WebRogue is an application for virtual presence over the Web. It is implemented by coupling a Web client and a Chat client, so that each time the user downloads a Web page he or she can see who is connected to that site and chat with them. Users can decide to talk in couples, or simply speak loud, so that anyone that is watching that page can listen, or even scream so that everybody on the web-site can listen. Additionally two or more users can decide to form a group and surf together, one of them being the leader, that the others will follow. Whenever the leader changes URL, the page loaded on the browsers of anybody else in the group will change accordingly. The goal of WebRogue is to enable the birth of online communities around web-sites of interest, allowing exchange of opinions, in a free, non moderated manner, between site visitors and site owners, and thus it is designed with freedom of speech in mind. Nobody can moderate a WebRogue channel, no subscription or authentication is required, and the service doesnt rely on any particular application to be installed server-side in web-sites, for them to become meeting points for WebRogue users.267-27

Carboni, Davide

Marcialis, Ivan

Soro, Alessandro

P-arch

WEBROGUE: MEET WEB PEOPLEAlessandro SoroCRS4 – Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in SardiniaParco Scientifico e Tecnologico, POLARIS, Edificio 1, 09010 PULA (CA - Italy)asoro@crs4.itIvan MarcialisCRS4 – Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in SardiniaParco Scientifico e Tecnologico, POLARIS, Edificio 1, 09010 PULA (CA - Italy)ivan@crs4.ilABSTRACTWebRogue is an application for virtual presence over the Web. It is implemented by coupling a Web client and a Chatclient, so that each time the user downloads a Web page he or she can see who is connected to that site and chat withthem. Users can decide to talk in couples, or simply speak loud, so that anyone that is watching that page can listen, oreven scream so that everybody on the web-site can listen. Additionally two or more users can decide to form a group andsurf together, one of them being the leader, that the others will follow. Whenever the leader changes URL, the pageloaded on the browsers of anybody else in the group will change accordingly. The goal of WebRogue is to enable thebirth of online communities around web-sites of interest, allowing exchange of opinions, in a free, non moderatedmanner, between site visitors and site owners, and thus it is designed with freedom of speech in mind. Nobody canmoderate a WebRogue channel, no subscription or authentication is required, and the service doesn't rely on anyparticular application to be installed server-side in web-sites, for them to become meeting points for WebRogue users. KEYWORDSWeb; Chat; Virtual Presence; Virtual Communities.• INTRODUCTIONInformation and Communication Technology, along 30 years of activity, has produced many tools to helppeople meet and share information. The Web, short after its creation, has evolved to a virtual space, whereusers find news and information. The word web-site should suggest a parallel with physical space, but as faras the user is concerned, a web site is a desert. He or She is alone there. Many web-sites try to correct this providing information on how many users are connected, and tools, likemessaging or mailing lists, to help them meet, but this is still a tricky mechanism, usually requiresregistration, and tends to form closed, micro-communities around specific web-sites.  Chat and instant messaging are another application that allow people communicate, but users aresupposed to know each other or to connect to a specific service in order to meet. Web-rogue fills the gap by coupling a Web client and a Chat client: each time the user downloads a Webpage he or she can see who is connected to that site, and chat. Users can decide to talk in couples, or simplyspeak loud, so that anyone that is watching that page can listen, or even scream so that everybody on the web-site can listen. If a user needs to talk with someone (for example to the librarian in a virtual library) that iscurrently engaged in another conversation or away from the keyboard, he or she can enter a queue and waitfor his turn, as in the real world. Additionally two or more users can decide to form a group and surf together,one of them being the leader, that the others will follow. Whenever the leader changes URL, the page loadedon the browsers of anybody else in the group will change accordingly.This allows Web surfers tospontaneously aggregate around sites of interest, as it happens in the real world, without being limited orcontrolled in any way by web-site owners.For example people interested in the research activity of CRS4 will simply connect to its Web-site usingtheir favourite, WebRogue-enabled, Web browser. Without any subscription or registration, they will findonline not only other rogues interested in the same topics, but, very likely, also employees and researchers ofour group, as they whould if physically coming at ours. At the same time we are not the least interested inkeeping our visitors from criticize our work, openly compare it to others' or to their own, or even leave us andsurf togheter towards 'competitors' sites. At the opposite, we developed WebRogue just to enable andencourage this kind of interaction between our visitors and ourselves, as we firmly believe in the potentials ofsuch exchanges, when freedom of speech and communication is granted.  • ARCHITECTUREWeb-Sites and Web-People. The goal of WebRogue is to enable the birth of online communities aroundweb-sites of interest, allowing seamless exchange of opinions, in a free, non moderated manner, between sitevisitors and site owners. So we put emphasys on two points: • Freedom of speech: meeting people and discussing on a Web site must always be possible to anyone.This meens in first place that the availability of the service must not be based on any particular toolinstalled at the Web server side, but also that site owner can't decide wether or not to provide this service,just like a book-store owner can't prevent customers from talking about books (or anything else) beforethe store. • Ease of use: WebRogue is an extension of the Web, and as such it must rely on the applicationscommonly used to access the Web, i.e. the Web browsers. Any solution requirinig users to adopt a toolother than their favourite one would be doomed to failure. WebRogue is implemented as a client server application: an add-in for the Web-browser (a Mozillaimplementation is available) stays on the client side and provides a chat bar and contact list; a serverapplication (centralized and independent from specific web-servers) collects and delivers messages to theclients. It is important to underline that the server application is not related in any way to the specific web-servers. It is run by a server at CRS4, thus web-site owners have absolutely no control on who usesWebRogue on their page, and what can be said. No moderation or censorship is possible, no one can bedenied access or granted a priviledged podium. Everyone is allowed to say everything he or she thinks onwhatever subject, to anyone. Neighbors. One of the first problems we encountered while designing WebRogue was what to do whenthe user enters a site to which thousands of people are connected. Being able to chat to so many people couldbe amazing, but is clearly not practical given that what people say can be heard by anyone on the site; but letus think in terms of real world: what happens when people go to crowded places? There will be noise,communication will be difficult, meeting a specific person will be quite impossible. However people usuallydon't interact with everibody, specially, for obvious reasons, in crowded places. Conversation will be limitedto people that are physically close. Within a web-site, euclidean distance is not a limit (and hardly has asense) but we can still measure the distance between users, and find a limited number of neighbors. Theactual metric can take into account the language, user profile (age, gender, …) if available, the time (peoplethat entered the site simultaneously are closer than others), web-page (people watching the same page of alarge web-site can be be thought of as if staying in the same room within a large building), geographicalposition. It can be any combination of these and other factors, and the choice is left to the users, or it can beleft to fate and be simply random. Communication Commands: Say, Whisper and Scream. The first goal of WebRogue is to allowpeople to chat freely on a web-site, there are three ways to do this. If the user says something, his or herwords are heard by all neighbors. This is how we attract the attention of people in order to ask generalquestions, make comments, or simply say hello! If the user wants to talk to a specific person it is possible towhisper a message that will be heard only by the recipient, like in instant messaging applications. Finally,users can scream their messages, if they want to be heard by anyone on the site and not only by theirneighbors. It is important to note that different people and cultures have a different perception of how invasive can beaddressing comments or asking questions to others they're not aquanted with. Even more, screaming isgenerally considered a bad behaviour. But we designed WebRogue with freedom in mind: users can at anytime decide to ignore or run away boring people, but nobody can deny to others the right to speak.  Social Commands: Handshake, Follow, WaitEvery community has its rules and protocols that govern interaction. WebRogue supports this allowingusers to handshake, form groups and wait in line. Like instant messaging applications, WebRogue can keep a list of contacts that will be recognized acrossdifferent sessions, with several benefits. Contacts can be found when they are online, regardless of the sitethay are connected to, thus granting a preferred channel for communication, or in other words providing avirtual site, where contacts can be always found.The Web in many cases can be a dis-aggregating experience. Even if it is not uncommon to have morethan one user sitting at the same desk surfing the Web, the common scenario is that of a single user.Applications exist that allow surfing in couples or in groups at different workstations, but with the alreadymentioned limitations. WebRogue allow to surf in groups with people never met before: for example in aguided tour of a virtual museum, or simply for fun. Furthermore in many circumstances it is necessary to wait in line to talk to a specific person, as in real lifepeople wait for their turn in order to get services. WebRogue provides a support for this.