In the year 2000 software developer Chris Cole and entrepreneur John Moores joined forces with former Disney Imagineer Edward Sotto to explore the convergence of the internet with physical places. It was a perfect vision and a compliment of combined expertise.

Many large corporations were our clients such as Motorola, Kodak, Disney R&D, San Diego Padres, and others. Innovations that predated the iPhone, Smart TV, LED interactive media and other outstanding projects were well underway. Then 9/11 changed the world and innovation halted indefinitely. Instead of running the business into the ground, the decision was to “pause” the Progress City vision till technology advanced and economic conditions improved. With the advances in AI, causal analytics, and mobile technologies, the time is now right to provide a rare combination of skillsets to solve for brands and experiences.

Imagineer meets Engineer.

Progress City has resurfaced.

Chris Cole. CTO Progress City.

In addition to being a scientist, and CTO of Kin Valley, Chris was introduced to the Arpanet as a student at Harvard in the 1970s. As a graduate of Caltech, Chris pioneered interactive remote computing over the Arpanet and became interested in the Internet as a medium for virtual communities.  Cole registered one of the first 100 domain names, peregrine.com. He has since explored this medium both in the open source community and commercially.

Soon after the creation of the Web in 1994, Cole hosted the first free multi-user homesteading community WebWorld, in which tens of thousands of people developed millions of pieces of virtual property.  In 1999 Cole funded the Internet virtual worlds open source project Gel, which was featured at SIGGRAPH.  In 2001 Cole co-founded with Alan Kay the open source project Croquet which has since attracted a large and growing development community.

Cole founded several companies commercializing aspects of the Internet as a virtual world: Worlds, Inc. (WDDD), the first commercially available multi-user 3D environment, Active Worlds, Inc. (AWLD), one of the largest online paid subscriber communities, and Mutation Labs, creators of the first multi-user Shockwave game Wave Rave. 

Cole also edits the archive for the Usenet newsgroup rec.puzzles, wrote the software for the online version of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, worked with the Advanced Technology Group of Encyclopedia Britannica in implementing Britannica Online, and helped Disney go online as Chief Architect and Producer for multi-user attractions for Disney Online.

Edward Sotto CCO / President .

Known mostly for his 13 year career at Walt Disney Imagineering as SVP Concept Design, where he met Chris while creating a virtual “worlds” platform, “The Republic of Fantasia” where Chris was “chief architect” for Disney Online. Sotto later founded the “experiential design” practice known as SottoStudios, solving for brands such as Ferrari, Aston-Martin, Pepsi, Virgin Galactic, Universal, Disney and more. No one sat still, but the vision of a “converged” experience was still waiting. With the emergence of smart phones, 5G, AI and causal analytics, Chris and Eddie brought their diverse skills back together as a single combined product. This enhanced vision of “convergence design” is more relevant now than ever before and carries more even potential for clients wanting to leverage machine learning in the entertainment and hospitality space.

What does that mean? One stop. It means that we can create experiences, via “smart” architecture and apps that evolve with their audience in real time. This world has architects and software engineers. We are out to close the gap and make what the technology is doing seamless with what the space and you are experiencing.

Join us on a journey where creativity is supported by technology, and every innovation is an opportunity to shape the future. Progress City - where AI and placemaking seamlessly blend as experiences.