A long ramble with few redeeming values
I'll just write this in first person since I am the one doing this web page. My name is Russell Freeland, and I started using the Dataman handle playing the Ultima series of computer RPGs from Origin. The friend who introduced me to them (David Bergerson) called himself Netman in these games, he was a network specialist...so I called myself Dataman since I was into databases more at the time.
When I was asked to choose a handle for AlphaWorld, I used Dataman without thinking about it much. I think if I had it to do over again I'd just choose my regular name as Roland did. But I guess it's too late to go back now. Actually when I left COF I gave up the Dataman handle in AW since people associated the name with someone associated with COF, now I go by DM's Ghost in the Active Worlds.
"Dataman" became a focus for several nutballs in AlphaWorld. In virtual reality, as in "real life," we make people up to a certain extent. So people who wanted something to rally against made up a Dataman who was some kind of authority figure, and at least a couple of women made up someone who was sexy. I am neither of these things. :)
What I am is a creative, hard-working guy who enjoys a challenge. I was born in 1952, so compared to a lot of people in VR I am an old fart, which doesn't bother me a whole lot but it does have some bearing on my attitude I guess. Before I got into computers I played the trombone professionally, and worked for most big-name acts in the business as well as some jazz groups and what have you. Since playing trombone doesn't pay a lot, I also had quite a few "day gigs" including rebuilding a refinishing pianos, growing cactus and succulent plants, and so on. The computer thing was supposed to be just another day gig--but when I went back to school to find out about it, I quickly became fascinated with programming and other things you can do with computers. I became an award-winning author and developer and generally had a ball programming, and writing about programming and the software industry.
In the summer of 1995, Adam Green finally harangued me into getting an Internet account. Adam was great, he taught me where to get the software I needed and get a start on learning about the Net. Shortly after this, he told me about Worlds Chat, a 3d chat environment made by a from Worlds, Inc.. Within a couple of weeks after I started frequenting Worlds Chat, I talked to a fellow there by the name of Gersh who told me about another place created by Worlds, Inc. called AlphaWorld. At this point AlphaWorld was a sort of secret thing, the web page he sent me to wasn't linked from anywhere and there were only 172 citizens ahead of me.
I'll never forget the first time I entered AlphaWorld. I was instantly fascinated. At this point the place was empty and quite small, although at the time it seemed huge compared to Worlds Chat and other VR environments. I fell in love with it. The fascinating thing about AlphaWorld was that you could build persistent things of your own there, which opened up a world of possibilities. After a few weeks of driving myself toward bankruptcy building in AW, I talked myself into a part-time job as the newspaper editor (and "documentation specialist.") I really had wanted to get involved with programming on the project, but Ron Britvich (Protagonist) wasn't hot on the idea so Dave Gobel (Da5id) and Dave Marvitt hired me for the newspaper job. (Dave Gobel knew me from a few years back when I was a regular writer for Data Based Advisor.)
What I did to get the job as newspaper editor was make a few web pages (pretty much my first) about how to build in AW, how to move around, etc.. The project didn't have a documentation person, although Wolf Schmidt was later to pick up the ball in that area. Also I built a lot. And then I built some more.... I got addicted to building, as a few had before me and many did afterward. I figured I could experiment with building and learn all kinds of things, and teach others to do them. And I did, and it was a lot of fun.
As time passed I learned to make building models for AlphaWorld (thanks for the help, Danny!), code programs to manipulate RWX models, write decent HTML, and a lot more. During this time I worked to promote AW in any way I could, and I like to think I was successful in this. One of the biggest ways I worked on promoting this world I loved so much was to spend time with people who I thought were talented...the biggest resource of any software is the users of the software, and this was particularly true of AlphaWorld. In the process of hanging out with these people, I made some very good friends, which is what VR is really about for me.
To me, there is no big division between my virtual online experiences and the rest of my life. I realize a lot of people like to remain anonymous and make up personas for themselves, but with the exception of role-playing games I don't see much value in this. In fact, I kind of mistrust anyone who hides their "real" persona and remains anonymous. Most of the people I like in VR have no problem with telling people who they are. It's my belief that anonymity is just an illusion and people can find out who you are if they want to. And I think that the virtual world is a small place, at least in the sense things you do today may come back to haunt you later!
I have been and am involved with online environments besides Active Worlds (what AlphaWorld became) but not as "Dataman" so I'll have to ramble about that stuff somewhere else I guess.
Someday I'll have to put some typical My Home Page stuff in here like pictures of my kids and pets. :) Suffice it to say that my wife and kids are more sensible, better looking and funnier than I am and the kids will probably end up with much more interesting web sites too.