Some ideas about version 2.0 of VMT - Fall 2007

Personas in VMT

* Sarah, Tanja, and Damir, the original VMT personas

* BiMS: "isolated user" interested in doing math

* Ester?: "student required to find/create a team"

* Aznx: Regular user, "now join-a-team"

* TBryant?: Math Hobbyst

User Scenarios for a "writeboard"

* Previous Scenarios: "Interactive help," "Finding a next room," "Forming a Group," and "Peeking into a Room"

* Scenarios for "Seeded" and "Programm" types of activities.

* "What is happening?" "What can I do now?" "Who is/comes here" (Profiles/Invitations?)

* ["Anybody Interested"]? "I want to talk about/work on this, anybody interested? Want to work on it?"

* ["I will be here on..."]? "I am going to be here [(at X)/(to do Y)] anybody interested?" (specific/general)

* ["Join my team"]? "I want to create a team (to do X) (and meet on Y)" (I want to join!)

* "Social Networking" scenario in VMT

General Issues

* How are users going to be "aware" of these "messages"

e.g. e-mail, e-mail Digest, internal VMT message, calendar, wall

* Where to put the "writeboard"

Through the Wiki?

In a Room? <- [+]You can chat, [+]you have a history [-]requires entering a room

In a third-party app?

A new component of the lobby?

• Can a team be the "author" of a message/invitation?
• Hierarchy? Teams? Communities? Networks?
• Pushing this information upfront?
• Incentives? e.g "Badges" given by # hours of "service"

Notes from Multiuser Environments

• http://www.campfirenow.com/tour/
• Almost all multiplayer online gaming sites include a discussion board.
  • It is mainly used for planning future activities.
• Some sites also offer calendars to provide a quick overview what is going to happen (e.g. AcesHigh? calendar where users advertise campaigns http://ahevents.org/events-calendar/index.php).
• Another interesting feature is the way some of the sites use digests to inform users/visitors about what recently happened and about the collective achievements of subgroups in the community in an organized way (e.g. http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/scripts/wwiionline/allies.jsp)
• Most sites usually have increased activity at certain periods (e.g. 10 pm EST for AcesHigh?), which may give the impression to the user that if he/she stops by at that period there will be some activity.
• Almost all the sites rely on real life situations/metaphors to manage the status of their users (e.g. military ranks)
  • Usually based on experience/past success or reputation points assigned by other members
• Some sites rely on random matchmaking based on availability criteria (e.g. yahoo games)

Implementation Possibilities

• A relatively simple way to add a calendar to VMT is to install a calendar plugin for Media Wiki.
  • Some examples can be seen here: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Calendar
  • Especially this one looks promising since it can display more content: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Simsong/Calendar
  • Using the wiki to edit a calendar could still be cumbersome for most users:
    • We can try to simplify the process by implementing a simple jsp page that provides a form to get the input parameters from a user, and post it on the calendar.
    • Some existing javascript packages to help the implementation effort (e.g. interface to pick a date) http://www.bigwebmaster.com/JavaScript/Scripts_and_Programs/Calendars/
  • Setup activity alerts to remind users?
• We may also consider adding a simple discussion board

• [Test Calendar] hosted at the VMT Test Wiki

• Some of the scenarios highlighted above would benefit a lot from improved user profiles.
  • Slightly improved version:

  

• An example profile from the site [Ziizoo]. This is a site that matches tutors to students (i.e. ebay for tutors). They offer chat with whiteboard as two separate applications. They have extensive profiles since that plays a key role in finding a tutor. You can check the functionality they offer at their [blog].

• Every user who signs up for the site [Tutor Match Tutoring and Homework Help] is also given a profile. This performs an integral role in matching tutors with students.