AARNet are running a virtual worlds workshop on Sept 17 at The University of Wollongong

Hi Folks

AARNet (Australia's education and research network) has teamed up with a number of universities to run a half day virtual worlds workshop, the agenda is below and we welcome your comments/thoughts and for those based in Australia, we'd love to see you there!

The latest program is as follows

Workshop 1a: Virtual Worlds

Prerequisites: None

Audience: Technical and management, relevant for those who build or use their own virtual worlds.

Virtual background/primer – 20 mins - Mandy Salomon (Swinburne University, Smart Services CRC)

Real life experiences in building and using the platform - accessibility, governance – 20 mins – Dr Denise Wood (University of South Australia)

Virtual world platforms and the importance of open standards compliance – 20 mins - Wes Ward – ExitReality via ExitReality’s auditorium using a live Ustream feed

Virtual world developments – adding the media layer and other considerations – 20 mins – Professor Farzad Safaei (University of Wollongong, Smart Services CRC)

Virtual world case study 1 – Scott Grant (Monash University) - 15 mins – Scott will join via SecondLife to demonstrate his virtual island that has been designed to support the teaching of Mandarin Chinese language and culture; for more see Scott’s blog at www.virtualhanyu.com

Virtual world case study 2 – Mandy Salomon (Swinburne University) - 15 mins – Mandy will present a case study on virtual world activities at Swinburne University.

30 minute panel (Denise, Mandy, Farzad, Wes & Scott via virtual worlds) discussion and debate on three topics:

(1) How can we better align the virtual world community with the IT Dept, what are agreed requirements, issues, and considerations?

(2) What security and privacy safeguards need to be in place from a network, application and user perspective?
(3) What are the drivers for open standards/best practice to follow to create a virtual world multiplatform grid proposal and what would the benefits be?

Here's the events page....
http://www.aarnet.edu.au/Events/2009/08/03/AARNet-Workshop-at-UoW-2...