Technology Intelligence Group

Eduverse Follow Up- Symposium3 Video Now Online

Robert Shepherd, the coordinator behind the recent Symposium3 event in Amsterdam, was kind enough to post the video of the event on GoogleVideo this morning.  My video-conferenced keynote address, with the 1970s earmuff headphones and all, follows:

Virtual Worlds Forum 08- London wrapup

Many of the TIG contributors traveled to London this week for the Virtual Worlds Forum in London.

Unfortunately, due to an incident at the meeting venue, the event had to be canceled. Quite a few attendees switched location to the Hospital Club in Covent Garden for some networking and an Unconference on Tuesday.  A number of industry luminaries were there, including TIG contributor Dr. Richard Bartle, as well as Jessica Mulligan, Raph Koster, and Ian Hughes.

The kind folks at SXSW held a party at Digress City Monday night, which was a nice mixer of the VWF crowd, as well as attendees of a number of other conferences in London this week. 

Overall, it was an unfortunate circumstance for the attendees and organizers, but we were able to make a little lemonade from the lemons handed to us in the circumstances.

I now travel back to the US for a bit , and am speaking again at the ConEx Nature Conservancy panel on the 14th & 15th of the month.  If you are in Vancouver for ConEx, please drop by the 'Blogs, Wikis, and Virtual Realities, New Media Tools for Conservationists' panel in the 'Values and Society' track, and say hello to the virtual me!

Welcoming contributor Benjamin Duranske

The Technology Intelligence Group is pleased to introduce our newest contributor, Benjamin Duranske.  Mr. Duranske is an intellectual property attorney and a frequent speaker and writer on the subject of virtual world technologies and the law.  He is the author of the book Virtual Law: Navigating the Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds, and co-chairs the American Bar Association's Committee on Virtual Worlds and Multiuser Online Games of the Section of Science & Technology Law.  He founded the SL Bar association in the virtual world of Second Life, and writes on legal issues associated with virtual worlds at the blog Virtually Blind.

Please join us in welcoming Benjamin, and look forward to his insights in this emerging field.

Welcoming contributor Dr. Wm LeRoy Heinrichs

It is my distinct pleasure to welcome the newest contributor to the Technology Intelligence Group, Dr. Wm LeRoy Heinrichs.  Many of you may recognize Dr. Heinrichs from his long tenure with Stanford SUMMIT, and the phenomenal work they have done there in surgical simulation over the last 20+ years.

For those of you who are not familiar with his work, Dr. Heinrichs is Professor (Emeritus) at Stanford University's School of Medicine and Director of Simulation at SUMMIT (Stanford University Medical Media and Information Technologies).  Dr. Heinrichs serves on the Executive Committee of the Center for Immersive and Simulation-based Learning, and writes and lectures widely about Surgical Simulation and Serious Virtual Worlds.  Dr. Heinrichs serves as Chief Medical Director at Innovation in Learning, Inc.

I have personally had the opportunity to view SUMMITs impressive projects in this space and have spoken extensively in industry how they are a benchmark for simulation leveraging virtual environments.  I am personally looking forward to Dr. Heinrichs contributions and analysis in how the field of surgical simulation and related fields can benefit from emerging technologies such as virtual simulation spaces.

Please welcome Dr. Heinrichs.

Welcoming contributor Prof. Edward Castronova

It is with great pleasure that the Technology Intelligence Group welcomes Edward Castronova.  Professor Castronova is a noted expert in the field of virtual economies and gameplay within massively multiplayer games and virtual worlds, directs the Synthetic Worlds Initiative at Indiana University, is the author of two key books on the subject Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games and Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality.  His research paper, Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier exploded on to the scene in 2001 with it's breakthrough conclusions on the implications of virtual currencies and real-money-trade.

Dr. Castronova's penetrating insights in the areas of gameplay, game design, virtual economies, are a welcome addition to the emerging-technology analysis of the Technology Intelligence Group.  His postings to the blog Terra Nova, and the ongoing development work of his Indiana University game development effort Arden, are a wealth of information for this emerging field of study.

Welcome contributor Bob Clay

[Christian here......]

This introduction is a bit more complex.

 We'd like to welcome Bob Clay to the Technology Intelligence Group.  I say 'We', however in addition to being a subject matter expert on a number of emerging technologies, Bob is also the Chief Operating Officer of the Technology Intelligence Group, so that make's him part of 'We'.

Bob has been an emerging technologist for nearly 20 years, with positions at IBM, Boeing Computer Support Services, and driving multiple innovations across Cisco for over a dozen years in markets from Service Providers to Enterprise Collaboration and beyond.  Most recently, Bob has been a noted expert in the 'Advertising 3.0' market, which is the intersection of the multi-modality of IPTV, the Web, IP Telephony and Advertising.

Join me in looking forward to Bob's insight and contributions in the emerging Advertising 3.0 technology space and more.

Welcoming contributor Sean Kane

We are pleased to announce Sean Kane of Drakeford & Kane LLC.

Sean writes and lectures extensively on legal topics relating primarily to intellectual property and entertainment issues, most recently in the areas of virtual worlds, e-commerce, and policy.  Mr Kane is a member of the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law, and he is a co-chair of the Virtual Worlds and Multi-user Online Games Committee within the ABAs Section of Science and Technology Law.  He has considerable experience litigating complex business disputes in federal and state courts at trial, appellate levels, and in alternate dispute resolution forums throughout the country.

Sean's legal insight and experience are a welcome addition to the Technology Intelligence Group.  We look forward to his contributions!

Welcoming contributor Dr. James Oliver

Please join me in welcoming Dr. James Oliver as a contributor to the Technology Intelligence Group.  Professor Oliver serves as the director of the Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC), home of the C6, the world's highest resolution (100M Pixels) fully immersive virtual reality room.  In addition, Dr. Oliver serves as the director of the CyberInnovation Institute at Iowa State University as well as ISU’s Interdepartmental Graduate Program on Human Computer Interaction (HCI).

James is a leading expert on virtual reality and other emerging interface technologies, including augmented and mixed reality.  We look forward to his insights and contributions in these exciting areas.

Welcoming contributor Dr. Richard Bartle

The Technology Intelligence Group is very pleased to announce Dr. Richard Bartle, the noted gaming and virtual world industry expert, in-demand speaker, professor, author, and industry consultant in the development of massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds.  Dr. Bartle is the co-author of the first virtual world, MUD1 (1978) and countless subsequent industry innovations.  He is a visionary with extensive experience in the industry, having consulted on nearly every major MMOG and virtual world project. In addition, Dr. Bartle is the author of 'Designing Virtual Worlds', the industry reference in the development of MMOGs and virtual worlds.

Dr. Bartle will be writing on the current and future challenges for the massively multiplayer gaming and virtual world industry from his wealth of knowledge on the subject. His personal blog, his postings to the blog Terra Nova, his seminal book and the reference works on his personal website are considered required reading for those in the gaming industry.

We are honored to welcome Dr. Richard Bartle.