About Us
Mission Statement
The Association of Virtual Worlds believes that virtual worlds represent a major information and technological revolution in how we work, play and live. The Association mission is to serve those companies and individuals who are dedicated to the advancement of this multi-billion dollar global industry and reach out to those who have not yet found virtual worlds.
Goals
- To create a forum for the discussion of issues affecting the industry
- To assist in the development of industry procedures and standards
- To promote the virtual worlds industry, its interest and developments
- To educate on the benefits of virtual worlds to enhance work and play
- To offer business and social networking opportunities
- To connect the public and consumers with members of the virtual worlds industry
- To participate in the determination of the collective interests of the industry
- To further the common interests of the industry
- To provide leadership for the betterment of the industry
- To recognize accomplishment within the virtual worlds industry
Membership Benefits
Universal Membership Benefits currently include:
- Access to the Association of Virtual Worlds Website
All members will have access to the dynamic website of the AVW with its exciting Coverflow design elements and navigation. - Unlimited access to the Association of Virtual Worlds Business & Social Network
This is the core meeting place for Association members with the following features: - Customizable profile pages with privacy settings
- Message center with address book importing
- Ability to view members online in real time
- Video & photo sharing
- Network badges
- Seamless funneling
- Member forums and interest groups
- Member blogs
- Multi-language capability
- Members  Directory
- Members will have full and free access to this downloadable member directory.
- Association of Virtual Worlds Seal
- Members will have the right to display the Seal of the Association of Virtual Worlds on their website and use the seal in their own literature and materials.
- Association Press Room
Members will have access to the Press Room and will be able to read, review and download all Association press releases and news.
(Please check back as new member benefits are added frequently)
Premium Membership Benefits (coming soon) will include:
- Access to the Association of Virtual Worlds Virtual Headquarters
The Association of Virtual Worlds will have its own virtual environment, complete with avatars, a welcome area, members’ private offices, seminar rooms, conference auditorium and communication. Members will have the ability to: - Select their avatar
- Attend virtual meetings and seminars
- Attend the annual virtual conference
- Create groups and participate in discussions
- Share contact information
- Experience a virtual world in motion
Plus: Membership Rewards Program of 15% of 1st year membership fees to members who bring new members to the Association at the premium levels.
AVW Advisory Board
Members of the AVW Advisory Board
- Chadrick Baker
- Bruno Cerboni
- Dr. Sara de Freitas
- Francesco D'Orazio
- Rahul Dutta
- Cynthia Freese
- Dr. Hanan Gazit
- Darius Lahoutifard
- Dr. Chang Liu
- Andrew Peters
- Liz Ryan
- Colin Trethewey
- David Wisotzky
- Zafka Zang
Chadrick Baker
Chadrick Baker is a virtual worlds specialist with over six years experience developing virtual spaces. He comes to Metaversatility from Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, where he had a large part in governance issues and enforcing Linden's legal policy on the grid.
His previous experience includes directing Business Development at Phreak Media, and running support specialization and technology upgrades at 21st Century Security. He has also worked in sales, inventory management, and done government contract work.
In Second Life, Chadrick is CrowCatcher Valen, but has also been known as Adam Linden and Chadrick Linden. He is currently, at this very moment, drinking coffee through his IV tube and believes we should be fighting for net neutrality with the same passion and fervor that our forefathers fought for our initial constitutional freedoms. He is ecstatic to be sitting on the board of the Association of Virtual Worlds.
Bruno Cerboni
Bruno Cerboni is the Founder and CEO of Virtual Italian Parks S.r.l., the first Italian firm fully dedicated to virtual worlds. Bruno created Parioli, the first and the most popular Italian sim in Second Life. The customers of Virtual Italian Parks are big brands such as Sony Home Entertainment, Accenture, BNL BNP Paribas, Costa Crociere, Ferrarelle, IDC, Fondazione Valore Italia, Nokia, Renault Italia, and San Pellegrino. Virtual Italian Parks has developed the new virtual world platform, Moondus, a powerful engine designed to allow businesses to create their own reliable and secure virtual world. Bruno is an engineer (degree at the University of Rome “La Sapienza†– 1972).
Earlier in his career, Bruno held management positions in the field of information technology from 1974 to 2006, including roles with Alenia, Alitalia (ITC department), ENIdata (ITC company of ENI – the behemoth of oil and gas), Saritel, and Telecom Italia Group, where he held the positions of Director, COO and Senior V.P. of Innovation and Products Development.
