Homeland Security Building Virtual Classroom for a Virtual World

Engineering & Computer Simulations (ECS) announced yesterday that it had been contracted to build the Department of Homeland Security a virtual classroom that "will incorporate avatar-based instructional delivery and, when fielded, will provide the Department of Homeland Security a 3D secure social network for on-line/ virtual world training and education." The project is in partnership with the U.S. Army RDECOM Simulation and Training Technology Center

"ECS is pleased to provide this 3D secure social network program which will increase Web-based learning, collaboration and provide a ‘classroom of the future’ for the Department of Homeland Security, the Army and ultimately increased functionality of the National Guard’s EM Nexus program,"  ECS president, Waymon Armstrong said in a statement.

Students and instructors will be able to collaborate in a 3D environment with integrated VoIP and text chat for collaboration, presentations, and training as well as mission rehearsal for disaster response and other specific tasks.

Eventually the classroom will be integrated into the virtual world that ECS is already developing for the National Guard, the Joint State Response Training System’s (JSRTS) Emergency Management Nexus (EM-Nexus). [See image above.]

"The virtual classroom is a critical step in advancing online training and education initiatives," said LTC Ray Compton, Acting Director of RDECOM’s Simulation and Training Technology Center. "Leveraging the National Guard EM Nexus program allows the Army and Department of Homeland Security to get increased capability and at the same time ensure interoperability of programs."

Earlier today, news came out about plans for the Army to develop a virtual world for worldwide training and simulation. The Air Force has also announced a proposal for MyBase, a far-reaching virtual world for training, recruitment, and collaboration. Not to be left out, IARPA has a full division devoted to exploring virtual worlds for analysis and collaboration.

As Forterra VP Dr. Michael Macedonia, former Director of the Disruptive Technology Office and Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, explained when he moved to Forterra last year, intensive group training is increasingly expensive and difficult to arrange. Virtual world solutions like these offer a cost-saving, efficient alternative.

It sounds like at least two departments are looking at convergent technologies, too.  It might not be soon, but I can  pretty easily see a near-future where there's a national virtual world with a segment branched off tying all the security and intelligence operations together.

That might be more of a political issue than a technological one, but it's something other countries are already making moves towards, even if it's only a potential.

Comments

[len]

The US Government and its agencies are determined to squash initiatives for interoperability with the Internet in favor of the walled garden systems that have typified military simulations for three decades. This is unsurprising. Walled gardens are a fact of social system evolution not by accident but by choice.

But the economic climate is changing rapidly. If history is a guide, the inability to use commercial systems and international standards for commodity systems such as these will be looked at critically with an eye to cutting costs. Once again, precious time and resources will be lost as these systems have to be thrown away.

[Paulette Robinson]

A Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds has been created to faciliate the use of virtual worlds in the government. We have members from across government, industry and academia. Our last event April 23-25 drew over 2,000 (305 at NDU) and the rest were unique participants in Second Life and viewing a live stream. If you go to: http://www.ndu.edu/irmc/fedconsortium.html, you will be able to view the agenda. We have created working groups to begin working on issues, collect best practices and to assist the government to make the best use of virtual worlds for the benefit of the public and the workforce. If you have any questions about the Consortium, email FederalConsortiumVW@ndu.edu.

[len]

Yet another consortium. I don't doubt it has benefits, Paulette, but procurement policy is the place to make good on the promises. Procurements that favor proprietary technologies and low-level languages that create expensive and hard to evolve server farm systems will just create more closed market keiretsu. The Europeans and Pacific Rim companies will eat the American's lunch.