CNDG is founded by William Prensky and a small group of emergent technology enthusiasts to design, script and build large, complex environments on Second Life, a virtual reality platform. Our first large build — a virtual version of Longue Vue House in New Orleans — was the most expensive virtual property ever sold on Second Life.

Our Scotty’s Castle project — a recreation of the idiosyncratic villa in Death Valley — is the most elaborate and realistic building on the Second Life platform. It attracts the attention of Linden Lab, the owners of Second Life, who recommend us to NOW on PBS, our first commercial client.

CNDG is commissioned to build a virtual broadcasting station in a forest cabin for the independent news and documentary program NOW on PBS. The cabin is complete with screening room, cameras and mics, and a video screen broadcasting a NOW on PBS promotional film. Hundreds of programmers watch Maria Hinojosa, Now on PBS’s principal reporter, addressing the conference live from within the virtual environment via her avatar. She describes the potential of VLEs to transform education and global collaboration.

CNDG signs a Master Services Agreement with Pearson Learning Solutions (now Pearson Higher Education), becoming the VLE editorial content creator and publishing partner for the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world. We create a showcase VLE for Pearson in Sustainable Business and Green Science, consisting of four virtual buildings standing in landscaped grounds, each representing a different aspect of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) compliancy, the most widely used green building rating system. It includes an interactive exhibition explaining LEED principles, focusing on innovations such as green roofs, motion sensor lighting, and passive solar technology.

Honeywell asks us to build a replica of their headquarters in Minnesota for a virtual exhibition, to run alongside a real-world exhibition showcasing their latest eco-friendly technological innovations. CNDG works from the blueprints of Honeywell’s headquarters, and the design specifications of their new technology to produce a series of “working” demonstration models of wind-power generators and energy efficient A/C system.

Pfizer Animal Health (later Zoetis) commissions us to create a virtual campus and a continuing education training suite for real time case-based clinical discussions in a variety of veterinary medicine specialities. Using our VLEs, clients access online resources and asynchronous educational activities, and take part in synchronous learning modules, using simulated clinical cases in a virtual veterinary surgery.

Our first commercial VLE for Pearson is a college campus for a two-year degree program in Information Technology at Horry Georgetown Technical College. It includes live instructional spaces, and a variety of educational games and other learning activities. The students who graduate in May 2014 are the first to study their major concentration courses in a virtual environment; they show significant improvements in grades and comprehension compared to those taught in a traditional classroom.

CNDG designs a series of ten VLEs with the University of Central Florida’s Biology Department to enable students to familiarize themselves with analytical machines and safety equipment, practise core lab skills, and test their theoretical knowledge, using simulations of real-life experiments, explorations of habitats, and imaginative conceptualizations.

We develop and launch courses in Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Economics at Florida State University. Nearly 2000 students have now taken our courses.

CNDG designs and builds VLEs for the US Department of Defense Veterans Association to train primary care providers in the identification, diagnosis and treatment of PTSD in returning combat soldiers.

CNDG starts development of new courses in Energy in the Natural Environment, and Anatomy and Physiology. The total number of students who have taken our courses passes 25000.