Head of IT & Digital Services Tarek Khalifa attended the International panel on architecture and collaboration in virtual worlds on Sunday October 18th at 7:00pm through his second life character, Teekay Okina. The virtual event was organized by The United States Department of State Bureau of International Information Programs and it brought together architects from around the world to discuss how they can utilize virtual technologies for international development partnerships in a Second Life design panel.

Second Life (SL) is a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using free voice and text chat.  It was developed by linden Lab in 2003. Second Life has created an environment where artists can display their works, theater performances or music concertsto an audience across the world .
 In addition, Second Life is used as a platform for education by many educational instituations, covering different subjects . Instructors and researchers in Second Life favor it because it is more personal than traditional distance learning.

Not only that but embassies have begun placing themselves on Second Life, the Maldives was the first country to open an embassy in Second Life.

Panelist Jon Brouchoud (Keystone Bouchard), The ARCH Network, Studio Wikitecture Founder, Madison, Wisconsin, explored cooperative design projects where international architecture in virtual space may be more efficient than a flight from the United States to Egypt.

Panelists Amr Attia (Archi Vita), Architect, Urban Planner and Professor of architecture and urban planning at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt and David Denton (DB Bailey), Architect and Urban Planner in Marina del Rey, Los Angeles, California have worked together as architects in Second Life for the last two years. Their ongoing work has brought unique benefits to Cairo and California where these worked in their studios.  These two architects shared their experiences, then provided a tour of their re-imagined Cairo mall built in Second Life as an example of architectural collaboration across borders.
 

Panelist Judy Cockeram, a Professor of architecture at The University of Auckland in New Zealand, shared how her students have used Second Life to redesign public spaces with stakeholders and organizations.

The four panelists used streaming audio capabilities to broadcast into Second Life.  Participants used the type Public Chat window for all comments and questions during the event. Tour guides included links and visits to key architectural builds after the panel event.