3.2 MOO Seminars

 

Supporting objects in the MOO:

To organize successful seminars on the MOO you need the following technical MOO ingredients (objects):

1. If you have more than 5 participants, you need a special ``conference'' room with the following features:
   • You can ``seat'' people so that groups can have private talks
   • You need a blackboard (or several)

   Ken's generic classroom (see 6.2.1) if perfectly suited for this task. Make sure to change the description of the room so that beginners can handle it. Here is an example:

    >look
    Lecture Hall
   
    You see a rather sparse Lecture Hall. There's a blackboard on 
    the front wall and a clock above it.
   
    * While lectures are going on, please take a seat (e.g. 'sit row1').
    * You can sit in the same row as your friends and have private
      conversations with them ('say ....).
    * To speak to everybody in this room use 'speakup ....'. 
    * To get up type 'stand'.
   
   Type 'help here' for a summary of all available commands.
   You see Bulletin Board, Panel Table, Row1, Row2, Row3, Row4, Row5, and Row6.

2. You need a verb that will allow you say something highly visible (e.g. at TECFAMOO the big-sign verb ``(@addfeature #229)'').

                               +------------------------------+
   Daniel holds up a big sign: | FIRST: are there any general |
                               |        questions, remarks ?? |
                               +------------------------------+

3. You need a slide projector or equivalent which will allow to project several lines of text into the audience. A good choice is Ken's slide projector (#1493 at TECFAMOO). A slide projector will allow to give ``talks'', show ``agenda points'', make summaries of discussion and so forth. Here is an example slide from a program committee meeting:

   Daniel shows slide #1.
                         * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
   
                        Workshop organization
                        =====================
   
   Ground rule:   NO paper presentation, but structured discussion
   
   Proposal:      http://spsyc.nott.ac.uk:5555/658 
                  (WWW issues in the groups menu)
                  shows 11 groups of issues.
   
                  ==> Let's discuss those during the workshop day ??
   
                      a) maybe we need a selection
                      b) "issue chairmen" for each of those ?
                      c) some reordering is also needed
   
   Questions:         d) Do we have demos ?
                      e) What shall we deliver after the workshop ?
                      f) How important is the relation to the WWW in all this ?
   
                         * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A few rules you should consider

1. Take your time !!. Some participants may be new to the MOO and are overloaded with figuring out lots of things
2. About Slides:
   • Announce before you project a slide (and wait a few seconds)
   • Project the slide (and WAIT a minute)
   • discuss, prompt for questions !
3. use the World-Wide Web to discuss larger text. Note that some clients, e.g. the Surf&Turf Java client will allow you to project WWW pages to people's WWW browsers from the MOO.
4. Generally (avoid longer ``task'' but discuss). If you use a generic classroom, you can organize group discussions.
5. Try to master the flow of discussion (like you do it in RL)

Recording the session

Recording the session is important ! To do that you can:

1. Log in with an other character and save the session with your clients save.
2. Use a MOO tool, such as a ``video camera''. Those tools have additional features, e.g. you can ``zoom'' on things and participants, but they are more difficult to use.
3. Put the transcript with a summary on the WWW, the MOO or send it via email to the participants.