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1. Introduction

What is virtual reality?
Let's see what Encyclopaedia Britannica says on this topic:

virtual reality (VR), the use of computer modelling and simulation to enable a person to interact with an artificial three-dimensional visual or other sensory environment. VR applications immerse the user in a computer-generated environment that simulates reality through the use of interactive devices, which send and receive information and are worn as goggles, headsets, gloves, or body suits. In a typical VR format, a user wearing a helmet with a stereoscopic screen for each eye views animated images of a simulated environment. The illusion of being there (telepresence) is effected by motion sensors that pick up the user's movements and adjust the view on the screens accordingly, usually in real time (the actual time during which something takes place). Thus, a user can tour a simulated suite of rooms, experiencing changing viewpoints and perspectives convincingly related to his own head turnings and steps. Wearing data-gloves equipped with force-feedback devices that provide the sensation of touch, the user can even pick up and manipulate objects that he sees in the virtual environment. The term virtual reality is also applied to the branch of computer science concerned with the development of such systems.
(Copyright © 1994-2000 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.)

As we see, the usual definition describes VR as deceiving of our perception, mostly by deceiving our senses (data gloves, headsets etc.) with the purpose to make a user to see no difference between the real and virtual world. However, according to various SF writers, virtual worlds should be places where we can do everything we can do in the real world but more efficiently and more quickly with no limitations imposed upon us by the physical world:
...if virtual worlds are merely ideal versions of our own world, why bother? The reason for opening up these spaces is to alleviate real world problems. We hope to break the bonds of time and space, making it easier to cope with the huge volumes of information brought about through widespread use of computers and the new information age.
(Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine / Volume 2, Number 2 / February 1, 1995 / Page 3, Talk to My Agent: Software Agents in Virtual Reality by John Horberg (horbej@rpi.edu) )

The real meaning of the expression "like in the real world" is limited by physical laws: if we chat with someone at the other end of the world, the time dilatation of half a second will not bother us but fighter plain in dog fight or sword duel is unachievable, and tele-surgery probably would be fatal.

Nevertheless, what is common both to virtual and real reality is the "intuitive organization of data". How many times has it happened to you that you can't remember where you put some file or a link? What do you do in the real world when you don't remember where you put something - you ask your family, colleagues, friends, or you search the house? Simply, man is born with specialized centers in the brain for speech and coordination in space, and reading has to be learned for years.

Here we designated the most important goals of VRSpace project: intuitive organization and intuitive data search, by the most natural (spatial and vocal) ways. Other goals are mostly technical, and dictate what we can do in and with virtual worlds. That can already be done partially on the internet, and cyberpunk writers have already given us excellent background how it should look like. In short, the requirements are:
- on-line messaging (aka chat, aka instant messaging)
- off-line messaging (mail, news...)
- security
- privacy
- distributed content
In this paper we are going to describe how it can be done with contemporary software.