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Open Community is a proposed open standard middelware and API platform for multi-user virtual worlds. It consists of extensions to Java and VRML 2.0. The standards proposal has been a combined effort of Mitsubishi Electric ITA's MERL and HSL laboratories and the Information Technology Center of MELCO in Ofuna, Japan. It is based on the Spline (Scalable Platform for Large Interactive Networked Environments) technology architecture developed originally by MERL.

In the Open Community (OC) model of an open distributed virtual environment, applications communicate with themselves and other connected users through the OC API to the World Model -- a distributed object database. Network communications are accomplished through the OC Interactive Sharing Transfer Protocol (ISTP).

We use the daisy as a metaphor for this architecture, with the world model at the center connecting application programs to the network through the ISTP stem to other daisies.

Open Community enables the interaction of thousands of geographically distant users simultaneously in real time, with interactive behaviors, voice chat, 3D graphics and positional audio. Applications that are compliant with Open Community will be able to make real-time modifications and extensions to the environment while it is running, so that the content of an environment can grow and expand dynamically in proportion to the talent of the user community. All of this is possible through an open Java interface at both the network and application programmer levels.     

About this Web Site

We have provided what we hope is an informative picture of Open Community, both to those who may be interested in our technology specifically and we've also included some links and articles relative to Distributed Virtual Environments in general.

Learning About Open Community

 

	An overview description of Open Community.
	About Spline technology, including the MERL Tech report on Locales and Beacons.
	The Interactive Sharing Transfer Protocol (ISTP)
	Open Community Java API specification
	Open Community ANSI-C API specification
	Schmoozer - A 3D VR authoring tool and run-time environment on top of Open Community

 

Relevant Material

Read about the development of Spline technology at MERL, some applications and partners, links to related sites, and meet our team.
  

	Here is the March '97 article about DVE's that appeared in The IEEE Spectrum.
	Tour Diamond Park, the first application to use Spline technology.
	Our partners Neometron have deployed Open Community with LearningWorks with the Open University.
	Foley Express Demonstration at VRML 98
	Take a look at our SigGraph '97 exhibit, done with Nearlife, Inc.
	Visit some related links
	Meet the team that's making Open Community .