Advancing Interagency Collaboration Through Constructive Simulation: Results from the 2015 Federal Consortium of Virtual Worlds Workshop

Immersive, 3D conferences are becoming viable using OpenSimulator, open source software. The act of planning for an immersive conference using the software dependent on the conference success strengthens the community of users that participate in the platform. This paper describes three conference events held from 2013–2015 involving an emerging consortium of leading developers and researchers of virtual worlds. The implications of technological success of immersive conferences hold promise for government and military agencies facing training requirements under fiscal restrictions. A workshop was conducted during the writing of this paper establishing the inaugural, immersive workshop for the Federal Consortium of Virtual Worlds sponsored by the US Army and Avacon Incorporated, a non-profit organization producing conference events.