Meet up with Tech Virtual Museum in Second Life Jan. 4 at Noon

A quick announcement that CMP/Information Week will be hosting Nina Simon, manager of The Tech Virtual Museum Exhibit Workshop (a project of The Tech Museum in San Jose) at Dr. Dobbs Ampitheater in Second Life at 12:00 noon SLT Thursday, Jan. 3 Friday, Jan. 4.  Hiro Pendragon (Ron Blechner) CTO of Involve, Inc. will join her as in-world developers of the project.

Second Life location:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dr%20Dobbs%20Island/251/122/25

From the announcement:

About The Tech

The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA, is using Second Life to reinvent the exhibit design process.  Rather than relying on in-house designers to conceptualize and create exhibits, The Tech has launched a collaborative online platform to support a diverse community of designers, artists, scientists, and interested folk conceptualizing and prototyping exhibits.  Projects are proposed and teams formed on the web (http://thetechvirtual.org) and then prototyped in Second Life (The Tech, built by Involve, Inc.).  The Tech is offering exhibit design tutorials, design reviews by museum professionals, and the chance to see your virtual ideas become real exhibits.  The Tech intends to design all future exhibitions in this way, working with outside individuals to bring their unique creative vision and expertise to the museum to create unusual, extraordinary exhibitions.  The Tech launched this project in Dec 2007, and is piloting with an exhibition (to be mounted in RL in June 2008) on technology in art, film, and music.  Ten virtual exhibit prototypes will be selected for development in the RL exhibition, and their creators will be invited to San Jose for an awards ceremony and exhibition opening in June 2008. 

Bios:
Nina Simon is the manager of the Tech Virtual Museum Exhibit Workshop for The Tech, coordinating the Second Life virtual museum as well as exhibit design events and development.  She has designed interactive exhibits for several museums, most recently leading the creation of Operation Spy, an immersive game experience at The International Spy Museum.  She also runs the blog Museum 2.0 (www.museumtwo.com).

Ron Blechner is Chief Technology Officer at Involve, Inc, (formerly Infinite Vision Media), one of the leading Metaverse Development and Software Studios. His work with Involve includes such projects as The Tech Museum of San Jose and The Weather Channel's Epic Conditions attractions. He has been a Second Life resident as Hiro Pendragon since January 2004, co-founded SLCC, was a Live Helper, and his work has been featured in such media as The New York Times and Wired Magazine.

January 3, 2008