Last updated October 13, 1999 (wow that's quite a while ago...)

Sociology of Cyberspace

Information categorized by subjects

Table of Contents

Bibliographies & documnent indexes & Mailing lists

1. Introduction
2. Events, What's new
3. General Index Pages
4. Educational MUDs
5. Publications
6. Guides, FAQs & Manuals
7. "Educational" Moo objects
8. Clients
9. Various

Introduction

MUDs used to stand for "Multi-user Dungeons", i.e. multi-user interactive role-playing games on the Internet. Today, the concept "MUD" refers to all primarily text-based Multi-User Dimensions. MUD technology can be used for education in various ways. To connect to a MUD, you can use a telnet client, but better find a specialized Client In education, MOOs (MUD, Object Oriented) are most popular since they have a sophisticated built-in programming language..

MUDs (and specially the MOO variant) can be be characterized by:

• Many persons can connect simultaneously to a server.
• The MUD has a spacial organization, e.g. people interact with people or objects primarily within "rooms".
• Within a MOO, many real time communication actions exist, like "saying" or "emoting" things publically to the persons in a "room", pageing people elsewhere, "whispering" messages, using a "CB" channel, etc.
• Asynchronous communication tools include internal e-mail, Newsgroups, News papers, tutorial rooms, "whiteboards", etc.

Events, What's New ?

• GeoSoc is hosting a round table discussion bringing the dungeon game format into education.  Concept is essentially to incorporate learning into some of Sony's play station software (instead of casting a spell of doom -- beat the others to the right answer). 

General Index Pages

• Graphical Muds:  Nice index of 3d state of the art work.
• FTP sites for Muds:  Huge list.
• Cybertown:  Well maintained game format, uses a special Netscape plug in.
• Muds, Moos & Mushes:Hip-Waders in the CMC Swamp by Jason Nolan.
• MUDs, MOOs & MUSHs by Steve Thorne (email).
• MOO/MU* Document Library by Jerome P.McDonough. Best (IMHO) Moo documentation depository!
• Cardiff's VR Page. Information on MOO ("Mud, Object-Oriented"). Has pointers to many interesting servers for text(MUD)-based VR, also educational (good). See also: Cardiff's MUD Page. It has a good clickable MUD-List.
• "moo", A good index page by Chris Hand. See also: Text-Based Virtual Reality,
• Thigpen's MUD page (good).
• FTP MOO dir at Xerox (home of Lambda MOO). Has MOO client and server software, manuals, but also some important papers. Most education/collaborative work MU*'s seem to be MOO-based.

Educational MUDs

1. Indexes & other Summary Information:
• Educational MOOs (text) by "Donald", appeared in the DU Journal of Virtual Education Vol1, No1.
• GNA Consortium Members use several MOOs (on Feb 95 GNA is on 7 virtual campuses). Those MOOs feature shared rooms ("GNA Forums") and a inter-MOO pageing links.
• MUSEs in education (A BBN page)
• Computers and Writing '95 Online (pointers to writing MOOs)

1. Educational & Reserach MUDS Note that some are "serious" MUDs with additional themes or "social" MUDs with educational and/or research activites.
• Organization: Computer Writing and Research Lab, Dept. of Rhetoric and Composition, U of Texas at Austin
• Theme: Academic consists of a number of theme areas, each of which have an educational purpose, but which are also intended to be entertaining. Examples include an area devoted to cyberpunk, an extensive area devoted to recreating significant portions of various historical eras (including Ancient Greece and Rome) and an area devoted to the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
• Access: Areas are being worked on by staff members of the CWRL, but students are also encouraged to contribute and have added some interesting places of their own. Currently, Academic has an open character creation and building policy. 
• Access: Visitors are welcome at brazos.iac.net:8888. Qualified university-level instructors interested in joining Athena University should contact Dr. William Painter, Executive Director. Student and other inquires can contact VOU@Delphi.com
• Bay MOO - WWW Page telnet://BayMOO.sfsu.edu:8888/
• Theme: This is mostly a "cultural MOO" but it is currently (Jan 95) increasing educational activities.

