A workshop at CVE 2000, San Francisco, September 10, 2000.
ORGANISERS
Alan Munro, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
Andrew McGrath BT Adastral Park, Suffolk, UK
Elaine Raybourn Sandia
National Labs, New Mexico, USA
Workshop homepage located at
http://www.cs.unm.edu/~raybourn/CVE2000.html
Workshop Notes
THEME
The aim of this workshop is to try to look forward to the future of
Collabortative Virtual Environments (CVEs).
We have already seen in the past 5 years, a move from basic theorising
about CVEs to experience in design, building and interacting within these
environments. Where does this experience point us?
We wish to look at future possibilities/scenarios in a number of domains:
* Size and scalability : Most experiences of graphical CVEs have suggested that they have in large worked well with small communities, but we are generally aiming for them to support large ones. Should we perhaps concentrate on smaller communities rather than aiming for large, scalable VEs? Is less more in terms of virtual community? Should we only be able to go into a CVE as one person: what about groups around an inhabited TV?
* Beyond the desktop: What will happen if CVEs move out of the desktop computer where they have traditionally resided and are embodied in different interfaces and network technologies ? We have seen the conceptual development in terms of ideas of mixed reality: CVEs existing alongside real spaces and technology. Perhaps the CVE itself may evolve beyond the desktop and be instantiated in many different devices, e.g. wireless technologies. What happens if we interact moving in space and in a virtual environment? We wish to look at possible domains from the perspectives of users in this space, and from designers. How will this impinge on our experience of virtuality?
* Mutability: is the current way of building virtual environments wrong? That they are instantiated in a top-down fashion and are limited in any mutability. Do we need to 'build in' the possibility for mutability in these spaces? In a large space, it may be economically ruinous to have intensive upkeep of the VE considering the ratios of developers to users as indicated from present experience. Perhaps users themselves have to be enabled perhaps the environment changes itself, through artificial life, virtual ecosystems, climate, ecosystems etc.
We wish to reflect on these themes in terms of both development and experience of use.
PARTICIPATION
Potential participants should submit a 2-5 page position paper.
Participants will be selected on the basis of these.
IMPORTANT DATES
July 31st:- Deadline for papers
August 4th:- Notification of Acceptance
August 18th:- Camera ready copies due
Submissions should be sent electronically to Alan Munro:- a.munro@dcs.napier.ac.uk and cc'd to Elaine Raybourn:- emraybo@sandia.gov Please send submissions in either MSWord or .pdf format