This is an extract from a blog article I wrote, but never published:
In this time of quarantine, we wondered if we might use emergent technologies to make it easier to bring people together for face-to-face connection and experiences with one another. Our team has been experimenting with webrtc and web gaming technologies for many years and contemplating combining these into an immersive experience platform. We quickly realized at the beginning of quarantine that we could build an oasis of human connection as an alternative to video software that was built for business meetings, but was being used for socializing and for events. It would be accessible by anyone with a web browser and webcam and we decided to call it Topia.
We also wanted to manifest a toolset where anyone could become a world builder and create unique spaces that encourage people to explore, dance, laugh and cry. We wanted to bring the beauty and interactivity of the real world into Topia by making it easy to create experience plugins like art, games, embedded audio & video, clickable links, and portals between worlds. And we wanted event producers and community managers to have everything they needed to plan and host gatherings that brought their people together.
