03 Jun ODL Fellows Kathy Bisbee and Charity Everett Win Nextant Prizes
On Friday, May 31st at the 2019 Augmented World Expo, ODL Fellows Kathy Bisbee and Charity Everett were announced as this year’s Nextant prize winners by the Virtual World Society. The Virtual World Society awards The Nextant to influential leaders who use compassion to guide their contributions to emerging tech and society.
According to the Virtual World Society website, “‘Nextant’ is a term coined by VWS founder Tom Furness to describe a way to guide our future. It combines the desire to know what’s “next” with a navigation tool—the sextant—used by mariners to look toward the horizon to guide their course, A ‘Nextant’ is a person whom others can turn to for inspiration, guidance, and role modeling, whose compassion is their compass to guide their passion for building the future.”
ODL Fellow Kathy Bisbee receiving Nextant Legacy Prize at AWE 2019
Kathy Bisbee, who is a current ODL Fellow and the co-founder and director of the Public VR Lab, won the Nextant Legacy Prize. The Legacy Prize honors professionals like Kathy who have made significant contributions, aligned with the goals of Virtual World Society, and who have inspired and enabled others in the field. Previous winners include Brenda Laurel, Mark Bolas, and Nonny de la Peña, who is considered to be the “Godmother of Virtual Reality”.
“Wisdom is an action arising out of a sense of presence. XR allows us to tap into our collective wisdom and take action on that understanding. What might we do if we can use the wisdom of embodied cognition and sense of presence of XR to take action create justice and inclusion in the next worlds we create, from the grassroots up?” – Kathy Bisbee, 2019
ODL Fellow Charity Everett receiving Nextant Rising Star Prize at AWE 2019
Charity Everett, who is a current ODL Fellow and Creative Technologist, won the Nextant Rising Star Prize, which honors significant contributors between 19 and 30 years old, in school or in the industry. This year’s Nextant Rising Star Prize honors Charity’s work so far and her potential for ongoing contributions to society.
“I think the potential of XR is immeasurable, and the surface hasn’t even been scratched yet. XR is going to change the way that we perceive the world around us. The concept of reality is going to become more malleable, and with great malleability comes great potential to reshape the world from the ground up. My goals are to contribute to the proliferation of that squishiness, and to do it in a way that entrenches us in cultural understanding and awareness— while creating projects that are simultaneously engaging and informative.” – Charity Everett, 2019
For more information about the awards, visit the Virtual World Society website.