He was a pioneer in Italy in the fields of Office Automation, Multimedia and Internet and is recognized as one of the most important experts in the field of virtual reality in Italy. Bruno has extensive international experience, thanks to his many relationships with U.S. and European companies.Dr. Sara de Freitas
Dr Sara de Freitas has recently taken up a new role as Director of Research at the Serious Games Institute at the University of Coventry where she leads an applied research team working closely with industry. The Institute is the first of its kind in the UK and it is envisaged that it will play a leading role in future developments of game-based learning. Formerly Sara worked as Lab Manager, Project Manager on development programmes and Senior Research Fellow at the London Knowledge Lab. The Lab is a collaborative venture between Birkbeck College and the Institute of Education, University of London focusing upon technology assisted learning. Sara continues to hold a visiting senior research fellowship at the Lab.
Sara also works with the UK Joint Information Systems Committee e-Learning Development Programme in the Innovation strand, exploring the applications and developments of innovative technologies upon post-16 learning. Sara’s recent report Learning in Immersive Worlds reviews the uses of game-based learning and presents a set of case studies of practice. Sara is also working with TruSim (Blitz Games), the Vega Group PLC and the Universities of Birmingham and Sheffield on a £2 million UK Department of Trade and Industry co-funded Serious Games research and development project which will develop highly immersive learning games to solve business training needs.
In 2003 Sara founded the UK Lab Group, which brings the research and development community together to create stronger links between industrial and academic research through supporting collaborative programmes and for showcasing innovative R&D solutions for the knowledge economy. Sara publishes in the areas of: pedagogy and e-learning; change management and strategy development for implementing e-learning systems and educational games and electronic simulations for supporting post-16 training and learning. Sara also works as a consultant through her recently established partnership company: Innovatech LLP.
Francesco D'Orazio
Francesco D'Orazio is the founder of Myrl.com a social networking platform for the Metaverse, and ConnectingWorlds.net, a blog about online worlds and their growing interaction with mirror worlds, lifelogging and augmented reality. He is a specialist in social networks design, social media/immersive marketing and virtual worlds, and as a digital strategy consultant he works on online communities design, social media strategy and buzz marketing. In 2006 he designed and launched ZZUB, the first buzz marketing social network, and manages the community creating word of mouth programs to connect early adopters with brands like Fon and Vodafone.
He holds a Ph.D. in New Media Studies and Sociology. His research has been mainly focusing on immersive communication from a social, historical and semiotic perspective. He writes and lectures on immersive communication, social media, media-art, virtual worlds and buzz marketing. He is currently lecturer at the IULM University in Milan where has recently launched the Social Media Lab and the Minibar Italy. He is Senior Fellow at The McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto and lives in London where he runs the London Virtual Worlds Meet Up.
Rahul Dutta
Rahul Dutta is the CEO of Trimensions Metaverse Development, the first metaverse development and virtual services firm based in India. A graduate of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India, Rahul is committed to facilitating the entry of virtual worlds into general and educational use in the Indian context, as well as promoting 3D multi-user virtual education as an optimal solution to India's education needs.
In addition, he specializes in planning and construction of 3D virtual realities and environments, as well as their management, and interactivity with the real world. Rahul has been actively involved in different areas of industrial and graphic design since 2001, as a specialized consultant and educator. He has been exploring virtual reality since 1997, as well as various aspects of robotics and automation.
Cynthia Freese
A Washington native, Cynthia Freese is founder and CEO of Evergreen Events. Evergreen Events is a conference company dedicated to the enrichment of the games industry through innovative, high-quality conferences that are both informative as well as connective. A dynamic networker who loves meeting people and helping others, Cynthia exemplifies the mission of making connections happen. A mother of three, she is an entrepreneur, volunteer, artist, and a writer who believes in sharing and giving back to her community.
Prior to her founding of Evergreen Events, Cynthia was the Event Director at The Game Initiative where she grew the Game Initiative’s conferences to include small, focused events with a unique focus. Cynthia was the creator and manager of the 2005 Casual Games Conference in Seattle. This successful conference allowed the games industry to focus on a new perspective in the industry. She was also the Conference Director of the 2005 Austin Game Conference, Women’s Game Conference and Writers Game Conference in Austin, TX, all of which had record attendance in 2005 and were well covered in the media. In addition to her work on innovative conferences Cynthia also focused on the Breaking In To the Game Industry events as well as helping to organize and attain industry speakers for middle school Career Days around the country.
