This is a brief overview of some of the technologies that are developing on
the Internet for creating virtual communities. This is mostly for those of
you who aren't all that technically minded or who don't have time to keep up
with Internet news yourself. Well, who can keep up, anyway, it is moving
very quickly.
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First some of the older stuff:
You are all familiar with mailing lists, as you are getting this message on
a mailing list. Some mailing lists, like ncnmain-l here, are moderated, to
keep the traffic low and of high quality. Others, like ncndiscuss-l, you can
post to whatever you feel like, and hang out and have discussions with
people. You can be on a mailing list as long as you have any kind of e-mail
access.
Then there is IRC. IRC means Internet Relay Chat. Here one engages in live
text chat with people who are connecting with the same network of servers
and the same channel. You type a sentence and it immediately appears on the
screens of anybody else who are connected with the same channel. It is used
for just hanging out amongst people with the same interests, or it can be
used for more organized discussions. We had several 1 hour NCN discussions
on IRC last year, which worked out very well. See
http://www.worldtrans.org/ncn/conf/ncnirc.html for past transscripts and
more information on IRC. To do IRC you would normally need to download a
client program, like iChat or GlobalChat, which will let you use all the
features.
Web Chat exists in various formats. Basically you connect your web browser
to a certain address and you can type messages and click a button and they
get posted right away. The discussions are not as immediate and lively as
IRC, but it is more permananent as the messages stay around for when the
next people come by, so one doesn't have to be there at the same time.
Therefore it tends to be more thoughtful messages that people leave. At
least that is how it works in the NCN chat room at
http://www.newciv.org/cgi-bin/webchat.pl
There are on-line bulletin boards or forums. Here one posts and message for
others and one can leave replys to other's messages, but there is no
real-time interaction. There is an NCN bulletin board at
http://www.worldtrans.org/ncn/forum/wwwboard.html It is probably more suited
for announcements or requests than for discussion.
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For those who aren't up on the latest techno-speak, "real-time" means that
something is happening immediately, at the same rate as it really happens,
as when you are listening to a broadcast when it is happening, or you type a
message and somebody else sees it immediately. A "client" is any program
that you use that has as its main purpose to connect to a "server" somewhere
else which has or does something you want. Netscape is a client for web servers.
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Now for the more recently feasible technologies:
Voice over the Internet. There is quite a list of different programs that
will allow you to talk with somebody else through your computer: iPhone,
Netphone, FreeTel, etc. You need a computer that has audio capability, i.e.
microphone and speakers. A Windows computer needs to have a sound card to do
that. On a Mac it is built in.
CoolTalk, which comes with Netscape 3.0, or is downloadable from
http://home.netscape.com/comprod/products/navigator/cooltalk/download_coolta
lk.html is a free program that allows audio communication, text chat, a
shared whiteboard where one can make pictures together, and, on the Mac,
also video.
With several of these programs you first connect with a central server to
find out if the person you want to talk with is on-line at the moment. And
with all of them you can only communicate with somebody who is on-line with
their computer right at that moment.
PowWow from Tribal Voice at http://www.tribal.com/powwow/ is a popular
program that lets up to 7 people interact in text or voice and that allows
them to tour the web as a group, jumping from web page to web page, while
maintaining a constant line with each other. Windows only, though.
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Video conferencing. If you have a $99 Connectix video camera to plug into
the back of your computer, and you have a 28.8 modem or better, you can do
video conferencing over the Internet.
CU-SeeMe from http://cu-seeme.cornell.edu/ is a free program for Windows or
Mac that will let you see and hear either another individual running the
same program, or a whole group of people connected to a certain server
(called a "reflector"). A little B/W window pops up for each person and you
can see them move. How well that looks depends on everybody's connection
speeds, but it is never anything like what you see on TV. Sound is here more
difficult to transmit well than the pictures, so people usually use a text
chat window to talk with each other.
There is a growing list of dedicated videophone programs. For example
VDOphone at http://www.vdolive.com/vdophone/ or VideoPhone from
http://www.connectix.com/ One can see each other in color, talk in voice and
various other features.
And, if you have missed it, you can now watch real-time video clips in web
pages if you have the proper plug-in program and a recent Netscape or
Microsoft web browser and a fairly fast computer. VDO and Vivo are good
plugins. Check out the Plug-in Plaza at
http://browserwatch.iworld.com/plug-in.html for what is available.
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Virtual Reality. If you have a reasonably fast computer and the right
plug-ins for your web browser, you can look at VRML over the Net. VRML -
Virtual Reality Modeling Language - is a standard for how to show 3D
environments that one can navigate around in. There is a VRML2.0 standard
that includes animation, interactivity, sound and more, but it will be
another couple of months before all VRML viewers support it. Currently, most
VRML environments are static scenes that one can move around in, but where
nothing particularly is going on in.
You can get a Live3D VRML plugin from Netscape (Win or Mac)
http://home.netscape.com/eng/live3d/ or a Cosmo VRML plugin (Win only) from
Silicon Graphics at http://webspace.sgi.com/intro.html which are the most
common one's.
Now, several vendors are going a step further and providing 3D environments
where you get a virtual body called an "avatar" which you can maneuver
around in the space, and which other people can see, and you can see their
avatars. You can chat with the other people with text, and soon with voice.
World's Inc. http://www.worlds.net/ is one of the pioneers. One can download
a standalone viewer for accessing their pre-fabricated "worlds". They also
just came out with an Active Worlds plug-in that will do the same from
within a web browser.
Even more mind-blowing is AlphaWorld
http://www.worlds.net/alphaworld/index.html also from Worlds Inc. It is a
virtual city with many thousands of inhabitants. Not only can you navigate
around in it in 3D and interact with other people's avatars, you can also
build new buildings and structures of all kinds in it. You can permanently
create pubs or castles or whatever you feel like, and these will appear for
other people who come by. Unfortunately, these last couple of programs only
exist for Windows at this point.
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More web sites with information on what is available:
My, slightly outdated, Cutting Edge Uses of the Web:
http://www.worldtrans.org/cuttingedge.html
Comprehensive list of conferencing tools:
http://www.tietotie.fi/pep/conference_tools.html
Wayz to Communicate over the Net:
http://www.ducksoup.net/wayz/wayzhome.html
Communications Clients for Windows:
http://www.cwsapps.com/sphone.html
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I personally am always interested in exploring new ways of creating virtual
interaction and communities, so if you want to meet in any of these
environments, or you need a few more hints on how to get started, feel free
to drop me a note.
- Flemming
o o
/ \------------------ Flemming A. Funch ------------------/ \
/ * \ World Transformation/New Civilization/Whole Systems / * \
/ * * \ ffunch@newciv.org / * * \
o-------o----------- http://www.worldtrans.org/ ----------o-------o
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Dec 07 2000 - 23:22:11 PST