The University of Wisconsin recently signed a $200,000 software development contract with the National Institute of Information and Computer Technology (NiCT) in Japan. The contract is intended to promote the development of educational uses for Croquet, an open-source software system.
In conjunction with UW, the University of Minnesota, Hewlett Packard Inc. and Viewpoints Research Institute Inc. will also be working on the Croquet Project.
Brian Rust, Communications Manager for UW’s Division of Information Technology, explained exactly what Croquet does.
“Think of your basic desktop operating system, which is traditionally two-dimensional,” Rush said. “Croquet is more like a three-dimensional environment in which you can not only create and store information; you can also interact with people.”
Julian Lombardi and Alan Kay, developers of the Croquet project at UW, are also working with Rust. Croquet offers several new possibilities to students and staff that could be both applicable and beneficial at UW.
UW sophomore Eliot Dyson, a DoIT employee, said he thinks the software could have some definite benefits for UW students but may cause problems for DoIT customer service.
“I think [the software] would be beneficial, but it also, coming from a help-desk perspective, could cause problems if people don’t know how to use it,” Dyson said.
The program is a potentially “invaluable tool” for faculty, staff and students to collaborate on for instructional purposes, according to Rust.
There are a variety of applications Croquet has to offer that could be useful to UW students and staff. For example, there is the possibility for video-voice dialogue with another person.
“It takes something like chat to a new dimension. It’s almost something you have to see; it’s kind of hard to describe in words,” Rust said in regard to the video-voice dialogue.
The Croquet operating system also allows two people working on the same project to utilize the project program simultaneously and from different computers. Rust said Croquet makes it possible for two people to work together at the same time writing a paper or editing a video clip. One person working on the project will be able to see what the other is doing in real time.
“Windows viewable by others can be edited by both in real time, collaborating together,” Rust said.
The NiCT in Japan gave the grant to UW’s DoIT developers because of a governmental interest in the new technology. According to Rust, the Japanese government sees practical applications in the software that could be beneficial for their country.
“They see it as a very fertile environment for them to be able to develop things for [their government] that they’re interested in,” Rust said.
Croquet is not yet available to consumers, but it is available to developers in a beta version. Anyone interested in the project should look at www.croquetproject.org.
