TWUMOO: The female collected, and, the female collective - A work in progress on women and the technology that brings their achievements to life

TWUMOO is poised to be the revolutionary medium for women’s expression, scholarship, and collaboration. Short for Multi-User Domain, Object Oriented, a MOO allows multiple users to manipulate objects, as well as converse and conduct research online in real-time. TWUMOO stands for Texas Woman’s University’s MOO. This virtual land of female voices interweaves female scholarship with community outreach through the many programs currently in place. The Female Collected and The Female Collective form the two areas of focus through the archiving of women’s writing online, and, the real-time interaction among women and all MOO participants in a multi-dimensional online environment. The Female Collected is an exploration of the digital women’s collection, which currently includes the Women's Collection of Electronic Texts (WCET) and The Gallery of Women Rhetoricians. The Female Collective serves as the clearinghouse for teaching, research, and service. MOO gatherings such as the upcoming 1999 “Feminisms and Rhetorics” Conference, discussions, archives, and the actual building of virtual spaces demonstrate the pedagogical virtues that have emerged from what used to be a text-based multiplayer gaming environment. Two case studies unveil how MOOs have transformed higher education and