The Use of BioMOO for Formal Scientific Communication
Introduction
For those not familiar with BioMOO, it is a text and multimedia-based
virtual reality system for biology professionals. BioMOO is derived
from systems that evolved out of the early text-based, multi-player
adventure games, now called MUDs (Multiple User Dungeon). From these
early experiments in real-time, shared spaces, a variety of social and
professional communication systems have been developed including MOOs
(MUD, Object-Oriented). BioMOO is an example of such a system, with
integrated real-time text communication, and integration into the World
Wide Web (WWW or "web") providing multimedia capability.
This document is intended to summarize my thoughts and experiences with
using BioMOO for formal scientific communication. By "formal", I refer
to structured presentations, as opposed to conversation. Most of the
presentation formats I'll discuss have been used in BioMOO successfully.
I will describe each format, its advantages and disadvantages, and to a
more limited extent, what to do and not to do to make each a success,
and when each is appropriate.
The formats I'll present are journal club, seminar, poster session, and
interview. Note that one can certainly envision other formats (e.g.
panel discussion), but most others would have sufficient points in
common with the ones I'll present to make reasonable extrapolations
possible. I will begin by summarizing some of the general strengths and
weaknesses of internet communication, to provide a foundation for
discussing particular communication methods after.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Internet Communication
Text-based Communication
The main characteristic of BioMOO real-time communication at this time
is that it is primarily text-based. I will note that intense
development of voice communication systems for internet teleconferencing
and MOO communication in particular is currently underway. Most of
these, however, will require participants computers to be directly
connected to the internet, which is not generally the case at this time.
We can probably expect to see such systems tested in BioMOO by January
1995, but since text-based communication is the primary means at our
disposal now, I will limit discussion to that format. Also, it is worth
mentioning that the most common language of communication in BioMOO is
English, although when non-English speakers meet there, they typically
use whatever languages they share that can be displayed using the
general ASCII character set.
Text-based communication has the advantages of being typically easier
for non-native speakers to follow (text is available for re-reading on
the screen), free of accents (though not necessarily free of confusing
grammatical or spelling errors), and being simple to record and edit.
It has the disadvantage of requiring typing skills, and typically being
much slower than speech.
Because of its slowness, many users will actually perform other tasks
concurrently during a text-based communication session. The windowing
systems on most computers today allow one to do word-processing or on-
line literature searches at the same time as participating in a text-
based conversation, for instance. Another method to increase the amount
of information presented, at least in formal presentations, is to
prepare much of the presentation text beforehand and either use a
windowing system to paste the text into the BioMOO speech system, or
record it on a specialized BioMOO object that allows selected portions
of the text to be presented and appear to listeners as if it was spoken
by the presenter.
Dispersed Participants and Timezones
BioMOO users live all over the world, thus it is not possible to find a
time when all are likely to be awake and available. Presently, however,
most BioMOO users live in North America and Europe. Meeting times
between 16:00 and 19:00 GMT are most reasonable for most BioMOO users.
This corresponds to 8 AM to 11 PM for the west coast of North America
and 5 PM to 8 PM for France and Germany. Note that this generally
precludes participation of users in India, Australia, and Asia.
Graphical Data Presentation
One of the main differences between the different presentation formats
is how much each depends on accessing image data over the internet. For
instance, seminars generally require the presentation of "slides."
Images can be posted to a publicly accessible internet site and
retrieved by participants either by gopher or ftp before the
presentation (if the site supports those access methods), or during the
presentation using the World Wide Web and an appropriate web browsing
program.
Unfortunately, not all BioMOO users have access to a graphical web
browser. For this reason, the most effective way to present such images
appears to be by putting them on an ftp or gopher server well before the
presentation, announcing their availability and location, and then
providing appropriate links to them during the presentation for web
access by those with that capability. The long term solution is for
more BioMOO users to get graphical web access, and while this is clearly
the trend, it appears no more than one third to one half of BioMOO users
can use this system presently (2/15/95).
Communication Formats
Journal Club
This is the presentation format that has been used most often in BioMOO.