• RELATED WORKWebRogue puts togheter well tested tools and ideas that, so far, found application in different, separetedsoftware. Communication commands are typical of chat and instant messaging applications, social commandsare mutuated from role-playing games, extensions of this metaphors to the Web have been implemented asserver side applications. WebRogue brings the implementation closer to the client to allow a community tospread over different sites, or over the entire Web, and to avoid the possibility of control and censorship.Group web-surfing (by means of the follow command) has many similarities with tools for collaborativeworkgroup, that found application and are a research subject in several fields, from e-learning to softwareengineering. Particularly interesting is the analogy to the research in the field of location-based Web-services,that try to adapt Web-service behaviour to the geographicalposition of the users. Using the geographicalposition in the computation of the neighborhood of users, could be very interesting in tourism applications. • PRIVACY AND SECURITY ISSUESUser Authentication and Message Encryption. In real life people are not required to authenticatethemselves while entering a public place, such as a store or a school, but at the same time personalidentification is performed informally: i.e. people get recognized by their face or voice. Only when realsecurity reasons exist people accept to identify themselves, by means of personal ids, as when moneytransactions occur or officers require it. As said WebRogue is designed with freedom in mind and ths usersare generally considered to be anonymous. Personal identification is never required but users may want to berecognized, for example as affectionate customers in a virtual store or by their contacts. In these casespersonal certificate authentication is supported by WebRogue. Double key cryptography is also supported forprivate communication (by means of the whisper command).  Rethinking Web-Surfing. WebRogue suggests a different point of view on the concept of web-site. Web-sites are, not always and not only, but often, a self celebrating advertisement for organizations and firms. Onthe Web everyone is leader in its own field. Furthermore, even if the Web is claimed to be an interactivemedium, interaction usually is limited to filling an HTML form with (fake) personal data to get access to aWeb service. Users are just passive spectators of Web-pages that in some way are becoming quite similar toTV channels or newspapers. In our view WebRogue empowers the upload channel, granting users the right toget their own voice heard. • CONCLUSIONWebRogue lets web users meet in web-sites, as people meet in physical places, freely interacting by means ofcommunication and social commands, without any control or censorship by web-site owners. It is designedwith the spirit of free and spontaneous association in mind, to encourage users to share information andopinions. Unlike chat or IM software users are not supposed to subscribe any service or to authenticate, andthere is no need to contact a dedicated service to open a channel for discussion. As users with similar interestsare likely to consult the same web-sites, the web-site itself becomes a meeting point for them.      We developed WebRogue as a communication channel between CRS4 researchers and online visitors, butplenty of applications can be imagined, from e-commerce, to e-learning, to online entertainment. Here arethree sample applications:  Virtual Shopping. When connecting to an e-commerce web-site with Web-rogue, the User can see who’sthere. As if entering a physical store, a clerk, will welcome he or she, offer help and eventually guide the usertrough shelves and merchandise. The user can ask questions, discuss the price, even ask opinions andsuggestions to other customers. Virtual Tour of a Museum. Loading the home page of a museum into Web-rogue the user can find online aguide and a group of people that is about to start a guided tour. He or she can decide to join them and followthe guide trough the various rooms, listen to explanations, ask questions. e-Learning. Almost every school or University offers a web-site to students that provides information andservices, like lesson timetables, contacts and homepages of professors, library catalogue etc. With Web-roguestudents could find their tutor online that will point (or even accompany) them to the correct pages, answerfrequently asked questions, accept suggestions etc.WebRogue is an early work in progress, a pre-release for Mozilla exists but further development is needed tocompletely support the functionalities described. Porting to MS internet Explorer and Firefox are planned as anext step. To grant freedom a peer to peer communication layer would be preferrable to a client serverarchitecture. The communication protocol is proprietary and based on RDF for ease of implementation, anopen, standard protocol like Jabber would better suite our idea of free software. WebRogue is an open sourcesoftware, to get more information, download the latest build, or participate in its development contact theauthors or see http://www.crs4.it:8000/webrogue.This work was supported by MAPS (Agile Methodologies for Software Production) research project,contract/grant sponsor: FIRB research fund of MIUR, contract/grant number: RBNE01JRK8.REFERENCESGPSWeb, DJ-lab, XPSuite, qualche link su chat e Ims. E poi bohReferences and Citations should follow the Harvard (or author-date) system convention. Check the examples. If areferenced paper has three or more authors the reference should always appear as the first author followed by et al. BookAuthor, year. Title (in italics). Publisher, location of publisher.Abiteboul, S. et al, 2000. Data on the Web: From Relations to Semistructured Data and XML. Morgan KaufmannPublishers, San Francisco, USA.JournalAuthor, year. Paper title. Journal name (in italics), volume and issue numbers, inclusive pages.Bodorik P. et al, 1991. Deciding to Correct Distributed Query Processing. In IEEE Transactions on Data and KnowledgeEngineering, Vol. 4, No. 3,pp 253-265.Conference paper or contributed volumeAuthor, year, paper title. Proceedings title (in italics). City, country, inclusive pages.Beck, K. and Ralph, J., 1994. Patterns Generates Architectures. Proceedings of European Conference of Object-Oriented Programming. Bologna, Italy, pp. 139-149.

Webrogue: meet web people

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Webrogue: meet web people

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