Above the Book
Invited GuestsWe are pleased to introduce these three individuals in the field of education technology and virtual worlds.
Please join us in the VWBPE Auditorium on the days and times listed below to hear the messages of this year’s VWBPE invited guests.
What’s Up at the Lab?
with Patch Linden
Thursday 31 March
11:00 AM SLT/PDT
VWBPE Auditorium
Patch Linden
Patch Linden is Vice President of Product Operations at Linden Lab where he works to bring the best of product and support decisions on a daily operational basis to the virtual world platform for Second Life. He also maintains oversight on how all of the various teams within Linden Lab can best work together for the highest good of the Residents and the business.
Patch started as a Resident in 2004 before joining Linden Lab in 2007. Prior to joining Linden Lab, he held leadership roles focused on customer service and product development where he always maintained a customer-first focus while striving to deliver best-in-class products and services. He has a deep passion for creativity and uses that to bring enjoyment to others. He continues to evolve his skills to include virtual worlds, 3D Design, 3D printing, modeling, photography and filmography.
Maria Korolov
RL: Maria Kolache
Maria Korolov is a science fiction writer who covers cybersecurity, AI and extended reality as an award-winning tech journalist at her day job. Check out her books: Krim Times and The Lost King of Krim – Available on Amazon. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. She is also the publisher of MetaStellar, a new online magazine of speculative fiction, and Hypergrid Business, which has been covering virtual environments since 2009.
Above the Book Interview
with Maria Korolov
Friday 01 April
3:00 PM SLT/PDT
VWBPE Auditorium
Catching Up with the Thinkerers
Cynthia Calongne
Saturday 02 April
3:00 PM SLT/PDT
VWBPE Auditorium
Lyr Lobo
RL: Cynthia Calongne
Cynthia Calongne (Lyr Lobo) is a Professor at Parker University in Dallas, Texas where she is the extended reality (XR) faculty champion. She is a pioneer for learning in virtual worlds and ran research experiments to strengthen virtual reality interfaces in 1995-97. She taught 55 university classes in Second Life (SL) and OpenSimulator, mentored 400+ 8th grade students each year from 2007-2009 on Peggy Sheehy’s Ramapo campus in SL, and conducts research at Virtual Harmony (VH), a community devoted to learning, leadership, and character strengths through 3D games and simulations. They are currently studying integrating content from OpenSimulator into Spinoza Quinnell’s Oculus app. Her team won the $25,000 grand prize for the Mars Expedition, and in 2017, she received the Thinkerer Award at VWBPE for selfless service to the virtual world education community. She co-organizes OSCC, the OpenSimulator virtual world community conference.