This be the place to where all the theory gets worked out, and where the theory is infomed by the practice and the community boundaries of MOO. You see several work benches in this room...
Obvious exits: seuss (to Seuss Booth) side door (to Gardens), trap door (to A Tale of Some Teachers), back door (to Conversation Foothills), help (to the Welcome Room).

MOOtiny


Two of the wizards at MOOtiny, Gofy and Jeni, developed a collaborative system for use on the web and inMOO. Jeni developed the webbed side of the MOO to facilitate collaboration on the web. Gofy developed the inMOO system whereby players can co-own objects and request a "project player." Previous to this, one of the main problems of working on "public" projects or joint projects was the "object modification permissions." The MOO server only allows the "owner" of a given object to edit that object. Therefore, people working on a group project could not change or otherwise edit someone else's object, be that a room, a note, or any other MOO object. People had to share one specially created character, that owned all the objects, log in as that special character, sharing a password. The limitation was that only one peson could log in as that character at a given time.

Each MOO allots a finite amount of "quota" to each player/character. On some MOOs this quota is object based, on others it is byte based. Either way there is a limit to what one player can construct. Building public areas, developing themed areas, working on generics and feature objects can drain personal quota very quickly, depleting the individual's personal resources. A project player can be given the objects which are developed, relieving individuals of the quota drain. This ensures that two or more people can work with and change a given object owned by the project player. They simply @give and @take the object and the owner permissions to edit or change the object. The island project at MOOtiny is an example of how the project players work.

One team developed the ocean system which connects all the islands. All the ocean rooms and waterways which surround or connect the islands are owned by Water_player, the project player for this team. Had a project player not been provided for the individuals working together on the project, even their combined personal quota would not have proven sufficient to build the water system.

The project player became extremely important as parts of the ocean system were developed by different individuals. By far, the biggest problem was the fact that people cannot always predict their length of stay onMOO. People come and go. Co-ownership enables the remaining team members to continue development or maintain completed projects. In this way, the loss of a team member does not halt the work. Also, new members can be added as needed.

DaMOO


Since DaMOO is an educational MOO, we knew that the co-ownership and project players would be integral, necessary feature. Teachers could ask their students to work together as teams with greater ease. Editing of objects would be greatly simplified due to co-ownershiop permissions. And the projects that the students completed would remain viable spaces for subsequent students, providing more than just abandoned rooms. These projects serve the dual purpose of providing both models of what can be done and starting places for further development by students for the MOO.

DaMOO was designed with teachers and students in mind. The planetary theme is general enough and otherworldy enough as to allow individuals and groups to develop any specialized theme. At the same time, the overarching general theme of planetary systems provides a basic structure which assists in the further development of a usable, navigable MOO. As the MOO develops, spiraling off individual planets, the basic structure remains intact, allowing new developments to be easily assimilated in the grand scheme o' things. Teachers, students, and individuals can be as isolated or as participatory as they wish or need.

DaMOO was planned and designed with the underlying notion that students will build the MOO, making it their own. Their investment in their writing, their constructions, in turn would enrich the MOO, and invite others to do the same. DaMOO belongs to the individuals, students, and teachers who work, play, and study here. It is our virtual home, our virtual community, held in common, for others who come after.

Don't be Cowed by the MOO

In conjuction with my work on educational and social MOOs, I built a MOO web page to act as a MOO gateway and resource. Originally I designed this web as a starting place for hands on MOO workshops, a repository of help files and FAQs to assist MOObies (tm Mick).

Obvious exits: seuss (to Seuss Booth) side door (to Gardens), trap door (to A Tale of Some Teachers), back door (to Conversation Foothills), help (to the Welcome Room).