Thank You for a Wonderful Conference!

OSCC Staff Team

The OSCC13 Staff, Streaming, & Planning Team – at least those who were still standing at the end!  🙂

The first OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013 may have ended, but we hope that the networks, relationships, friendships, and all of the amazing presentations and content from the conference will continue to have an impact for quite some time to come!

Be sure to check out all of the video archives for any sessions you might have missed, and when we get a chance to catch up on sleep and recuperate, we’ll be asking for your feedback and suggestions to improve the bumps in the road for the next time around.

A tremendous thank you to all of our attendees, sponsors, speakers, and tirelessly hardworking staff for a great first conference!  We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

By |September 9th, 2013|news|5 Comments

Welcome to the First Annual OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013!

keynoteregions_snap

Welcome to the first day of the first annual OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013!

Use the hashtag #OSCC13!

Conference Schedule

We have an exciting program lined up, with great keynote presentations, breakout sessions, social events, and plenty of Expo regions to explore, and we look forward to seeing you in-world on the conference grid over the next two days!  Explore the full Conference Schedule online or check the Map & Schedule kiosks when you get in-world.

Connecting to the Conference Grid

Registered speakers, sponsors, staff, and attendees can download the OSCC Viewer and log into the conference grid with the username and password that was emailed to the address you used when you registered.  If you requested a local account and have forgotten your password, please use the Forgot Password link, otherwise review the Login Instructions to connect to the grid and start exploring the conference venue.

When you log into the conference grid for the first time, be sure to accept the Terms of Service pop up or you will be disconnected from the grid in 10 minutes!  If you miss the pop up, you may need to teleport to another region to trigger the notice again.

OSCC Zone Groups Access

When you log in, you will land on your designated Landing Zone region 1, 2, 3, or 4.  Check the rotating banner in your Landing Zone to see the corresponding Keynote region that you should use for keynote presentations.  You will only be able to access the Keynote region that matches your Landing Zone unless you are a presenter.  See the Online Map for an overhead view of the conference grid.

Landing Zone Regions

The Landing Zone regions are social areas with plenty of great places to explore.  Be sure to check out the Clothing Shop to customize your avatar, or take a quick trip to the HyperGrid Hub and use the portals to visit our Sponsors’ grids for even more shopping and exploring.  Just be sure to make it back to the conference grid in time for the program!  The Landing Zone regions also contain an Overflow Video area for viewing the conference streams if the Breakout Zones fill up and you can’t get in.

Breakout Zones and Keynote Regions

When you arrive at a Breakout Zone or Keynote region please sit in a chair ASAP during the sessions!  The conference grid will perform best if everyone takes a seat in the presentation areas.  All of the conference presentations will take place in the Breakout Zones and Keynote regions via parcel streaming media.  In-world voice will be disabled in those areas, so please use text chat for socializing, networking, and asking questions of the speakers.

Expo Zones

The conference would not have been possible without the financial support of our Sponsors, so please be sure to visit their exhibits and booths in the Expo Zones to thank them for sponsoring the conference!  Explore six regions of terrific booths and fun activities provided by our sponsors – and invite your friends who didn’t get a conference ticket!  The Expo Zones are open to public hypergrid visitors!

Technical Difficulties

Although we hope everything goes smoothly, it is always possible for there to be technical difficulties during the conference program.  If this happens, we appreciate your patience and understanding while we work to resolve the issue.  If you are disconnected from the grid, please wait a moment or two, check the conference Twitter stream @opensimcc for updated information, and then try to log back in.  We will do our best to resolve issues quickly and stick to the conference schedule.  No matter what happens, we’re sure the day will hold plenty of surprises!

A tremendous thank you to all of our speakers, sponsors, volunteer staff, streaming team, and attendees!  We hope you enjoy the conference program and we’ll look forward to seeing you in-world!

By |September 7th, 2013|news|0 Comments

Conference Kick-Off Final Load Test Today at 12PM PDT!

Welcome to the final kick-off load test of the OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013!

Today we will be hosting the last load test before the conference, inviting the OpenSimulator community and conference attendees to join us for one last opportunity to kick the tires of the conference grid before the start of the conference on Saturday!

