Army Virtual World
August 2, 2008
The next in a line of many future MMOGs
Last week we broke the story of the Army’s attempt to design a “first-person thinker” video game for training future generals. Now one senior Army game-designer tells DANGER ROOM that the ground combat service wants to go one step further … and build a “Massive Multiplayer Online Game” (MMOG) where a wide range of Army training could take place. (Wired)
Play Warcraft? No job at the CIA for you…
June 16, 2008
Interesting article, but it seems we should be focusing on ways to bring these folks in to exploit new and emerging technologies, including gaming. Last I checked there were tens of millions of people interacting in these worlds that transcend national boundaries.
Do you trade music with your pals? Use Facebook to keep in touch with far-away friends? Play World of Warcraft as a girl, when you’re really a boy? Check your e-mail a little too often?
Well, then, you may not be trustworthy enough to become a spy. [Wired]
Network Science a key interest at the Pentagon
April 6, 2008
We need one of these grants here at GroupIntel.
The University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science just announced that it’s been awarded a $7.5 million grant to work in this fast emerging field of network science, which melds everything from mathematics to sociology.
Network science is increasingly the “hot” area for Pentagon research. Why? Because the Pentagon hopes that if it can understand complex networks, then it can understand terrorist networks, and even predict who will join such a network. (Wired)
No wikis for you!
February 18, 2008
Interesting brief article on crowdsourcing young Army officers…
They might not build $150-million F-22 stealth fighters, but in other ways insurgents and terrorists are amazingly tech savvy. For one, they’re hip to using grungy, bare-bones websites to spread tactics and ideology across the planet on the cheap, transforming once-isolated local and regional conflicts into genuine threats to global stability. Author John Robb calls this “open-source warfare,” and believes it’s the most important force shaping the 21st century.
If so, we’re screwed. Seven years after the launch of Wikipedia — the user-edited online encyclopedia that brought the “open source” concept to the masses — the U.S. Army is still playing catch-up. The Army’s idea of harnessing the ‘net is to launch isolated websites, put generals in charge and lock everything behind passwords, while banning popular open-source civilian websites. Colonel James Galvin, head of the Army’s “Battle Command Knowledge System,” openly admits that when it comes to the collaborative internet, the bad guys have a “niche advantage.” (Wired)
The Virtual University
November 24, 2007
One day Professor Jeremy Kemp entered his classroom and found himself next to a student dressed as a gigantic monarch butterfly.
But Kemp was not startled in the least that one of his students had sprouted wings. Since he started teaching at the virtual campus of San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science, students have also appeared as robots and giant bowls of Jell-O.
“I am looking at representations that they create, and that’s just as valid as real life,” said Kemp, assistant director of the virtual campus, which opened in May. “I have a sense of being there and being with the person.”
San Jose State is one of a skyrocketing number of colleges and universities across the country to make the leap into the virtual frontier using Second Life, the Internet-based world created by Linden Lab of San Francisco. [Story via San Jose Mercury News]
