Register Today!
Since seats are limited, registration is open on a first-come-first-served basis until the maximum number of virtual conference center tickets is reached. At that point, community members will still be able to register for the live streamed version of the conference that will be available via UStream. This will also be free.
OpenSimulator Community Conference Announces High Fidelity CEO Philip Rosedale as Keynote Speaker
The OpenSimulator Community Conference is pleased to announce Philip Rosedale, Founder and CEO of High Fidelity, Inc. will be a keynote speaker at the second annual OpenSimulator Community Conference, scheduled to take place virtually on November 8-9, 2014 in a virtual conference center designed for the event.
Mr. Rosedale’s keynote presentation will address the question, “What is the Metaverse?” and discuss the opportunity to develop an open platform for virtual reality over the internet, including new hardware devices that catalyze entirely new kinds of interactions between avatars.
In 1995, Philip Rosedale created an innovative Internet video conferencing product (called “FreeVue”), which was later acquired by RealNetworks where in 1996 he went on to become Vice President and CTO. In 1999, Rosedale left RealNetworks, founded Linden Lab and built a virtual civilization called Second Life, fulfilling his lifelong dream of creating an open-ended, Internet-connected virtual world.
Since leaving Second Life in 2010, Rosedale has worked on several experiments in distributed work and computing, including Coffee & Power and Worklist.net. In 2013, he co-founded High Fidelity Inc. to explore the future of a next-generation virtual reality system.
“Philip Rosedale is one of the foremost thinkers about virtual reality and the Metaverse today,” said conference chair Chris Collins. “We look forward to hearing his thoughts on the next generation of open Metaverse platforms, including OpenSimulator.”
Registration for the virtual OpenSimulator Community Conference is free and opens on September 15, 2014. Sign up to be notified when registration opens!
OpenSimulator Community Conference Announces Principal Scientist at Oculus VR as Keynote Speaker
The OpenSimulator Community Conference is pleased to announce Dr. Steve LaValle, principal scientist at Oculus VR and professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois, will be a keynote speaker at the second annual OpenSimulator Community Conference, scheduled to take place on November 8-9, 2014.
Dr. LaValle will address the exciting race to bring the consumer version of the Oculus Rift VR headset into widespread use for games, cinema, therapy, and virtual worlds. Since Palmer Luckey’s 2012 prototype demonstrated that smartphone-based advances in display and sensing technology can enable a lightweight, high field-of-view VR experience that is affordable by the masses, widespread interest has grown across many industries, research labs, and potential end users of the VR technology. Dr. LaValle’s talk will highlight ongoing technical challenges, including game development, user interfaces, perceptual psychology, and accurate head tracking.
Dr. LaValle began working with Oculus VR a few days after its successful Kickstarter campaign and has led its R&D efforts up to its $2 billion acquisition by Facebook in March 2014. He developed perceptually tuned head tracking methods based on IMUs and computer vision and has also led a team of perceptual psychologists to provide principled approaches to virtual reality system calibration and the design of comfortable user experiences. He has worked in robotics for over twenty years and is known for his introduction of the Rapidly exploring Random Tree (RRTs) algorithm of motion planning, and is the author of Planning Algorithms.
Registration for the OpenSimulator Community Conference 2014 is free and opens on September 15, 2014. Sign up to receive an email reminder to register today!
OSCC14 Conference Update – Proposal Deadline Tomorrow 7/15!
A quick update on the OpenSimulator Community Conference 2014 planning!
Deadline Extension Reminder – Proposals Due 7/15!
We extended the deadline for conference proposals to 7/15, which is tomorrow, so a quick reminder to make sure you get your proposals in before the deadline! A couple of people have let us know they intend to submit a proposal but are worried they won’t be able to make the deadline, so just let us know if you have a proposal in progress and we’ll work with you.
To submit your proposal, see:
https://conference.opensimulator.org/2014/call-for-proposals/
Volunteer Orientation & Building Team Meeting
Saturday, 7/19 at 8AM PDT / 3PM UTC/GMT
We’ll be holding the first Volunteer Orientation meeting this coming Saturday, July 19th at 8AM PDT/3PM GMT on the conference grid. Following the orientation session, the Building Team will have a separate meeting to sort out access and permissions and go over the building plan.
We need volunteers of all kinds, but especially greeters, moderators, and Streaming Team volunteers. If you haven’t yet signed up, please do so before this Saturday so we can get you in the group!
To sign up to be a volunteer, visit:
https://conference.opensimulator.org/2014/staff/call-for-volunteers/
Crowdfunder Campaign Update – 20 supporters have raised $1,295!