AussieMOO

 

WWW Pagetelnet://silo.riv.csu.edu.au:7777/ Theme: Contains virtual classrooms and more for use by internal and distance education students and teachers, up to Ph.D level. WE hope to turn it into a WOO as part of a package of Internet tools in the virtual classroom.

BioMOO

           WWW Information Page

telnet://bioinfo.weizmann.ac.il:8888/

Purpose: A virtual meeting place for biology professionals.
WWW-Moo Interface: First connect via telnet (at the address given above) and log in with "guest [name] [password]", using a [name] and [password] of your choice. Then connect to the web access system (at http://bioinfo.weizmann.ac.il:8000), and enter the same name and password in the web authentication form when requested.

EON

Gopher Page
telnet://mcmuse.mc.maricopa.edu:8888

ExploreNet

WWW Page
Theme: Explorenet is a multimedia MUD environment for use between schools. It is part of the Virtual Academy Project at the University of Central Florida and the Coalition of Essential Schools at Brown University.

French MOO

telnet://logos.daedalus.com:8888/.

Theme: Learning french (by conversation, games, etc.)

Lingua MOO

WWW Information page
telnet://lingua.utdallas.edu:8888/
WWW interface: http://lingua.utdallas.edu:7000/11
Theme: LINGUA MOO is an educational and professional community for teachers and students at The University of Texas at Dallas. It is both a learning environment and a place where faculty collaborate on various projects related to teaching and research using electronic media. It is also designed to support links with other MOOs and collectives like AEE (Alternative Education Environments) and the GNA-Net (Globewide Network Academy).

Little Italy

WWW Information page
telnet://ipo.tesi.dsi.unimi.it:4444/
Theme: ???
Special Features: Italian Spoken.

Meridian

telnet://sky.bellcore.com:7777/.
Theme: A virtual image of the world: geography, culture, history...

MiamiMOO

WWW Information Page
telnet://moo.cas.muohio.edu:7777/
Organization: sponsored by Miami University's Classics and Religion departments.
Theme:It is open to the public, but is intended for building virtual models of important historical and religious buildings and regions. It is sponsored by Miami University's Classics and Religion departments and is being built (so far) by a motley group of professors, grad students and undergraduates. The MOO is first and foremost an academic tool.
WWW-MOO Interface: http://moo.cas.muohio.edu/~moo/

MicroMUSE

Theme: See here (includes bibliography and how to use information).
telnet://musenet.bbn.com

OWL

WWW Information Page
telnet://auden.fac.utexas.edu:8888/
Organization: Dept. of Rhetoric and Composition, U of Texas at Austin
Theme: OWL (Online Writing Laboratory) is maintained by members of the Undergraduate Writing Center (Dept. of Rhetoric and Composition). OWL's primary purpose is to allow on-line consultations between UWC staff and UT students concerning student writing skills. It has also become a meeting place for UT faculty and students and faculty from around the country, as well as the site of a weekly Creative Writing Workshop.
Access: Anyone interested in more info about it should contact Susan Warshauer of the UWC at swan@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu.

PennMOO

telnet://ccat.sas.upenn.edu:7777
Theme:Virtual Classrooms. Several Actvities, see e.g. New Tools for Teaching and especially the MOO: The virtual classroom by James J. O'Donnell - e.g. PennMOO for English 88

schMOOze University
schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu:8888

Theme: schMOOze is a small, friendly college known for its hospitality and the diversity of the student population. It was established in July, 1994 as a place where people studying English as a second or foreign language could practice English while sharing ideas and experiences with other learners and practicers of English. Students have opportunities for one-on-one and group conversations as well as access to language games, an on-line dictionary, USENET feed, and gopher access. Although schMOOze was founded with the ESL/EFL student in mind, it welcomes all people interested in cross-cultural communication.

