Welcome to Kay's Conservatory where the flowers always bloom and the conversation runs free. To come in, you'll need access via a MOO client or the integrated web interface. You can visit my Conservatory or the Green Tea Room now, if you like. We MOOers ask that you observe MOO netiquette and take the time to learn how to 'talk' and 'emote' in the MOO. Use the blackboard, the bots, the objects, wander about and read or sit down and chat. Iris Early is waiting to talk to you.

MOOing at Diversity University

Kay's Conservatory is a classroom on Diversity University, or DU. DU is a MOO, a text-based virtual university, a virtual-reality community where members and visitors can meet and discuss things in real time. The campus at DU-MOO contains classrooms, public areas, lecture halls and seminar rooms.

The MOO was originally entirely textual, and when you connect through telnet or a MOO Client you enter a room, but you don't see a picture of the room, instead you see a textual description of the room and its contents (look at the descriptions [by typing 'look <object name>'], because they contain useful information about the room).

There is an integrated web interface accessible through the DU web page which allows you, by using JAVA applets, to see icons and to navigate by clicking. Though many newbies like the graphics interface, the downside is the tiny typing/reading area when joining a discussion. For looking around alone, however, the graphics interface is a lot of fun.

DU is an educational virtual world. There are other MOOs that are not exclusively educational, and more freewheeling. Lambda MOO is one, and DaMOO is another. There are LOTS of MOOs!! For example, the MOO of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, ATHEMOO, which has many international members and a lot from the UK. They have MOO meetings like "Using MOOs to Teach Plays." ATHEMOO uses the Surf 'n' Turf MOO software. There is a list of MOOs here.

Using the graphics interface as a ghostly presence to visit Kay's Conservatory:

• Go to Diversity University at http://moo.du.org:8000/ and scroll down to see 'go directly to the WebGhost viewer' and click on it to go through the web window as a ghostly presence

• You will find yourself in the Student Union. If you scroll down and look at the campus map, you will see Cltrl Stds (Cultural Studies Building) to the east of the English building and between it and the Law building on the east side of the quad. Click on the Cltrl Stds building.

• You will be in the Main Foyer. Click on 'northeast (to stairs) Cultural Studies building'.

• You will be on the stairs. Click on 'f2 (to Cultural Studies Building 2nd floor foyer)' and you will be in the 2nd floor foyer.

• Now click on 'north to Cultural St faculty hall A(1-6)' and you will go there. There you will see 'southeast to Kay's Conservatory' and you click on that and you will be in my classroom.
  
  

• To get to DU through the World Wide Web:
  <http://moo.du.org:8000>
  To reach DU via its WWW address: <http://www.du.org/>
  To get to DU via telnet (or a MOO client): moo.du.org:8888
  Connect as ‘guest’ (‘co guest’)

• To set up your MOO Client
  via telnet: moo.du.org:8888
  Some clients are Pueblo (for Windows 95) from Chaco and MUDWIN. For Windows or MAC there is MUTT LITE. There is a MacMOOse, too. All are freeware for those in the education industry. DU's homepage has a list of MOO Clients, too.

• A list of commands
  which will allow you to move about and communicate with others on the MOO is avail able from <http://www.primenet.com/~ctallis/MOO_Commands.html>

• Help
  is always available by entering 'help' and there are introductions and tutorials at the Help Desk in the Student Union ('@go Student Union').

• MOO Netiquette
  as set up in the guidelines for DU can be found in one of the tutorials on DU.
  In the Student Union, go west to the Orientation Center
  In the Orientation Center, type 'tutorial'
  ; In the Tutorial Center, type 't1' and continue to type 'n' each time you want to see the next screen of the tutorial ('q' to quit).

If you go to DU via a telnet link (MOO Client), you will be in the Student Union, and in order to go to Kay’s Conservatory, type
'@go #7047' or '@join kay'
Once, there, 'look' at the blackboard by entering the command
'l black' (commands can usually be shortened to the first letter of the command and four letters of the thing commanded; this is really 'look blackboard')
The blackboard will help you get started enjoying the room.

You will probably want to log on before your first meeting to get used to MOOing; it can be a disorienting experience the first time out. If you do show up in the middle of a recorded session, please just lurk for a while before jumping in. I will be happy to remain on at the end of any session to answer questions that come up about the MOO itself. You can get the full recorded session sent to you as e-mail, too.

Don't get discouraged; remember what it was like learning to rollerskate, or ride a bike, or drive a car . . . and how much you loved doing those things once you'd learned. MOOing is much like those skills........come in and enjoy!

If you MOO awhile, you will start to pick up MOO-subtleties like the fact that the Green Tea Room was dug to the EAST of the conservatory, and that it is "green" to continue the conservatory greenery theme, that if you say Iris Early's name real fast you get her character as shown by her self-introduction, and so on......

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