This is a course in comparative avatar virtual worlds. We will be surveying the state of the art in inhabited cyberspace, with particular attention to issues of embodiment and agency. We will also be building virtual worlds, using several different platforms, and comparing those experiences.

As the semester progresses, this page will be a collection point for our findings.

• Introduction to avatar virtual worlds
• Critiques/explorations of various avatar virtual worlds
• Project web pages.
• The course syllabus
• Course instructions and guidelines
• Resources and connections
• ACTLab Utopia, our voice-based 3D avatar world
• The Legion Project, distributed subjectivity in cyberspace
• The Contact Consortium

A project of the Advanced Communication Technologies Laboratory, in the Radio, Television, Film Department of the University of Texas at Austin.

Please send comments to vreed@home.actlab.utexas.edu.