Virginia Rushes the Tech Revolution By David McGuire, washingtonpost.com Staff Writer (September 23, 2003) reports on the fifth annual Commonwealth of Virginia Information Technology Symposium (COVITS) held in Roanoke, Virginia on Sept. 22nd. The conference took on a new focus with this year's event, starting out with a high-tech special effect.

'Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D) set the tone early, appearing Monday morning as a three-dimensional image broadcast over a slick new video conferencing technology dubbed "teleportation." ', addressing the audience virtually before disappearing and then reappearing later in person. The conference had great success in its goals of showcasing Virginia's technical expertise to a global audience, not just in Northern Virginia's Dulles Corridor, but across the state. For example, "Roanoke, which ranks atop of the Center for Digital Government's Digital Cities survey for cities with 75,000 to 125,000 people, has gotten tremendous exposure from the conference."

After this year's high profile attendee list (including former British Prime Minister John Major and retired General Norman Schwarzkopf) and the high tech focus of its presentations (such as Virginia Tech's supercomputer grid project based on 1,100 Apple G5 desktops), organizations are already lining up next year's COVITS in Norfolk.

Related links:

• WTOP News' Ask the CIO interview with George Newstrom, Virginia's Secretary of Technology covers COVITS as well as additional details on the teleportation technology used at the conference.

"...a company called Teleportec out of Dallas, Texas ... [the audience sees] a three dimensional image, full motion that you see on the stage as if the person was there ... [the speaker will] see the audience in a 180 degree field of vision ... "

• Teleportec's website includes a video clip of a 2001 demonstration that's definitely worth viewing. "The technology is compatible with standard video conferencing equipment and can use a range of connectivity options including ISDN, T1 and IP. Teleportec upgrades are now also available for existing video conferencing users. Group-to-group and multi-site communication is also possible."

9:33:08 AM