In recent years much attention has been paid to networkbased, distributed environments like text-based MUDs and MOOs for supporting collaborative work. Such environments offer a shared virtual world in which interactions can take place irrespective of the actual physical proximity or distance of interactants. Although these environments have proven successful within social, recreational and educational domains, few data have been reported concerning use of such systems in the workplace. In this paper we summarize in-depth interviews with 8 MUDders from a software research and development community where a MUD has been operational and actively used for a number of years. The interviews suggest that the MUD fills a valuable communication niche for this workgroup, being used both synchronously and asynchronously to enable the establishment of new contacts and the maintenance of existing contacts. These observations are discussed in the context of the organization under study. Keywords MUDs, distributed teams, collaboration, coordination, informal conversations, interviews, computer mediated communication 1

In this paper we describe and analyse the community building process for Ages of Avatar, a set of on-line Collaborative Virtual Environments created in Microsoft Virtual Worlds, which form part of an ongoing experiment in Inhabited Television, aiming to merge CVEs and broadcast media. We describe the means by which the CVEs were launched, promoted and supported alongside a television broadcast channel, and how actions of viewers acting as inhabitants in the CVE can be used to provide broadcast material. We explain how the world content and their super-structure were managed to encourage the growth of a community over a short period of time. Using logs of activities in the worlds we deduce some of the characteristics of the community which was formed. Keywords Collaborative Virtual Environments, Virtual Communities, Inhabited Television.

Issues about the relation between information technology (IT), knowledge and organizational learning appear more critical as IT becomes an increasingly integrated part of organizational life. We believe that in order to understand the role of IT in organizational learning, we need to focus on the relation between learning theories and understandings of technology. This relation is often based upon the assumption that organizational learning is a process of knowledge acquisition, storage, application and diffusion in which IT is a primary enabler. We propose organizational learning to derive from participation in social work practices and to involve human existence and development. This brings forward an understanding of the role of technology to be a facilitator of the formation and maintenance of communities of practice within organizations – and not to be reduced to its information processing capacities. 1.

How do computer systems support conversations in learning settings? How do they facilitate understanding? How do they become tools for collaborative learning ? This report presents a study of two groups of K-12 (Kindergarten to Grade 12) teachers who have used a synchronous text-based environment, a so-called Moo, as the main means to attend a course in education during a period of eight weeks. The purpose of this course was to discuss the design and construction of learning environments through readings and to develop a group research project using the collaborative features of the Moo. The teachers performed two tasks online: to discuss their readings and to learn to handle the Mooenvironment through the Moo-environment itself.

I certify that the material contained in this dissertation is my own work and does not contain significant portions of unreferenced or unacknowledged material. I also warrant that the above statement applies to the implementation of the project and all associated documentation. In the case of electronically submitted work, I also consent to this work being stored electronically and copied for assessment purposes, including the department's use of plagiarism detection systems in order to check the integrity of assessed work. Date:______________________ Signed:_____________________ i The Wray Photo Display has been deployed in Wray, a small village in Lancashire, UK, since August 2006, acting as a technology probe to understand the requirements of the community, field test the display and inspire ideas for further developments. This project evaluates the deployment and gathers ideas and feedback from the

In this paper we discuss the obdurate problems associated with evaluating the extent to which technological interventions – in particular those based on mobile and ubiquitous technologies – can be judged to have „improved a sense of community ‟ in their given deployment settings. We report on experiences gained from several deployments of ubiquitous systems that share this design goal, and analyze common issues we observed during real life use of these systems. Based on these we discuss some of the key challenges for evaluating ubiquitous systems of this genre. Author Keywords Technological intervention, mobile and ubiquitous computing, CSCW, long-term deployment, evaluation, methods, community, situated displays. ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI):

The use of ICTs in the public sector has long been touted for its potential to transform the institutions that govern and provide social services. The focus, however, has largely been on systems that are used within particular scales of the public sector, such as at the scale of state or national government, the scale of regional or municipal entity, or at the scale of local service providers. The work presented here takes aim at examining ICT use that crosses these scales of influence and accountability. We report on a year long ethnographic investigation conducted at a variety of social service outlets to understand how a shared information system crosses the boundaries of these very distinct organizations. We put forward that such systems are central to the work done in the public sector and represent a class of collaborative work that has gone understudied.

Special Issue Using Wittgenstein’s language-game paradigm, we analyze the discursive practices of three online discussion forums devoted to topics of professional management interest, and present the different language games enacted by their participants. We characterize the differences among the three forums as kiosk, club, and neighborhood: distinctive games that vary in their complexity in terms of linguistic style, roles, and interaction patterns. We also find family resemblances across the three language games, suggesting what the language game of online forums could be. Our exploratory study shows how organizing occurs through the enactment of a language game. It suggests how similarities and differences in discourse development can explain commonalities and variants in the structure and functioning of online forums. We suggest that they might imply different types of environments for knowledge-sharing.

This deliverable continues the story of our practical exploration of inhabited television following the Out of This World (OOTW) experiment that was described in the previous deliverable D7a.1, and presents an early snapshot of the progress made on a further public experiment with inhabited television that was provisionally entitled 2525 and is now continuing under the name of The Ages of Avatar with the additional collaboration of Sky channel [.tv] (pronounced “dot–tv”). We describe the process of introducing Sky, summarising our discussions with broadcasters and describing the [.tv] channel. We then describe the software platforms that will support The Ages of Avatar: Microsoft Virtual Worlds and Nottingham’s MASSIVE–3. Finally, we present the design of The Ages of Avatar as of late August 1999 (two months before going public) and outline the schedule for its development and staging up to Christmas 1999. Document eRENA–D7a.2–2 Type Deliverable report with video material

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