Virtual worlds

Acm Sigmis Database, 2007

Communications of the Association For Information Systems Vol 18 No 28, 2008

Virtual worlds like Second Life are becoming important tools for, among other activities, socialization, social networking, entertainment, collaboration, and business development. These environments offer information systems researchers a unique opportunity to study how these environments are built and managed by operators, how they are used and misused by users, and the impact that they have on users, communities, organizations, and societies at large. This panel is designed to introduce the information systems community to this topic. We have assembled both academic and practitioners involved in building, managing, and using virtual worlds to discuss a roadmap for research on virtual worlds.

2011

When the call for papers for this special issue went out in the fall of 2007, there was a lot of hype around virtual worlds, with organizations such as Toyota, American Apparel, IBM, Reuters, Sun Microsystems, and Wells Fargo experimenting with Second Life as a potential platform to reach consumers. Anshe Chung was touted as the first online personality to exceed one million US dollars from profits earned inside a virtual world.

2007

Abstract Virtual worlds like Second Life are becoming important tools for, among other activities, socialization, social networking, entertainment, collaboration, and business development. These environments offer information systems researchers a unique opportunity to study how these environments are built and managed by operators, how they are used and misused by users, and the impact that they have on users, communities, organizations, and societies at large.

International Journal of Virtual Communities and Social Networking, 2012

Virtual worlds have emerged as important socio-technical artifacts in contemporary society. They have enabled unique business models in the digital economy. This paper presents a rich account on how virtual worlds have transformed modern society and how they have been presented as having outstanding benefits and promise, with examples of successes and failures. The goal is to synthesize the research and demonstrate an accurate understanding of this novel artifact and its multi-facet consequences. In addition, and more importantly, this review proposes a research agenda for the information systems discipline and assists in identifying critical issues on virtual world technologies and strategic management practices. The objective of this study is to establish a foundation for research on virtual worlds.

2008

Business opportunities provided by 3-D virtual worlds and "serious gaming" (adapting computer-gaming technology for business use) are beginning to emerge. The CIO membership of the Society for Information Management's Advanced Practice Council (APC) commissioned research to track these opportunities and the management implications. Early experiments of virtual world and serious gaming applications fall into three categories-those that use social presence capabilities, those that use visualization capabilities, and those that use simulation capabilities. This article discusses each of these categories, together with examples, and provides thoughts on other future applications. It also describes the APC's own first-hand experience of developing SIMSIM, an "island" located in Second Life, one of the most popular virtual world platforms. Although the business promise of virtual worlds and serious gaming is largely in the future, the enabling technologies are maturing rapidly. Both the upside potential and downside risk of these platforms are too high for businesses to ignore. By 2018, virtual worlds and serious gaming will likely be major, even dominant, platforms for business applications and opportunities.

Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, URL: …, 2007

Executive Summary Due to its unique range of creative, experimental and commercial possibilities, the online persistent virtual world Second Life is attracting significant interest from business and service industry sectors throughout the world. Big name brands such as IBM, Dell, ING, Philips Electronics, Telstra, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation have entered this immersive environment. Though return-on-investment is not readily measured, canny early adopters are realising the potential in understanding how virtual worlds work, particularly in regard to social networks and peer-to-peer exchange. For this reason, active engagement with residents, one which goes beyond merely establishing a shop front, is advocated. Second Life is emerging as test bed for new ideas, where real world prototypes can be released at low cost, with direct feedback from users significantly enriching the design process and leading to innovative or unexpected results. The process is enhanced by the nature of its residents who, typically, are techno-savvy, playful and demonstrate a high receptivity to new ideas. Many residents are classified as user-producers, which is why the lead innovation models come not from real world companies hoping to import their services but from the in-world eco-system where virtual start-ups have sprung up to support residents. The demand for virtual products and services, underpinned by a digital rights management arrangement where creators of in-world content retain their IP, has spawned new businesses in the area of content creation, retail, conference and event hosting, land development, media services and financial services. While virtual businesses can be profitable, few are significantly so, as they deal in Linden currency which amounts to mere micro-payments (L$275 = approx US$1). However in-world service providers deserve close attention as their methods shed light on ways in which social networks and peer-to-peer exchange drives trade. This points the way ahead for real world businesses seeking to monetise services in today‟s „pull-driven‟ consumer environment. Virtual-to-virtual business methods may well lead the thinking in devising business models for future 3D web-based services, particularly as add-ons to the „mirror worlds‟ of Google Earth and Microsoft‟s Virtual Earth emerge.

Acquiring and transacting Virtual Goods is now an established practice in online games, social networks and virtual worlds. These goods are in essence, digital code, and have no intrinsic value, yet their perceived value is such that the sum of micropayments for millions of digital items is in excess of $5billion USD annually, with notably high growth rates, particularly in the 5-16 age group. This paper is the introduction to a themed edition of the 'Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, Vol 2 No 4', published in February 2010,' entitled 'Virtual Economies ,Virtual Goods and Service Delivery in Virtual Worlds'. The aim of our paper is to contextualise current trends, plotting the path and erecting some historical signposts along the way.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

2008

Virtual worlds, as both a concept and an industry, has changed radically over the past 10 years, from a toy for the technological elite, to an over-hyped marketing phenomenon, to a needed reexamination of the uses and utility of virtual world technologies and experiences, as provided in this paper. Within academia there are a number of issues that require further examination. The academic community appears to be divided into four camps: 1. those who embrace virtual worlds; 2. those who ignore the shifting use of technology; 3. those who are aware but have not yet explored the technology; and 4. those who are entirely unaware that virtual worlds exist. There is an overwhelming focus of research, publications and funding on a single virtual world: Second Life, which does not serve more than a fraction of the entire population utilizing virtual worlds or similar technologies. An overview of the size, shape and forms of virtual worlds may have a positive impact on both of these issues. This paper presents an in-depth survey and analysis of virtual worlds and related technologies.