Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) are online digital places and spaces where we can be in touch, play together and work together, even when we are, geographically speaking, worlds apart. We can hang out, present alternative selves, interact with realistic and fantastic objects and carry out impossible manoeuvres. In CVEs we can share the experience of worlds beyond the physical. This book offers an introduction to up-to-date research in the area of CVE design and development. A reader might feel that, collectively, the chapters in this book beg the questions "What is a CVE?". And, for that matter, "What isn't a CVE?". These are good questions, which invoke many different responses. What is certain is that CVEs are the perfect arena for gaining insights into human-human communication and collaboration, collaborative interaction with (virtual and real) objects, the effect of (potentially differing) embodiments, and the nature of place and space. Central to our work and to the work of the authors in this volume is the belief that putting people "into the loop" - explicitly considering human-human and human-environment interaction in the design and development process - is central to the design of any technology, and especially to the design of CVEs. In the case of CVEs this means actually putting people into the worlds, and many of our authors talk explicitly about their experiences and the experiences of study partici pants in virtual environments.

Provides a comprehensive introduction to the field Offers a unique perspective on the topic

Inhalt
1 Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs): Histories, Perspectives and Issues.- 1 Collaborative Virtual Environments: Digital Spaces and Places for CSCW: An Introduction.- 2 Technical Issues and System Challenges.- 2 Extending the Limits of Collaborative Virtual Environments.- 3 System Challenges for Collaborative Virtual Environments.- 4 Understanding the Network Requirements of Collaborative Virtual Environments.- 3 Bodies, Presences and Interactions.- 5 He's Behind You: The Experience of Presence in Shared Virtual Environments.- 6 All That Is Solid Melts Into Software.- 7 Virtually Missing the Point: Configuring CVEs for Object-Focused Interaction.- 4 Sharing Context in CVEs - Or I Know What I See, But What Do You See?.- 8 How Not To Be Objective.- 9 Supporting Flexible Roles in a Shared Space.- 5 So, Now We're In A CVE, What Do We Do?.- 10 Designing Interactive Collaborative Environments.- 11 Designing to Support Collaborative Scientific Research Across Distances: The nanoManipulator Environment.- 12 Tele-Immersive Collaboration in the CAVE Research Network.- 6 The Emerging and Existing Cultures of CVE Communities.- 13 Designing an Emergent Culture of Negotiation in Collaborative Virtual Communities: The DomeCityMOO Simulation.- 14 Waterfall Glen: Social Virtual Reality at Work.- 15 The Role of the Personal in Social Workspaces: Reflections on Working in AlphaWorld.- References.