Forterra Systems
Forterra Systems at a Glance
- In short: The sister of There, a private virtual world technology for domains such as e-learning, military and homeland security training, healthcare, etc.
- URL: http://www.forterrainc.com
- Maintained by: Forterra Systems since 2005.
- Price: Depends on service
- Forterra System Requirements
- Platforms supported: PC
Forterra Systems Overview
Originally founded in 1998 as There, Inc., Forterra Systems Inc. is a company that “builds distributed virtual world technology…for domains such as e-learning, military and homeland security training, healthcare, and entertainment industries.” Based upon the Online Interactive Virtual Environment (OLIVE) Technology Platform, one can rapidly generate realistic 3D virtual environments that are scalable and (like many virtual environments) useful for simulations, planning, training, and collaboration in ways previously considered impractical or impossible. OLIVE is private and secure, open and extensible.
The History of Forterra Systems and There
There Inc., a Silicon Valley startup, was created by Will Harvey and Jeffrey Ventrella in 1998 and was launched in October 2003. In June 2004, There Inc. went through a major restructuring, and went through a process of layoffs.
Robert Gehorsam approached There Inc. about pitching the software to the military for training purposes. Shortly thereafter, he had won a four-year, $3.5 million contract from the Army’s Research Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) to utilize There for military use. Ultimately, the company announcing in April 2005 that it would be splitting into two companies: Makena Technologies (which operates the current massively multiplayer online game There (there.com) and Forterra Systems (a government contracted client that would initially modify the client for military training use), led by Gehorsam as CEO.
Forterra therefore shifted its focus from entertainment to Serious Games that service the military, healthcare, education, among other domains, while There continued on as a social virtual world. Both have grown to be successful in their respective foci.
Recent News
In August 2007, Forterra Systems announced that the Defense Department’s Joint Advanced Distributed Learning (JADL) Co-Laboratory, selected Forterra to build and study Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (CIED) training system within a virtual environment. This is meant to directly benefit the military’s efforts in Iraq. The results of this will also be applicable to other Department of Defense missions and other requirements of military training.
Developed under DoD’s ADL initiative to establish common guidelines and specifications for learning on a global scale, SCORM is designed to allow users to create a future learning environment that is better, faster, and less costly, anytime and anywhere it is needed, to meet the training requirements.
Forterra Screenshots
Screenshots below developed by Forterra Systems.
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Resources
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