Forterra Recieves Strategic Investment from In-Q-Tel, Moves OLIVE Platform to Standards?

Forterra Systems Inc., maker of the OLIVE platform, has completed a strategic investment and technology advancement deal with In-Q-Tel, an investment firm that works to find technologies to support the intelligence community. Foterra will develop new capabilities for OLIVE, presumably according to the community's needs. Interestingly, the first item on the list is the ability to import Google-owned SketchUp models, which are also compatible with Google Earth and likely with the virtual world that Google is rumored to be developing. In August, we reported that Forterra  would be working with the Joint ADL Co-Lab to make OLIVE compliant with SCORM, a collection of standards for e-learning. It seems like either the military and intelligence community or Forterra or both are very interested in making OLIVE compatible with standards available to multiple virtual worlds.

Even if the two aren't working intentionally towards making a consistent standard for virtual world learning, training, and collaboration, that might be the effect. Other plans for OLIVE through the agreement include:

a network proxy that will enable OLIVE™ applications to run seamlessly through a wider range of firewall configurations, a 3-D conferencing and document sharing application; and additional 3-D content including scenery, avatars, buildings and other objects needed to support the new applications. Forterra will also integrate external instant messaging products with OLIVE to provide a common conferencing and document sharing facility for its virtual world users. Through this integration, users will be able to schedule meetings that enable participants to view and annotate documents. The white boarding of ideas will also be possible such that the board can be viewed simultaneously and securely by geographically distributed participants.

That's a wide range of applications, but it's hard not to notice that one of the major points is the integration of external instant messaging programs instead of the development of OLIVE-specific applications. It makes sense that the military and intelligence community would want their e-learning virtual world to be as compatible as possible, but those are goals that could affect anyone looking to use virtual worlds as a serious communication platform.

Comments

[Robert Gehorsam]

Thanks for picking this up. I do need to make a major correction however - From the announcement: In-Q-Tel is a strategic, not-for-profit investment firm that works to identify, adapt, and deliver innovative
technology solutions to support the mission of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

The Intelligence Community is not the military, they are quite different. Here's a good explanation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_community

Thanks.

[Joey Seiler]

Thanks, Robert. I've updated the post.

Correction notice: The original post mislabeled In-Q-Tel as a strategic investment group working to support technology for the military, not the intelligence community.