Virtual environment

Draft

Note: DSchneider is not happy with the organization of wiki entries dealing with virtual environment issues .... have to come up with clear terms and decide where to write

Definition

A virtual environment is a place with things that can be manipulated and people :).

Types of virtual environments (in random order):

• text-based virtual reality, such as MOOs and MUDs
• mixed reality environments
• Multi-user games with persistant storage features (mostly MMORPGs)
• Multi-user 2D interactive environments
• Multi-user 3D interactive environments with persistant storage capabilities
• Immersive 3D environments, i.e. true immersive virtual reality environments
• any other form of virtual habitats
• Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) - this includes habitats like MUDs, MMORPGs as well as some CSCW systems.
• Shared spaces

See also:

• Community of practice
• Virtual community
• Virtual learning environment
• Virtual laboratory

History

See Raph Koster's excellent Online World Timeline

Typology of virtual environments

There is no real consensus on what constitutes a virtual environment. See also Benford's categorization of shared spaces.

Here is a picture made by DSchneider that shows a variety of such environments and their potential for education:

Links

• Designing Virtual Worlds Bibliography (excellent collection of online texts).
• Terra Nova (good blog to keep in touch with the latest trends in non-educational on-line worlds)

• There are some Wikipedia articles that include useful information, e.g.
  • Habitat (video game) (Wikipedia).
  • Virtual communities
  • Cyberspace (Wikipedia)
  • Virtual reality (Wikipedia, aliases from "virtual environment")
  • simulated reality

• Association of Virtual Worlds publishes free green (business buide) and blue (consumer) books.
  • The blue book has a good long list of virtual environments (including ones for educational use). All kinds of technical environments are considered, most are desktop 3D. As of Aug 2008 its latest edition was: 4th Edition August 2008.

References

• Dieberger, A. (1999) Social connotations of space in the Design for Virtual Communities and Social Navigation. In Munro, A., Höök K. & Benyon D. (Eds), Social Navigation of Information Space, pp. 35-54. Springer: London