Sura/ViDe 2007 Keynote Speaker

ViDe is proud to announce that Larry Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of the New Media Consortium, will be the keynote speaker at the SURA/ViDe 2007 Conference. His presentation is entitled

"Down the Rabbit Hole, or how the NMC took the Red Pill and Got a Second Life..."

Over the past year, the New Media Consortium (NMC) has conceptualized and built a virtual campus in SL to explore the potential of this environment for serious work and knowledge sharing. NMC's commitment to the project is long-term, and the effort includes not only a fully-realized campus in SL and a thriving community of more than 2,000, but also an active blog, wiki, community directory, as well as streaming servers and other technical infrastructure.

Last fall, NMC expanded its holdings for the NMC Campus estate twice, and now the campus has grown to encompass more than 30 sims or "islands." Included among the resources there are a theater and performing arts complex, a life sciences complex, a museum, a planetarium, a library, classrooms, three amphitheatres, dozens of places to gather and meet, and much much more. The NMC Campus estate is now the largest educational presence in Second Life by far.

Join Dr. Larry Johnson, CEO of the NMC, to learn why this international consortium of some 250 universities. Libraries, museums, and research centers has embarked on this project, why they chose Second Life as the platform for this work, what they have learned already about the potential of virtual worlds for learning, and where the project is heading next.

Dr. Johnson is Chief Executive Officer of the New Media Consortium (NMC), an international consortium of more than 200 world-class universities, colleges, museums, research centers, and technology companies, dedicated to using new technologies to insure, energize, stimulate, and support learning and creative expression. He is an acknowledged expert on the effective application of new media in many contexts, and has worked extensively to build common ground among museums and universities across North America, and in more than a dozen other countries. He is the author of a number of important books on the topic, and dozens of monographs, chapters, and articles exploring emerging trends and issues related to that work.

Learn more about Larry Johnson

Last updated: February 19, 2007