Are MOOs productive places, jesterly or seriously?

JMax_guest asks, "Can anyone define 'deing productive' in MOO terms? Like, can you ever really get 'serious' things done in MOOspace?"

Gustavo says to JMax_guest, "Well, I'd think BioMOO has been quite productive, and 'serious' stuff has been done in it."

JMax_guest asks Gustavo, "Does that make it the exception, or paragon?"

Gustavo says to JMax_guest, "I don't think BioMOO is an exception - as far as professional-oriented MOOs go."

Where's the $$$$$

Happy_Guest has strong feelings about when and whether people should be paid.

Gustavo asks Happy_Guest, "should they?"

Happy_Guest thinks people should get paid for their moo work if it directly involves the teaching mission of an existing institution, for example.

How do we "classify" MOOs?

Gustavo wonders whether 'professional' MOOs are a subclass of 'educational' ones, or just a related type.

Gofy says to Gustavo, "Related I guess.."

Do we classify MOOs by way of what we do?

Colega_guest says, "Well, just about *anything* you do on a language MOO contributes to learning the language."

Gustavo says to Gofy, "BioMOO has hosted various professional seminars, and some graduate level courses."

MOO Realities: Fact or Fiction?

Colega_guest asks, "MOOs are societies you can write in. They are books you can walk around in. Books sell, don't they?"

EricM_guest says, "MOOs *can be* novels, if they're built that way."

Colega_guest exclaims, "Oh my god, if I could sell some of the stories going on in MundoHispano! whew!!!! they'd go like hotcakes!"

Gustavo says to Colega_guest, "MOOs are novels? That's about as true as saying that 'MOOs are games'."

MOO as Scholarly Intertextuality and "Third Place"

SCog (Sharon Cogdill) ups the scholarly ante by inroducing Oldenberg's notions of "third place." Several people, obviously familiar with the concept, discussed this theory as it might apply to MOO as a work/play/home community. Others, not familiar with Olderberg, were free to go to SCog's excellent piece, "@go Tuesday."

SCog says, "I found Oldenberg's notion of 'third place' really influential"

SCog says, "there's work, there's living (or maybe play), and thent there's the third place... where community get constructed, society gets formed"

JMax_guest asks EricM_guest, "I was thinking about things you get paid for. Do we get paid in 'third places'?"