From: bluefire@well.sf.ca.us  (Bob Jacobson)
Subject: EVENT: Worldesign's 1st Anniversary: Which Came First?  The April or the Fool?
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 93 22:46:48 -0800



Ruminations on a sunny Spring day ....

Well, we made it through Year One: Seattle's first information design
studio takes the opportunity of this important holiday to announce its
survival into Year Two, by hook and by crook.  Virtual worlds live on!

Thank you for all your good wishes and full pocketbooks.

Yes.

Coincidentally, we used the day to brief a fascinating gathering of
local architects, engineers, and construction firms on the merits of
the virtual world as a visualization and design tool.  It's too early
(being only four hours later) to measure the success of the event, but
there they sat, rapt, as we calmly announced the revolutionizing of
the professions specializing in the built environment...and then asked
them to give money, to boot.  The nerve!  It seems, however, that we
may actually have taken the first step toward realizing the Virtual
Environment Theater as a genuine virtual worlds implementation with
applications in architectural design and building construction.  You
can read about this historic event, sure to go down in the annals of
architectural history next to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, in Friday's
Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, our city's best (and
only) daily newspapers.

Our special thanks go to Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, and Evans
& Sutherland for helping out with technological support.  Anyone who
has not seen Silicon Graphics "Virtual City" running on a Reality-
Engine-equipped Crimson, or the GIS-based "Virtual Minneapolis"
blazing on an E&S ESIG 4000 image generator, has not yet experienced
the farthest frontiers of virtual worlds.  These are amazing
interpretations and evocations.

Today I learned of yet another medical virtual world project
transpiring between the Institute of Systems Studies, National
University of Singapore, and Johns Hopkins University Medical School.

We are pressing the margins.

On the other hand, I have also heard of the demise of a fairly well-
publicized "VR" company in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Is this true?

Finally, may I recommend an article in the most recent Atlantic
Monthly, all about complexity and human-centered design?  Not deep,
but suggestive.

The Earth ends at midnight tonight.  Set your alarm.


It's true.
     .
     .
     .
     .
     .
     v  
  April's
   Fool!

Bob Jacobson
Co-Moderator