In Conversation with John Lester (Pathfinder)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010
4:00 PM SL/PST – 7:00 PM EST – 1:00 AM CET

This month’s guest is John Lester, more commonly known as Pathfinder Linden. This month we discuss the state of virtual collaborative environments, their positioning, market potential, strengths, weaknesses, and possible future 6 years on from the advent of Second Life. Subjects will include Second Life, Emerald, Unity 3D, pioneering work currently being done in virtual worlds and some of the social implications.

John Lester worked at Linden Lab from 2005 to 2010, where he was commonly known as “Pathfinder.” While at Linden Lab, John acted as a general strategist and product expert to help customers using Second Life for teaching, academic and healthcare research, medical education, simulation, and scientific visualization. He also served as “Lead Evangelist in Market Development,” broadly exploring and cultivating innovation at the intersection of emerging markets in Second Life such as education, healthcare, enterprise, government and entertainment.

Before working at Linden Lab, John was the Information Systems Director for the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he pioneered the use of the web in 1993 to create online communities supporting patients dealing with neurological disorders. As a Research Associate in Neurology at Harvard Medical School, he also created online collaborative education environments for professors and students to advance the case-based teaching method in medical education. John is currently exploring opportunities to help organizations understand and cultivate innovation at the intersection of virtual worlds, online communities, education and creative expression.