We are tremendously thankful to those who have contributed to the OSCC14 Crowdfunder Campaign, and invite you to check out the various perk packages that are available for donations starting at $10 USD. Funds raised go to support the costs to run and produce the conference and we’re hoping to raise enough this year to add some nice “extras” like ad free streaming on the video channels. In addition, donations are tax deductible for US residents!
To contribute to the Crowdfunder Campaign, visit: https://conference.opensimulator.org/2014/sponsors/crowdfunder-campaign/
Sponsorship Opportunities
In addition to the Crowdfunder Campaign, there are also sponsorship opportunities for individuals and organizations who wish to have a higher visibility presence at the conference. Starting at $500 USD, see the Sponsorship page for more details and information about the available levels of sponsorship. Changes from last year include sponsorship booths on the conference Landing regions and Breakout regions for greater visibility and more foot traffic!
To find more information about being a sponsor, see:
https://conference.opensimulator.org/2014/sponsors/call-for-sponsors/
Many thanks to all who have already volunteered, submitted a proposal, sponsored, or donated to the conference, and we look forward to seeing your proposals and meeting the volunteer team this weekend!
Announcing the 2nd Annual OpenSimulator Community Conference 2014
AvaCon and the Overte Foundation are pleased to announce the second annual OpenSimulator Community Conference 2014, to take place virtually on the OpenSimulator Conference Center grid on November 8-9, 2014. The OpenSimulator Community Conference is an annual conference that focuses on the developer and user community creating the OpenSimulator software. Organized as a joint production by AvaCon and the Overte Foundation, the virtual conference features two days of presentations, workshops, keynote sessions, and social events across diverse sectors of the OpenSimulator user base.
“Last year’s conference was a terrific success with over 350 attendees from 45 unique grids and over 1000+ commits to the core code, which made OpenSimulator a much more stable and scalable platform” said conference organizer Chris Collins. “This year we hope to build on that success by offering more opportunities for the community to be involved and doing more outreach to attract new users. With all the hype surrounding the Oculus Rift and other virtual reality technologies, we think this is the perfect time to let the VR community know that OpenSimulator is a great platform for building the open metaverse.”
Based on feedback from last year’s successful conference, this year’s program includes four tracks to showcase the variety of uses of OpenSimulator, including Business & Enterprise, Content & Community, Developers & Open Source, and Research & Education. In addition, a new Learning Lab area will be available for hackerspaces, speed builds, and workshops for hands-on learning experiences guided by experts in the OpenSimulator community. The Call for Proposals for all four tracks and the Learning Lab is now open, and proposals are due July 15, 2014.
Those wishing to financially support the conference will also have new options this year, including the opportunity to participate in a Crowdfunder Campaign to raise small dollar amounts that will be used to help cover grid, web hosting, and streaming services for the conference. Participants in the Crowdfunder Campaign will receive a variety of fun thank you gifts depending upon their level of participation, and event sponsors will also have new options for promotional activities and participation in creating content for the conference grid.
Due to the “alpha” nature of the OpenSimulator software, the annual conference is an experiment in capacity testing for OpenSimulator in addition to being a community event. Since seats are limited, registration will open on a first-come-first-served basis on September 15, 2014 until the maximum number of virtual conference center tickets is reached. At that point, community members will still be able to register for the live streamed version of the conference that will be available for free via UStream.
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In the months ahead, we’ll have more information and details about the organization of the conference, and we look forward to seeing the wide range of projects, presentations, and other activities of the OpenSimulator community. Thanks for your interest and support, with more to come soon!
OpenSimulator Community Conference 2014 Planning Team
Conference Chair
Chris M. Collins | Fleep Tuque
Conference Steering Committee
Chris M. Collins | Fleep Tuque
Crista Lopes | Diva Canto
Joyce Bettencourt | Rhiannon Chatnoir
Michael Cerquoni | Nebadon Izumi
Melanie Thielker | Melanie Milland
Conference Organizing Committee
Chris Collins | Fleep Tuque, Committee Chair
Joyce Bettencourt | Rhiannon Chatnoir, Sponsorship Coordinator
Maria Korolov | Maria Korolov, Track Leader – Business & Enterprise
Jeff Mefford | Dan Banner, Track Leader – Content Creation & Community
Justin Clark-Casey | Justin Clark-Casey, Track Leader – Developer & Opensource
Stephen Gasior | Stephen Xootfly, Track Leader – Education & Research
Cynthia Calongne | Lyr Lobo, Learning Lab Manager
Ken Grunke | Key Gruin, Building Team Manager
Jane Haniefy | Sine Whatever, Volunteer Coordinator
Dave Oberholtzer | Kai Arkright, Streaming Team & A/V Manager
Joshua Stortz | Amulius Lioncourt, Streaming Team & Asst A/V Manager
Michelle Morton | Faith Aljon, Marketing & Outreach
Alan Nadanskay | Alan Nadaskay, Graphic Design
OpenSimulator Community Conference 2014 Crowdfunder Campaign & Sponsorship Opportunities
The OpenSimulator Community Conference is a grassroots community event, staffed by volunteers and managed by AvaCon, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and the Overte Foundation.
