Conference Planning Committee

Justin Clark-Casey | Avatar: Justin Clark-Casey
Conference Co-Chair

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.

Chris M. Collins | Avatar: Fleep Tuque
Conference Co-Chair

Chris M. Collins 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.

Crista Lopes | Avatar: Diva Canto
Planning Committee

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.

Joyce Bettencourt | Avatar: Rhiannon Chatnoir
Planning Committee

Joyce Bettencourt is the Online Community Manager for TechSoup Global’s NonProfit Commons in Second Life community. In addition, she is Creative Director of The Vesuvius Group, a collaborative studio specializing in developing online immersive and social environments for community-building. She is also co-founder of the 501(c)(3) non-profit,AvaCon, Inc. dedicated to promoting the growth, enhancement, and development of the metaverse, virtual worlds, augmented reality and 3D immersive spaces.

Mic Bowman | Avatar: Mic Bowman
Planning Committee

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.

Michael Cerquoni | Avatar: Nebadon Izumi
Planning Committee

Michael Cerquoni is a core developer for the OpenSimulator project and a board member on the Overte Foundation which governs the OpenSimulator project. Michael has been involved with the OpenSimulator project since July of 2007 and is one of the original founders of OSgrid. His primary interest in OpenSimulator has been to improve the software by providing technical support and to foster communication between the core development team to debug and provide the most stable platform possible.

Melanie Thielker | Avatar: Melanie Milland
Planning Committeee

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™.

Conference Tracks

Arts & Creativity

Joyce Bettencourt | Avatar: Rhiannon Chatnoir
Arts & Creativity Track Leader

Business & Enterprise

Maria Korolov | Avatar: Maria Korolov
Business & Enterprise Track Leader

Maria Korolov is editor and publisher of Hypergrid Business and of the Hyperica directory of hypergrid destinations.

Developers & Open Source

Justin Clark-Casey | Avatar: Justin Clark-Casey
Developers & Open Source Track Leader

Education

Chris M. Collins | Avatar: Fleep Tuque
Education Track Leader

Research

Crista Lopes | Avatar: Diva Canto
Research Track Leader

Austin Tate | Avatar: Ai Austin
Research Program Co-Chair

Austin Tate is Director of the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI) and holds the Personal Chair of Knowledge-Based Systems at the University of Edinburgh. He holds computing and e-Learning degrees and a PhD in Machine Intelligence. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Scotland’s National Academy), Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of AI, Fellow of the British Computer Society, and a Senior Visiting Research Scientist at the Institute of Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Florida. His research work is focused on emergency response and involves advanced knowledge and planning technologies, and collaborative systems especially using virtual worlds. He is Coordinator for the Virtual University of Edinburgh (Vue) and runs the Openvue OpenSimulator grid.

Mic Bowman | Avatar: Mic Bowman
Research Program Co-Chair

Social & Communities

Pam Broviak

Pam Broviak | Avatar: Pam Broviak
Social & Communities Track Leader

Pam Broviak is a licensed professional engineer experienced in municipal engineering, planning, and public works. She currently works for a state transportation agency and on her own time manages the Public Works Group and GovGrid – two online resources offering information and content related to public works, government, and immersive technology.

Volunteer Staff

OSCC13 Conference Staff

Greeters & Moderators

Greeters and Moderators performed crucial functions in the success of the event. Greeters assisted audience members and visitors with technical support, viewer questions, wayfinding, and generally ensuring that attendees had a positive experience at the conference. Moderators assisted presenters and introduced each speaker and session topic, helped with the smooth presentation and streaming experience, and closed out each session by thanking the speaker and audience. They were the MCs of each session and they did a fantastic job!

Greeters & Moderators Team Lead:
Lisa Laxton

Greeters:

Greeters and Moderators

Ange Menges
Angelle Marquette
Arielle Popstar
bladyblue Bommerang
Buffy Beale
Cheops Forlife7
Chibo Ryder
Dan Banner
Esperanza Freese
Joe Radik
Mynt Aabye
Mystic Rivers
Quaezar Agnomen
Uncle Edelmann

Moderators:

Armenious Resident Moderators
Buffy Beale
Cam Chevalier
Dan Banner
David Solomon
Delenn Daines
Eryn Galen
Esperanza Freese
Gwenette Writer
Jaelyn Optera
Joe Radik
Maria Korolov
Shirley Marquez-Dulcey

Streaming & Media Team

The OSCC13 Stream Team recorded, live streamed, and produced over 55 sessions of content, re-recorded sessions where there were issues, edited video, audio, and session channels, and produced archives so that the conference sessions can continue to benefit the OpenSimulator community for years to come. They were grace under pressure and wonderful to work with!

Twitter & Social Media Coordinator: Stream Team
Shirley Marquez-Dulcey

Stream Team Technical Leads:
Dirk McKeenan
Amulius Lioncourt

Stream Team:
Amulius Lioncourt
Beth Ghostraven
Dirk McKeenan
Heike Philp
Radio Astro
Rhiannon Chatnoir
Shirley Marquez-Dulcey

Building Team

The builds of OSCC13 were the result of many collaborative partnerships, individual donations of new creations, and adaptations of existing open source content. In many ways, the builds of OSCC13 showcase the creative talents of dozens and dozens of people and what’s possible when open source content can be reused and remixed.

Landing Zone region

Landing Zones – The Landing Zones were first built from scratch by the Air Force Research Laboratory Discovery Center Tec^Edge ”Summer at the Edge” Student Build Team and then modified, adapted, and re-textured by the OSCC13 Build Team, especially Armenious Resident and Cheops Forlife7. Special thanks to Frans Charming for the scripted map boards and rotating sponsor signs.

Breakout Zone

Breakout Zones – The Breakout Zones began from the open source Universal Campus, modified by Fleep Tuque to fit on a single region, modified and adapted and re-textured by the Air Force Research Laboratory Discovery Center Tec^Edge ”Summer at the Edge” Student Build Team, and then further modified by the OSCC13 Build Team, especially Buffy Beale and Cam Chevalier, Cheops Forlife7, Frans Charming, Joe Radik, and Jeff Cost. Special thanks to Buffy Beale and Cam Chevalier for their heroic work creating customized booths for each speaker, Frans Charming for the scripted panel chairs, and Jeff Cost‘s tireless tweaking of the sit scripts in the auditorium chairs.

Keynote Regions

Keynote Regions – The Keynote Regions main build was donated by Nebadon Izumi. Fleep Tuque textured and added modifications, and Eryn Galen and Chibo Ryder customized signage and speaker booths.

OSCC13 Build Team:

Armenious Resident
Buffy Beale Clothing Store
Cam Chevalier
Cheops Forlife7
Chibo Ryder
Dan Banner
Eryn Galen
Fleep Tuque
Frans Charming
Jeff Cost
Joe Radik
Nebadon Izumi
Uncle Edelmann

Air Force Research Laboratory Discovery Center
Tec^Edge ”Summer at the Edge” Student Build Team:
Program Director: Dr. Robert Williams
Build Team Managers: Lydia Divine and Mark Siebert

Student Builders:

Landing Zone – Original Student Build

Daltin Loomis
Joseph Merrill
Spencer Lukowski
Jacob Slezak
Dalton Flanagan
Miranda McGrothers
Kristen Tate
Bryan Rich
Shea Tolson
Josh Crank
Matt Larson
Michael Erno
Abigail Riffle
Jonathan Sander
Jocelyn Meyer
Wilson Bailey
William Gross

Special thanks to Lydia Divine and Mark Siebert for overseeing and coordinating all of the student build teams!