Extensible Virtual Worlds Workshop 2010 (X10) is being run March 29th to March 30th 2010 by University of Arkensas and IBM Academy of Technology with approximately 65 participants:

• http://vw.ddns.uark.edu/X10/
• http://vw.ddns.uark.edu/X10/X10--Schedule.html 
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/IBM%20Business%20Center2/65/1/27

• Grady Booch, IBM Fellow, Keynote Speaker [avatar: Alem Theas]

The "Greybeards Project" is about designing virtual guides for virtual worlds that can help people in their journeys.  They can be used as guides for your SIM, mentors, and for fully immersive training. 

The first of these "Virtual Guides" is Sun Tzu who was demonstrated for the U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) exhibit at MODSIM World on October 14-16, 2009 at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.  Sun Tzu uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies from Daden Limited inside of the virtual world Second Life.  This advanced AI provides many capabilities for the use of automated avatars in virtual worlds for training and as virtual guides including:

• Guided tours
• Avatar movements
• Teleportation
• Web scraping
• Chatbot
• Emotion engine
• Instant messaging
• Twitter updates
• Ability to learn from the environment

The "web scraping" technology enables the Virtual Guide to respond to questions by scraping data off web services (like Wikipedia and others) to provide responses to your questions.  

For additional information, see: 

• Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, Intelligent Virtual Worlds Programme
• Daden Limited's Artificial Intelligence
  
• MyCyberTwin: http://openvce.net/mycybertwin 
• Artificial Intelligence Learning Center brief (PPT | PDF)
• Visit Sun Tzu in Second Life: http://slurl.com/secondlife/VCE/46/44/23
• Lean more about the Virtual Guide Sun Tzu project: http://openvce.net/sun-tzu

Looking to do future Virtual Guides of:

• Leonardo da Vinci
• Mark Twain
• Albert Einstein
• Admiral Rickover