Another question was raised through an ongoing conversation with the same person who raised the question of Clique Space and Google Wave. What's the difference between Clique Space and a Multi-User Virtual Environment, or MUVE?
Specifically, the statement was made that anyone can connect to a MUVE through "any device", so I think the definition of any device needs to be clarified as it may relate to both a MUVE and Clique Space.
The fact that MUVE and Clique Space both provide a virtual environment is obvious. A device, however, in a MUVE provides a gateway for a user to interact within that environment, whereas in a Clique Space, the device provides activity state to a Clique Space, and may be controlled by the Clique Space in ways that are specified by the Media Profile that the device is Connected through.
In a MUVE, a device provides user access to a virtual environment where that user can do things with others in that medium according to the way that medium functions. The Clique Space environment, however, connects with a device to collect changes in device's state according to its native medium, and control that device in the medium in which that device is operating. Clique Space does not attempt to provide a substitute for an existing media; it compliments a device's functioning so that changes in device state might be centrally recorded and possibly controlled according to concerns that cut across media into issues such as user preference and organisational role.
In this way, a user in a MUVE might use the device one uses to connect to the MUVE to additionally connect to a Clique Space. The MUVE connection is expressed as a Clique Space Connection to this device (known to Clique Space as a Client Device; possibly the device that the user uses to obtain access to the MUVE, or possibly the MUVE provider itself) over a Media Profile that is appropriate for that MUVE. The Clique Space can collect status from the Client Device, and may also control the way the Client Device operates. All this may depend on which other users this particular user is working with, which other Client Device(s) the user has Connected to the Clique Space, which users are affiliated to which organisations in Clique Space, amongst a combination of these and other degrees of access freedom.
Any device has possibly a much wider scope in Clique Space than it does in a MUVE. Can, for instance, a physical car have any meaningful place inside a MUVE? On the other hand, a car might be connected in Clique Space, and its status (engine on/off, speed, fuel level, fuel mixture, tire pressure, engine temperature, etc) might be recorded by Clique Space. This information might be relevant, for instance when placed along side the chatter that happens between the driver and the driver's pit-lane mechanics, the driver's physical condition, the driver's (and car's) location, and the weather. All of the devices that collect this information might be similarly connected to Clique Space to particular Media Profiles, through particular user Accounts, and under particular organisation Affiliations. Fuel mixture might be monitored while the car is racing, and may even be adjusted by mechanics in the race to maximise fuel efficiency and power. All of this information could be available on one device activity log to be reviewed after a race.
To what extent might one also connect other non-collaborative devices to a MUVE? A MUVE is designed to represent an individual's interaction with objects and other individuals in some type of virtual environment. I contend that this concept is different to Clique Space in that a Clique Space collects data from a whole host of virtual and physical environments, and facilitates both an identity and device activity coordination layers on top of all devices so connected.
MUVE's are apparently used as teaching environments, and so to compliment, enrich, and diversify the learning that might be done in these environments, users might connect their MUVE session, as well as other other physical devices they may be using in the exercises being conducted to a Clique Space so the instructor can see and possibly control the functioning of all his or her pupils' devices.
I think a Clique Space is definitely something thoroughly different, yet complimentary, to a MUVE...
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