VIRTUAL WORLD TOOLS AND SOFTWARE

Below is a list of links to sites that either describe or offer tools available to both users and developers of virtual worlds. FAS makes no judgments on the utility or value of any of these tools, and we welcome additional information from those who have used any of these tools and who wish to comment upon them.

BigWorld: http://www.bigworldtech.com/index/index.php. Although not created for virtual worlds as such, BigWorld? 's software, currently used in several commercial products, could have some virtual world applications. Here is what the developers say about their product: "BigWorld Technology Suite is a robust and professional platform optimized for the commercial development and deployment of online games."

Dryad: http://dryad.stanford.edu/index.php. Created by the Stanford University Virtual Worlds Group (http://vw.stanford.edu/), Dryad is a shareware tool that lets users create trees for their game or virtual world.

MediaWiki: http://www.mediawiki.org From the MediaWiki website: "MediaWiki is a free software wiki package originally written for Wikipedia. It is now used by several other projects of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation and by many other wikis, including this very website, the home of MediaWiki ."

OpenSim: http://www.opensimulator.org/info/about/ The developers say, "OpenSim is a BSD Licensed Open Source project to develop a functioning virtual worlds server platform capable of supporting multiple clients and servers in a heterogenous grid structure."

Project Wonderland: https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/. Project Wonderland is a 3-D scene manager offered by Sun Labs that can be used in the creation of collaborative virtual worlds. Within those worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio and can share live applications such as web browsers, OpenOffice? documents, and games. A number of Wonderland video demos and interviews are available at the Website. You can also visit Sun's demonstration virtual workplace, MPK20, at the same link.

Qwaq Forums: http://qwaq.com. Qwaq Forums is product of the creators of the Croquet Consortium. It is a free software toolkit intended for developers who wish to create 3-D virtual environments to facilitate their meetings and business discussions. Users can create virtual meeting rooms, in when in virtual meetings, drag desired content from their own folders or desktops into the Qwaq forums, where it will be uploaded and made available to other users. Multiple users can then edit documents, which can be downloaded to all users, and all Qwaq meeting space is persisent. Users can create avatars through whom they will communicate in the 3-D Qwaq environment.

Sakai Project: http://sakaiproject.org/. The Sakai Project, in the words of its creators, is "... an online Collaboration and Learning Environment. Many users of Sakai deploy it to support teaching and learning, ad hoc group collaboration, support for portfolios and research collaboration. Sakai is a free and open source product that is built and maintained by the Sakai community. Sakai's development model is called "Community Source" because many of the developers creating Sakai are drawn from the "community" of organizations that have adopted and are using Sakai." There are many academic institutions in the United States and elsewhere that are Sakai partners.

Unisfair: http://www.unisfair.com/. Unisfair is a provider of virtual trade shows, virtual expos, virtual conferences, virtual job fairs and virtual marketing events. The company has produced more than 200 of these virtual events since its inception in 2000. Unisfair virtual events have all the same facilities -- all in 3-D -- of a physical event including the grand entranceway branded by sponsors; a conference hall for keynotes, panels and multiple conference sessions; an exhibition hall with vendor booths; a resource center; and professional networking lounges. Previous clients have included McGraw? -Hill, Penton Media, Reed Business, IBM, Nortel, and Avaya.