Ivan Fatovich
Comm. 464
Virtual Comm. Paper
Prof. A Trevor Thrall
Nov. 5, 1996

MicroMuse: A Community of the 24th Century

"Micromuse is our vision of the 24th century, a blend, of high technology, and social consciousness with emphasis on education, concern for the environment, and communication." Micromuse can be accessed by using Telnet, the address is: michael.ai.mit.edu

This is the first thing that one sees when one logs on to Micromuse. This is basically what Micromuse is all about. It is not like any other virtual community that I have ever seen. People are not on it to meet people to have cybersex with. It is a t ext-based world, where its members can create virtually anything they can think of. The system features explorations, adventures, and puzzles with a 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. One can also go on a mission to Mars. This adventure inclu des an elaborate tour of Mars with accurate descriptions derived from the real facts we know about the planet. Elsewhere, one can find a sailing cruise to the Virgin Islands which recreates the real-life adventure of the player who created it. Recently, a n 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. These examples illustrate the primary objective of Micromuse, education.

Micromuse is chartered as an educational multi-user simulation environment (MUSE) and virtual community with preference toward educational content of a scientific and cultural nature. The Micromuse administration works towards the development of MUS E technology to enhance the exchange of ideas, the learning process, and the expression of creative writing for individuals of all ages and backgrounds. Micromuse seeks to expand its membership and thereby further explore the educational potential of netw ork-based virtual realities. The MUSE states its goals in its Charter. The Charter defines the history, goals, and purposes of Micromuse.

Membership in the Micromuse community is pretty much open to anyone with a computer. However, a person cannot start off as a full member right away. One must first become a student member. A student member is given a one month stay in the community during which he has all of the privileges of a normal member. In order to become a student member, one has to state one's goal for joining the MUSE. He must also give his real name and e-mail address. The student must also agree to abide by the Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct basically tells you to mind your manners when you are on -line. You must respect the other members.

There are 3 primary objectives which must be accomplished before membership status can be granted to student members. The first one is that the student must understand the educational nature of Micromuse, and he should develop personal learning and/o r teaching goals that will make their membership on the MUSE rewarding. The second is that the member must fully understand the Micromuse Code of Conduct, and abide by it at all times. Failure by any user to abide by the Code of Conduct will generally res ult in loss of access to the MUSE. Finally, the third objective requires the member to understand the basic MUSE environment. They should know how to communicate, create, manipulate objects, and be able to use the on-line resources available. Basically, t hey have to know how to move around in the community and participate.

In order to measure whether or not these objectives have been accomplished, students are asked to complete several tasks. First, the student must state his personal goals regarding Micromuse. What does the student wish to accomplish with his time in the community? Secondly, the student must program a simple object. The member and the object he creates must have some standard triggers. For example, a description of the person and object. My description is "Before you there is a peaceful man who is sporting a beard. He is wearing a white shirt and khaki pants. You can tell that he holds a lot of wisdom within himself (Hey the whole point of virtual reality is so you can exaggerate a little)." Then the student has to find 2 mentors to sponsor his membership app lication. The mentors should be satisfied that the student has achieved the above objectives and will help in completing the needed tasks. Generally, during the course of his exploration, the student will become friends with certain mentors, and that is w ho he asks to sponsor him. Finally, the student must answer an on-line questionnaire. When the questionnaire is finished, a report on the character will automatically be generated and sent to the Micromuse Registrar by e-mail. If the Registrar is satisfie d that all requirements for membership have been met, the student will be reclassed as a full member of the MUSE, with all the responsibilities and privileges of membership. Otherwise membership to the MUSE is not restricted at all. There is no fee of any kind. All one needs is a computer with modem.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) provides the computing resources for the continuing existence and development of Micromuse. Because MIT is funded in part by Federal taxpayer dollars the Micromuse administration is obligated to ensure that these taxpayer dollars are not used to support activities of a questionable or objectionable nature. One of the people on the administration is one of Micromuse's founders, Dr. Barry Kort, or Moulton as he is known in cyberspace. Dr. Kort received a BSEE with High Distinction from the 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. After receiving Bell's Distinguished Technical Staff Award for sustained contributions to Network Planning, he 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 us e of computer animations and virtual communities. He also volunteers at the Museum of Science and the Computer Museum. Moulton laid the foundation for the way Micromuse is operating today.