Previous load testers should note that access controls have been turned on on the conference grid, so we’re asking everyone to teleport to the main conference grid URL of http://cc.opensimulator.org:8002 so we can test the routing and access control mechanisms.

When you arrive on the conference grid, you should land on the Expo Zone 1 region, and then as long as you are a member of the OSCC Load Testers group, you should be able to teleport over to the Keynote regions.  If you aren’t a member of the OSCC Load Testers group, just do a search for groups and join to participate in the load test.

Full login instructions for attendees can be found on the Login page, and for others who wish to participate, see the instructions below.  Our many, many thanks to all of you who have helped with load tests over the past few months, we’re looking forward to a terrific conference – thanks to you!

 

Participating in Weekly Load Tests if You Have an HG Acct

The OpenSimulator Community Conference grid is located in the 7000,7000 coordinate range, and the four keynote regions we’ll be testing are:

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 1
cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 2
cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 3
cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 4

We recommend using the OSCC Viewer or another viewer that can support voice and mesh, such as SingularityFirestorm, or Kokua.

If you already have an account on another OpenSimulator grid that is hypergrid enabled, here are the steps to participate in the load test:

1.  Log into your account on your hypergrid enabled grid.

2.  If necessary, navigate to a jump region that can reach a destination in the 7000,7000 coordinate range.  OSGrid provides public jump regions for this purpose, see the list at http://www.osgrid.org/index.php/hypergrid.

3.  Open your map and search for one of the following destination regions:

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 1
cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 2
cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 3
cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 4

4.  The map search should locate the destination region on the map, then click the Teleport button.  If you find that the first region you try is full please use the next address on the list and so on.

Participating in Weekly Load Tests if you Need an HG Acct

If you don’t already have an account on another OpenSimulator grid that is hypergrid enabled, here are the steps to participate in the load test:

1.  Create an account on a HyperGrid enabled grid.  The conference is not associated with any particular grid, but here are some suggestions for public grids that are usually stable and generally have 24/7 uptime:

OSGrid at http://www.osgrid.org/index.php/auth/register
FleepGrid at http://fleepgrid.com:8002/wifi/user/account/
FrancoGrid at http://www.francogrid.org/user/register  (French)

2.  Download and install the OSCC Viewer or a third party viewer that supports mesh, Media on a Prim (MOAP), and Vivox voice.  We recommend SingularityFirestorm, or Kokua.

3.  Log into your account on whatever grid you chose, and then open your map and search for one of the following destination regions:

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 1
cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 2
cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 3
cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 4

4.  The map search should locate the destination region on the map, then click the Teleport button.  If you find that the first region you try is full please use the next address on the list and so on.

 

By |September 5th, 2013|load test, news|1 Comment

OpenSimulator Community Conference Planning Update – Last Call for Sponsors, Volunteers Needed!

Community Sponsor Expo Zone

Community Sponsor Expo Zone

A quick update on the OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013 planning since we’re now less than a month away!

Many of you involved with the community have put in proposals to be speakers, and hopefully you’ve received a confirmation email with the scheduled date, time, and location for your presentation.  If you put in a proposal and didn’t yet receive a confirmation, don’t panic!  There are a handful of folks that we’re still trying to sort on the schedule due to various time constraints, so we still have a few confirmations pending.  You should get something soon, we promise.  😉

We’d also like to thank everyone who has signed up as a sponsor!  A friendly reminder that the deadline for all sponsor artwork and builds is 8/15, so if you haven’t gotten started yet, now’s the time to do it.  Submit your logo artwork and be sure to review the Expo Booth Building Guidelines.

This is also the last chance for anyone who wants to be a founding sponsor of the conference to sign up, so if you’re on the fence, please do take a look at our Call for Sponsors page.  The community sponsorships are as low as $50, and all proceeds go towards the cost of the conference grid and web services needed to run the event.  We’re still short on our estimated budget, so every bit helps and the sponsorships are tax deductible for US residents and companies, too!

