Virtual Worlds Offer #GEOINT a Different Geographic Perspective

Though the media hype has died down from virtual world’s like Second Life, the interest and research for applications in the defense and intelligence community have exploded. Tami Griffith, Science and Technology Manager for the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command has launched a contest called the Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge. The objective is to encourage the development of training and analysis solutions on a virtual world platform. For the Army, virtual worlds present very low cost simulation tools. Griffith said that, “the premise is that we have not begun to explore all of the possibilities of using virtual worlds.” A Q&A with Griffith appears on the Second Life blog and you can view more on YouTube (See below).

Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, a military and intelligence consultant to such organizations as NGA, NRO, the Los Angeles Police Department, Ball Aerospace, and many others, warned that the blending of events in the real world and virtual reality is the next generation of virtual worlds. The next generation gets a little scary where events in the virtual world lead to “real world” deaths. Virtual Troops may engage in combat situations in cyberspace but the results may be real world destruction. “The technology now is very sophisticated,” said Baxter.