"Through the Looking Glass and Back: A MOO Rhetrospective"

Our nearly 30-year history has been one of the most exciting periods in composition history. We have witnessed the rise of collaborative environments (DIWE, networked classrooms, MOOs), new media (audio and video), instant messaging/texting, and social networks as sites of writing and textual interactions. One of these environments, the MOO, provided a valuable site for interaction among members of the Computers and Writing Community. Weekly meetings in the Tuesday Café and Techrhet Barn brought together colleagues from around the country for discussion, collaboration, and mentoring. Over the course of Collaborvention 2011, we wish to continue that interactive spirit with a Rhetrospective, an event to celebrate our MOO past as it connects to our broader history, and its impact on our current and, perhaps, future practices. We invite all of the C&W community to join us in the following activities:

• a threaded asynchronous discussion on Google Groups (http://groups.google.com/group/MOO2011) to span the entire collaborvention period, April 22 through May 30, 2011. Discussion threads include the following:
  • MOO and User Experience Design, hosted by Tari Fanderclai 
  • MOO and Composition Practice, hosted by Doug Eyman
  • MOO and New Media, hosted by Rich Rice
  • MOO as World Building, hosted by John Walter
  • MOO Memories: What We Have Learned, a place for all of us to share our memories and reflections about the MOO.
• two MOO events at MediaMOO, one on Tuesday, April 26 at 7:00pm CST for synchronous discussion and the other on Thursday, May 6 at 7:00pm CST for building and further discussion of the ideas generated on the discussion boards, personal experiences, and face-to-face interactions at the conference.

You don’t need a MOO account or much experience to join us for the April 26 event, or if you just want to be part of the discussion for the May 26 event. However, you will need to create a MOO account or dust off your old one if you would like to participate in the building for the May 26 event.

Join us at MediaMOO, using the web interface (http://www.mudconnect.com/fmud/?host=mediamoo.media.mit.edu&port=8888) or at mediamoo.engl.niu.edu:8888 using Pueblo for Windows or Atlantis for Mac, both excellent freeware MOO clients. For more information about these events, feel free to contact us.

We look forward to your participation!