Presentation at 2012 Follow the Sun: “Integrated Reality and Next Generation Virtual Worlds”


Follow the Sun 2012 is a free online conference that runs from March 27-30.  Here’s a summary from their website:

“Digital Futures Institute, Beyond Distance Research Alliance, Athabasca University, and our commercial partners are proud to provide this year’s 48-hour, online learning festival at no charge to all participants. The theme of this year’s conference moves beyond educational technology to examine knowledge development and exchange across the disciplines.”

I’ll be giving an online presentation on Thursday March 29th at 2:30am EDT (yes, that’s 2:30am).  The topic will be “Integrated Reality and Next Generation Virtual Worlds.”

Here are my slides on SlideShare to give you a preview of what I’ll be talking about, and I’ll update this blog post with a recording of my presentation after the conference is over.

Update 3/29/2012: Here’s the recording of my presentation.

-John “Pathfinder” Lester
Chief Learning Officer
ReactionGrid Inc.

Posted in Announcements, Augmented Reality, Avatars, Education, Jibe, Pioneer Lessons, Presentations, Unity3D, Virtual Worlds | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts – Virtual Broad Art Museum in Jibe

The Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts (IDIA) at Ball State University is a research and design studio exploring virtual reality, simulation, games and interactive interfaces.

IDIA been commissioned to design and build a virtual presence and artworks for the upcoming Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.

And they’re building it with ReactionGrid’s Jibe platform!

For more information, check out IDIA’s project website.

-John “Pathfinder” Lester
Chief Learning Officer
ReactionGrid Inc.

Posted in Announcements, Art, Augmented Reality, Avatars, Education, Jibe, Non-Profits, Pioneer Lessons, Unity3D, Virtual Worlds | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Virtual Worlds Presentation for 2012 Virtual Enterprise Conference at Glyndŵr University

The Virtual Enterprise Conference at Glyndŵr University brings together a diverse range of web entrepreneurs, students and academics to discuss the opportunities for e-entrepreneurship offered by virtual worlds and the social web.  It’s hosted each year by the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at Glyndŵr University.

On Feb 23 at this year’s conference, I had the pleasure of giving a presentation on Best Practices in Virtual Worlds.  Here’s the full video.

The Right Tool for the Right Job: Best Practices for Virtual Worlds from John Lester on Vimeo.

You can grab a copy of my slides on Google, and you can visit the Jibe world featured in my presentation by going here.

Thanks again to Matthew Draycott from the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at Glyndŵr University for inviting me to speak.  It was a great opportunity!

- John “Pathfinder” Lester
Chief Learning Officer
ReactionGrid, Inc.

Posted in Announcements, Avatars, Education, Jibe, Pioneer Lessons, Presentations, Unity3D, Virtual Worlds | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Guest Speaker on MetaReality Podcast

Yesterday I was a guest on MetaReality’s weekly podcast about virtual worlds.

We chatted about my time at Linden Lab, cool stuff happening at ReationGrid, virtual world platforms like Jibe and Opensim, the Hypergrid Adventurers Club, and the future evolution of virtual worlds.

Great people, great discussion and quite a few laughs.  Kim, thank you again for having me on the show.

My favorite part was when all of us logged in to my Jibe world and ran around exploring while we were chatting live on the show.  Lots of fun!

-John “Pathfinder” Lester
Chief Learning Officer, ReactionGrid Inc.

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Looking Forward: My New Role at ReactionGrid – Chief Learning Officer

It’s been a year since I started working at ReactionGrid, and my initial role with the company was Director of Community Development.

As of this month, I’m very excited to announce that I have been promoted to Chief Learning Officer.

As Chief Learning Officer, I’ll be responsible for all aspects of knowledge management at ReactionGrid, both internal and external.  My primary responsibility will be to help ReactionGrid identify, evaluate and effectively use a combination of the right knowledge management tools and best practices.  Educating our customers is also critical, so I’ll be focusing a great deal on ways to help our customers learn to successfully use our products and share their strategies for success.  I want to make sure everyone has the necessary knowledge and confidence to succeed at their own goals.

I’ll also be helping guide the company in feature prioritization and R&D efforts.  By listening carefully to our customers and the community at large, we can make smarter decisions about how to evolve our virtual world platforms.

Lastly, I’ll be working with new clients on large-scale virtual world projects, focusing on grant proposals, project management and plenty of hands-on Jibe development work.  I’ve been using our Jibe platform for only a few months, but I’ve quickly learned how to do quite a bit with it.  To be perfectly honest, this fact is less a testimony to my own skills and more an indication of just how simple our Jibe platform is to learn and use effectively.

Taking on this new leadership role brings with it a great deal of new responsibility.  I am now part of the executive team directly responsible for helping ensure the future success of the company.  It means a great deal to me that our CEO and the rest of the management team have the confidence in me to offer me this wonderful opportunity.  Thank you.

I strongly feel that virtual world platforms are poised for broader adoption, providing new opportunities for learning and community development on a global scale.  The team at ReactionGrid is simply the smartest and most driven group of people I’ve ever worked with in my life (and I’ve worked with some very smart people in the past).  I consider it a privilege each day to be part of the ReactionGrid team.

And by working hand in hand with our community of innovative colleagues and pioneering customers, we’re going to build those virtual world platforms of the future.

Together, we’re going to change the world.  I’m confident that we’ll do it.

Do or do not.  There is no “try.”

-John “Pathfinder” Lester
Chief Learning Officer
ReactionGrid, Inc.

Posted in Announcements, Education, Virtual Worlds | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Hypergrid Adventurers Club visits OSGrid home of LindaKelllie.com – Jan 19 2012

Today, the Hypergrid Adventurers Club took a trip from jokaydiaGRID to the OSGrid home of Linda Kelllie, a talented content creator who gives away a wide range of excellent items (including OAR files of entire regions) on her website LindaKellie.com.

Read on for a summary, some pics, and instructions on how you can make the journey yourself.

Continue reading

Posted in Announcements, Avatars, Education, Hypergrid Adventurers Club, Virtual Worlds | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Hypergrid Adventurers Club visits Dune-inspired science fiction world – January 10 2012

The Hypergrid Adventurers Club took a trip from jokaydiaGRID to OSGrid, where we visited an amazing Dune-inspired Sci-Fi area created by Lani Global Systems.

Read on for a summary, some pics, and instructions on how you can make the journey yourself.  Be sure to mind the sandworms.

Continue reading

Posted in Announcements, Education, Hypergrid Adventurers Club, Virtual Worlds | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment