We’ll be looking at a small-scale pilot of our new University portal later this semester. I’ve long been excited about the arrival of our portal, in which the user can customize his or her graphic relation to local intranets and the Internet. The result is a set of channels, some chosen and some “pushed” to the user, that represents the larger worlds of connectivity each user inhabits, or wants to inhabit.

If ordinary desktop computing is unidimensional, and web browsing is two-dimensional, then portals are maybe two-and-a-half or three-dimensional. (Rough reasoning, but stick with me.) That’s progress, but it didn’t prepare me for Cyprien Lomas’s blog on Croquet. (Thanks for blogging on this, Cyprien.) One of the things that makes my job so rewarding is what just happened: I clicked on a link, read a blog, and suddenly I’ve found a deep, extensive project in which my wildest dreams have not only a timetable and a beta version but a complete FAQ that boldly articulates their conceptual basis.

A screenshot and caption from the Croquet site:

This view shows an educational ‘arena’ containing interactive resources. Molecular models with simulated physical properties can be made available to researchers, educators, and learners.

It’s love at first sight, and I can’t wait to see this Croquet thing in action.

Two brief excerpts from the Croquet FAQ:

Question: What is the Croquet Project?

Answer: The Croquet project is an effort to develop a new open source computer operating system built from the ground up to enable deep collaboration between teams of users. To do this, the project seeks to define and develop a system is focused on the simulation and communication of complex ideas. We call this “communication enhancement” – the direct extension of the abilities of humans to develop, understand, and describe even the most complex simulations. Croquet enables this communication by acting as the equivalent of a broadband conferencing system built on top of a 3D user interface and a peer-to-peer network architecture.

Question: What is the value of Croquet to higher education?

Answer: Croquet provides means for educators, researchers, and other learners to encounter one another and establish authenticable peer-to-peer interactivity and deep telepresence. Croquet’s architectural approach provides a secure framework for peer-to-peer rich media interaction between users. Researchers, educators, and learners are able to meet and discover one another within a common online knowledge space in which a rich set of peer- and community-based learning opportunities are possible. Croquet environments may also be used as a participatory theater for real-time demonstrations. For example, a chemistry professor may communicate directly with the members of his/her class through chat or voice over IP, load a three-dimensional molecular model into the scene, and then manipulate the model in real-time within the shared environment. The educator may choose to leave the model in the scene and restrict or control its access to others over the course of the semester and beyond. The professor may also create objects in the vicinity of the model that point to associated web-based learning objects. Additionally, the professor may choose to “publish” the object and associated materials to a larger audience by setting their viewing rights and positioning them within an appropriate locale of the shared environment.

To move beyond the current online learning environments for higher education implies a significant paradigm shift. Rather than limiting our vision to automating quiz grading and dispensing instructor powerpoint slides, we see Croquet as a first step toward a system designed for deep user collaboration, scalable realtime interaction, and authoring supported by a digital repository and an implicit content management system.

Most piquant bit of the site so far for me: the definition of a Croquet “mirror” as a portal that leads back into the space from which it originates. I like thinking about a mirror that way, in or out of Croquet.

I also find myself with that peculiar feeling that Brian and Bryan must already know a lot about Croquet, and that I must speak with them immediately.

Bring it on.