SLA in Virtual Worlds

Journal of Virtual World Research- Volume 4, No 1 Metaverse Assembled 2.0

Metaverse Assembled 2.0 has now been published.  http://jvwresearch.org/

From the webpage,, "This issue is the culmination of two years of exploration from across the spectrum from  the university, government and military communities.  Half of the articles are from SLACTIONS 2010 organized by Kathy Keeling and her colleagues at the University of Manchester, and the remainder are from the 2010 Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds Conference organized by Paulette Robinson and her colleagues at the National Defense University. "

The issue includes articles, research in brief pieces, and a "thought piece"

 

Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality

Each year the Horizon Report , "established in 2002...identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact over the coming five years on a variety of sectors around the globe. This volume, 2011 Horizon Report,examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning, and creative inquiry."

The 2011 Horizon Report  lists Augmented Reality as one of the midterm (2-3 years) techology trends to watch.  According to the Horizon Report, Augmented Reality "refers to the layering of  nformation over a view or representation of the normal world, offering users the ability to access place-based information in ways that are compellingly intuitive. "

How does Augmented Reality difer from Virtual Reality?  EricK Schonfeld in his January  6, 2010 Blog forTech Crunh, "Augmented Reality vs Virtual Reality:  Which One is More Real "  writes

 If virtual reality is a complete immersion in a digital world, augmented reality (AR) is more a digital overlay onto the real world. It enhances the real world with digital data, and therefore it is much more interesting than a completely fabricated environment. There is an element of magic to AR apps because they juxtapose data and graphics where they have no business showing up.

 

Journal of Virtual World Research-Researcher's Tool Box, Part II Now Available

Researcher's Tool Box, Part II , Journal of Virtual World Research, Vol 3, no. 3 is now available http://jvwresearch.org/

"This issue presents peer reviewed papers on research methodologies and case studies of how the particular methods are being developed and used in virtual worlds research both in the academy and industry."

Articles  include

* Collecting conversations: three approaches to obtaining user-to-user communications data from virtual environments by Mika Lehdonvirta, Vili Lehdonvirta, Akira Baba

*Developing an Obesity Prevention Intervention in Virtual Worlds: The International Health Challenge in Second Life by Sameer Siddiqi, Scherezade K. Mama, Rebecca E. Lee

Research Papers Include

Design Principles for Doing Business on Second Life: an immersive ethnographic study
Reza Azeharie, Ravi Shankar Sharma
Virtual Assisted Self Interviewing (VASI): An Expansion of Survey Data Collection Methods to Virtual Worlds by Means of VDCI
Mark W. Bell, Edward Castronova, Gert G. Wagner

Third Places Take First Place in Second Life: Developing a Scale to Measure the ‘Stickiness’ of Virtual World Sites.
Wade Halvorson
Methodology of a Novel Virtual Phenomenology Interview Technique
Ronald M. Knorr, Stephen C. Bronack, Deborah M. Switzer, Lienne F. Medford

And more.