VR / AR Community
Treasurer and Event Organizer, BostonVR (a 501c3 non-profit)
2015 – present See http://bostonvr.org
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BostonVR is a 5100+ member group of VR developers and fans, world's 5th largest.
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I help plan and organize events: engage speakers and demo providers.
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I look after the legal and financial details of the organization.
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Through fall of 2015 - Spring of 2017, I was the co-CEO of BostonVR with Jeff Bail. We built the organization from a very small club to what it is, now.
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Co-organized more than a dozen Saturday "Hack Days" at Brookline Interactive Group, where VR and AR developers could come by and make things all day.
Jeff Bail, Co-Organizer at BostonVR
Jeffrey and I have been co-organizing events with our Boston Virtual Reality group and his dedication and passion for VR have really helped us to become a success. He has a lot of experience as a VR consultant and I'd recommend him to anyone looking for help on VR projects.
Recent BostonVR Events I Organized in 2018:
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June 19th: BostonVR event, "Art in AR: Boston Cyberarts and Hoverlay." Lining up demonstrators, found venue and speakers, etc. See https://www.meetup.com/Boston-Virtual-Reality/events/251044656/
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June 26th: BostonVR event, "VRX: Immersive Enterprise 2018 – Day 1 After-Party. By Boston VRARA and BostonVR" Lining up demonstrators, found venue and speakers, etc. See https://www.meetup.com/Boston-Virtual-Reality/events/250619517/
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July 23rd: BostonVR event "Museums and Immersive Media at Alley Powered By Verizon" See https://www.meetup.com/Boston-Virtual-Reality/events/251684580/
Teaching and Mentoring
Much of my contribution to the VR / AR tech community is in the form of teaching and mentoring. For detail, see Teaching.
Executive Director, PublicVR, Boston, MA (a 501c3 non-profit)
2008 - 2014 See http://publicvr.org
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Conducted research in educational VR and MXR for the public domain. See http://publicvr.org/JacobsonPublications2018.htm
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Raised funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the NFF Foundation, and private sources.
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Attracted and mentored 19 students in academic internships. Every one walked away with a resume piece and all graduate students published their work.
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Developed the Egyptian Oracle Project. See Education.
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Created the Living Forest. See Education.
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Developed CaveUT. See Medicine & Other
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PublicVR has since merged with BostonVR, doing business under that name.
Other Contributions
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On an NSF Peer Review panel for Cyberlearning research grants (2015).
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Reviewed grant applications for NASA and NOAA.
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Co-Editor: History and Heritage in Games and Virtual Worlds, Special Issue of Games and Culture, 6 (6), Sage Publications (2011).
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Managed the "Full Immersion, Mixed Reality and Augmented Reality Installations," Media Grid Immersive Education Summit, Boston College, Boston, May, 2011
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Local Arrangements Chair, Conference of Virtual Reality, Waltham, MA, March, 2010
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Peer reviewed of articles for
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Journal of Immersive Education (2012)
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International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments (2012)
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European Conference on Games Based Learning (2012, 2011, 2010)
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Journal of Presence (2011),
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IEEE Journal of Educational Technology (2009)
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HCI Journal (2011)
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Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Meeting (2010)
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…and many more conferences and journals over the past ten years.
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