Cynthia served 6 years in the US Army, which were split between the finance office at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC and the finance office at Fort Lewis, Washington. Â She has worked extensively in the communities where she has lived to help educate and inspire youth. As a leader in her community Cynthia serves on a variety of boards and committees where she is a take charge player. Her personal goals are to be a part of the innovating group that is striving to help to grow and strengthen the K-12 education systems that we currently share. Cynthia likes to be thought of as a bridge between groups and believes that by working together we will all be better off in the long run.
Dr. Hanan Gazit
Dr. Hanan Gazit serves as the Israeli DiGRA Chapter promoting the DIGRA’s (Digital Games Research Association) vision and goals in Israel.
A researcher, lecturer, blogger, and owner of a start-up company specializing in delivering services for Israeli companies and organizations interested in using digital games and virtual worlds such as Second Life for business, marketing and instruction.
Dr. Gazit research interests include: virtual worlds and video games interactions; designing effective serious games; skills acquisition and virtual/real world transfer; using computerized tools for analyzing interactions.
Dr. Gazit holds a PhD degree in the Learning Sciences and a Magna Cum Laude M.A. degree in Science Education both from Tel-Aviv University. Dr. Gazit is a former post doctoral fellow researcher at LIRT Lab, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Applications of Computer Science, CRI. Dr. Gazit thinks that "The future of the Web 3.0 virtual worlds for training and instruction of the Y-Generation is here" and that "We are in the middle of the Video Games and the Metaverse revolution. This revolution potential for the Y-Generation, our future working force, currently not fully understood, is waiting to be unfolded."
Darius Lahoutifard
Darius Lahoutifard is CEO of ALTADYN, the company behind 3DXplorer. He has extensive senior management experience. He served as Managing Director of PTC France, a worldwide leader in CAD/CAM/PLM where he multiplied the revenue by seven in three years reaching $27M. Before that he successfully ran Applicon’s business in Southern Europe (later acquired by UGS, now SIEMENS-PLM).
Before taking his operational role with Altadyn in 2007, Darius founded and ran 01consulting, a management consulting boutique that helps worldwide enterprise software companies develop their business in Europe through market research, consulting and interim management. During his tenure at 01consulting he executed several strategic management missions such as the turn-around of Think3's business in Western Europe, from one of the less profitable regions to the fastest growing one, with high profitability, while ensuring 150% annual growth in revenue.
Darius is also an entrepreneur, having founded or co-founded several startups, raised over $16M funds for those companies and served them as CEO, in Europe, as well as in the US.
Darius is a graduate of ECOLE CENTRALE de PARIS..
Dr. Chang Liu
Dr. Chang Liu is an Assistant Professor with the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, a unit of Russ College of Engineering and Technology at Ohio University. Chang obtained his doctoral degree from the Department of Information & Computer Science at the University of California at Irvine in 2002. During his graduate career, Chang had worked in the Component Applications group at Microsoft Research, the Visual C++ group at Microsoft, the Personal Security Manager group at AOL/Netscape, and the Quest team at Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC).
Chang is the founding director of the VITAL (Virtual Immersive Technologies and Arts for Learning) Lab at Ohio University. Since he joined Ohio University, Chang has published about thirty refereed papers and won over twenty grants totaling over three million dollars. Sponsors of Chang's projects include the National Science Foundation, Ohio EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), U.S. EPA, Ohio Learning Network, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) SIGCSE (Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education), Filene Research Institute, and Smithsonian Latino Center.
Andrew Peters
Andrew Peters serves as Lead Strategist for the integrated marketing and communications company, The Pacific West Communications, and Director of Sales for Harro Research, both located in Singapore. He also provides global marketing and sales support for the virtual worlds developer company, Big-Bit Australia Pty Ltd. in Sydney, Australia and advises Metaversum, creator of the virtual world, Twinity. Andrew brings more than 20 years of industry experience to these companies and has worked in information technology, traditional publishing and public relations and marketing agencies.
Most recently, his experience spans the social media and virtual worlds landscapes. Andrew has been instrumental in founding the Internet Industry Association of Singapore (IIAS). He has had extensive experience in B2B and B2C marketing for technology companies across Asia Pacific.
