2010 Defense GameTech Conference

One Week on a Mega Yacht ... Thanks to my Advice book

How do you get invited on a week long trip down the Atlantic Intercoastal with a group of computer geeks? Well I did not do it, but Dave Edstrom of Sun Microsystems did. The key to entry? A copy of my book "Advice: written on the back of a business card".

Both Dave and Mike O'Dell are quoted in that book. Dave bought an extra copy and gave it to Mike (who owns the Yacht). Mike was putting together the trip down the Intercoastal in his Mega Yacht and invited his old buddy Dave to go along. All thanks to a timely reminder in the form of one of my favorite books.

Read Dave's account of the trip and see the pictures at:
http://photonsandelectrons.blogspot.com/2009/12/intracoastal-waterway-my-bucket-list.html

So what can you make happen by giving away one of my books? :)

2010 Defense GameTech Users Conference Keynote Speakers

There are some outstanding speakers scheduled for the Defense GameTech Users Conference in Orlando, Florida, March 29-31, 2010. The event is still 3 months away, but the keynotes who have accepted our invitations are:

• Will Wright, Creator of Spore, The Sims, and all things SimCity. Will is now running his own startup, The Stupid Fun Club.
  
• General James Mattis, Commander of US Joint Forces Command. GEN Mattis has a passion for providing better training to support the infantry soldier.
  
• Major General Melvin Spiese, Commander USMC Training and Education Command.
  
• Larry Johnson, CEO of the New Media Consortium. Larry is sponsoring and creating some very clever and useful applications of virtual worlds.
  

That is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more great sessions and tutorials that are still under wraps. Keep on eye on the web site for more details.

http://www.teamorlando.org/gametech/

Military Simulation & Serious Games

"The world inside a simulator is as real as the world inside your head – but it is more accurate."

Simulation has been a powerful tool for training the military for over 3000 years. What began as sand tables and board games has evolved into advanced computer and communication systems that encompass the globe and provide training portals on every continent. Commercial computer games have followed a similar evolutionary trajectory in delivering entertainment. The core technologies behind both fields have many commonalities and become more intertwined every year.

This book is a collection of essays on the technical, social, and economic importance of simulation and gaming techniques, tools, and technologies. It provides a fascinating historical summary, explores important technical capabilities, and speculates on the role that these technologies will play in the future.

http://www.modelbenders.com/milsimgame.html

Military getting help from showbiz

Military getting help from showbiz

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Advice: written on the back of a business card

This book is filled with short words of advice from hundreds of successful professionals in industry, government, and academia. It emerged from one simple question posed to all of them.

“Imagine that you are about to give your business card to a young person entering your profession. But first, you turn that card over and write a short piece of advice to help them get started in their career. What would you write on the back of your own business card to help them?”

The advice is from the people who will hire you and for whom you will work. They are all very eager to share their most valuable ideas with new people entering their field. Each of these leaders remembers how clueless they were when they started in business. This is their way of helping you get started with the advice that they never received – but wished that they had.

"You can do anything ... but not everything." - Bill Waite

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." – Charles Darwin

http://www.modelbenders.com/advice.html

Game Technology in Medical Education

This book proposes four hypotheses concerning the impact and acceptance of virtual reality, simulation, and computer game technologies in medical education. It focuses on laparoscopic surgery because of the similarities between that form of surgery and virtual reality systems. The evidence indicates that the following four hypotheses are supported by the medical research literature.

· Hypothesis 1: Surgical training can be accomplished at a lower cost using virtual reality and game technology-based tools than through existing methods of training.

· Hypothesis 2: Virtual reality and game technology-based training environments provide better access to representative patient symptoms and allow more repetitive practice than existing forms of training.

· Hypothesis 3: Virtual reality and game technology-based training environments can reduce the training time required to achieve proficiency in specific procedures.

· Hypothesis 4: Virtual reality and game technology-based training can reduce the number of medical errors caused by residents and surgeons learning to perform new procedures.

The strong evidence collected in this study indicates that game-based systems are becoming much more accepted in medical education and that the technical limitations that existed when these devices were first introduced are being overcome.

Web Page: http://www.modelbenders.com/medsim.html