Although the conference is in virtual space, and made possible by hardware donations and by dozens of volunteers, the conference incurs some expenses, in particular the professionally-managed operation of the conference center grid which includes the setup, performance tuning, and constant monitoring that are of utmost importance for the success of the conference, and the streaming services and other web services necessary to produce the event. Compared to real-world conferences, the budget of a virtual event like the OpenSimulator Community Conference is very modest, but, nevertheless, it’s not zero. As such, we ask businesses, entrepreneurs, and community members alike to help financially support the conference if they are able.
Based on feedback from last year’s attendees and sponsors, we are offering new options this year for those who are interested in financially supporting the conference.
CROWDFUNDER CAMPAIGN
One of the points of feedback we received last year was that some folks just wanted to make a small dollar donation without having to worry about submitting a logo or building a sponsor display for the expo regions, and we didn’t really provide an option for that. The higher dollar sponsorship levels also focused primarily on promotional opportunities for sponsors, rather than providing a thank you gift for those who wanted to sponsor at a lower level.
This year, we’re offering a Crowdfunder Campaign that will provide a number of fun perks and thank you gifts based on the level of donation! Potential perks and gifts include:
- A bronze-infused stainless steel 3D printed Hippo Charm for your keychain or necklace!
- A 16GB flash drive with specially developed content to introduce a friend, colleague, or family member to all the wonders of OpenSimulator! Featuring a special Sim-on-a-Stick installation chock full of goodies and tutorials, freebies and open source content, this little flash drive will have everything you need to give the gift of OpenSimulator to others!
- An official OpenSimulator tshirt!
- A REAL LIFE prim cube handcrafted by a member of the OpenSimulator community, perfect for your desk!
- An invitation to a VIP only one-hour Q&A session with the keynote speaker of your choice!
- Your name on a special “virtual brick” in the conference Community Pathway, which will be built upon from year to year to honor those who are making the path to the open metaverse possible!
- Early access to the conference grid and early access to download digital content from the conference!
- Your Real Life or Avatar Name listed on the conference website and in-world, plus a special group tag at the conference will denote your crowdfunder status!
In addition, for those who still wish to have a small “community” level expo booth in-world, you can select that option in the Crowdfunder Campaign to advertise your grid or project to conference attendees.
To figure out which Crowdfunder package has the thank you gift you prefer, check out our Crowdfunder Campaign page and we thank you for your support!
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
For those organizations and individuals who wish to support the conference at a higher level, we’ve also made some adjustments to the sponsorship benefits based on feedback from last year’s experience.
Past sponsors said they received the most value from having foot traffic visit their Expo Booths, so this year, we are working to increase the level of activity on Expo regions by organizing a fun gaming experience for conference attendees that will reward attendees for exploring the conference grid, including visits to sponsor booths during participation in the game. Sponsors will have the opportunity to donate branded virtual prizes as rewards for the game.
A new Shopping Center region will also be available to attendees to distribute freebies and avatar customization components. Any sponsor wishing to contribute freebie content to the Shopping Center region will have additional opportunities for promotional exposure through the Shopping Center region.
In addition, to improve performance and decrease lag, we’ll have sponsor regions and small sized booths located in different locations around the conference grid rather than having all the sponsor regions clustered together, and we anticipate that this will increase natural traffic and exposure to your content while improving performance of the regions where your booths are located.
Finally, we wanted to do a better job of thanking our higher level sponsors, too, so sponsorship packages also include many of the fun perks and thank you gifts from the Crowdfunder Campaign – the best of both worlds!
For more information about the sponsorship opportunities available, please see the Call for Sponsors page, or contact us at info@avacon.org for more information.
The OpenSimulator Community Conference could not take place without the generous support of our volunteers and the community. A tremendous thank you to everyone who contributes to make the conference a success!
