Kyoto Paper Revisons

I just sent off the three revised Croquet manuscripts for the upcoming Third International Conference on Creating, Connecting and Collaborating through Computing (C5 2005) in Kyoto, Japan. The deadline for revisions was January 10th and we got the PDFs out by email just under the wire. All three papers will eventually be made available as PDFs on the Croquet Project website's whitepaper section. In the meantime, here are the titles and abstracts:

Title: User Interfaces for Self and Others in Croquet Learning Spaces by Julian Lombardi and Mark P. McCahill

Abstract: Croquet-based learning environments should combine a rich media vocabulary with a distributed multi-user social experience. Such environments can provide unique opportunities for creating and delivering experiences that enhance online teaching and learning. Designing a user interface for such collaborative spaces presents several unique challenges. To enable productive interactions between users of such spaces requires that software designers choose what sorts of social interactions and cues to support such interactions within the collaborative space, and which to avoid. Design considerations are further complicated by the need to accommodate usability expectations created by users who are familiar with modern video game conventions while at the same time creating a user interface that provides an accessible path to the novice user of three-dimensional collaborative virtual environments. In this paper we examine how the user interface must explicitly address the boundary between private and public in a virtual collaborative social space, and propose a set of initial user interface conventions so that we can start the trial and error process of developing the optimal user interface for Croquet-based collaborative spaces to support learning and instruction.

Title: User Interfaces for Places and Things in Croquet Learning Spaces by Mark P. McCahill and Julian Lombardi

Abstract: Croquet collaborative learning environments are computer-mediated three-dimensional social environments where users create and modify the shared virtual world simulation. Users build and modify Croquet collaborative spaces by creating new spaces, linking spaces together, and populating spaces with objects. The spaces and objects that users control can have behaviors and other attributes which users may modify. This flexibility presents unique challenges in designing a user interface that is functional for a user community with a wide range of experience and expertise. In this paper, we examine how the user interface can support user control of things and places in Croquet-based collaborative learning spaces, and propose a set of initial user interface conventions so that we can start the trial and error process of developing the optimal user interface for Croquet-based collaborative spaces that support learning and instruction.

Title: Croquet Learning Environments: Extending the Value of Campus Life into the Online Experience by Marilyn Lombardi and Julian Lombardi

Abstract: Croquet is a broadband communications platform with a 3D user interface and peer-to-peer network architecture – provides educators with a new expressive “meta-medium that is capable of replicating – and in certain ways, surpassing – the most valuable features of campus life. By comparing the campus to a collaborative “information space” where we are free to roam and “interoperate” at will, we underscore the role that proprietary restrictions – operating systems, applications, and formats – have played in making online learning a remote, cramped, and emotionally “flat” experience. From there, we examine the technical hurdles that must be overcome before our online learning experiences can approximate the vitality of campus-based, socially contextualized education.