Ag Department Goes Virtual

Because the U.S. Agriculture Department is going virtual, employees may soon be able to conduct business through 3-D avatars rather than traditional teleconferencing, e-mail or staff meetings.

According to a posting on Federal Business Opportunities (fedbizops.gov), the department has sought a Second Life-like system that can be used behind a secure firewall rather than by the general public:

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (USDA OCIO) plans to issue a solicitation to procure virtual world (VW) software technology. While there are Government organizations currently utilizing virtual worlds (VW) technology, significant challenges remain related to cross-agency accessibility, security, scalability, and interoperability.”

The virtual world would allow several agencies to collaborate easily yet securely, integrate old and new technology and create a network for “collaboration, training, rehearsal, analysis, simulation, experimentation, and socialization.”

For virtual worlds to be a viable option for widespread use, the government is seeking vendors who can demonstrate that the virtual worlds solution(s) can satisfactorily resolve these and other cross-agency issues. A major objective is to create a multi-agency advisory committee with new and innovative government-wide solutions; the virtual worlds effort provides such a solution.

The government does not expect that any one vendor or product will satisfy all requirements.

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