Terra Nova: H2 '07 Event Roundup

I've just updated our Conference List. As there is so much virtual world related event goodness in the second half of this year I thought I would do a quick and very personal round up of where the hot spots are for the global conference jet set. Also, like Dan's post, there's some shameless pluggin' gwan down.

Edinburgh Interactive 13 - 14 August, Edinburgh, UK
I'm running a panel on virtual worlds as societies vs commercial services. There will also be a talks on Virtual Reality TV and a Second Life how-to by TN alumni Dr Jim ~~Purbeck~~ Purbrick [ed.18/7/7/ sorry Jim /me blush].

Digital Interactive Symposium: Edinburgh 15 August, Edinburgh, UK
OK, I'll fess up I'm co-creator / organiser of this. It's an industry academia mash-up because I think that will be a very fine thing. We have a panel on virtual worlds and regulation from a EU perspective expect tax, communications law and other EU directives to be covered: IBM, Offcom, Jessica Mulligan, the Edinburgh Fringe festival to retire to in the evening who could want more!

State of Play V: Building the Global Metaverse 19 - 22 August, Singapore
Obviously /the/ pointy headed event of the year for those in the know, locating it in Asia this year is genius. Hmm, and an EU one next year perhaps?

Second Life Community Convention 24 - 26 August, Chicago, US
While other Virtual World conferences obsess about and sometimes feel a bit guilty about it, the SLCC is about SL and has no shame. From that thing that happened after SoP in NYC and they good time we had in a pub in London the other year SLCC has all growd up and is now a fully fledged event for the business and fun minded that what to get deeper in to SL. An it just has to have the hands down best after-show parties, ones even an EvE evening might struggle to match.

Austin Games Conference 5 - 7 September, Austin, TX, US
People, even people that are not on the organizing committee, keep telling me that this year is the year to catch Austin, especially if you missed SXSW and don't know quite how cool Austin is. It's more tech focused than the other events listed here, but understating practice does actually come in handy sometimes.

Serious Virtual Worlds 13 September, Coventry, UK
A new entry from the UK, and another very welcome event looking at the serious end of virtual world applications. There are few details yet, but it's worth keeping an eye on especially if you are EU based.

DiGRA: Situated Play September 24 - 28, Tokyo, Japan
The party event of the year for Games Studies scholars, already my Hello Kitty budget is not big enough. If past DiGRAs are anything to go by this will be a huge sprawling conference with paper that range from the tepid to the inspiring.

Virtual Worlds Fall 07 10 - 11 October, San Jose, CA, US
The ~~West~~ East {ed. 24/7/7/ East OK, East East East, I got it now] Coast Virtual Worlds event goes ~~East~~ West [ed. 20/7/7: thx Mark. Did someone move San Jose when I was not looking or do I just not know left from right?] for the fall. The NYC event earlier this year was, for many, more of an event marking the popular arrival of virtual worlds as a medium (something many of us have known for some time) than anything else. The East Coast's version is ridiculously star-studied with luck it will tell the audience something other than things they either fail to comprehend or already know.

AoIR 8.0: Let's Play 17 - 20 October, Vancouver, Canada
This year AoIR gets game. For the last few years the Association of Internet Researchers' annual get together has been infiltrated by a crack squad of game studies scholars intent on spreading insidious ideas like the fact that virtual communities might exist on more than just BBSs (at the first event I went to non of the virtual community panel had ever heard of virtual worlds).

Virtual Worlds Forum 23 - 26 October, London, UK
More EU goodness: not content with the East Coast / West Coast ding dong that the Virtual Worlds group has established in the US, there is now a UK based event by the Virtual Worlds Forum that will cover very similar issues but with a uniquely European focused, global outlook.

Comments

It's nice to have a name that's a UUID, it's just a shame that it means humans have a hard time spelling it . See you in Edinburgh, Ren ;-)

Posted by: Jim Purbrick | Jul 17, 2007 at 19:13

West, Ren. San Jose is on the West coast. Go West, young avatar. West.

;-]

Posted by: Mark Wallace | Jul 18, 2007 at 22:25

Any reason SLCC was omitted?

Posted by: Hiro Pendragon | Jul 23, 2007 at 04:06

Ren, not to nitpick... well, perhaps to nitpick but in jest...

So now you've got the West Coast version going West (completely plausible, until you hit the ocean) and you say "The East Coast's version is ridiculously star-studied," which may imply to some that the West Coast's version is not "ridiculously star-studied."

But that doesn't follow as a logical conclusion. Let's say you're talking about dogs and cats. If you say "Cats are not penguins" it does not follow that you think dogs are penguins. One simply doesn't know! The West Coast version might also be ridiculously star-studded!

But my favorite part on this one is: "with luck it will tell the audience something other than things they either fail to comprehend or already know." So I'm thinking: what about deep mysteries and eternal truths? Are they off the table? :-)

Posted by: greglas | Jul 24, 2007 at 06:29

Pfft. I've had enough of trying to be helpful. I'm posting about sex again.

Posted by: Ren Reynolds | Jul 24, 2007 at 15:55

@Hero
Sorry dude, forgot, added it now :)

Posted by: Ren Reynolds | Jul 25, 2007 at 17:27