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Knowledge Sharing Virtual World Metaphors
Metaphors
Thevirtual reality infrastructure, provides an increased communication channel with users. Taking advantage of this
new channel requires an interface back-bone that is provided by metaphors. Metaphors
hold (potential) scenarios, integrating them in a coherent user interface for applications.
Metaphors also support consistent mapping of abstract concepts and objects to virtual
world representation. While considerably more elaborate, just like today's popular
and powerful computer desktop metaphors, with garbage cans/recyclers, gadgets, windows,
and mouse pointers, virtual world metaphors also enable virtual worlds. In knowledge
sharing virtual worlds, metaphors can provide powerful referencing models, integrating
and structuring user experience, and effectiveness.
Abstraction
Metaphors typically vary in their abstraction level, from concrete physical representation
of reality to representation of abstract concepts in imaginary environments. While
realistic representation of reality is sometimes simpler to specify, abstract concepts
can often benefit more from virtual reality, which can help represent them like never
before. In any case, realistic representation will remain important until shared Web-based
interactive and reactive solid 3D, with dynamic ambient, musical, and textual sound
can easily support precise and flexible representation of any concept, however physical
or abstract. Realistic world and component representation, with natural looks, sound,
and behavior is required to provide optimal infrastructure for advanced collaborative
applications, and it is the metaphors that integrate and drive their effectiveness.
Learning Environments
For virtual world sustained efficiency and for continued user interest, virtual world
applications need to learn from their user interaction adjusting, improving, and varying
their responses and actions, within the constraints of the application. This learning
process is typically embedded in the metaphor and application.
Usage
When systems also learn from the interaction, effective, high productivity knowledge
sharing applications can start to become the new information-era school, work, and
entertainment environments.
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