Virtual Worlds in Government… Oh My!

Dr. Paulette Robinson leads the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds. Dr. Paulette Robinson is the Assistant Dean for Teaching, Learning & Technology, at the National Defense University, iCollege.

May 6, 2010 - I just wanted to have classes at the National Defense University (NDU) iCollege in virtual worlds. I was confronted quite quickly with one challenge after another. I went seeking help.

On my trek to find ANYONE in the federal government using virtual worlds, I discovered Eric Hackathorn (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), Erika Vick (NASA) and William May (State Dept). Together, with Michael Piller from the NDU iCollege, we commiserated and then formed the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds (FCVW).

We created the Consortium quite selfishly — we all wanted to find a way to use virtual worlds across government. The Consortium has now gown to over 1600. The open membership includes individuals from government, academia, and industry. I currently lead this active community that communicates through email, a wiki and an annual conference.

You might be asking yourself: How can virtual worlds be used in government? Aren’t they a game? Virtual worlds can be used as a game, but they are much more. Just think of Second Life, the most common public virtual world, and you know these worlds are much more than a game. In government, virtual worlds are used for information delivery to the citizens, meetings/conferences, education/training, rapid prototyping, and analytical workspaces.

One of the biggest challenges to the use of virtual worlds in government is a secure, and trusted hosted environment. The vGov project, co-led by Chris Smith (US Dept of Agriculture) and myself (NDU iCollege), is creating this environment. I am finally getting closer to my goal of using virtual worlds in our courses.

If you are interested in how virtual worlds are being used in government and the details for the vGov project, come to the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds Conference, May 13-14. What is really great is that you can choose to attend in three ways: 1) at NDU in Washington, DC, 2) watch us over a live video stream through your browser, or 3) participate in one of six different virtual worlds. Virtual participation requires registration, but is free to attend!

Three internationally known virtual authors are keynote speakers this year: Edward Castronova, Clark Aldrich, and Tony O’Driscoll. Leading the government presenters is Eric Hackathorn from NOAA, Fed 100 winner for his work in virtual worlds. Included in the program are cutting edge panels on artificial intelligence, innovative computer input devices, virtualization in 3D, vGov Project, and more. Participants will have the opportunity to view over 30 government virtual world projects during a 3 hour poster session.