We also desperately need more volunteers for the Greeter, Moderator, and Streaming teams.  Our goal is to stream and archive every session of the conference, but if we don’t have enough people to help do that, we’ll be forced to pick and choose which sessions to stream.  As a bonus, volunteers get an in-world ticket to the conference, so you can hang out and enjoy the rest of the event after your volunteer shift is over!  Please do sign up to help volunteer if you can, we really appreciate the help!

Last but not least, the Social Events schedule is starting to get sign-ups, but there’s plenty of slots still open.  This is a great way for you to showcase your grid or projects if you don’t feel like doing a formal presentation.  Just sign up to host a social event on your own grid and after the day’s breakout sessions are over, conference attendees can come visit and check out your space!

Our many, many thanks to all of you who are already helping with the conference, whether you’re load testing, bug fixing, building, speaking, sponsoring, or helping in some other way, this is shaping up to be an awesome event!

Thanks and more to come soon as we start finalizing the schedule..

By |August 10th, 2013|news|0 Comments

OpenSimulator Community Conference Needs Participants for Grid Load Test 7/2/13

Hi folks, we are planning a large-scale load test of the OpenSimulator Community Conference  grid on Tuesday, July 2, 2013 at Noon PDT and we need members of the community to help push the conference grid to its limits to test the capacity and performance of the simulator software and hardware.

Anyone interested in the conference or the OpenSimulator software is welcome to participate in the load test by making a jump from any other hypergrid enabled OpenSimulator grid.  The focus of this load test will be fitting as many hypergrid participants on the keynote regions of the conference grid as possible.

The OpenSimulator Community Conference grid is located in the 7000,7000 coordinate range, and the four keynote regions we’ll be testing are:

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 1

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 2

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 3

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 4

If you find that the first region you try is full please use the next address on the list and so on.

For the purposes of this load test, feel free to log in with multiple avatars, but please do not use bots, pcampbots, or other various libomv based viewers since we are trying to test the conference grid under conditions as close to the actual conference as possible.  We recommend a Third Party Viewer that can support voice and mesh, such as Singularity, Firestorm, or Kokua.

Instructions if you already have a Hypergrid enabled account

If you already have an account on another OpenSimulator grid that is hypergrid enabled, here are the steps to participate in the load test on Tuesday:

1.  Log into your account on your hypergrid enabled grid.

2.  If necessary, navigate to a jump region that can reach a destination in the 7000,7000 coordinate range.  OSGrid provides public jump regions for this purpose, see the list at http://www.osgrid.org/index.php/hypergrid.

3.  Open your map and search for one of the following destination regions:

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 1

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 2

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 3

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 4

4.  The map search should locate the destination region on the map, then click the Teleport button.  If you find that the first region you try is full please use the next address on the list and so on.

Instructions if you need a Hypergrid enabled account

If you don’t already have an account on another OpenSimulator grid that is hypergrid enabled, here are the steps to participate in the load test on Tuesday:

1.  Create an account on OSGrid at http://www.osgrid.org/index.php/auth/register.

2.  Download a TPV viewer supported by OSGrid from http://www.osgrid.org/index.php/downloads and log into your account.

3.  Open your map and search for one of the following destination regions:

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 1

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 2

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 3

cc.opensimulator.org:8002:Keynote 4

4.  The map search should locate the destination region on the map, then click the Teleport button.  If you find that the first region you try is full please use the next address on the list and so on.

 

Thanks in advance for your help and we look forward to seeing a big crowd on Tuesday!

Registration is now open!

Update:  In-world venue tickets are currently sold out, but the conference sessions will be streamed via UStream. In the event that we can make more in-world spots available, we will offer those places to people who have registered for Streaming on a first-come, first-served basis, so be sure to register for a streaming ticket!

. . .

Registration for the in-world OpenSimulator Community Conference is now open!

Due to the “alpha” nature of the OpenSimulator software, this conference is an experiment in capacity testing for OpenSimulator in addition to being a community event.  Therefore, tickets to the conference will be free but limited in number.  We hope to be able to accommodate over 200 users in total, a figure which includes speakers, sponsors and staff .  Since seats are limited, registration will 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.

