ba-rt451@barney.bgsu.edu (Doug Landers) (10/26/90)
Hi, I need some forecasting information in the area of virtual reality. I need this information for a paper that I have due in my new electronic media class. I am at Bowling Green State University, in Ohio, and our library does not have anything on the future of virtual reality. It would also be a big help to have some history of virtual reality. I have all the present information, although any additional info would be appriciated. Please respond to me, so I don't clutter up the newsgroup, at ba-rt451@barney.bgsu.edu . Thank you in advance to those that can help. Doug Landers ba-rt451@barney.bgsu.edu CS dep't. (student)
sobiloff@acc.stolaf.edu (Chrome Cboy) (10/28/90)
Dear Mr. Moderator,
This is about, what, the third or-so posting asking for pointers to
papers, books, articles, etc., regarding virtual reality. No, I'm not whining
about you forewarding them to the group... :-) I'd like to suggest that we,
as a group, work on establishing our own database of VR-related material!
Such a database is clearly being called for, and I think it would
be a tremendous aid to people who are just becoming interested in VR and
need to know where to get their feet wet, so to speak. I'm envisioning some-
thing similar to the "Usenet Macintosh Programmer's Guide" that was recenlty
compiled. It is a whopping 270+ page document chocked full of great, workable
source, tips, pointers, etc., and is probably an invaluable aid for many
people besides myself. Of course, the best is that its only cost to you is
what it costs to print out!
So, why not do something similar for our group? Of course we'd have
to dicker a bit about a standard format that everyone can use (plain text,
or do we want a "true" database? What is a good format for data interchange
between Unix, Mac, IBM, et al?), but I think it's definitely workable. We
could determine a number of classifications that various papers can fit into,
and then have individuals write brief (1 paragraph or so) abstracts about
things of interest. Compile it and put it up for anonymous ftp. Lots of work,
but I'd be willing to help with the compilation and may even be able to
provide an ftp site. Of course I'm *not* volunteering to do it all (I'm not
*that* big a glutton for punishment... :-), but I would like to get the ball
rolling.
What say you? Thanks for your time.
-Blake
--
______________
_______________________________________________________/ Chrome C'Boy \_________
| "One of the biggest obstacles to the future of computing is C. C is the last |
| attempt of the high priesthood to control the computing business. It's like |
| the scribe and the Pharisees who did not want the masses to learn how to |
| read and write." -Jerry Pournelle |
[So what do YOU all say? I'm just the moderator. We all do the work!
-- Bob Jacobson]nielsen@flash.bellcore.com (Jakob Nielsen) (10/30/90)
Chrome Cboy writes: > I'd like to suggest that we, > as a group, work on establishing our own database of VR-related material! Good idea. I would like to add a suggestion that we take advantage of the cyberspace nature of the existing net community by annotating the various references with quality and interest-level ratings. As an example, assume that the database has 200 literature references. Maybe 10 of these will be rated as extremely important by everybody, and another, say, 20 will be rated highly by some and as pure nonsense by others. All 30 are probably papers a newcomer should look at, but said newcomer should exercise caution before trusting the latter 20 papers. There needs to be some kind of voting mechanism set up with a standardized rating scale (-4 to +4 ??) and a method of emailing ratings to have them included in the database. -- Jakob Nielsen, Bellcore MRE-2P370, 445 South St, Morristown, NJ 07962-1910, USA nielsen@bellcore.com, Tel. (201) 829-4731(w)/538-7254(h), Fax (201) 538-9093.
cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) (10/31/90)
Is there anyone who would be willing to become the coordinator of the database project as suggested by ChromeBoy and Jakob Nielsen? If so, please contact me privately. In the meantime, others are invited to continue posting suggestions as to how the database might be organized and maintained. Thanks. Bob Jacobson Moderator
warren@debra.doc.ca (Warren Baird) (10/31/90)
>[So what do YOU all say? I'm just the moderator. We all do the work! > -- Bob Jacobson] I would be VERY interested in seeing a guide such as suggested by sobiloff@acc.stolaf.edu (Chrome Cboy). As for format of the material... It would seem to me that a plain text document, or perhaps a troff/nroff document would be the simplest and allow the most people access to the information. -- Warren Baird | warren@dgbt.doc.ca ...utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!dgbt!warren Doing a Co-op term at Communications Canada, Ottawa
cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) (11/01/90)
I believe we have a volunteer to handle the beginning of this database construction and maintenance. However, before posting his name and subjecting him to your intended barrage of recommended readings (!), I'm going to discuss with him a bit more of the organization involved. Also, it's come to my attention via comp.simulation that a VR database has already been assembled, or is being assembled, at Indiana University. Perhaps it would be wise to amalgamate our efforts. If anyone at Indiana reads this, or if my email finds its target, perhaps we can work out a sharing arrangement online. Thanks to all for your continuing support for this necessary addition to sci.virtual-worlds. Bob Jacobson Moderator