On April 22nd, NOAA is hosting a “brown bag lunch seminar” about virtual worlds at 12 PM SLT that will be broadcast directly from the web for those not able to participate from inside Second Life due to lack of avatar or access from the office. Those of you with avatars are welcome to join in-world. You can tune in at:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/noaa-brown-bag/v3
An analysis of two of NOAA’s regions in Second Life for 2009. Hopefully this helps move people beyond the typical “Second Life is empty” knee jerk reaction.
Cloud Computing for Virtual Worlds
At last week’s Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds, I was asked to talk about how cloud computing could potentially be used in the future to create large-scale immersive environments for the enterprise. It was part of a fascinating discussion panel highlighted by the acting CIO from USDA discussing the internal (and therefore secure?) cloud his team is assembling for government applications. Below are my slides from the presentation.
“A screen capture of the talk from the virtual world platform VastPark.”
Cloud Computing for Virtual Worlds
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Government 2.0: The not so Secret Society of the Goverati
What is the goverati? Mark Drapeau defines it as made up of people with first-hand knowledge of how the government operates, who understand how to use social software to accomplish a variety of government missions, and who want to use that knowledge for the benefit of all.
Today our society faces numerous challenges from the economy to the climate. As a democratic society we must engage the general public and crowd source the solutions. That said, we have a long way to go and the goverati can not do it alone. Do you want to be part of the solution? Moreover, how can your government enable you to execute on your ideas?
MICA Workshop on Monday: “Science and Scholarship in Virtual Worlds”
The Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA - http://mica-vw.org) has organized a workshop on Monday, Feb. 16. It’s open to the general public.
Date: Monday, Feb. 16, 2009
Location: The MICA small amphitheater at StellaNova (70,206,31)
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/70/206/31
Schedule
Quick Link for the schedule: http://bit.ly/MICAws
All Times are SLT (SL Time = Pacific Time)
10:00 - 10:20 Piet Hut / Pema Pera (IAS & MICA): “From MODEST to
MICA, and from a Vax to virtual worlds: a personal perspective”
10:20 - 10:40 Roundtable discussion: reviewing the progress over the
past year
10:40 - 11:00 Steve McMillan / Lagrange Euler (Drexel & MICA), and
others: “Stellar Dynamics in VWs: A Progress Report”
11:00 - 12:00 Roundtable discussion: “Towards more general WV
environments: OpenSim, interoperability, and portability”
12:00 - 2:00 Lunch break
2:00 - 2:20 Adrienne Gauthier / Ourania Fizgig (U. Az. & IYA2009):
“International Year of Astronomy 2009”
2:20 - 2:30 Open discussion: “Broadening astronomy participation in SL”
2:30 - 2:50 David Pitman / Rez Tone (IBM): “Computational chemistry
and visualization in VWs: a progress report”
2:50 - 3:10 Open discussion: “How to advance and facilitate
interdisciplinary collaborations in SL and VWs?”
3:10 - 3:30 Coffee break
3:30 - 3:45 Matthew Graham / Matthew Grantham (Caltech & MICA):
“Looking to the future: semantic web and virtualization of knowledge
environments”
3:45 - 4:15 Open discussion: “The future of virtual worlds in a
broader context”
4:15 - 4:45 Roundtable discussion: “Art and science in SL”
4:45 - 5:00 George Djorgovski / Curious George (Caltech & MICA):
“Where next? The future of MICA, and science and scholarship in
virtual worlds”
5:00 Adjourn
Quick Link for the schedule: http://bit.ly/MICAws
Second Life Eco-Tour
If you have never been in a virtual world, here is your chance to visit one of the most popular, Second Life, and see how people are using this online environment to address real world environmental issues ranging from tackling climate change to fostering more sustainable consumption patterns. The Second Life Eco-Tour was developed by The Wilson Center and is part of a larger project with the Environmental Protection Agency to explore how computer and video game technologies can be applied to environmental issues. The Eco-Tour was developed by UC/Berkeley graduate student Stephanie Gerson (Sequioa Hax in Second Life) and Charles Lawrence (Geuis Teses in Second Life). It highlights many environmentally oriented areas in Second Life including our very own SciLands. Click above to watch the video.
NOAA’s Second Second Life Island
We invite you to try out the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) second island in Second Life called Okeanos. There you can hop aboard a survey vessel and map the ocean floor, assist in the clean up efforts of an oil spill, observe the effects of harmful algal blooms known as red tides, and explore a multitude of coral sanctuaries. These and other adventures await you at the SLURL below! Make sure to pick up a heads up display (HUD) before you begin your journey.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okeanos/64/217/30/
Figure 1: Staring down a seal
Figure 2: Cleaning up an oil spill
Figure 3: Charting the sea floor
