OSCC13 - Opening Remarks Keynote Panel on The Future of OpenSimulator
Channel: AvaCon Inc
Date: 2013-09-30

Conference welcome and opening remarks followed by the Keynote Panel: The Future of OpenSimulator.  A panel of core developers will discuss the future of the OpenSimulator platform.  Expect a lively debate!  Topics will include a variety of issues including the future of the Hypergrid, content licensing and permissions, relationships with Linden Lab, third-party viewers, scalability, project maturity, and much more.  Find out where the platform is headed and learn more about the developers who make the software happen!

Chris M. Collins (Fleep Tuque) is an IT Analyst at the University of Cincinnati Center for Simulations & Virtual Environments Research. Her research focuses on the use of virtual worlds, social media, and augmented reality in higher education and for remote workforce collaboration, and she also manages the University of Cincinnati OpenSimulator grid. She is also a co-founder and serves on the board of AvaCon, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth, enhancement, and development of the metaverse, virtual worlds, augmented reality, and 3D immersive and virtual spaces. In her free time, Chris also runs FleepGrid, a personal research and testing grid.

Justin Clark-Casey (@justincc) is President of the Overte Foundation, and one of the core developers of OpenSimulator, working on many different areas ranging from asset and inventory to performance and infrastructure issues. Justin created some of the better known data persistence formats for OpenSimulator, such as OpenSimulator Archives (OARs) and OpenSimulator Inventory Archives (IARs). He also provides OpenSimulator-related consultancy services.

Crista Lopes
Crista Lopes is a Professor in the School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Prior to being in Academia, she worked at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (1995-2001). She is co-inventor of AOP (Aspect Oriented Programming), a programming technology featured in the MIT Technology Review (2001) as "one of the 10 emergent technologies that will change the world." She also serves on the board of the Overte Foundation and is the creator of the Hypergrid protocol, which allows avatars to travel between Hypergrid-enabled OpenSimulator grids.

Mic Bowman
Mic Bowman is a principal engineer in Intel Labs and leads the Virtual World Infrastructure research project. His team develops technologies that enable "order of magnitude" scalability improvements in virtual environments opening the door to new levels of immersiveness and interaction among players.

Melanie Milland
Melanie Thielker is the founder of Avination. As an OpenSimulator Core Developer, Melanie has been one of the most active contributors to virtual world software in general, and OpenSimulator in particular. A long term Second Life™ resident, she has gained much experience in using virtual worlds. Melanie has been involved in a number of virtual world projects and has created her own "spin" of the OpenSimulator software. Up to twelve developers have worked two years on creating the software which now powers Avination. Currently, Melanie holds the position of Director in Avination Virtual Limited, the UK based company which operates Avination. Melanie is known as "Melanie Milland" in both Avination and Second Life™. 

About the OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013:  The OpenSimulator Community Conference is an annual conference that focuses on the community around the OpenSimulator software.  The conference features two days of presentations, workshops, keynote sessions, and social events across diverse sectors of the OpenSimulator user base.  Organized as a joint production by the Overte Foundation and AvaCon, Inc., the first annual conference was hosted on an OpenSimulator grid specifically designed for the conference, and had 369 attendees.  

For more information see http://conference.opensimulator.org.