noyd@milton.acs.washington.edu (Steven Noyd Jones) (01/25/90)
Welcome to sci.virtual-worlds. I'm Howard Rheingold. I'll be moderating this newsgroup for the first few months, with technical assistance from Steve Aukstakalnis of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory at the University of Washington. Steve will be taking over as moderator later in the year. I'm going to say a few words about the origins and purpose of this newsgroup, introduce myself, and get out of the way. First of all, this will be a very lightly moderated newsgroup. We hope to eliminate flames, but do not want to discourage debate. The only rules are those of basic human civility and a sense of respect for intellectual property rights. Scientists, engineers, programmers working in virtual worlds research and development are encouraged to contribute, but anybody who has something to say will be welcomed. Discussion across disciplines is particularly important here because virtual worlds research is interdisciplinary by its nature, encompassing computer graphics, hardware architecture, sensor technologies, output technologies, cognitive and physiological psychology, and a whole lot of programming. Complexity is built into the technology and into the network of knowledge necessary for exploration of virtual worlds, cyberspaces, virtual realities, teleoperators. This newsgroup is an experiment in creating a communication channel that could help us all deal with that complexity. More than ever, science and technology are held together by communications. And because such a broad working knowledge of previously unrelated disciplines is needed to build virtual world systems, it might be possible for everybody involved in the field to gain leverage by tapping the power of communication networks outside the boundaries of the refereed journals that form the backbone of formal scientific publication. Where do you go for the informal observation, rule of thumb, wild speculation, or hunch when you are trying to make a virtual system work, or using one to discover what it is good for? Frederick Brooks has suggested one system for dealing with such an informal but systematic knowledge exchange in his 1988 CHI presentation, "Grasping Reality Through Illusion." Brooks proposed that SIGCHI define "three nested classes of results -- findings, observations, and rules-of-thumb. Findings will be those results properly established by soundly-designed experiments, and stated in terms of the domain for which generalization is valid. Observations will be reports of facts of real user-behavior, even those observed in under-controlled, limited-sample experiences. Rules-of-thumb will be generalizations, even those unsupported by testing over the whole domain of generalization, believed by the investigators willing to attach their names to them." Brooks' suggestion is not quoted as a rule for this newsgroup, but as an inspiration for the possibility of using this medium for a fruitful exchange of ideas that could have impact beyond the networld. I am a writer with some interest in human interface technology. My book "Tools for Thought" was reasonably well received by those people in the computer sciences and industry who managed to get ahold of the relatively small number of copies available. ;-) I was invited to participate in a two year project conducted by the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment on the subject of "Communication Systems for An Information Age." My knowledge of computer science is wide and shallow. I couldn't program my way out of a paper bag. But I seem to be able to communicate fairly well with technical experts. In April, 1989, I started traveling around to sites where virtual worlds research and development is taking place, as part of my preparation for writing a popular-level book about the technology, under contract to Simon & Schuster. As I spoke to people at NASA and VPL and Autodesk, the University of North Carolina and MIT, and exchanged email with people in Austin, Boston, Seattle, and Stockholm, it became clear to me that developments in all the related subdisciplines were getting ahead of people's capacity to keep track. In late 1989, I proposed to Tom Furness, director of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory at the University of Washington, that a potentially fruitful forum for discussion might be created via Usenet. Most of the university or industry associated institutions conducting virtual worlds research have access to Usenet, which means that it is possible to bring the discussions to people all over the world. A moderated newsgroup would eliminate the flames that often lower the signal-to-noise ratio in online discussions, and provide a potentially powerful interdisciplinary problem-solving tool. For those who aren't interested in philosophical or social discussions, one of the major advantages of such a forum would be the capability of posting a question of the form: "I am trying to solve problem X with Y equipment and Z technique. Does Anybody have any hints?" The following is excerpted from the text of the call for discussion of the creation of sci.virtual-worlds, posted by Bob Jacobson on behalf of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory: "The Human Interface Technology Laboratory at the University of Washington proposes to host this newsgroup for the study of "virtual-world" phenomena. We believe that the coming proliferation of virtual-world phenomena made possible by powerful virtual-interface technology requires the scientific community served by Usenet to begin debating how this technology will be employed. Further, with additional research on virtual-world phenomena taking place at more and more research sites, and in a growing number of fields -- aerospace, medicine, entertainment, education, and science -- it is imperative that there be a forum where the outcomes of this research can be shared most widely. The subject of this newsgroup will be virtual worlds, in all their aspects: the theory of virtuality, the technology that is being developed and employed to create virtual-world environments, the people and places working on virtual worlds, and the philosophical questions and social consequences attendant upon the emergence of this new medium of communication. The Laboratory intends to make available via ftp the complete archives of sci.virtual-worlds and a database referencing the items in its considerable library regarding virtual-worlds phenomena and research. The database is in preparation. An announcement will be made when this archive is publicly available." Perhaps this newsgroup will help hasten the day when we can upload and download virtual worlds and world-building tools. And perhaps it will help us think about this emerging technology in ways that will influence its evolution. I believe that given the proper forum, the people who are creating this technology today do have the opportunity to do something unprecedented -- to incorporate the wisdom gained by technology assessment into the design of the technology, rather than musing upon it in retrospect. There are hard technical problems to be solved before virtual environments break the "reality barrier," and the computation power needed to achieve affordable VR for the masses is decades away. The research field and infant industry is still elastic, far from fully formed -- a good time for exerting leverage. Send email regarding this newsgroup to hitl@hardy.u.washington.edu Howard Rheingold, moderator
davis@community-chest.mitre.org (Dave Davis) (02/01/90)
In article <1553@milton.acs.washington.edu> you write: > >Welcome to sci.virtual-worlds. I'm Howard Rheingold. I'll be moderating >... >More than ever, science and technology are held together by >communications. etc. There are several folks at MITRE (also our Bedford, Mass site) that are interested in this topic. I look forward to their contributions to this BBoard. There is quite a great deal of interest in this area in DoD as the next step in human interface technology for the mid to late 90s. Some research $s are being spent in planning for this. Some questions I have are: is this one of the next great paradigms for computing, or will it be an expensive curiosity? Will it replace most other visual entertainment media in a few years, or will cost/complexity blunt this potential? ================================================================= Dave Davis McLean, VA