Towards ethnographies of conversations in distributed virtual environments

Patrick J. Coppock
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Department of Applied Linguistics
patrick.coppock@hf.ntnu.no

patcop@bo.nettuno.it

1. Introduction
2. Electronic mail as a distributed virtual environment
   1. Electronic mail exchanges as `conversations'
3. The World Wide Web as a distributed virtual environment
   1. World Wide Web exchanges as `conversations'
4. Object-oriented multi-user domains as distributed virtual environments
5. The text-based virtual environment as a context of situation
6. Some general effects of technological constraints on conversations in distributed virtual environments
   1. Contextual and language modality issues
      1. The textuality of the context of situation
      2. Language modality and code
   2. Participant embodiment status issues
      1. Lack of physical co-presence
      2. Lack of mutual eye contact and gaze
7. Towards a model for ethnographies of conversations in distributed virtual environments
8. Appendix: Tools for recording conversations in MOO environments
   1. Logging functions and conversational log types
      1. Conversation and public action logs
      2. Conversation and private action logs
      3. Conversation, action and point-of-view logs
9. References: