More than shared artifacts: collaboration via shared presence in MUDs

Abstract

The paper argues that MUDs (multi-user domains) and the Web have complementary strengths, and that limiting our support of collaboration to either one by itself is simply wrong. The Web is about sharing artifacts, passing them around, and sometimes working together on them simultaneously. The MUDs are about shared presence, with people interacting with each other and their tools, in a common environment. We focus on MUDs, because their capabilities and potentials are not very well known.