Being There Together

Ralph Schroeder is a senior research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. His publications include Possible Worlds: The Social Dynamic of Virtual Reality Technology (1996) and Rethinking Science, Technology and Social Change (2007). He has also edited The Social Life of Avatars (2002) and co-edited Avatars at Work and Play (2006).

Preface
Abbreviations Used
List of Figures and Tables

1. Virtual Environments and the Changing Landscape of Information and Communication Technologies
- Definitions and Overview
- The Development of Shared Virtual Environments Technology
- Two Technological End-States
2. The Varieties of Experiences of Being There Together
- The Range of MUVE Settings
- The Range of Experiences in MUVEs
- The Components of MUVE Experiences
- The Phenomenology of MUVE Experiences in Context
3. Avatars, Online Spaces, and Social Interaction
- Virtual Spaces
- Avatar Appearance and Realism
4. Collaboration in Immersive and Non-Immersive Spaces
- Distributed Work - Distributed Research - Distributed Collaboration
- Tasks, Collaboration, and Systems
- Long-term Collaboration
5. Social Life in Online Worlds
- The History of Virtual Worlds
- Roles and Frames
- Governance, Economies and Trust in Virtual Worlds
- Limits of Online Worlds, Limits of Offline Perceptions
6. Communication
- Modalities of Communication in SVEs
- Common Ground in Immersive and Non-Immersive Spaces
- Language Encounters in SVEs
- Text versus Voice, Videoconferences versus MUVEs, Face-to-Face versus Online
7. Research Uses of MUVEs
- The Variety of Research Uses of MUVEs
- Analysis of Small Group Interaction
8. Ethical and Social Issues in MUVEs
- Research Ethics
- Ethical and Social Issues in MUVEs
9. MUVEs and other Technologies for Being There Together
- Other Technologies for Being There Together
- Multiple Modalities, Multiple Networks
10. The Future of Being There Together
- MUVEs as an End-State
- The Future of Two End-States