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From: sharp@cs-sun-fsd.cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Maurice Sharp)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: so called cyberspace conferences
Message-ID: <1990Dec13.093343.8402@cpsc.ucalgary.ca>
Date: 13 Dec 90 09:33:43 GMT
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In article <12911@milton.u.washington.edu> frerichs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David J Fr
erichs) writes:
>
>I must agree that these "cyberspace conferences" are quite useless.  They
>
>What would be useful is a conference of researchers and theorists to try
>to create some standards for VR and networked VR (my definition of a
>cyberspace is any multiuser WAN).  I think many others agree with me that
>the time for bullshit is over and the time to treat VR and its various
>sub catagories like a true field has come.
>We need standardization and Protocols... not fantasy.

Hiya,

    I must disagree with your assesment. If you look at the literature
on how scientific fields progress, it is NOT time to define standards.
In fact, the types of meetins we are having now are just the type they
should be.

    According to Gaines (see ref at end), there are 6 stages in the
development of an information technology :
        Breakthrough - creative advance
        Replication - mimick the breakthrough and gaine experience
        Empirical - rules of design based on experience
        Theoretical - underyling theories found
        Automation - theories predict experience and generate rules
        Maturity - routine use of technology

    The average time from Breakthrough to Maturity is 70 years !
Cyberspace and/or virtual reality is at the BREAKTHROUGH stage. What
is worse, the technology does not exist to implement and test most of
the ideas. It is going to be about 20-30 years before there are heavy
underlying theories. Less (3-10) for some empirical guidelines.

    I also disagree with your point about Cyberspace vs. Virtual
Reality. At the First Conference on Cyberspace we came up with a
reasonable Empirical distinction. Perhaps you should take a look at
the literature before you damn the conference. Science is not instant,
you do not name a field one year, then break it up into
compartmentalized subfields the next. Take a more realistic view of
science (read Thomas S. Khun, that ought to open your eyes).

    If you are really interested in what was accomplished at the
conference, I can send you a copy of my summary of the presentations.
It mentions the Cyberspace/VR difference.

        maurice

Gaines, B. R. From Information Technology to Knowledge Technology.
Future Computing Systems Vol 2 Num. 4. Oxford University Press.


-- 
Maurice Sharp MSc. Student (403) 220 7690
University of Calgary Computer Science Department
2500 University Drive N.W.            sharp@cpsc.UCalgary.CA
Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4             GEnie M.SHARP5