SchoolNet MOO

Theme: Canada's SchoolNet runs its own K-12, bilingual (English/French) educational MOO.
Access: The MOO itself is at schoolnet.carleton.ca 7777, but does not allow guest connections
Example of what they do: "Last May, for example, we held a Q/A session between the Minister of Justice of Canada and students from 7 different schools from accross Canada. (Transcript: here)

TecfaMOO

telnet://tecfamoo.unige.ch:7777.
The WWW-MOO Interface
Organization: TECFA (Technologies de Formation et Apprentissage), Faculte de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, University of Geneva.
Theme: This is our (this WWW page maintainer's) MOO. Its main purposes are research (in educational technology and CMC) and some education.
Special Topics: See the TecfaMOO Project page for more information (documentation, articles, student projects, etc.).

Virtual Online University

WWW page.
Theme: Virtual Online University, a member of the GNA consortium, sponsors two educational endeavors encompassing both secondary and post-secondary education: Athena University - a classically-oriented institution of higher learning offering university classes on the internet - and the GENII Lab School. GENII is an internet training resource to K-12, higher education and business professionals. A central mission of GENII is to bring effective and affordable internet training to everyone who needs it.
Access: Visit us at telnet://athena.edu

ZOOMoo

Theme: A MOO will offer [...] chances to use a social environment for educational purposes, a chance for teachers and students to learn by engaging in the construction of simulations. And since everything in a MOO is written, the thing plays to MU's commitment to improving student writing. It may also contribute to the university's efforts to support computer and information literacy. See the Virtual place for Writers WWW home page for details on the on-line writery.

Other interesting MUDs

1. Professional Communities

PMC MOO - WWW Page (includes a telnet/tinyfuge button, good idea!)

Theme: Postmodern Culture. This page includes pointers to the issues of "Postmodern Culture: An Electronic Journal of Interdisciplinary Criticism" and other PMC stuff.

telnet://hero.village.virginia.edu:7777/.

See also: WWW Page of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, The University of Virginia. (includes a telnet button for the IATH-specific MOO).

Media MOO

telnet://purple-crayon.media.mit.edu:8888/"

Theme:Meeting Place for Media Researchers, one of the "ancient MOOs".

See also:

Some of the educational MOOs above: (BioMOO, TecfaMOO, ...)

1. Various

MOOsaico

telnet://moo.di.uminho.pt:7777/

Special Features: A True Multi-lingual MOO !

The ChibaMOO/WOO

WWW Page. (WWW pages and telnet buttons for the Sprawl, World and WaxWeb MOOs)

Special features: Integrates the WWW and the MOO.

Lambda MOO

telnet://lambda.parc.xerox.com:8888/"

Theme: Moo-Fun, cultural

Special Features: The largest (I think) and the best known, got some exposure in the Media.

Jay's House MOO (JHM) - WWW-Page

Theme:An ongoing project to investigate text-based VR.

Special Features: Hang-out for some very good Moo programmers

PtMOOt (dead now)
Theme: ActLab's Quote "It attempts to reproduce the 'real world' by disallowing any sort of communication or action unless it has a real-life counterpart. It also has an interesting economic system established. To excite things a bit, there's some good ol' fashion conspiracy wacko and Lovecraftian elements to spice things up a bit." See this Gopher page for more information.
 

Publications

• MOO as education, learning and research tools (Also points to articles covering MOOs as part of an educational set-up)
• Academy in the Ether by By Nina Hall, London, (Appeared in: The Times Higher Education Supplement, September 16, 1994, back page [xii], here in html format) . See also: OU sees net gain for real by Lynton McLain, London (Appeared in: The Times Higher Education Supplement, September 16, 1994, front page).
• Articles on DU(html). 
• A conferencing Workshop for Teachers On Using the Internet. MOO transcripts found at the VOU WWW home page.
• Virtual Realities, Virtual Communities and Informal Science Education by Barry Kort, BBN Labs.
• See also: Virtual Communitiesby Howard Rheingold.
• Other articles
• Article in html format: "The Dragon Ate My Homework" from Wired Magazine.
• papers at the Xerox Archive (FTP dir). Several formats are available.
• BETTER LIVING THROUGH LANGUAGE, The Communicative Implications of a Text-Only Virtual Environment, or,Welcome to LambdaMOO! by Eva-Lise Carlstrom, Grinnell College.
• A MOO-Based Collaborative Hypermedia System for WWW by Tom Meyer (twm@cs.brown.edu), David Blair (artist1@echonyc.com), and Suzanne Hader(smh@cs.brown.edu), paper presented at IT94. .

