No. 14 

February 10, 2000

 

Technology:

ActiveWorlds

Have you heard of the cyberpunk novel "Snow Crash"? One of the most interesting aspects of this book is its portrayal of the Web as a Virtual Reality environment, where the surfers become realistic, 3D avatars capable of walking, talking, fighting, meeting other avatars... Well, guess what: this sci-fi vision is quickly turning into reality: a Massachusetts company called Activeworlds.com has created a 3D "Universe" with hundreds of interactive worlds built and populated by its subscribers. At this early stage it is really hard to tell whether this is just another toy, whose novelty will soon wear out, or a useful tool of serious potential. In order to find out, the company asked a large number of education-related institutions (primarily universities) to submit proposals to study the educational applications of ActiveWorlds technology.  Accepted proposals were then awarded with a free development space on an ActiveWorlds server and invited to build and test their own virtual worlds.

Some of these proposal are really bold and innovative. Universita Degli Studi Di Milano is building a simulation of a small animal clinic; ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena stretches the boundaries of reality by designing a world without a unified horizon; University of California Santa Cruz is testing the feasibility of a virtual High School.  ACT, whose proposal was also selected for participation in this program, will look into creating a virtual library and a social space for students in distance-independent courses spanning 2 continents.

It is tempting to dismiss the ActiveWorlds technology as "chat with puppets", as I heard somebody call it. Indeed, the primary communication tool is textual chat, and the avatars' movements are limited to walking, running, jumping, dancing, and a few gestures to express emotions (e.g. anger, happiness); no handshake or hugs; no facial expressions, no ability to sit or lay down. Yet even with those limitations, the experience can be spectacular and quite addictive; the other day I followed a group of 6 avatars trying to perform a line dance in a park. The sensation of walking up to a virtual person, looking into his face, waving a hand, and knowing that there is a REAL human behind this cartoonish silhouette was eerie...

ActiveWorlds' proprietary browser, available for free download at http://www.activeworlds.com/, also allows sending files and "telegrams" (instant messages), maintaining a contact list, and displaying Web pages linked from 3D objects within a world. ACT has tried extending the communication capabilities by adding a voice chat; these tests proved the feasibility of this idea, but a stable, adequate voice chat tool is yet to be found. "Tourist" access to ActiveWorlds is free and does not require setting up an account. "Citizen" access requires a small fee ($20 per year) and allows building and a greater choice of avatars. Amazingly, this 3D environment is not a bandwidth hog and provides satisfying experience even at modem speeds. (The browser caches objects on local drive, so the first connection takes considerably more time than the subsequent ones.)

The Educational Universe project is a separate "Universe" and can not be reached via the generic ActiveWorlds browser, but requires a customized version, available for free at http://www.activeworlds.com/edu/awedu_download.html. (Both browsers run only on Windows or Windows emulators on the Mac). Unfortunately, many individual worlds are closed to the public, but a few (including ACT) allow tourist access, so please visit at any time. More information about participants in the project and their particular experiments can be found at
http://edu.activeworlds.com/.

 

ACT World on AWEDU (click on a thumbnail):


1st person view
3rd person view

Initiatives:

"The Digital Divide Network (DDN) tackles the growing gap between those who have access to technology and information skills and those who do not through a powerful knowledge network. The purpose of the DDN is to  enable and facilitate the sharing of ideas, information and creative solutions among industry partners, private foundations, nonprofit organizations and governments (...) in order to leverage the best ideas to reach the most chronically under-served American residents.".

Primarily an information resource, DDN prepares and distributes (through its Web site): news briefs; feature stories; listing of grants and funding; listing of initiatives; directory of local resources.  Funding for the initiative is provided by the Benton Foundation, AOL, Ford Foundation, Microsoft, AT&T, National Urban League, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Gateway, iVillage, Intel, and SBC Communications.

Conference:

VirComm 2000
  • Third Annual Virtual Communities Conference,
  • Held May 8-9, 2000 in San Francisco, CA
  • VirComm serves planners, developers and mangers of virtual communities and it's the sole conference devoted exclusively to online communities. Attendees come to VirComm for the serious purpose of learning firsthand about new products, trends, techniques, and strategies.
  • Of interest to: Community Developers and Managers --- Web Site Designers --- Product and Brand Managers --- Marketing and Advertising Executives --- Publishers and Editors --- Intranet & Extranet Community Developers & Managers --- Virtual Community Software Producers

Online reading:

These transcripts from moderated, topical chat events in the ActiveWorlds Educational Universe (AWEDU) are available in both Microsoft Word and PDF file formats. They have not been edited for content, so do expect quite a bit of "white noise" in form of greetings, irrelevant chat, errors, etc. However, it is generally worth it to wade through the mess to get at the "meat" of the debate.  The three most recent transcripts are especially interesting:

  1. Integrating ActiveWorlds into the Classroom
  2. Running Bots in AWEDU
  3. Designing Virtual Worlds for Education

She said, he said:

"There is no more delicate matter to take in hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor more doubtful of success, than to step up as a leader in the introduction of change. For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm support in those who might be better off under the new." -- NiccoloMachiavelli


©1999, 2000 Vlad Wielbut and the Alliance for Community Technology