Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ogicse!milton!cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu
From: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Toward a Typology/Topology of Virtual Worlds
Message-ID: <11583@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 22 Nov 90 18:28:16 GMT
Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Human Interface Technology Lab, Univ. of Wash., Seattle
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Bernie Roehl, in a discussion of MUDs, has raised the very significant
issue:  How do we categorize virtual worlds?  This issue has been
raised in many fora -- here, on The WELL, at conferences innumerable,
and in private discussions.

Has anyone thoughts along the lines of how we might create a typology,
based on the topology, of virtual worlds?  This typology might include
everything from the static "world" of the written page to the ultra-
dynamic, interactive virtual worlds that we more often speak about
here.
 
With your permission, I would like to archive these ideas for possible
inclusion in an invited proposal for a conference possibly to be
sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation on the science of
virtual worlds.

Thanks.

Bob Jacobson
Moderator

(You can also reply to me at cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu if you
prefer not to have your thoughts become public.  However, I encourage
public postings.)