts.”
I will post more detailed notes on the event, but for now here are some pics from the gathering.
Jerry Paffendorf, Director of the Metaverse Roadmap Project and "Futurist In Residence" at the Electric Sheep Company gave a wide-ranging introduction to the series of speakers.
Jerry looks almost exactly like his avatar SNOOPYbrown Zamboni.
Prokofy Neva, Second Life entrepreneur and gadfly and Mark Wallace, Editor of 3pointD.com speaking on Second Life and the metaverse.
Sibley Verbeck, founder and CEO of the Electric Sheep Company.
One of the 3D printouts of an avatar done using Eyebeam Open Lab’s OpenGLExtractor application and a 3D printer. Sorry, my crappy camera isn’t good at closeups.