The world wide web has revolutionised the internet by providing a means for computer novices to navigate information space. By enabling hyperlinks between web pages, the hypertext markup language (HTML)and indeed the structure of the world wide web in general assumes that web pages remain discretely isolated from each other. Context between sites must be built into the links between them. If a site is to be linked to another, context between both sites must be provided by each.

To click on a link is to ‘teleport’ to that link’s destination - a web page. A sense of spatial relationship between web pages can occur by arranging more than one link on a single site, but fails to reflect the significance of spatial organisation of web content over time in terms of its effects on the ways in which the web is used by more than one group of people.

Clusters of web sites may provide something of the look and feel of a say, a city, but can often fail to accomodate the ability to move around the city in meaningful ways.

One of the most pleasurable aspects of city life in the physical realm, is the ability to stroll, to wander or to drift. The equivalent of drifting on the world wide web is ‘browsing’ or ‘surfing’. Browsing the web enables users to traverse web content in such a way that one pages links lead to others, but any meaning derived from the juxtaposition of sites encountered must be made by the user at the time, or assembled by her in the form of a ‘hotlist’. This hotlist may contain inter-related sites and enable the user to visit each one seperately, but more often than not, assumes that each site is completely independent from the others. To make a more meaningful structure from the layout of sites would entail the user write her own web site from scratch, which would in turn require guarenteed access to a web server, an internet account, and so on.

Pros and Cons of Chat, Virtual MOOS, and other Digital Cities.

Chat Clients - such as AOL Messenger, ICQ, and so on enable groups of people to converse on the web at any given time in a group fashion. Each must type his/her message in response to others so connected. Chat systems are however limited largely to the use of text, along with some simple graphical signifyers e.g. a 'winking smiley face' to indicate aknowledgement, a laughing smiley face to indicate the reader/writer is 'laughing'. Sound effects can also usually be used to reinforce a point during a conversation. Users must often agree in advance to meet in the virtual chat area. The sessions tend to be thus restricted by the constraints of time. The technology tends to impose a conversational structure where one might not otherwise arise.

Visual Moos - like ‘the Palace’ enable groups to assemble using simple icons to ‘see’ each other but lacks a sense of community over time - the structure of these visual moo environments does not encourage the sense of ‘habitation’, settlement and migration within the city.

Digital cities - such as geocities and digital cities amsterdam (DDS) provide use of city metaphor to spatialise web content, but lack the navigational aspect and assume a fixed address for the duration of the person’s web residency. People are unable however to determine the conditions under which communities might form of thier own accord - clustering of communities.

I had hoped that provided with the opportunity to both ‘settle’ within a web grid environment and to also migrate at any time to other co-ordinates within the grid, individuals would gain a strong sense of engagement with a web community - particularly where activities shared by that community were possible. Such activities might include ‘civic projects’ which are instigated by members themselves, or be sponsored by outsiders - things such as community schooling, medical advice. The service became something of a cause celebre for those looking for some free web hosting. Its unusual layout and structure prompted many visitors to enquire as to EMU's purpose. For example:

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As part of a broader objective, being the examination of the usefulness of urban planning metaphors in the development of multi-user online environments, EMU WEB GRID attempts to structure web content within a grid environment to enable meaningul ‘clusterings’ of web sites. This mirrors the ways in which physical buildings over time form suburbs, and zones.

Navigation between web sites is afforded by means of navigational arrows at each corner and on each side (see fig 2) which appear on the web sites themselves when seen at full size. When seen from a distance the sites are shown as thumbnail pictures arranged within an overall grid, clicking on any one thumbnail results in a full size view of that main page. When shown at full size, that page then affords movement to other sites positioned around the main site.

I have developed a grid interface which enables multiple ‘home pages’ to share a simple online environment in which movement between web pages can occur from within any one page. New users are provided with a free web site, whose placement on a square within a grid is determined by them, the co-ordinates of which are established by filling in an online form. Another online form allows the new web site owners to personalise thier page by placing a picture or some other defining feature on the final web page. A small bio of the user is also requested.

The grid itself is to be interupted by features which seek to mimic the workings of the natural landsape - there will be obvious "landmarks" - striking images with which new users can orient themselves, andresources will be simulated by features such as digital ‘rivers’ and so on. These features may well have an impact upon the users within the grid.

Influences include - Sim City, Tetris, ‘Game of Life’, rubik’s cube,

Puzzles and role play games are a major influence - chess, rpg games.

The aim of EMUWEBGRID is to facilitate ease of navigation between web sites by enabling web site owners to orient pages adjacent to others within a grid. Over time web site owners can migrate to "areas" on the grid which are populated by others whose interests they share.This aspect of user migration - the ability to move around within a preset environment, both at the casual browser’s level and in the long term makes. The project attempts to measure the extent to which relative proximity between web sites organised spatially influences the ways in which web sites are used. It attempt to answer the questions relating to wether a city or grid interface plays any role in determining the attractiveness to users of a web ‘community’.

Questions which arose during the production of EMU included: What role does the spatialising of web material play in its use over time? - What issues determine the means by which users travel and ‘migrate’ within the grid.

Conway's Model

Conway's model seeks to replicate the conditions under which artificial life may develop in a computer simulation. Points of light or squares in an array represent cells of life. The survivability of any given square is determined by the number of other squares in the region (food/resources