The MaDViWorld Project An Attempt to Apply a Collaborative Virtual World Paradigm to the Internet

摘要

MaDViWorld is an object oriented software framework supporting the implementation of fully distributed virtual worlds on the Internet. While the World Wide Web proposes a document paradigm with HTTP servers containing documents consulted by users with the help of browser applications, MaDViWorld supports a much richer paradigm based on room servers hosting spaces populated by full-fledged objects, that avatar applications can activate, move and share transparently.Within this context, the MaDViWorld project main goal is to provide its users with the appropriate software environment for creating all kinds of new collaborative objects and for sharing them transparently with others. The present paper illustrates this process with several examples from projects recently accomplished at the DIUF (Department of Informatics of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland).