I think pre-interviews are my favorite part of Metanomics, because they provide the moments when I am most surprised.

Yesterday the eye-opener came when Paulette Robinson of the Federal Consortium of Virtual Worlds told me that the US Department of Agriculture (of all places!) was going to provide ‘trusted source hosting’ for all federal agencies that wanted a secure way to access virtual worlds for training and other uses. They already have proof-of-concept projects with Forterra and Protosphere. But when I asked if they were looking into Second Life’s behind-the-firewall solution (which I understand is going to be launched in a couple of months)….it’s not on the table.

Why not? Because Second Life requires a whole range of ports to be open, rather than just a few. The Feds view this as too much of a security risk, so they currently have no plans to pursue a Second Life option.

Second Life still has a major role to play in ‘forward facing’ activities that are open to the public—citizen outreach and the like. With its open access, Second Life is well-suited to this role. (That’s why we use it for Metanomics). But it sounds to me like Linden Lab might be losing out on a major opportunity. After all, the US Federal Government is about the biggest enterprise there is.

A more pleasant surprise was hearing about the momentum the Consortium has, and the funding—across a variety of agencies—that are being raised. Oh, and the Consortium is a finalist for the prestigious 2009 Intergovernmental Solutions Award, with the winner to be announced on June 1st

Congratulations, Paulette! Next stop for you: Disneyworld! After Metanomics, of course. See the rest of you there!

Rob Bloomfield