MiLand, Your Land

Virtual worlds may be the way of the future, but government isn't quite ready to cede its methods to this particular technology.

At a conference hosted by the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds, panelists from government and industry highlighted the opportunities for collaboration in Second Life-like platforms but said that the adoption of these technologies is still in an early stage.

According to Michael Piller, who works at National Defense University's iCollege, virtual worlds still have a very small market in government, with most platforms receiving investments between $50,000 and $100,000. Training, education, collaboration and research are the most common uses for virtual worlds, he added.

Piller noted that 60 percent of government's virtual space belongs to the Defense Department. One platform currently in use is Military Lands, or MiLands, a series of Second Life islands launched in November 2008 to boost collaboration around military science. Military organizations that had purchased space in Second Life were allowed to join, and participants now meet monthly in the virtual world.

"Collaboration is much more difficult [at Defense] -- because of security issues. It doesn't magically happen and you have to have the tools to access networks," said Steven Aguiar, virtual worlds technical program manager at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.

Aguiar said that MiLands could represent a body of knowledge in which Defense can invest, a sort of one-stop shop for what the military is up to. And it allows the department to experiment where it might not in real life due to risks or budget constraints.

The key to virtual world success is taking action, said Tami Griffith, a researcher at the U.S. Army Simulation & Training Technology Center. "You don't learn about virtual worlds by reading a book about it--you have to get in there."