What is a MOO?

 MOO stands for Multi-User Dimension Object Oriented. A MOO is somewhat like a chat room, but much more sophisticated. It is a text-based virtual environment, complete with its own architecture of interconnected rooms, stockpile of manipulatable objects, and cast of interesting characters. MOOS exist in cyberspace and can be accessed through a telnet connection or a web browser, or special software called a client.

Why use a MOO?

In a MOO, you can:

• Move between distinct places (called rooms)
• Manipulate objects (eg: get, drop, activate)
• Chat with people or 'bots' (robots)
• Create new virtual places (rooms)
• Describe your character, the places you create and the objects you build
• Mail electronic messages
• Conduct classes

Instant communication

• With each other
• With distant students
• With distant experts

Natural collaboration

• Text-based discussion leads to collaborative work
• Individual and collaborative identities
• Immediate audience response

Mooing is fun and it is educational

• The activity relies on problem solving and creative writing.

 

 

 

But it's still just a chat room, right?

Most synchronous chat facilities (Daedalus Interchange, Web Chat, Chat Rooms, etc.) lack at least three important aspects of the MOO environment:

• spatial awareness
• object orientation
• flexibility

Ordinary chat facilities frequently don't convey to users the nuances of space in the way the MOO can: each space can be textually described, and users 'move' about in these spaces to gather for discussions and the like. Moreover, users can perform virtual actions with the MOO's objects, including themselves: thus one can enhance the communication through textually conveyed gestures and facial expressions. These spatial and action indicators add an additional dimension to the interaction among students and faculty in MOO spaces: many find the discussions in these spatially enhanced environments more "natural" and rewarding than those in more limited real time discussion areas. The MOO environment, because it is created by the faculty and students who use it, is highly flexible. Members may make use of rooms and objects created by others OR create rooms and objects themselves.

What are some of these "objects" and why would I want to create them?

Everything on the MOO (including each room and character) is actually an object, and each object has properties (which in turn have values) and verbs. These are defined (or edited) by the person who creates the object. To create original items or items not previously in your MOO core, you need to write a bit of code defining its properties and verbs (or edit an existing bit of code which you were given on another MOO.) You could, for example, have a room in which only you could talk. You could create a room within which a particular object, which you also created (and named "microphone" or "talking stick), must be held by a character if he or she wishes to talk; after talking, that character can hand the object to someone else. You could also create other objects which make your teaching easier: slide projectors and bulletin boards are common pedagogical tools.

When "characters" are created, the character is assigned to a place within the access or power hierarchy of the MOO; one's character's place within the hierarchy will determine what or how much you can create and destroy. Traditionally, there are five categories of characters within the MOO: Archwizard (the person at the top, who can create or destroy anything, including the MOO itself), Wizards (they can also create and destroy anything, including the MOO), Programmers (they can create and destroy original objects), Builders (they can create a limited number of objects for which the code already exists in the MOO core, and they can destroy the objects they create), Players (they cannot create or destroy). While these categories are best defined in terms of power to create and destroy, it is also true that different character types have different levels of access to the MOO (rooms they can enter, for example) and different kinds of interactions they can have (a Wizard, for example, can speak so that anyone anywhere in the MOO hears her/his words, while Players can talk only to the people in the room with them.)