Virtual reality technology offers the possibility of running through simulated lifelike crises without the risk. Where that virtual reality goal is in relation to real reality was the focus of a recent conference on modeling and simulation for emergency response. For example, Charles McLean of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Sanjay Jain, research associate professor at Virginia Tech, discussed NIST's effort to create a "framework for integrated emergency response." The framework would incorporate disaster type, affected parties, and applications such as vulnerability analysis and training. Rebecca Moses, Michael J. Taylor, and Gary R. Steiner spoke of a parallel effort at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and called for the creation of a national user facility that would be "responsible for developing and maintaining integrated emergency response simulation tools and high-quality supporting data." @ Summaries of these workshops have been collected into a document published by NIST, which is available below.NIST_Workshop0604.pdf