The expo area will not be ticketed and so can be accessed by any avatar, subject to constraints on the number of avatars that the exhibition regions can hold at any particular time.

Sponsors, speakers, staff members, and volunteers should not register for a regular Attendee ticket.  Instead, please use the promo code provided to you.  See the Quick Links to the right to find out more information about becoming a sponsor, speaker, or joining the conference planning team!

By |June 17th, 2013|news|0 Comments

OpenSimulator Community Conference Invites Speakers, Presentations, and Research Papers

The OpenSimulator Community Conference is seeking speakers, presentations, and research papers for the inaugural annual conference event, scheduled for September 7 – 8, 2013. The conference will take place entirely within an OpenSimulator virtual world designed specifically for the event, and will feature six topic “tracks” to showcase community activities and projects.

  • The Arts & Creativity track will celebrate the diversity of artistic and creative endeavors on OpenSimulator grids. This can include large scale immersive art installations, ballet, theatre, performance art, machinima, literary arts, clothing designs, virtual fashions, architecture, music performances and other cultural expressions.
  • The Business & Enterprise track will feature sessions that cover a broad range of uses related to doing business in and with OpenSimulator, including grid hosts, third party developers, private entrepreneurs, in-world and enterprise businesses, as well as corporations and organizations using OpenSimulator for marketing, fundraising, product research, focus groups, and more.
  • The Developers & Open Source track covers topics of interest to OpenSimulator developers, including developers of third-party modules, viewer developers, applications that run in and along side OpenSimulator, Hypergrid systems developers, as well as the more technical details of content creation including 3D modeling, mesh, physics, NPCs, and emerging technology tools that help make OpenSimulator tick.
  • The Education track will feature sessions that cover a broad range of uses related to teaching and learning in and with OpenSimulator, as well as how schools, colleges, and universities are using OpenSimulator in their day-to-day work, from designing virtual campuses and classrooms, to integration with other campus systems, marketing and outreach, and much more.
  • The Research track will explore the ways in which OpenSimulator has become a laboratory for research in a wide range of areas, from computer science and engineering to ethnography and economics.  Please see the research track submission web page for details of the style of submissions and the papers requested.
  • The Social & Communities track will explore all the ways in which OpenSimulator offers communities for nearly every interest, from role playing groups to science fiction communities, to virtual towns and interest groups, historical explorations, religious and spiritual communities, book clubs, and so much more. This track will feature sessions that focus on sharing about and improving the social experience and overall community of OpenSimulator users.

To submit a proposal, visit the appropriate track page and be sure to review the specific guidelines for that track, as each track may have different requirements.  Note that proposal submissions are due on July 1, 2013. 

We look forward to seeing your submissions!

Announcing the 1st Annual OpenSimulator Community Conference

The Overte Foundation and AvaCon are pleased to announce the first annual OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013, to take place on the OpenSimulator Conference Center grid on September 7 – 8, 2013.  The OpenSimulator Community Conference will be a celebration of the platform and of the large and varied community using and creating it.  It will feature two days of keynote speakers, presentations and panels on different topics, and an expo area to showcase community activities and projects.

What is OpenSimulator?

OpenSimulator is an open-source platform that supports the creation of collaborative, immersive, distributed and social 3D virtual environments over the Internet. Started in 2007 and developed by individuals and organizations large and small, it has become a versatile system with which anyone can experiment.  OpenSimulator software is now the basis for many hundreds of “grids” and worlds of varying sizes and purposes.

Who should attend the conference?

Anyone who is interested in the OpenSimulator software and the future of the metaverse is welcome to attend.  We especially hope to see OpenSimulator developers, grid administrators, and members of the community who participate on OpenSimulator grids.

How much will it cost to attend the conference?

The conference is free to attendees!  While we encourage community members to become a sponsor to help cover the costs of the conference, registration for the event will be free to attendees on a first-come-first-served basis.

Where will the conference be held?

