What: As part of the Second Life Community Conference, a workshop.
When: August 13-16, 2009. Time: Sunday 11:00am (California East)
Where: San Francisco, CA
Site: http://www.slconvention.org/
In the coming (Aug 13-16) San Fransisco Second Life Community Conference (SLCC) I will host two complementing sessions re standards and Second Life.
The sessions will be part of the Business Track.
Part 1: Will be formal reviews from different perspective.
Part 2: Will be open panel with audience participation.
The presenters will be:
James Neal [representing the “makers” of standards]
James is an open source advocate and head of R&D at Pleiades Consulting. Active in the Second Life open source community since 2006, he is President and co-founder of the Open Metaverse Foundation, a non profit organization founded to support the development open technologies that advance virtual worlds and the Metaverse.
James’ talk will focus on the development of virtual world standards. Interest in virtual worlds has grown significantly in the past several years, and with that interest comes a push for standards. The problem of developing standards for virtual worlds will be broken down into its components and examined to offer a better understanding of the problem space.
Jeremiah Spence [representing the “users” of standards]
Jeremiah Spence is the founder and editor of the peer-reviewed, online, academic publication: Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, and has given presentations related to virtual worlds research at universities and conferences in Brazil, Europe, the United States and Canada. Jeremiah is pursuing his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin in the United States in the area of Communications and Sociology of Technology with specific research activities on the themes of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the digital divide, and virtual worlds research. Jeremiah has a Master of Arts in International Communications Theory and Technology Policy, and has been a visiting researcher at the University of São Paulo’s School of the Future and the Institute of Information Science at the Federal University of Bahia, both in Brazil. Additionally, he has been invited to speak at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Unisinos, the Eduverse Foundation (Netherlands), and the University of Bonn (Germany). Jeremiah has been a leader in developing new methodologies for the study of social stratification and community mapping. Jeremiah is fluent in both Portuguese and Spanish.
Jeremiah will focus on what standards mean for end users, consumers, small business owners and the like. Why they should care, and how they can participate.
Meadhbh Hamrick (aka Infinity Linden) [representing the “gods” of standards] in the Panel
Ms. Hamrick is a 20+ year veteran of the software industry. Her
background ranges from developing security software on mobile handsets
to managing large middleware development efforts. At Linden Research
she is responsible for (among other things) communicating Linden’s
technical vision of an “open” virtual world. As part of this effort,
she is responsible for shepherding the Open Grid Protocol (OGP)
documents through the standards process at the IETF.
Ms. Hamrick is a 20+ year veteran of the software industry. Her
background ranges from developing security software on mobile handsets
to managing large middleware development efforts. At Linden Research
she is responsible for (among other things) communicating Linden’s
technical vision of an “open” virtual world. As part of this effort,
she is responsible for shepherding the Open Grid Protocol (OGP)
documents through the standards process at the IETF.
The Open Grid Protocol (OGP) is the current name for a collection of
internet protocols for enabling virtual social spaces on the internet.
A tool for collaboration, the OGP suite of protocols provides the
“thread” to stitch together services from different organizations into
a cohesive “virtual world experience.” Contributors to this effort
include Linden Research, IBM, Intel and an array of individual
contributors (many from the OpenSimulator effort.)
Yesha Sivan [Representing “advocates” for standards]
Dr. Yesha Sivan is a senior lecturer at the Department of Software Engineering. Shenkar College of Engineering and Design. He is also the founder of Metaverse Labs (MVL) – a leading think tank focusing on linking virtual and real worlds. Dr. Sivan is a pioneer and leader of technologies for knowledge infrastructures. His professional experience in the development of innovative workplaces for corporate, hi-tech, government, military and defense environments.
Yesha will talk about the grand scheme of standards. Linking the work of MPEG-V (ISO), W3C, and IETF (MMOX, OGPX, etc).
Shorter version( if you need a shorter version of this post.)
Standards, You, and Your Business – For the economy of Second Life to prosper we must have standards. But what standards? in what field? Is it too early for standard?
We will hear from three sides: James Neal [representing the “makers” of standards], Jeremiah Spence [representing the “users” 0f standards], and Yesha Sivan [Representing “advocates” for standards]. We will cover issues like MPEG-V (ISO), W3C, and IETF (MMOX, OGPX, etc). In the discussion section we will open the floor for Q&A and enjoy the presence of Infinity Linden [representing “Gods”].
