A newly financed San Francisco start up, Worlds Inc. had taken notice of his work and offered Britvich the opportunity to develop the next version of Web World "unobstructed." It was here that he began the creation of AlphaWorld, eventually known as ActiveWorlds. In the summer of 1995, Britvich and Worlds CEO David Gobel demonstrated AlphaWorld for the first time to an audience of over a thousand Web enthusiasts. AlphaWorld was given the "show stopper" award and it quickly became a hit. ActiveWorlds made the cover of Interactivity Magazine, and was featured by Wired, C/net TV and others news organizations in the web vanguard. Eventually the pressure to earn revenue and the hungry eyes of venture capitalists drove the Worlds management to change the focus of Britvich's work. He ignored all of them and continued doing things his way. When they repeatedly made attempts to obstruct his path, he told them "Get out of my way!", refusing to change the direction of his work.

In time, Worlds Inc. found itself without third-round financing. Britvich was in serious danger of watching the plug get pulled on yet another technology that was never fully understood by its owner. A close friend and ActiveWorlds collaborator, Daniel Viescas, secured enough financing to buy ActiveWorlds, snapping up the technology from the jaws of trusteeship without a moment to spare.

Together, Britvich and Viescas served on the Board of Directors of a new company centered on developing Active Worlds even farther. However, not a year passed before both Britvich and Viescas suddenly vanished from the scene. What became of them after has only been speculation since.

Next week in part two of the story, find out where Britvich disappeared to and read excerpts from my exclusive interview with him, and Viescas. See their reflections on ActiveWorlds and the Web from its inception until today.