In cyberspace, no one can see your Vulcan ears or spin your propeller beanie, but that's not stopping the World Science Fiction Society and a consortium of 3-D software companies from broadcasting the Hugo Awards ceremony online this year.
The Internet broadcast of the Science Fiction Achievement Awards, better known as the "Hugos" in honor of pioneering SF editor Hugo Gernsback, will take place on Sunday, August 5. Because the award ceremony will take place at the annual World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), held this year in Melbourne, Australia, the broadcast will begin at around 8:00 p.m. Melbourne time, or 6:00 a.m. EDT.
Internet users will be able to see and hear the awards ceremony by logging into any of several "virtual reality (VR) communities," or interactive Internet chat environments, which have banded together to provide the convention with special online events, news coverage and support.
Among other events, this "VR Worldcon" will offer a virtual starship design contest, continuous interviews and convention coverage and an assortment of guest appearances from various SF celebrities, allowing both local convention-goers and online fans to participate with one another.
In particular, the deep-space trappings of such Internet environments as Starbase C3 will let fans "attend" the ceremony in the electronic guises of aliens, interstellar travelers and other creatures more often seen in the futuristic works honored than in the real world.
The software companies hosting the virtual convention consider this fusion of future and present, or "science fiction" and "science fact," to be one of the hallmarks of their technology.
"There have been so many developments in our industry that we wish to share the concepts led by science fiction professionals and created by our efforts as VR technologists," said Derek Rayburn, president of SeeRay Studios and primary organizer of the event. "It is a common misconception that current VR technologies are still science fiction and do not exist. We wish to show the science facts of today."
The Hugo Awards are one of the two most prestigious honors bestowed to space-oriented works and other science fiction. Unlike the Nebulas, however, which only SF professionals can vote on, the winners of Hugos are decided by fans.
Of the five books nominated for the best novel Hugo this year, only two -- Mary Doria Russell's Children of God and Robert J. Sawyer's Factoring Humanity -- focus on space travel, alien intelligence and other celestial themes.
Likewise, in the best dramatic presentation category only two of the five nominees -- "Star Trek: Insurrection" and the final episode of Babylon 5's fourth season -- revolved around space.
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