His previous years were spent at multinational technology vendors including ICL (now Fujitsu), Wang Computers, Anixter & BenQ. His time with successful Australian Publisher, Australian Consolidated Press, exposed Andrew to the print, internet and broadcast strategies and publicity.
Liz Ryan
Business Week Online workplace columnist, Yahoo!Hotjobs Networking Expert, syndicated workplace advice columnist, Author, Speaker
Liz Ryan is an expert on the new-millennium workplace, a former Fortune 500 Human Resources executive and the author of Happy About Online Networking: The Virtual-ly Simple Way to Build Professional Relationships.
As a keynote speaker, Liz travels throughout the United States and abroad, speaking to groups ranging from Human Resources executives and entrepreneurs to the United Nations. As an advisor to corporations on workplace and leadership issues, she has worked with Omnicom, Tyson Foods, General Electric, NBCi and a long list of global employers. Liz's workplace-advice, job-advice and networking columns reach millions of readers in print and online.
Business guru and author Tom Peters calls Liz "a woman on a mission...the right mission."
In 1999, Liz founded the online discussion network ChicWIT, which grew to become the global organizational WorldWIT in 2001. WorldWIT grew to become the world's largest online network for professional women providing pithy, topical work and life advice, and won numerous awards and recognition for its unique approach to networking and its mission to "support women at the intersection of work and life."
In 2007, Liz launched the Ask Liz Ryan online community, reaching over 30,000 men and women on five continents to share business, careers, marketing and "life" advice.
Liz's sharp, edgy, humorous and very current observations on the new-millennium workplace, the role of corporate leaders, entrepreneurism and women in business have been featured by TIME magazine, Fortune magazine, The New York Times, USA Today and on CNN, CNBC and more.
For her role in helping professional women reach their career goals, Liz was honored by Enterprising Women magazine with a 2005 Enterprising Women Advocacy Award, as well as the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award from Colorado Women In Technology. The Association of Women in Communications also honored her with their 2005 Women of Achievement Trailblazer Award. Liz received the 2005 Stevie Award for Woman's Business Association of the Year and the 2006 Business Award of Merit from the Society for New Communications.
Liz also writes a weekly career column and a Q & A for Business Week Online and is the Yahoo! HotJobs Networking Expert. She is a commentator for NPR's "Morning Edition" and for BBC Radio, and a syndicated columnist on careers and the workplace.
Liz lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and five small children, and is a professional opera singer.
Colin Trethewey
Colin Trethewey is Director of Media Relations at Weblo.com. Colin helped Weblo get major exposure with TV, Radio, Internet and Newspaper coverage around the world. The Weblo.com story has been covered by over 300 media outlets including CNN, BBC, NBC, ABC, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Colin is former National Technology News Reporter. He also hosted a Tech/Business show called Tech Now during his 12 year broadcasting career. He believes impeccable customer service is the key to getting reporters to cover a story. He treats every journalist like a customer at a five star restaurant.
David Wisotzky
A former Airline pilot, David entered the virtual world industry in 2003. David is the President/CEO of Xivio, a 3-D virtual world with social networking features and parental controls. David realized early on that there was a need for a protected kid-friendly place to play, became a pioneer in the industry with Xivio’s patent pending Content rating System. David currently spearheads several internal and external projects that aim to enhance the virtual world industry.
Zafka Zhang(ZHANG Anding)
Zafka is a leading Metaverse researcher, active blogger and columnist on virtual worlds in China. He current leads the policy and research team at HiPiHi.
Zafka is one of China's pioneering group of 3D virtual worlds explorers in China. Since 2006, Zafka has been blogging about virtual worlds and had written numerous influential editorials and articles in some of China's leading newspapers and magazines. In these articles, he introduced Second Life and 3D virtual worlds to a China-based readership.
Before joining HiPiHi, Zafka was the senior front-page editor and columnist of China's leading business newspaper: "The 21st Century Business Herald". His works focused on in-depth reports spanning the domains of finance, political economy to Internet industry in China. Zafka graduated from SOAS, London University and Fudan University with two master degrees on political sociology and public administration.
Zafka is also an acclaimed sound artist and experimental musician in China. His album <I. Mirror> on Second Life's soundscapes is exhibited in the 52nd Venice Biennale as part of the Caofei's "China Tracy Pavillion" project.
