I found this interesting article about how Microsoft has internal “Quests” that are worked on collaboratively.

You can safely say that the reality that “Work is an MMOG” has arrived.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080626/D91HVAS80.html 

Eilif Trondsen of SRI Consulting Business Intelligence will be hosting a panel this Friday in Second life:
“Year in Review, Year Ahead”

Eilif writes:
As part of our meeting of the Virtual Worlds @ Work consortium at SRI on Friday, June 27 we will have an panel session in Second Life at 9AM PST with four panelists who are very actively involved in the virtual
worlds industry:

* Christian Renaud, Chief Architect, Networked Virtual
Environments, Cisco Systems

* David Wortley, Director, The Serious Games Institute, Coventry
University in the UK

* Justin Bovington, CEO of Rivers Run Red (A virtual worlds
professional services firm with offices in Europe and North America)

* Nick Wilson, Managing Director, Clever Zebra and vBus Expo

The inworld session will be take place in the auditorium at the
Serious Game Institute:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/SGI%20Nexus/96/107/27

The panel session will explore virtual worlds developments during last
year and what they see ahead for the coming year. The inworld session
will be open and free free for anyone interested in attending. Feel
free to share this notifcation with anyone who might be interested in
attending.

Thanks.
Eilif

Eilif Trondsen, Ph.D.
Director, Virtual Worlds @ Work
SRI Consulting Business Intelligence

Event will be LIVE at 7PM PST.

If not seeing media, refesh the page! For event description read post below this one.
You can view the presentations with the embedded viewer. Video will be active during the presentation.
If not working please try: http://ustream.tv/channel/virtual-world-sig

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Exploring Space Virtually: NASA and the Blue Mars Project

June 23, 2008
In January 2008 NASA hosted a forward-looking conference (http://amesevents.arc.nasa.gov/virtual-worlds/) in order to explore future uses of the virtual world space.  Part of the vision is to engage the public as real-time participants in NASA’s historic moments of exploration in the spirit of “We all get to go”.

Just as Neil Armstrong’s first moon landing was the defining moment for television, it is envisioned that coming NASA historic events will be the defining moment for virtual world technologies.

NASA incorporates virtual world developers and educators as core components of these efforts.  Virtual Space Entertainment, Inc. (VSE) will present their project “Blue Mars 2150?, a massively multiplayer virtual world (http://www.virtualspaceentertainment.com/). Launching in late 2008, Blue Mars 2150 will be the first high definition, real time virtual world.

As part of its proposal to NASA, VSE is envisioning a Mars Spaceport complex and a NASA Pavillion.  At the heart of the NASA Pavillion will be two elaborate virtual experiences. The first would be a virtual simulation of the first manned mission to Mars and the
establishment of a settlement on the surface of Mars. The second set of missions would take the user through NASA’s Return to the Moon program where users will plan and participate in Moon landings.

VSE is proposing to design a final product that will allow millions of people from around the world to experience our return to space as if they were part of the mission crews themselves.

Within the virtual venue users would also be able to visit a series of museum exhibits detailing the history of US spaceflight, and climb into all of the manned spacecraft from Gemini up through interplanetary Mars craft prototypes.  Visitors would virtually relive the pioneering days of NASA’s manned space program by interactively experiencing a select number of these historic missions.

Join us for an investigation into the uses of virtual worlds for education and remote exploration. Get an advance look at how the future of space exploration will be experienced – through virtual worlds.

Speaker Bio:
Richard Childers is the CEO of Virtual Space Entertainment and creative lead for Blue Mars 2150 project.

For over twenty-five years, Richard has led digital production teams, producing animation, interactive CD ROMs, software, games, web sites, and books. Richard developed three-dimensional visualizations for mass transit systems in

Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Vancouver as well as design studies for the National Science Foundation’s new Ahmudsen South Pole Station. In 1991 he organized the acclaimed computer graphic symposium and exhibition, Infinite

Illusions at the Smithsonian Institution.

From 1993 to 1998, he was President and CEO of Computer Visualizations, Inc., a multimedia publishing/production company he founded and grew to sales of over $2 million. He has recruited, trained, and motivated teams of up to

40 designers, producing over 25 finished commercial projects. His books have been published by Random House and Stewart, Tabori, & Chang. Over the years, he has won 11 major design awards including the Communication Arts

Gold Medal and the I-Magic Platinum award. Prior to founding Virtual Space Entertainment, Inc., Richard served as the Assistant to the President, Special Projects at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Location

Pillsbury Winthrop Office Silicon Valley
2475 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1114
Directions

Agenda

6:30 PM Registration and Networking
7:00 PM -8:40 PM Presentations

Price
$15 at the door for non-SDForum members
No charge for SDForum members
No registration required