Note that the name for this format varies, but it generally consists of
the presentation of one (or two related) papers, including an
introduction to the field, presentation of the results, and discussion
among all participants. It has the advantage of not requiring
participants to obtain images over the internet, since papers presented
are usually in widely available journals. In addition, it is probably
the most discussion-provoking of the formats, taking advantage of
BioMOO's main strength: providing a channel for real-time, dispersed
participant, international communication.
Its main disadvantages are that it doesn't involve the presentation of
new information (which is generally most interesting to researchers),
and it requires all participants to be present at the same time. Also,
the usual slowness of text communication means that what would be a
thirty minute presentation and discussion using speech, typically takes
an hour by text.
Poster Session
Not all formal communication methods require synchronous participation
by all users. For instance, a poster session can be visited at any
time. Posters can be made available for access at people's convenience
and then have associated discussion sessions scheduled where the poster
presenters are available in BioMOO for questions. This powerful
combination allows people to examine the presented data, and then meet
the presenter for relatively informal discussion.
The ability to present posters integrating multimedia data and
accessible via graphical web browsers makes this probably the most
exciting recent development in scientific communication. The addition
of BioMOO-based discussion to such a presentation brings together all
the best aspects of a live poster session with internet-based real-time
communication systems.
The only significant disadvantage is that poster sessions are generally
likely to work best when most of the participants have access to
graphical web browsing programs. Well written figure text, however, can
provide a great deal of useful information for non-graphics users.
BioMOO has had a small poster session successfully running for several
weeks. Specialized objects have been provided to simplify construction
of posters, and provide a standard presentation style to increase the
rate participants become accustomed to the poster format. BioMOO
provides (space-limited) publicly accessible web sites for BioMOO
members to post data presented in poster sessions.
Interview
This format generally consists of one person interviewing a guest
speaker, who may also present a short talk with or without graphical
data presented. One trial in this format has been presented in BioMOO,
and was quite successful. It opened with a short set of questions and
answers between the interviewer and guest, and was followed by an open
question and discussion session with audience participation.
This presentation system is useful when the goal is to provide
communication and discussion covering a broader set of information than
is usually presented in a seminar. Topics for discussion can be
selected by the interviewer, guest, and audience, and discussion
proceeds to whatever depth and extent the participants wish. It has the
disadvantages of requiring all participants to be present together, a
slow communication rate, and typically a more shallow exploration of any
single topic. It seems likely to be a very effective way to present an
interesting person with expertise in some field of study to an audience
less familiar with that field, in a relatively informal setting.
Seminar
At this time, no seminars have been presented in BioMOO. The primary
reason for this has been the limited number of people using graphical
web browsers, and the only recent development of BioMOO's web interface.
The former is likely to be the main disadvantage of presentations in
this format in the near future. However, the potential for using this
well-established system for conveying recent scientific work makes it
likely that trials will soon begin. Together with the poster session,
these comprise the primary formal presentation methods used in
contemporary scientific meetings. The development of internet-based
systems that offer these presentation methods is likely to revolutionize
communication between scientists.
Conclusion
BioMOO and other text-based communication systems are clearly still a
developing tool for scientific communication. While it seems certain
that seamless speech and live video-based systems will eventually be
typical of international scientific communication, many people are
finding that the more limited systems now available can provide an
exciting and viable means for enhancing their professional
communication. In addition, as an object-based virtual reality (VR)
system, BioMOO provides what is, for many, the first taste of what is
widely anticipated to be the VR experience of the future: full sensation
immersive VR.
It is clear that nearly all of the sorts of communication tools and
virtual objects that are being developed in text-based VR systems will
be applied to immersive VR, and it in fact provides an outstanding
proving ground for such development. The hardware obsession of present
VR researchers shouldn't obscure the fact that software is what finally
makes a system useful. Discovering the tools that make a VR system
useful, and developing the parameters and features of such tools, is a
vital role for text-based VR systems. Beyond it's role as a development
site, however, BioMOO has already proven to be a useful tool for
scientific communication.
Eric Mercer (mercer@caltech.edu, EricM at BioMOO)