From: cyberoid@u.washington.edu Subject: INDUSTRY: Announcing WORLDESIGN - Call for Collaborators Date: Sun, 23 Feb 92 12:39:01 -0800 To the sci.virtual-worlds Community: I am pleased to announce the formation of WORLDESIGN, a design firm dedicated to advancing the state of our art by building a market through service to customers in industry and government. WORLDESIGN answers a need evident to anyone who has been in this field or who has watched as both technology and applications suffer from too few funds and too little expertise to go around. We need top-flight applications that can demonstrate the power of the virtual worlds paradigm. WORLDESIGN is prepared to pursue this goal and thus relieve the R&D labs of the impossible burden of doing both good R&D *and* applications of their technology. By aggregating demand, WORLDESIGN can help fund technology develop- ments at many laboratories, wherever the best work is being done. WORLDESIGN will not itself produce technology. Its purpose is to produce applications that serve its clients' needs and showcase the best of virtual worlds technology. WORLDESIGN will also consult with clients who are looking for technology to bring in- house or as investment opportunities. I believe that there is a market for applications if they are professionally designed, with respect for the clients' needs. This means going out an spending time with clients, to learn firsthand what is important to them. Few labs can afford to do this; fewer still are equipped for this necessary consultation. WORLDESIGN will be a nexus for the developers of technology and those who can benefit by its use. Initially, WORLDESIGN will focus on applications in those industrial and managerial domains for which data *realization* is critical, including design, EIS, finance, GIS, telecom/network management, and manufacturing-technology. I hope to announce WORLDESIGN's first clients in the coming month. If your firm is interested in developling applications in these or related field, please let me know. Similarly, if consultation in these fields is your organi- zation's goal, either for acquiring technology or investing in its development, WORLDESIGN can be a source of useful information. To help in its work, WORLDESIGN is soliciting R&D laboratories and individual researchers whose technology products and/or design tools are either currently available or will be available by the end of this year. This solicitation is not restricted to North America but is open to pioneers everywhere. My collection of information is already surprisingly large (or maybe not so surprising, after two years of market research and travel that has enabled me to visit many of your labs), but it is still incomplete and will happily remain so as long as our field is fresh and alive. WORLDESIGN'S roster of collaborating designers is almost full, but new talent is always welcome. Please have some experience in both a professional design field and either management/manufacturing or information technology. You may send this information to WORLDESIGN by postal mail to the address below or, if you prefer, to the email address listed below. I will be continuing my work at the HIT Lab in an advisory capacity and as moderator of sci.virtual-worlds. You can count on my con- tinuing commitment to maintaining and building sci.virtual-worlds as a resource for the entire community of virtual worlds researcher, developers, and fans. Prior rules of publicity and confidentiality will be maintained. Naturally, we all hope to hear more from those who are on the forefront in our field. But any information sent to me in confidence will remain private. I am preparing a prospectus for WORLDESIGN that I will be glad to distribute by request. Please let me know of your interest. Thanks to all who have encouraged and supported the creation of WORLDESIGN and its mission: to help build our field by creating a market and serving its customers. This goes for every participant here, for it is your enthusiasm and sense of purpose that has persuaded me that our time has come. Sincerely, Bob Jacobson --- Bob Jacobson Principal WORLDESIGN 128 NW 56th Street Seattle, WA 98107 USA Telephone: 206-782-8747 until March 7 Fax: 206-543-5380 until March 7 Both telephone and fax will switch on March 8 to: 206-782-8630 Email: bluefire@well.sf.ca.us (I will continue to receive sci.virtual-worlds and HIT Lab related mail at cyberoid@u.washington.edu) (The WORLDESIGN mark is pending registration. WORLDESIGN is licensed in the State of Washington.) [MODERATOR'S NOTE: Commercial postings are offered on sci.virtual-worlds as a public service. Their appearance here does not necessarily indicate endorsement by the moderators or by the USENET or its administrators. -- Bob Jacobson]