1 What is Cyberspace?

Any concept like this is a target for controversial definitions: Here we give:

• our own version
• pointers to cyberspace Indexes on the Web
• pointers to some general literature.
• pointers to a few recent events

Cyberspace has two aspects:

1. Cyberspace space is the set of multi-user virtual environments in which users can be, navigate and talk, and collaboratively create, own and manipulate objects.
2. ``Cyberspace is an interconnected computer-mediated environment in which all prior media are represented'' ([Hughes, 1995, p.38,]).

Cyberspace is not: The World Wide Web or any other passive media.

Cyberspace (or cyberspaces) of the future will be ``a globally networked computer-sustained real-time interactive environment in rendered three-dimensional form in which users can collaborate and view and manipulate information'' ([Hughes, 1995, p.35,]).

CyberSpace Indexes:

• Educational VR

Literature:

• Kevin Hughes' ``From Webspace to Cyberspace'' [Hughes, 1995] is probably the best overal reading available on-line. (Version 1.1 is available from Tecfa (locally) in PDF format)
• You can also search Daniel's Online Bibliography Database with keywords like VEs, VR, MUD, Cyberspace.
• VRML Guru Mark 's ``VRML, Browsing and Building Cyberspace'' ([Pesce, 1995]) is nice reading for grasping VRML essentials but also includes good conceptual thoughts on cyberspace and cyberspace building.
• Other recommended books about cyberspace are: ``Cyberspace: First Steps'' ([Benedikt, 1991]), ``The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier'' [Rheingold, 1993], ``Computers as Theatre'' [Laurel, 1995],

Recent Events about Cyberspace:

There have been recent other interesting workshops and conferences in the past (though real documentation might be hard to get)

• WWW Workshop: Virtual Environments and the WWW. Papers are are available in raw form and within a WOO documentation system.
• the doors of perception 3 conference (VR oriented)
• The International Workshop on CSCW and the Web
• European Workshop on Interactive Distributed Multimedia Systems and Services (mostly technical issues)
• Cyberstar'95 (A competition on interactive concepts)
• Workshop on Simulation and Interaction in Virtual Environments