On the basis of the above considerations it is conceivable that one ought to start by making an investigation of a wide range of different types of network based environments and tools for collaborating on creatiing scientific texts and for communicating various forms of scientific writing. In this particular project I have decided to delimit the extent of my investigation in the following way:
This project focuses on the dynamic, electronically mediated social field represented by distributed virtual environments where there is a growing potential for interdisciplinary scientific authorship and collaboration. These fields are of special interest because they represent a kind of borderline zone related to everyday, non technologically mediated face-to-face communication (conversations or dialogues), electronically mediated asynchronous one-to-one, or one-to-many communication using both written language (electronic mail, electronic mail distribution lists and UseNet News) and other semiotic systems (World Wide Web), and more or less synchronous communication using more specialised networked multimedia systems (video conferencing, video telephone conversations and networked hypermedia systems), and so-called "immersive" multimedia based Virtual Reality systems (such as The Cave and Virtual Polis).
The specific object of study is the processes of normative change that lead to the development of new forms of qualifying text norm systems when novice scientific writers collaborate through wriing in distributed, text based virtual environments known as Multi-user dialogues, Object Oriented (MOO). Since this concept is not an immediately familiar one for many potential readers, in the next section I shall briefly explain in more detail what a `MOO' is.