On Thursday, August 10th from 6-9 PM Eyebeam hosts a Metaverse Roadmap Pre-Release Party with a series of short presentations and open conversations about the emerging metaverse space and what the Metaverse Roadmap has uncovered so far.

Speakers include Metaverse Roadmap Project Director and Electric Sheep Company futurist, Jerry Paffendorf [http://blogs.electricsheepcompany.com/jerry]; Electric Sheep Company [http://electricsheepcompany.com] CEO Sibley Verbeck; 3pointD [http://http://3pointd.com] author Mark Wallace; outspoken Second Life resident Prokofy Neva [http://secondthoughts.typepad.com]; Eyebeam technical director of R&D Michael Frumin [http://ogle.eyebeamresearch.org/ ]; VRML pioneer and Media Machines [http://mediamachines.com] founder Tony Parisi, and Senior Editor of the Harvard Business Review [http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu], Paul Hemp.

User-creation, customization, and interoperability are key features of what’s sometimes called Web 2.0. These capabilities are now migrating to video games, virtual worlds and other graphical cyberspaces. The Metaverse Roadmap Project [http:metaverseroadmap.org] is investigating the present and future of this trend, connecting video games, virtual worlds, CAD, maps, and Web apps–think Xbox, game mods, Second Life, World of Warcraft, Google Earth, and MySpace–as well as thinking about the impact of this convergence on the real world.

Join us for a free night of food, drink, and provocative conversation around new opportunities and the future of virtual worlds.