This approach divides artifact behaviour into several catagories each of which is supported by different mechnanisms to provide the best compromise between consistency and interactivity. The main focus of the talk was VRAT and the concurrency contro, model used to enable several users to manipulate the same artifact simultaneously. Several different techniques are used to inform users of events depending on the relevance to the event to the user and the user's current activity. They presented three case studies which used different media, differing numbers of participants and different subject areas and discussed the experience gained from these case studies. They then discussed how drama could be used as a metaphor to aid the design of collaborative learning experiences.
Metaphors have the potential to bridge the gap between abstract and concreate information.
A problem with the use of metaphors is that the attribution of meaning is culturally and socially mediated. Collaborative Interactive Design in Virtual Environments Tomas Axling argued that most work in a collaborative virtual environment involves creating or changing some artifacts according to some rules. This application used SICS DIVE to provide the virtual environment within which the agent represented its user interface. Tomas also described some other speech controlled agents that he has developed which have various specialist skills and can be commanded by the user to manipulate artifacts in the virtual environment. As part of this work Helen conducted 97 interviews with people from 14 sites in 7 countries.