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APOLOGIES FOR INCONVENIENCE]
Are you interested in conducting research on collaboration in virtual
worlds?
Then plan to attend the following interactive Professional Development
Workshop at the 2008 Academy of Management Conference in Anaheim, CA
on Saturday, August 9, 2008 from 12:30 to 3.00 pm (in Anaheim
Convention Center, 205A):
COLLABORATION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS: WHAT TO STUDY AND HOW
This workshop is sponsored by the Organizational Communications and
Information Systems (OCIS) Division of the Academy of Management.
Motivation for this workshop
----------------------------
Virtual worlds are becoming highly sophisticated environments in which
numerous people can work together, play together, or simply hang out.
Businesses are increasingly showing interest in exploiting virtual
worlds for virtual team collaboration. While virtual teamwork has
always been considered somewhat lean - missing some important aspect
of human contact - this perspective is changing as virtual worlds grow
more sophisticated and more realistic. Before committing substantial
resources to conducting business in virtual worlds, businesses are
interested in understanding how this new channel compares to other
forms of communication and collaboration. Achieving this understanding
is likely to be a complex effort because of the many factors that can
influence virtual team collaboration in virtual worlds -- in addition
to variations in virtual teams and participants, virtual worlds too
can vary depending on which technological features they implement. The
net result is a complex set of factors that necessitate a systematic
program of research if we are to achieve a meaningful understanding of
collaboration in virtual worlds.
Researchers now have an opportunity to guide adoption of virtual
worlds for collaboration via research in this area.
What will this workshop do and how?
-----------------------------------
This workshop will help interested researchers develop research
questions to study and the methods to study them. It will do so
through a brief presentation on the possibilities for research in
virtual worlds (10 minutes) followed by interactive group
exercises/discussions (about 2 hours). Specifically, the group
exercises/discussions will focus on the generation of research
questions and the design of studies to answer those questions.
Ultimately, participants should leave the workshop with a set of
research questions and a preliminary design for a study. The
organizers, who have conducted several studies in a popular virtual
world will share their experiences and ideas to help the participants
fine tune their questions and designs.
Who can attend?
---------------
The workshop is open to all and pre-registration is not required.
However, the organizers request an expression of interest via email
(direct it to Surinder Kahai,
kahai@binghamton.edu) so that they can
plan for the workshop.
Organizers & Affiliation
------------------------
Rui Huang (
rhuang@binghamton.edu)
Rebecca Jestice (
jestire@gmail.com)
Surinder Kahai (
kahai@binghamton.edu)
School of Management
State University of New York at Binghamton Binghamton, NY 13902
For more information
--------------------
Contact any of the organizers.