LLuna - Designing a Distributed Virtual Presence System
From Virtual Communities
Contents |
Authors
Heiner Wolf, bluehands GmbH & Co.mmunication KG, Christine Stumpf, bluehands GmbH & Co.mmunication KG
Abstract
This paper describes a research project on virtual presence, which strives to populate the Web. The Web is extended by a new layer that shows users on Web pages while they are present at virtual locations. The document first describes the requirements for a large-scale distributed system that fits to the Web. The requirements lead to design decisions, which build upon a publicly available messaging infrastructure. The paper presents a feature rich implementation and describes our experience with real users. It finally shows what virtual presence means for virtual communities.
Keywords
Virtual presence, web awareness, online community, social network, Jabber, MMORPG
