Jeffrey Ventrella

Jeffrey Ventrella is a digital artist, programmer, and researcher. Ventrella was principal inventor and, with Will Harvey, co-founder of the virtual world There.

Ventrella co-founded the virtual world product There.com in 1998. Ventrella motivated the conceptualization and implementation of "avatar-centric communication" at There. Ventrella subsequently worked as a Senior Developer at Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. Speaking on the official Second Life blog, former Linden Lab CEO Cory Ondrejka referred to Ventrella as "one of the world's experts on avatars and 3D communications." One of Ventrella's core projects in Second Life was "avatar puppeteering," an area where he has also published scholarship.

Ventrella is also known as the author of Gene Pool, an artificial life game demonstrating Darwinian evolution. He has published several articles in the artificial life community. Prior to his career in virtual worlds, Ventrella joined Rocket Science Games in 1995, where he prototyped games and designed the artificial life simulator Darwin Pond.

Ventrella taught at the Centre for Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus, in Vancouver, British Columbia. He frequently appears on the Biota.org podcast.

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