So  the headlines have been blazing about 19 year old John Tyler Hammons (Wikipedia entry) is the “gamer elected mayor”.

Coverage: GamePolitics.com,  Yahoo games, Yahoo news, AP, G4TV

I did a bit of searching but couldn’t find a particular gaming reference but it immediately brought to mind the IBM study with Seriosity on “Virtual Worlds Real Leaders“. This is great reading – (get the full report .pdf here) and I believe there will be a lot more of these gaming parallels given the impact and reach of games on young and old alike.

Some of the folks who participated in the IBM report were presenters and attendees at the Virtual World SIG these kinds of topics were things I spoke about at both Virtual Worlds 2007, and at NASA Virtual Worlds in Jan. 2008. The notions (or theories/findings) that the gaming environment can generate leadership is encouraging. At least, gaming trains users in online collaboration by default, and we’ve realized that “work is an MMOG” along the way from the SIG presentations.

The fact that so many headlines are running the “gaming” angle on the story just might bring the concept to the mainstream discussion. Can’t wait to see what develops around it.

- Bob K.

Not a SIG meeting but Bay Area folks may be able to check it out.

Previous SIG presenter Bruce Damer will be lecturing on July 30, 2007 with the topic:

“Avatar Space to Outer Space”
in San Francisco.

Details here:

http://colab.arc.nasa.gov/node/62

Bruce Damer will take us on a sweeping visual journey through the
origins and evolution of multi-player gaming, avatars and social
virtual worlds up to the present “main-streaming of the metaverse” in
platforms such as Second Life. From there we will boldly go where no
virtual world has gone before… into the real-time 3D design
engineering of NASA’s architectures for robotic and human exploration
of the solar system in the first quarter of this century. Some
never-before-seen mission scenarios, developed by Bruce’s company
DigitalSpace working with NASA, will be presented during this
session. Bruce will also dip into Project Biota, a ten-year
initiative in artificial life and hyper-evolution. Bruce will
conclude by suggesting pathways to combine the power of avatar
cyberspace and serious engineering environments for the public
understanding and support of space.

WHEN: Monday, July 30, 2007 (Full Moon) at 6:30 PM;
6:30-7PM Socializing;
7-7:30PM “From Avatar Space to Outer Space” Presentation by Bruce Damer;
7:30-8:30PM Visual Worlds Discussion
8:30-9PM Socializing

WHERE: Citizenspace, 425 Second Street, 3rd Floor, in San Francisco
94107 (http://citizenspace.us/). Google map

WHO: All are welcome, from space professionals to those who are
unsure what N-A-S-A stands for!

MISC: Please bring food and drink to share.