As reported on the SLA Military Libraries Blog, the US federal government – and surely countless others around the globe – is stepping deeper and deeper into virtual worlds.

The strongest evidence of this is the existence of the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds. This organization, which is housed under the Information Resources Management College (the college is the largest one at the National Defense University, run under the direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US military).

The Consortium will hold its third annual conference April 23-24 of 2009 at NDU in Washington, DC (anyone going?)

The SLA blog notes that while Second Life continues to play a prominent role within government agencies, other platforms, like Active Worlds, Forterra, and Nexus EM are also being considered and/or used by the government to pursue virtual world advancements.

Interest in VWs within government is also gaining real-time traction: among entities using VWs are Naval Underseas Warfare Center, Information Resource Management College and NOAA in Second Life, the State Department, and CRS.