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