* * * MicroMuse at MIT * * * MicroMuse is a multi-user simulation environment based at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab. The system features explorations, adventures, and puzzles with an engaging mix of social, cultural, and educational content. For example, the MicroMuse Science Center offers an Exploratorium and Mathematica Exhibit complete with interactive exhibits drawn from experience with Science Museums around the country. A highlight of the Mathematica Exhibit is 'Professor Griffin's Logic Quest', based on Raymond Smullyan's classical puzzles about knights and knaves. The Narnia Adventure embeds challenging puzzles within a familiar children's classic. The Mission to Mars includes an elaborate tour of the red planet with accurate descriptions rivaling those found in National Geographic. Elsewhere, one can find a sailing cruise to the Virgin Islands which recreates the real-life adventure of the player who created it. Recently, an 8-year old student designed and built an Oz adventure based on movie version of that classic children's story, and a 9-year old contributor created a working model of Yellowstone National Park, complete with erupting geysers and a wandering moose. For younger players, text-based virtual realities foster literacy skills: reading, writing, and composition, and technical skills such as keyboarding and spelling. For adolescent players, social interaction skills, interpersonal skills, and personality development emerge as primary activities. College students who are not computer science majors enjoy the opportunity to gain some computer literacy and try their hand at creating their own contributions to the cyberspace worlds, usually with the helpful guidance of friendly players with more experience. The more ingenious and inventive players design and build elaborate and powerful artifacts such as electronic newspapers, voice-mail recorders, and self-activated transit systems. The MicroMuse project seeks to expand its membership and thereby further explore the educational potential of network-based virtual realities, especially with respect to building computer literacy, cognitive skills and scientific awareness through consciously crafted content geared toward informal science education. * * * Biographies * * * Barry Kort Barry Kort is a founding Director of MicroMuse, the first Multi-User Simulation Environment (MUSE) site fully dedicated to educational purposes. Dr. Kort received a BSEE with High Distinction from the University of Nebraska, and joined AT&T Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff in the Network Planning Division. Under Bell's Graduate Study Program, he earned his Masters and Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. While at Bell Labs, he developed the Echo Control Plan and Transmission Quality Assurance Plan for AT&T Long Lines. In 1984, he received Bell's Distinguished Technical Staff Award for sustained contributions to Network Planning. He then joined the Network Technology Group at MITRE as a Lead Engineer to work on the communications infrastructure for the NASA Space Station. As a Consulting Scientist at BBN Labs in Cambridge, MA, Dr. Kort is currently developing systems and concepts for network-mediated education and for informal science education, including the use of computer animations and virtual communities. He also volunteers at the Museum of Science and the Computer Museum. On MicroMuse, Dr. Kort has adopted the persona of 'Moulton', the proprietor of the MicroMuse Science Center, where he can be found collaborating with young people and adults who share his interest in puzzles, creative problem solving, invention, and informal science education. David Albert David Albert received his Masters' Degree in Computer Science from Harvard University in 1986 and has completed the course requirements toward a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence; he is currently a Lecturer at the Harvard Extension School, teaching courses in Artificial Intelligence, and a Computer Scientist at Boston University's Neuromuscular Research Center. He also teaches math and science to children at Boston's Museum of Science. Together with Nils McCarthy he designed parts of the TinyMuse code, and he tested and wrote documentation for versions 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 of that code. He is a Director of MicroMUSE at MIT and creator of the Narnia puzzle adventure area on MicroMUSE. Nils McCarthy Nils McCarthy is an honors alumnus of Mounds Park Academy in St. Paul, MN. He is a Director of MicroMuse at MIT and MariMuse at Phoenix College. He is principal software developer for TinyMuse and related support systems. Kevin Kane Keving Kane is an honors student from Rockville, MD, currently attending the University of Maryland. He is a Director of MicroMuse at MIT and principal systems programmer of MicroMuse and MuseNet. * * * Muse References * * * Barry W. Kort, "Computer Networks and Informal Science Education," T.I.E. (Telecommunications in Education) News, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Special Interest Group for Telecommunications, Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring 1991. David Albert, "Cyberion City II -- Inside and Outside: The Physics, Geography, and Astronomy of Tin Can Cities," explanatory document prepared for participants in MicroMuse, available by anonymous FTP from ftp.musenet.org, August, 1991. MicroMuse Executive Council, "The MicroMuse Charter," available by anonymous FTP from ftp.musenet.org, revised January, 1992. Janice Gates, "MicroMuse at MIT," MicroMemo to KidsNet, distributed on the InterNet's KidsNet Mailing List, Fall 1991. Peter Kaine Tevonian, "Beginner's Guide to Multiple-User Games," white paper distributed on the UseNet NewsGroups, 1991. Pavel Curtis, "Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Realities," Xerox PARC Report, January 1992. Elizabeth M. Reid, "Electropolis: Communication and Community on Internet Relay Chat," Honours Thesis, University of Melbourne Department of History, 1991. Howard Rheingold, "Virtual Communities," Whole Earth Review, Winter 1988. Denis Newman, et al, "Toward Universal Access to Math and Science Resources: Phase 1 of a National School Testbed Network," Proposal submitted to the NSF Applications of Advanced Technology Program, February, 1992. Pat Burns and Dave Zachmann, "K-12 Connections to the Internet," draft white paper, 1992. Sheldon Annis, "Telephone and Computer Conferencing in Geography Instruction at Boston University," to appear in Professional Geographer. John Markoff, "The Keyboard Becomes a Hangout For a Computer-Savvy Generation," The New York Times, Page 1, August 31, 1993. Howard Rheingold and Kevin Kelly, "The Dragon Ate My Homework," WIRED, Vol. 1, No. 3, Jul/Aug 1993. A hip introduction to the Muse from the Whole Earth Cabal. Jacques Leslie, "MUDroom," The Atlantic Monthly, Sep 1993. A well-balanced article with quotes from researchers at MIT, BBN, Xerox PARC, and Interval Research. Ellen Germain, "In the Jungle of the MUD," Time Magazine, Sep 13, 1993. A crisp account of MUDs, with quotes from Amy Bruckman, Barry Kort, and Howard Rheingold, regarding the future of the technology. Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, a William Patrick Book, Addison-Wesley, New York, 1993. 325 pages. ISBN 0-201-60870-7. Tod Foley, "MUSERs NOT LUSERs! Tod Foley Visits MIT's Cyberion City," bOING bOING Magazine, No. 11, November 1993. A personal account of the writer's explorations of Cyberion City, plus some of the history and politics of the MicroMuse experiment in Community Building. Arthur Fisher, "The End of School?", Popular Science, January 1994. Interviews with Seymour Papert and Lewis J. Perelman discussing their ideas for reinventing schools, with examples and anecdotes drawn from MicroMuse to illustrate an innovative use of technology in education. Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, Simon & Schuster, 1995. ISBN 0-684-80353-4. * * * How To Connect to MicroMuse * * If you would like to explore MicroMuse, you may connect as follows from your local host computer: telnet guest.musenet.org login: guest [no password required] connect guest [Connect to MicroMuse] news [general news command] help [online help command] look [look at your surroundings] say Hello. [speak aloud to others] go out [go through exit 'out'] /quit [exit MicroMuse] You will then be shuttled to the Cyberion City Transport Receiving Station, where you will be given further information to assist you in your exploration. Please feel free to contact any Official, Administrator, or Director who may be logged on, for any help you may need. There is a message call box located in the arrival area, plus you may "page" a message by typing: page =. Type: WHO (all caps) to see which Officials are currently online. Come join us as we spin through time, and the spaces of the mind... ======================================================================