Lab for Game Design and Development, Rochester Institute of Technology
Collaboration with Andrew Phelps and Elizabeth Lawley

This research project aims to explore the issue of digital preservation of virtual worlds and their surrounding cultural experience.  As a part of this work, schemes will be proposed and tested through sample implementations on best practices for preserving what has become a true art form in just the past half-century.  The Preserving Virtual Worlds project will explore methods for preserving digital games and interactive fiction. Major activities will include developing basic standards for metadata and content representation and conducting a series of archiving case studies for early video games, electronic literature and Second Life, an interactive multiplayer game.  Second Life content participants include Life to the Second Power, Democracy Island and the International Spaceflight Museum. This research is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.