VOICE: Virtual Organizations Through Inter-networked Collaborative Environments

Abstract

A traditional academic scenario in which interactions among players are couducted at a designated location is studied. This teaching approach is replaced by a setting in which the requirement of continuous presence at the same place is no longer valid. Wide area computer networks not only provide a global communication medium, but also the least expeosive one. The VOICE (Virtual Organizations through Internetworked Collaborative Environments) software, developed at the University of New Hampshire, represents a robust and a low-cost environment which facilitates activities among participants dispersed around the globe. To validate the VOICE concept, a prototyping educational experiment is described between the University of New Hampshire, U.S.A. and the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary.