The clients using beta versions of Linden Lab’s Nebraska are starting to go public, with the New Media Consortium announcing a fall “Symposium for the Future” using the stand-alone virtual world application:

“The NMC Series of Virtual Symposia, now in its seventh year, is an exploration of online communication tools. Each of the 13 Symposia held to date has taken advantage of the state of the art for online gatherings. The 14th Symposium will be convened in the NMC’s private virtual space, the Hakone Project. This virtual space is supported by the same technology that underlies the virtual world of Second Life™ but is located behind a firewall in a secure and private environment. While the events take place in a virtual world, the Symposium is not about virtual worlds.”

Nebraska, currently in Beta testing with a dozen or so clients, including companies using the Immersive Workspaces(TM) application (which, due disclosure here, we represent) was originally slated for a general launch this month but is now delayed until mid Fall.

We can expect to see more announcements like that of the NMC. Nebraska allows companies to host their own virtual environments, using the same technology that powers the Second Life “main Grid”.

For myself, Nebraska offers a second option for deploying Immersive Workspaces. Many clients are interested in the security, privacy and branding control offered by a stand-alone solution. But just as many see the value in participating in the broader Second Life community.

I’ll slip some spam in here and say that if you’re interested in either, give me a ring. But more generally, the NMC event announcement gives a kind of “sneak peek” at the future of the private grids.

And by the way - while we wait for the “official name” for Nebraska, we’ve been affectionately calling it LEA - the Linden Enterprise Appliance. OK, not a brand name I recommend but hey.