Bibliographies & Document Indexes, mailing lists

PLEASE (applies to all on-line information): People should sign their pages and even more so their on-line articles!

1. Bibliographies:

• Academic and Other writings about Muds & Moos (off Jason Nolan's MUD Page).
• Communication Papers at Sunsite (including MuDs and MOOs) by David Barberi
• The ftp papers archive at Xerox
• See also: Virtual Communities by Howard Rheingold.
• The SenseMedia/Chiba MOO Papers
1. Mailing Lists (and Archives)
• Moo-Ed Archive (education & MOOs) To subscribe read: this
• cbnvee (concerns: "educational virtual realities") To subscribe read: this
• MOO cows (technical discussion)
• Cyberspace and Society: To subscribe: Send a message to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk with the following content: join cyberspace-and-society <First Name> <Name>

Guides, FAQs & Manuals

1. Beginners help
• A beginner's Guide to MOOing. - Consult this before you log into one of the MOOs.
2. Programmers
• The "MUD" entries in the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet
• Coldmud Programmer's Reference The C-like "C--" language for the ColdMud server system.
3. FAQs
• MOO-Cows FAQ, Ascii version: here.
• New MOO Wiz FAQ (Helps if you want to start a MOO)

"Educational" Moo objects

1. Tools for on-line classes & tutorial rooms:
• Building Tools for Education by Ken Schweller. Quote from this DUJVRE Journal (1/1) article: "Over the past few years I have enjoyed building a variety of MOO tools which are presently being used here and about for instructional and educational purposes. These tools include the following Generics: - video camera, tape, vcr, tv - slide projector, lecture - conversational robot - classroom, and theater".
• Education MOOs.See section 5 of this article.
• See also: GNA C++ Consulting (A Web page describing also their interactive classroom).
2. Educational environments:
• To be developed: Check the Ohlohne village at BayMOO or Agincourt at DU

Clients .

• MUDDweller is simple Mac client that works will with Mac TCP/IP. Ftp Archives:  here.
• Emacs rmoo client: Works (only) with GNU Emacs (not lemacs). In our opinion the best overall emacs MOO client (programming support). You can forget about @notedit, just remember to type '@edito +l' (@editoptions +local), this was not obvious to me!
• Other clients rumored to be good
• tkMOO: tk/tcl based (you need to have those installed). There are several versions, like tkMOO 4.1 (Andrew Wilson) or tkMOO 4.0(Jay Carlson)- (documentation). I gave up on the installation (too hard for simple tourists!).
• Maybe one of those Windows clients created by GraphComp
• Client depositories/information:
• "Related Information" at the Cardiff's MUD WWW tree

Various 

1. WWW and MOO
• MOO-WWW.
• MUD WWW implementations.
2. Future Multimedia MOOs (other than WWW-MOOs)
• AstroVR World Wide Web Link
• A Rave on the Possibility of a Director Based Multimedia Client for Lambda (by Dorian Dowse)
3. Future text based VR, technical discussions, etc.
• LabSpaceThe LabSpace project integrates emerging multiuser virtual environment technology with state of the art multimedia interfaces in order to support scientific collaboration
• Links between MUDs and WWW (in: WWW and GNA).
• The JHM Project to investigate text-based virtual realities. A lot of interesting subprojects. (.e.g the Moo Client Protocol proposal)
4. MUDs and VR
• Real VR will be important: The Virtual Reality and Education page  or the Human Interface Technology Lab, University of Washington.
• How MUDs relate to VR (A note by Greg Swan).
5. Alternative conferencing/mud stuff:
• WWW Chat Servers, e.g. The Columbus Home Page� WWW Chat Forums or WebChat (well combined with some "cyperspace-like" WWW Map this technology could do a bit of the "spacial" aspects of MOOs). 

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