Welcome!

 

The Contact Consortium and Digitalspace Commons in collaboration with Afterlife present Avatars 2002 - A Merry Cyber Party on January 5th 2003. The event will be officially launched at 12pm GMT on Sunday and conclude at 6pm GMT on Monday 6th January.

Avatars 2002 is a continuation of the series of annual Avatars events, sponsored by The Contact Consortium together with Digitalspace, that began in 1996. Each year a different theme is chosen to be the backdrop for our celebration of Virtual Worlds technology. From the trade show hall of 1998 to the spinning space stations of 2001, each year has brought a new sense of fun and purpose to the evolving communities of 3-d cyberspace.

The theme this year is the mythology of Middle Earth as brought to us by J.R.R. Tolkien in the three books of the Lord of the Rings. Readers of the books will know that Bilbo Baggins a central character in the story, begins the adventure on his eleventy-first birthday (111 years old). By happy coincidence the author, J.R.R. Tolkien would be one hundred and eleven years old on January 3rd 2003 which makes this year's theme even more symbolic.

As in previous years the event is being conducted on more than one Virtual Worlds platform. This year it is being held in both Activeworlds and in Adobe Atmosphere. This site is dedicated to the Adobe® Atmosphere event - for information relating to the Activeworlds event (which will be running for three days, 3rd - 5th January) please click the link at the bottom of this page.

So come and join us on January 5th for a very special day where we have many fun activities awaiting you! From dramatic book readings to an interactive trivia quiz, while being immersed in wonderful 3-d recreations of Tolkien's mythological world, Middle Earth.

Eight stunning worlds have been created for this event, from cutesy Hobbiton, home of the humble Hobbitts, to the caverns of Khazad Dum where Gandalf met his fate. You will interact with any one of the thirteen avatars that have also
been specially created, from the slight figure of Frodo the Hobbit, to
the fiery and fearsome Balrog, monster of the ancient world.

The sponsors would like to thank the following members of the team for their enthusiasm and commitment to this project and for volunteering so many hours to make it a success.

Francesca - for her skill and motivation in both helping to organize this year's event and in developing this web site.
Heart - for her enthusiasm and commitment to creating worlds and avatars, and for taking a leading role in organizing the day's activities.
Petra - who rallied her wonderful Afterlife community and who acted as a powerful inspiration to the whole team.
Lace - for her support in every aspect of this project

To all the worlds and avatar builders below, without whose skill and commitment this event would not have been possible.

Francesca
Greg (also for his JS skills)
Heart
JamesSF
Lace
Whystler
Ben
CptMrgans
Jon

We would also like to thank Alex de Grigny Castro for overall coordination of this year's cross-platform event and for his inspirational energy and commitment to the project.

Last but not least we wish to thank Bruce Damer who, having started the ball rolling in 1996, has continued to be a leading light; not only for the teams working on five years of Avatars events, but also within the context of the Virtual Worlds arena as a whole.

Together with the AV2002 team and volunteers I look forward to welcoming you to our Merry Cyber Party on January 5th 2003.

Stuart Gold
Av2002 Atmosphere Coordinator

 

 

Avatars 2002 Atmosphere Contact: av02-atmo@digitalspace.com

 

Sponsors:

Software: