Revised January 13, 2004 Oasis: A Virtual Campus for WILMA by David Laughton, Information Services Manager for WILMA and Oasis Wizard Since its inception in 1999, the World Institute for Leadership and Management in Africa (WILMA) has endeavored to maximize the use of the internet and other modern information technology to promote socioeconomic development. The vast distances between WILMA's Washington, DC, office and its colleagues in Africa and Europe place restrictions on collaboration that even frequent intercontinental travel has not been able to alleviate. Electronic mail and the World Wide Web provide efficient means of sharing information, but they are ill suited to support the give-and-take and spontaneous discussion that are an important part of any team effort. Therefore, WILMA is beginning the process of developing a "virtual campus" where participants from anywhere on the internet can interact in real time. This campus will take the form of a Multi-User Domain (MUD), an environment commonly used for interactive games on the internet but which WILMA believes can be adapted to work as well as play.1 The virtual campus will supplement, not supplant, e-mail and websites. Long or complex documents and pictures cannot be transmitted through a MUD, which uses plain text for all communication.2 However, among a community of users who already share information through e-mail and the web, a MUD will add an element of interactivity. Governments, corporations, and other institutions with abundant resources use teleconferencing for similar purposes, but such facilities generally take the form of a single conference room with video transmission equipment. Even if it had the funds to pay for such a facility, WILMA's could not place a single video-capable conference room in any location that would be convenient to a significant number of its widely scattered staff and colleagues. Desktop video cameras and telephones are both available for use on the internet, but they require fast connections that are a rarity in WILMA's focus region, the African continent, and they are of no use to staff who travel frequently and rely on the unpredictable assortment of equipment that will be found at local internet cafes. 1 Among online game players, MUD also stands for Multi-User Dungeon, a term which reflects the typical fantasy environment in which they encounter monsters, traps, and puzzles while searching for treasure. "Domain" is more appropriate for Oasis. 2 A few MUDs have graphic interfaces, but the vast majority are text-based and are the only type considered in this paper. Because it relies on plain-text communications, a MUD transmits data in small bursts; that is, if a user types a 100-character sentence, the data transmitted over the internet is a little more than 100 bytes consisting of the text and some routing information. On the web, the control codes that are transmitted to define even the simplest webpage may easily be larger than the text that is displayed, and the addition of a single picture may add thousands or millions of bytes. With its small, efficient transmissions, MUD sessions can be effectively supported by the slow connections often found in Africa, and the only equipment needed is a computer with an internet connection. Until better technology is widely available on the continent, a MUD represents the best method of introducing an element of online interactivity to WILMA's work there. MUD Is Also a Verb To MUD is to log into a MUD and use it for its intended purpose.3 In most existing MUDs, the purpose is entertainment, so the player's object is to find something fun to do. The process begins by creating a virtual character which will "live" in the MUD environment; this character executes commands typed by the player, and the character's experiences are transmitted to the player as text. For example, let's say that a player has created a character named Catherwood in a MUD with a sword-and-sorcery theme. The player logs in and immediately sees this on his computer screen: You are standing at a crossroads in the middle of a forest. Only the chirps of birds high overhead and the occasional rustle of small animals in the underbrush break the silence. Dense trees prevent you from seeing much in any direction except along the road. A faint smell of cooking wafts in from the east. There are four obvious exits: north, south, east, and west. > The text tells the player what Catherwood sees, hears, and smells. In typical MUD style, the computer describes the immediate environment in terse terms and then prints a caret (>), which is the signal that it's waiting for the player to type something. What the player does next is limited only by the MUD's command set. Mature MUDs offer staggering numbers of commands that may let Catherwood search the 3 MUD, as a verb, is nearly always used in an imperfect form; that is, a player will commonly say "I was MUDding," but rarely, if ever, "I MUDded." 2 underbrush, climb the trees, or hide and ambush the next traveler. This example is only intended to give a quick impression of a MUD session, so our player will simply type "east" to make Catherwood go east (in all examples the player's typing is in boldface). > east You arrive at a small tavern along the forest road. Lamplight shines through the windows, and you can see a few patrons moving about inside. The door is open. There are three obvious exits: east, west, and inside. > inside The interior of the tavern is aglow with the cheerful yellow light of many oil lamps fixed to the walls. Behind the bar are rows of bottles and glasses and a huge beer keg. There are several tables, one of which is occupied by some people playing cards, and plenty of empty chairs. A rough passage cut through one wall leads to a darkened room. A bartender, a young red-haired lumberjack, an old bearded lumberjack, and a tired traveler. A coat rack and a spittoon. There are two obvious exits: outside and passage. > When Catherwood enters the tavern, not only does the player get a description of the physical environment, but he gets a terse inventory of nearby objects, both living and inanimate. Only the person who created this environment can explain why he chose these particular items and descriptions; often the text contains subtle clues that may lead the player to a new adventure, but that is not the focus of this paper. What's important is that Catherwood has just entered an environment with living objects. While the ">" indicates that the computer is waiting for the player's input, the characters in the room may act spontaneously. > The tired traveler raises his hands in greeting. The tired traveler says: My old friend Catherwood, what a surprise! How about we go bend a couple in the Doo-Dah room? The tired traveler motions toward the passage. The computer is still waiting for the player's input; it will not repeat the ">" to remind him. It also gives him no obvious clues whether the "traveler" is being controlled by 3 another player or is a computer-generated character. Since the example is a game, the player may have Catherwood converse with the traveler and look him over in an attempt to gain useful information; the traveler, on the other hand, may try to rob or kill Catherwood, or he may turn out to be, as he claims, an old friend. say do I know you? The tired traveler looks confused. > examine traveler He is a tired traveler. He is wearing a long black cloak, a broad-brimmed black hat, and dusty black boots. He wears the badge of the Ministry of Magic Suppression. He has a dueling scar on his right cheek. > introduce me to traveler You introduce yourself to the tired traveler. The tired traveler says: don’t you recognize me, Catherwood? The tired traveler motions toward the passage. > The traveler's confusion suggests that he is a computer-generated character whose program is not written to handle the question, or he may be under the control of a player who simply wants others to think he is a computer-generated character. Examining the traveler reveals details that may identify him as a potential friend or adversary, and his evasive response to the introduction is a further clue to his motives. Whatever the situation, the MUD player generally has numerous actions available. Some are "built into" his character, such as the ability to walk, talk, and examine things. Others come into play when the right equipment is available. examine coat rack The coat rack is a simple wooden pole with a few nails for hanging coats. A long dagger is hanging by a leather loop from one of the nails. > take dagger You take the long dagger from the coat rack. > wield dagger You wield the long dagger in your right hand. The tired traveler backs away from you slowly. The tired traveler says: Excuse me, Catherwood, but I think I have a previous engagement. The tired traveler vanishes into thin air! The old bearded lumberjack grumbles: Good riddance! > 4 Most objects in a MUD can be referenced with their shortest unique names. Thus, the player could have typed "examine rack" and gotten the same information that "examine coat rack" delivered. If there were two racks in the immediate environment, such as a bottle rack and a coat rack, then the player would need to specify which he wanted to examine.