The Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds, (FCVW), will be hosting their annual conference at Ft. McNair on May 11 – 13. The past four years, the FCVW has been the leading organization promoting the use of virtual worlds, (VW’s), in government. Started in 2007, FCVW had 40 members, all federal. Currently there are more than 1600 members with two thirds being federal.
FCVW Tron Trailer from Eric Hackathorn on Vimeo.
Ever since the 2009 FCVW conference I have been following the evolution of something called vGov. vGov is the first secure, virtual world platform hosted by government for cross agency use. It is an interagency initiative sponsored by the Department of Agriculture, The U.S. Air Force, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Defense University.
One of the biggest hurdles to wide spread use of VW’s has been security. VGov uses Level 2 e-authentication which is a NIST standard and requires participants to fill out an online form and be observed by a certified person in-world with a government ID.
vGov is made up of four separate platforms that agencies can choose from depending on the specific functionality they are looking for, (*note that these features are necessarily unique to each platform):
- Teleplace: Provides good support for productivity office software and interfaces with SharePoint
- Vastpark: Built using .NET; architecture and SDK provide flexibility for customization
- Web.alive: Browser-based with support for desktop sharing
- OLIVE: Good social network integration; able to record and replay sessions for after-action reviews
It will be interesting to see how agencies are extending their use of vGov and Virtual Worlds since its launch in 2010. Some of the ways vGov has been used so far include:
- The Department of Agriculture: Conducting continuity of operations training, with teams running through scenario and response exercises.
- The U.S. Air Force: Conducting orientation, simulations, and training in their virtual Medical Education and Training Campus, (METC) at Fort Houston
- The Department of Homeland Security: Conducting cyber security training using scenarios that test for preparedness response, and recovery.
- National Defense University: Virtual space for communities of practice to collaborate; and three dimensional visualization of financial data for use in CFO training.
In addition to vGov there are several notable examples of agencies using virtual worlds as communication channels to promote awareness and education around agency mission and recruiting. These are publicly accessible locations, (primarily in Second Life), that can be visited by signing up for a free Second Life account. Once you have an account, you will be able to visit the following SLurl’s, (Second Life URL):
It is hard to say exactly what the future looks like for virtual worlds for use in government. For one, there are many different types of virtual worlds, and the list is splintering as new uses and technologies emerge. There are synchronous and asynchronous VW’s, both lending themselves to different uses from collaboration, and rehearsal, to training. There are serious game engines such as Virtual Battle Space 2, currently being used by the Army, that include artificial intelligence, and robust tools and 3D models for developing out of the box scenarios.
And then there is the burgeoning world of augmented reality, (AR), which “augments” our real world with overlays of data and imagery, essentially creating a virtual world around us. In addition to websites, and documents, data can include 3D models, (including the potential for avatars and agents), and live high definition video feeds. In the AR world, individuals are no longer tied to their desks, and the sort of artificial three dimensional environments common in current virtual world platforms, might lose some of its appeal.
One thing is for sure, and that is we are in an increasingly connected world; tethered together with an increasing number of communication channels. This makes it possible to work, learn, and socialize in ways not previously possible; to do this, we need platforms and environments that give us a shared context in which to interact. Pioneering programs such as vGov are one example. Facebook is another...
How do you think virtual worlds will evolve to support learning, and collaboration? Do you think that future virtual worlds will be more like Second Life, Facebook, or Minority Report?
If you are interested in a first-hand tour of a virtual environment, leave a comment with your Second Life avatar name, and I will send you an invitation to the Second Life Island we created, as a sandbox for collaboration and learning.