Decentralized Web Summit 2018

Virtual worlds are nothing new, we've been building and playing in them for decades - games like GTA and Skyrim, MMOs like World of Warcraft and Sims Online, or social virtual worlds ranging from the 90s-00s like WorldsChat, Second Life, and ActiveWorlds, all the way to the current breed of modern social VR apps.  But the majority of these virtual worlds are owned, operated, and controlled by one company - they choose which content you can view, who is allowed to publish, and if the company revokes access, removes features, or goes out of business your identity and possessions within these worlds are gone with them.  

Come join us in the Ford Vault where we'll be discussing and demoing ongoing efforts towards building the decentralized virtual world platforms of the future using the standards of the open web, running right in your browser.  WebVR, IPFS, mesh networks, blockchain, and sovereign identity all come together to allow anyone to build virtual worlds they own, hosted in any way they choose.  We'll have the following stations available throughout the day:

VR Internet Archive
Transport yourself virtually to a 3D scan of the Internet Archive's church (courtesy of Noisebridge Hackerspace), where you can spin a '78 record from IA's collection on an antique phonograph, play a hiphop mix tape on a virtual cassette player, or load up a film reel from the Prelinger Collection.

VR on Mesh
WebVR worlds aren't limited to the open internet.  Come and discuss how captive portals, mesh networks and NFC can be used to create completely off-grid virtual worlds.

Self-sovereign Identity
One of the first steps to decentralizing virtual worlds is to give users control of their own identity.  Come and talk with us about ongoing efforts to implement self-sovereign identity systems using standards like the W3C DID spec in virtual worlds, allowing you to bring your identity and possessions with you as you move between different platforms.