Sabine Cikic

Virtual Room Concepts for Cooperative, Scientific Work

Cooperative knowledge spaces offer new potentials for experimental and scientific work in the current fields of engineering and natural sciences. Widely accepted content management systems often only provide simple content in combination with communication tools; cooperative knowledge spaces are able to project the concept of natural cooperative work onto virtual rooms. In this article we introduce our concept of virtual rooms for scientific and educational work. We describe requirements for complex cooperative work in virtual knowledge spaces where the rooms are arranged in a dynamic, heterogeneous network and incorporate experimental laboratory equipment, shared whiteboards and version‐controlled documents. We developed this concept in the context of our project ViCToR‐Spaces (Virtual Cooperation in Teaching and Research for Mathematics and Natural Sciences) and are currently implementing some of the parts of the concept. Index Terms ‐ cooperative knowledge spaces, virtual and remote laboratories, virtual rooms, cooperative education and work

Victor-Spaces: Virtual and Remote Experiments in Cooperative Knowledge Spaces

Cooperative knowledge spaces create new potentials for the experimental fields in natural sciences and engineering because they enhance the accessibility of experimental setups through virtual laboratories and remote technology, opening them for collaborative and distributed usage. A concept for extending existing virtual knowledge spaces for the means of the technological disciplines (“ViCToR-Spaces” – Virtual Cooperation in Teaching and Research for Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Engineering) is presented. The integration of networked virtual laboratories and remote experiments will be described.

Creating Local Geographies for Map-Based Cyber Navigation

Although Internet and WWW phenomena are often described using spatial metaphors, the commonest means of geographic orientation - the map - is little used in online navigation. Maps of the physical world are however available online, as are maps illustrating physical Internet topography, semantic maps showing content linkages and maps of gaming environments, usually realistic simulations. Lacking an underlying geography, maps of entire virtual spaces such as cooperative knowledge spaces seem impossible or impractical as long as their sites are conceived only as unstructured or at most hierarchical) addresses. The ViCToR project (Virtual Cooperation in Teaching and Research) at the Technische Universitat Berlin uses a room metaphor to implement a shared, user-defined space for carrying out cooperative work in education and research. So far navigation in the hierarchically structured rooms is poorly developed. This paper explores the possibilities for implementing map-based domain navigation using a community-created local geography based on coordinates.

Networked Experiments and Scientific Resource Sharing in Cooperative Knowledge Spaces

Cooperative knowledge spaces create new potentials for the experimental fields in natural sciences and engineering because they enhance the accessibility of experimental setups through virtual laboratories and remote technology, opening them for collaborative and distributed usage. A concept for extending existing virtual knowledge spaces for the means of the technological disciplines (ViCToR-Spaces- Virtual Cooperation in Teaching and Research for Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Engineering) is presented. The integration of networked virtual laboratories and remote experiments (NanoLab Approach), as well as an approach to community-driven content sharing and content development within virtual knowledge spaces (NanoWiki) are described.

What FarmVille can teach us about cooperative workflows and architectures

Perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of digital social games such as Zyngas FarmVille is that they are designed in such a way that any user, regardless of their skills and experience, can familiarise themselves in a matter of moments with the object of the game, the interface, and the tools and options involved in playing them. In contrast, developers of collaborative platforms for teaching and research have been struggling for the last 15 to 20 years to gain a wide acceptance among users, and with very limited success. Although simple and intuitive usability has long been recognised as a key design goal, no-one has, apparently, yet succeeded in integrating all the tools and functions required for academic work into a platform with an intuitive interface that target groups make enthusiastic use of. This paper investigates which principles and features may be adopted to make the use of these platforms easier and more intuitive.This electronic document is a “live” template. The various components of your paper [title, text, heads, etc.] are already defined on the style sheet, as illustrated by the portions given in this document.

Networked Experiments and Scientific Resource Sharing in Cooperative Knowledge Spaces.

Cooperative knowledge spaces create new potentials for the experimental fields in natural sciences and engineering because they enhance the accessibility of experimental setups through virtual laboratories and remote technology, opening them for collaborative and distributed usage. A concept for extending existing virtual knowledge spaces for the means of the technological disciplines (VICToR-Spaces-virtual cooperation in teaching and research for mathematics, natural sciences and engineering) is presented. The integration of networked virtual laboratories and remote experiments (NanoLab Approach), as well as an approach to community-driven content sharing and content development within virtual knowledge spaces (NanoWiki) are described

Surveillance and Datenschutz in Virtual Environments

Virtual environments are becoming more and more accepted, and part of the everyday online experience for many users. This offers new potential for both surveillance and data mining. Some of the techniques used are discussed in this paper.

Dealing with Multiple Truths in Online Virtual Worlds

Virtual environments and online games are becoming a major market force. At the same time, the virtual property contained in these environments is being traded for real money and thus attains a real value. Although the legal issues involved with this virtual property have not yet been decided, they will have to be soon. It is foreseeable that the next generation of very large virtual worlds will carry the possibility of multiple truths existing at the same time. Under such circumstances, it will be impossible to physically protect virtual property. In order to protect virtual property, virtual environment systems will therefore have to conform to certain requirements. We analyze what these requirements are in order to either prevent cheating or at least prove a digital offence has transpired. Along with greater security, this will also simplify end user support, which is one of the major cost factors for online games. [Article copies are available for purchase from InfoSci-on-Demand.com]