The Evolving GeoWeb - GeoComputation - page 81

Shoebox . Gelernter (1991) defines Mirror Worlds as software models of some chunk of reality, some
piece of the real world going on outside your window which can be represented digitally. Gelernter
predicted that a software model of your city, once setup, will be available (like a public park) … it
will sustain a million different views … each visitor will zoom in and pan around and roam through
the model as he chooses (Roush, 2007). Back in 1991, Mirror Worlds and the concept of the universe
in a shoebox were fantasy and preceded the technology that was needed to make it a reality.
Just as the GeoWeb has advanced, so too have virtual worlds, from simple text-based worlds in
the 1980s (e.g. Multi-User DUNGEN or DungenMud) to 2D worlds in the 1990s (e.g. Neverwinter
Nights) to those of 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life, Active Worlds and OpenSim. While the
earliest applications of virtual worlds were focused on social spaces and games, this is changing. Such
electronic environments offer a new potential for study, education and outreach across all the sciences
albeit in the virtual world (Bainbridge, 2007). For example, virtual worlds have been extensively used
in the military (e.g. Vargas, 2006) and for urban planning applications (e.g. Hudson-Smith, 2003).
From an educational perspective, if we take, for example, SimCity (2009),* a city-building simula-
tion game whose objective as the name suggests is to build and design a city, the player can own land
(e.g. commercial, industrial or residential), add buildings, change taxes along with building transporta-
tion systems and respond to disasters such as flooding or earthquakes. Scenarios within the simulation
can be based on real cities and problems associated with them. For example, in the original SimCity
model, one scenario portrayed the capital of Switzerland (Bern) in 1965, a time when the roads were
clogged with traffic. Within this scenario, a player assuming the role of the mayor needed to reduce
traffic and improve the city by installing mass transit systems. In a sense, such a game provides a valu-
able teaching tool for urban geography, planners, designers and policy makers (Adams, 1998), because
while it is a game, it has business rules, ecosystem modelling and social dependencies. The GUI of the
game facilitates the learning about the complex, dynamic and interrelated nature of urban problems.
Today, virtual worlds are electronic environments that can visually mimic complex physical
spaces. Second Life and other virtual worlds such as Active Worlds are classed as multi-user virtual
environments (MUVEs) which are created to engage a community of users where people can be
active users, contributing to sites and participating in site content in real time through the Internet.
This is analogous to the role of the crowd in taking an active role in the production and consumption
of data in the GeoWeb. Users, through their avatars, are able to see the 3D world, to turn around and
look at fellow avatars, while holding a conversation, through voice chat, text-based group discus-
sions and instant messaging which all introduce a meaningful level of social interaction (Hudson-
Smith et al., 1998). Such environments are open to anyone who is connected to the Internet (with
obvious limits of membership, censorship, etc.). This literally puts users in the Internet, rather than
on it (which is the case for Digital Earths). As noted in Section 4.3, the ability of many to engage
and interact is the key feature that defines Web 2.0 technologies where interaction is key and where
most interaction is currently achieved through GUIs (Hudson-Smith et al., 2009c).
Taking Second Life as an example, it provides a synchronous platform with the ability to tie
information, actions and rules to objects, opening the possibility of a true multi-user GIS. For
example, in Figure 4.6, we show how one can import geographical information into Second Life
(e.g. physical terrain data), enabling the creation of table top models of the Earth's physical geog-
raphy. Such models can then be viewed and discussed within a virtual collaborative environment.
Furthermore, one can import 3D data into Second Life, for example, as shown in Figure 4.6a,
which has been laid out onto a scrolling map at a scaled down level. A simple north/south/east/west
interface enabled users to navigate around the city and new geographical data to be loaded as nec-
essary, while in the background, buildings with real facades are directly imported as JPEGs from
graphic packages (Figure 4.6a). This demonstrates how different levels of geographical detail can
* SimCity is not really a true 3D model but a 2.5D as it uses an isometric viewpoint. The player navigates the environment
by scrolling left, right, up or down. It gives a sense of 3D without having a z -axis (see Krikke, 2000 and Hudson-Smith,
2003 for more details).