The conference will be held entirely within the OpenSimulator environment.  The official program will be held in a grid specifically set up for the conference.  We expect 150-200 attendees of the conference to be able to attend virtually on the conference grid, as well as an even broader audience through live streaming of the conference sessions on UStream.  In addition, the conference will offer social hours following each day’s program to accommodate satellite events that will take place in the many grids operated by members of the community.  There will also be an exposition area on the conference grid for sponsors.

Will the conference be HyperGrid enabled?

Yes!  Conference participants will have the option at registration to request a local account on the conference grid, or to attend via a HyperGrid account.  In addition, during the social hours, attendees will be able to move between the different grids using either the Hypergrid or by creating accounts in each of the participating grids.

When will registration open?

Due to the “alpha” nature of the OpenSimulator software, this conference is an experiment in capacity testing for OpenSimulator in addition to being a community event.  Therefore, tickets to the conference will be free but limited in number.  We hope to be able to accommodate over 200 users in total, a figure which includes speakers, sponsors and staff .  Since seats are limited, registration will open on a first-come-first-served basis on June 17, 2013 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.

The expo area will not be ticketed and so can be accessed by any avatar, subject to constraints on the number of avatars that the exhibition regions can hold at any particular time.

I’m interested in being a speaker, where do I sign up?

The conference will have five “tracks” to cluster break-out sessions into common areas of interest, including:

Each track may have different requirements in their Call for Speakers, so please be sure to view the specific pages for each track you may be interested in.  All speaker proposals are due on July 1, 2013.

I’m interested in being a sponsor, where do I sign up?

Although the OpenSimulator Community Conference is being held 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 (the setup, performance tuning, and constant monitoring are of utmost importance for the success of the conference) and the streaming services and other web services. 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.

We offer a wide range of  sponsorship opportunities for community members and grids of all levels, and sponsorships are tax deductible for US residents minus the value of any tangible benefits!

Please see the Call for Sponsors page for more information, and we are grateful for your support!

I’m interested in being a volunteer or helping out, where do I sign up?

The conference needs volunteers to help greet attendees, moderate breakout sessions, assist with building and scripting tasks, technical support and assistance with streaming, and other duties to help make the conference a success.  If you are experienced with the OpenSimulator platform and have an interest in helping, we’d love to have you join the team!

Please complete the Volunteer Application form and a conference planning staff member will get back to you soon!

Who is producing the conference?

The OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013 is being organized in a joint effort between the Overte Foundation and AvaCon.

The Overte Foundation is a non-profit organization that manages contribution agreements for the OpenSimulator project.  In the future, it will also act to promote and support both OpenSimulator and the wider open-source 3D virtual environment ecosystem.

AvaCon, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth, enhancement, and development of the metaverse, virtual worlds, augmented reality, and 3D immersive and virtual spaces. We hold conventions and meetings to promote educational and scientific inquiry into these spaces, and to support organized fan activities, including performances, lectures, art, music, machinima, and much more. Our primary goal is to connect and support the diverse communities and practitioners involved in co-creating and using virtual worlds, and to educate the public and our constituents about the emerging ecosystem of technologies broadly known as the metaverse.

I still have questions, who do I contact?

Please use the Contact form for additional inquiries, and thanks for your interest in the first annual OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013!

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 2013 Planning Team

Conference Co-Chairs
Justin Clark-Casey | Justin Clark-Casey
Chris M. Collins | Fleep Tuque

Conference Planning Committee
Crista Lopes | Diva Canto
Joyce Bettencourt | Rhiannon Chatnoir
Mic Bowman | Mic Bowman
Michael Cerquoni | Nebadon Izumi
Melanie Thielker | Melanie Milland

Conference Track Leaders
Joyce Bettencourt | Rhiannon Chatnoir, Arts & Creativity
Maria Korolov | Maria Korolov, Business & Enterprise
Justin Clark-Casey | Justin Clark-Casey, Developers & Open Source
Mic Bowman | Mic Bowman, Research & Education
Crista Lopes | Diva Canto, Research & Education
Austin Tate | Ai Austin, Research & Education
Jolanda Mastenbroek-Dobber | Joja Dhara, Social & Communities

By |May 3rd, 2013|news|Comments Off on Announcing the 1st Annual OpenSimulator Community Conference