Micromuse is structured in a hierarchical way. Unlike other MOO's, Micromuse does not have wizards or Gods. It is much more democratic. At the top of the list are the MUSE administrators. They set the policy, while always keeping the Primary Educatio nal Mission of Micromuse which is explained in the Charter. Then there are the mentors. Mentors are much like the regulators. There is always at least one of them hanging around, ready to help the citizens. They understand the basic workings of the MUSE a nd are very approachable when a newbie citizen, such as myself, have a question about anything. They even helped me find information for this paper. Finally, there are the citizens who wonder around Cyberion City thirsting for knowledge. I interviewed a citizen and a mentor about the structure of the community, and here is what Donsai, the citizen, had to say about it, "I'd say the administrators tell us what to do...they run the place...the mentors help out...and us citizens wonder." Caspian, who is a mentor, had this comment, "Micromuse is run like a hands on science museum. It has a board of director's, it has its members and visitors. Some become museum volunteers and spend more time than others helping the MUSE function. Mentors and operators are the driving force on a day to day basis, but the administrators set the policies." The laws of the MUSE are enforced by a punishment system. If someone violates the Code of Conduct, first he is given a verbal warning. A second offender is sent to MUSE jail for a period of time. A third offender has his membership privileges revoked . He is then sent to the graveyard, as a reminder to everyone else. If the offense is really serious, for example someone starts destroying other citizen's objects, or creates some kind of virus, he is automatically banished. Micromuse provides many ways for its citizens to communicate with each other. If a citizen wants to see who is on-line at the moment, he just has to type 'who.' Then he can 'page' a person with a message, for example, 'page Moulton= Hello.' If someon e is in the same room as you, you can chat in real-time by typing 'say .' If someone wants to say something to someone privately, he can use the 'whisper' command. There is also a public intercom, where someone can send out a message to everyone on-line. This is done by typing '+com public=.' Besides e-mail, citizens have there own post office in Micromuse which is similar to e-ma il. All one has to do to send mail to somebody is type '+mail =.' The MUSE makes communication pretty easy. So what do citizen's of Micromuse talk about? Well they talk about a variety of things. Just like a regular chat-room, topics of conversation are very diverse. The citizens do not spend all day talking about science. However, one notable exception I found was that people don't really ask the basic "Hello, what's your name, are you male or female" questions. I got much more of a sense of community here than at any other chat-room. Many of the citizens have been members for years. Many of them know eac h other. I interviewed several citizens about communication patterns and this is what they told me.


Question: "Do men and women act differently? Do newbies communicate differently than veterans?"
Answer: "Newbies are newbies...they complain on public because no-one is talking to them...Look at the real world, men and women act differently there, so why should it be any different here?
Question: "But I've noticed that this place is different from regular chat lines where people just try to have cybersex."
Answer: "No comment...oh yes..there's no cybersex here at all...hmmmm...Ivan, MM is an educational forum."
Question: So you do not think people pretend to be someone they are not here?
Answer: "You're kidding, right...People pretend all the time...Look at me, I'm a demigod here, go figure...that's the fun of text based realities, the ability to be something you aren't...but once you get to know some of us here in this community, you beg in to see the real us...yeah, and then they run screaming away.
Question: "How do you think MM compares with real world communities, like a coffee shop?
Answer: "Well you can make close friends in both...not a chance, we're much weirder...also we can't get thrown in jail for disturbing the peace...Ivan it's better and worse, the food is better but no one is chain smoking in the next booth...you can't pick up the waitress in here." Question: "Do you think MM lives up to its o wn statement of purpose?"
Answer: "MM reminds me of Seinfeld a little...Well Ivan people learn and have fun in it, so I guess so."

It took me a few minutes to understand the Seinfeld comment, but it finally dawned on me. Many of the citizens know each other very well, i.e., their on-line mannerisms. They have special slang words and private jokes. In between all of those answers I got to my questions were people telling jokes. I guess it is similar to a Seinfeld episode. One other thing that I noticed was that a lot of the time people talked about themselves in the third person. For example, "Ivan is laughing and winking at ." I assume that's because it makes more sense in a text-based world. It's easier to understand who is talking if the writer mentions his name in his quote.

Another aspect of MUSE communication that I noticed was that the citizens were very polite, unlike in other chat-rooms. Everyone I met followed the Social Contract. There is no cursing because their is a substantial amount of young children on-line. Citizens were also eager to answer any questions a newbie like myself might have. They really made it easy for me to learn about the MUSE. The citizens encourage you to participat e because that is what makes Micromuse the rapidly growing community it is today.

As we enter the 21th century, more and more people will be using computers. Therefore, more and more people will be joining virtual communities. If future virtual communities follow in the footsteps of Micromuse, I believe that virtual communities w ill be a huge asset to the world. Information has never been as easily attainable as it is on the Web. The people running the virtual communities must keep education in mind over profit and personal power if we are to take this thing into the right direct ion. 9