The first of five collaborative workshops between the University of Dalhousie, Canada and Strathclyde on the theme of risk was trialled on Second Life in November. The workshops form part of a partnership development grant funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in Canada with the aim of investigating risk governance issues to produce multi-disciplinary analyses of critical infrastructure failures.
The virtual environment Second Life is being trialled for supporting the workshops with the aim of reducing travel and carbon costs. The project forms part of a collaborative effort across Strathclyde Business School with Dr Calvin Burns (Human Resource Management), Dr Andrea Coulson (Accounting & Finance), Professor John Quigley (Management Science) and Howard Ramsay from SEES, as well as colleagues from the University of Dalhousie.
The theme for the inaugural workshop was H1N1. Professor John Quigley presented on collaborative research he is conducting with colleagues at the University of Dalhousie on risk and media analysis. Amongst the panellists was Dr Rob Strang , Chief Medical Officer of Nova Scotia.
There were 35 participants in virtual attendance and post-event surveys suggest a preference for the virtual environment.