OpenSimulator Community Conference Announces High Fidelity CEO Philip Rosedale as Keynote Speaker

 

August 29, 2014 - 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.”  

The OpenSimulator Community Conference is an annual conference that focuses on the developer and user community surrounding the OpenSimulator software, an open-source platform that supports the creation of collaborative, immersive, distributed and social 3D virtual environments.  

Organized as a joint production by AvaCon, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to the growth of the metaverse, and the Overte Foundation, which manages code contributions for the OpenSimulator platform, the virtual conference features two days of presentations, workshops, keynote sessions, and social events across diverse sectors of the OpenSimulator user base.  Last year the first annual conference was attended virtually by 300 avatars, with thousands of viewers on the conference live video streams.

Registration for the virtual OpenSimulator Community Conference is free and opens on September 15, 2014.  The conference will also be live

streamed through UStream.  

For more information please see the conference website at http://conference.opensimulator.org.

ORGANIZATION INFORMATION:

OpenSimulator is an open-source platform that supports the creation of collaborative, immersive, distributed and social 3D virtual environments over the Internet. OpenSimulator software is now the basis for the emerging metaverse of many “grids” or worlds of varying sizes and purposes.  http://opensimulator.org

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. AvaCon holds 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. AvaCon’s 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 their constituents about the emerging ecosystem of technologies broadly known as the metaverse.  http://avacon.org

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.  http://www.overte.org/

High Fidelity, Inc. powers inter-connected virtual worlds, using new hardware devices to catalyze entirely new kinds of interactions between avatars. Our open source software architecture enables unlimited scalability of both content and audience. http://highfidelity.io

CONTACT:

Chris Collins, Vice President

AvaCon, Inc.

c/o OpenSimulator Community Conference 2014

275 Winthrop Street

PO Box 618

Rehoboth, MA 02769-1819

(774) 654-0010

http://avacon.org

Email:  opensim@avacon.org

Web:  http://conference.opensimulator.org

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/opensimcc

Hashtags:  #OSCC14 #OSCC #opensim

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. This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential, privileged, or otherwise protected by legal rules and are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender immediately.  AvaCon is an Equal Opportunity Employer.