CSS-44 Call for papers for the minitrack on:
“COLLABORATION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS AND METAVERSES”
Part of the Collaboration Systems and Technology Track
of the Forty-Fourth Annual
Hawai’i International Conference on Systems Sciences (HICSS)
Kauai – January 4-7, 2011
http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/hicss_44/44tracks.htm#CL
Please note that submissions to this minitrack will also be considered in extended form for the JAIS Special Issue (see details below)
Papers are invited for the minitrack on “COLLABORATION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS AND METAVERSES” as part of the Collaboration Systems and Technology Track at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS).
Collaboration in virtual worlds presents a new area of research. Virtual worlds and metaverses provide a visual window to a persistent and synthetic world inhabited by avatars that are deeply involved in social interactions, along with economic and commercial activities. They are immersive by nature and reinvent the notions of “being together” and awareness for distributed teams. Virtual worlds and metaverses present challenges and opportunities for individuals and groups working together: challenges as groups using virtual worlds have to overcome limitations originating from not sharing the same physical space and opportunities as virtual worlds offer possibilities that are impossible in the real world. To address these challenges and opportunities, this minitrack invites theoretical and empirical research that investigates how individuals and teams within and between organizations use virtual worlds and metaverses to coordinate tasks, share information, simulate processes, solve problems, make decisions, create and manipulate objects, innovate, and create value.
This minitrack provides one of the key international platforms on which the following issues can be discussed:
1. The design, application, and evaluation of virtual world environments and applications.
2. The impact of virtual world characteristics on individual and team behavior.
3. Collaboration methods, techniques, patterns, and best practices to support productive (a)synchronous collaboration between individuals and groups.
4. Theoretical foundations and practical approaches to understand, model, and design collaboration in virtual worlds and metaverses.
There are no preferred methodological stances for this minitrack: this minitrack is open to both qualitative and quantitative research, to research from a positivist, interpretivist, or critical perspective, to studies from the lab, from the field, or developmental in nature.
Themes and topics of relevance to this minitrack include, but are not limited to (related topics not listed are especially welcome):
Organizational perspectives on virtual world collaboration
� The impact of virtual world collaborations on organizational performance
� Change management using virtual world environments
� Success factors for virtual world collaboration
� Factors influencing virtual world adoption, adaptation, and diffusion
� Introducing virtual world collaboration technologies and processes in organizations and groups
Individual and group perspectives on virtual world collaboration
� Management and leadership styles in virtual worlds
� Motivation for individual and team performance in virtual worlds
� Skills, knowledge, and abilities to collaborate successfully in virtual worlds
� Personality characteristics and traits and their influence on virtual world collaboration
� Team size and composition in virtual world collaboration
Work and process perspectives concerning virtual world collaboration
� Different tasks and task types in virtual worlds
� Creativity and innovation in virtual world collaboration
� Approaches and processes for repeatable tasks in virtual worlds, e.g. focus groups, recruitment, strategy planning, and requirements specification & analysis
� Identifying, measuring, and evaluating patterns of virtual world collaboration, e.g. generation, reduction, clarification, organization, evaluation, and commitment building.
� Best practices, collaboration techniques (thinkLets) and pattern languages for virtual world collaboration
Design perspectives on virtual world collaboration
� Theories, guidelines and strategies for designing collaboration processes, technologies and systems for virtual world collaboration
� Enhancing robustness, flexibility, and longevity of virtual world applications, processes and technologies
� Modeling techniques and frameworks to support virtual world collaboration processes and applications
� Embedded technologies for virtual worlds
� Information access, processing, and dissemination in virtual world collaboration
Social issues concerning virtual world collaboration
� Facilitation in virtual world environments
� Collaboration styles in virtual worlds
� Cultural perspectives on virtual world collaboration
� Approaches to training virtual world collaboration skills
� Ethical issues surrounding virtual world collaboration
SPECIAL ISSUE IN THE JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Authors submitting to the HICSS minitrack will be invited to submit an expanded version for a special issue in the Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS) on Team Collaboration in Virtual Worlds. The submission deadline for this issue is 30 October, 2010. Please note that it is not required to submit a paper to the HICSS minitrack to be considered for the JAIS issue.
More information on the JAIS issue can be found at:
http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/First_Call_for_Papers_-_JAIS_Special_Issue_on_Team_Collaboration_in_Virtual_Worlds.pdf
MINITRACK COORDINATORS:
Gert-Jan de Vreede (primary contact)
University of Nebraska at Omaha & Delft University of Technology
Department of Information Systems & Quantitative Analysis
Managing Director, The Center for Collaboration Science
1110 South 67th street, Omaha, NE 68182-0116 USA
phone: (402) 554-2026 fax: (402) 554-3400
e-mail: gdevreede@unomaha.edu
Moez Limayem
Chair, Information Systems Department
Sam M. Walton College of Business
University of Arkansas
e-mail: MLimayem@walton.uark.edu
Imed Boughzala
Department of Information Systems
Telecom Business School
Institut TELECOM
9 rue Charles Fourier 91011 Evry Cedex France
phone: (33) 1 60-76-45-74 fax: (33) 1 60-76-44-93
email: imed.boughzala@it-sudparis.eu
The purpose of HICSS is to provide a forum for the interchange of ideas, research results, development activities, and applications among academicians and practitioners in computer-based systems sciences. The conference consists of tutorials, advanced seminars, presentations of accepted papers, open forum, tasks forces, and plenary and distinguished guest lectures. There is a high degree of interaction and discussion among the conference participants because the conference is conducted in a workshop-like setting.
Instructions for submitting papers:
1. Submit an electronic copy of the full paper, 10 pages including title page, abstract, references and diagrams using the review system available at the HICSS site, make sure that the authors’ names and affiliation information has been removed to ensure an anonymous review.
2. Do not submit the paper to more than one minitrack. The paper should contain original material and not be previously published or currently submitted for consideration elsewhere.
3. Provide the required information to the review system such as title, full name of all authors, and their complete addresses including affiliation(s), telephone number(s) and e-mail address(es).
4. The first page of the paper should include the title and a (max) 300-word abstract.
DEADLINES:
� May 15: OPTIONAL: Abstracts submitted to Minitrack Chairs for guidance, indication of appropriate content and to receive instructions on submitting full paper.
� June 15: Full papers uploaded in the directory of the appropriate minitrack.
� August 15: Notification of accepted papers mailed to authors.
� September 15: Accepted manuscripts, camera-ready, uploaded; author(s) must register by this time.
Send all correspondence related to this minitrack to:
Gert-Jan de Vreede (primary contact)
University of Nebraska at Omaha & Delft University of Technology
Department of Information Systems & Quantitative Analysis
Managing Director, The Center for Collaboration Science
1110 South 67th street, Omaha, NE 68182-0116 USA
phone: (402) 554-2026 fax: (402) 554-3400
e-mail: gdevreede@unomaha.edu