042-LevityZone: Deep 90s-AvaBruce on NPR-TechNation 1998

In the next "Deep 90s" episode in the Levity Zone we roll the clock to January of 1998 when Bruce Damer appeared on National Public Radio's TechNation program with host Dr. Moira Gunn. By this time Internet virtual worlds had exploded as hundreds of thousands of users, clothed in digital representations called avatars, had homesteaded their way into second lives in Cyberspace. Well before Internet voice chat and video, social networks, and networked games these worlds hosted group building, families, football games, school classrooms, architecture competitions and even the youngest ever user of the Internet. It was a wonderful pioneering time as the Contact Consortium had just held its first conferences and Dr. Bruce's first book "Avatars" had just been published. Credits: Dr. Moira Gunn (interviewer for NPR-KQED San Francisco), Bruce Damer (interviewee), Bo Millward (sound editing). [released 30 October 2015]