Journal of Virtual World Research announced yesterday a CFP covering themes of technology, economy and standards. Additionally, there are two forthcoming CFPs in JVWR’s calendar, concerned with research methods for virtual worlds, and government related issues.

CALL FOR PAPERS – Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Vol 2 issue 3.

Theme: Virtual Worlds: Technology, Economy, and Standards

In this special issue we are looking to examine the often hidden relations between technology, economy, and standards in the specific field of Virtual Worlds.

Deadlines:

Abstract or expression of interest (one page) – Monday, March 30, 2009

Full manuscript – September 1, 2009

Publication Date: October 1, 2009

The call in its entirerity can be found here.   Read more

The bibliography of the Virtual Economy Research Network has been the most prominent library of scholarly papers covering the issues of virtual asset sales, secondary markets, virtual economies, as well as laws and regulations related to them.

…Well, the bibliography just got even better!   Read more

We upgraded to biblio module to better facilitate handling of reference data of publications, as well as to enable integration to reference softwares such as Endnote or Zotero. It is now possible to export publication data with a single click to reference managers. While the old system only allowed input of basic information, the new system supports the whole array of possible specified reference data. These new features are available for registered users.

Econometrics and statistics grad students reading this blog might be interested in the following news: Blizzard is seeking a data analyst for what sounds like it could be World of Warcraft ingame log data coupled with customer records. Thanks to Dmitri Williams for the heads-up. According to Dmitri, the position is of flexible rank/seniority, from an advanced undergrad to a Ph.D.

In other news, Edward Castronova’s Synthetic Worlds Initiative at Indiana University has opened their second game, “a browser-based game of kingdoms, trade, diplomacy, and warfare in the stone age” called Greenland for beta testing. The aim seems to be to study the emergence of commodity money, but looks like it could be an enjoyable game as well!  Read more

This semester I am aware of no less than four Calls for Papers with some relation to virtual goods, economies and currencies: one conference call, one workshop call and two journal issues. Great publishing opportunities for any student and scholar.

Please let me know if I am missing something that should be on the list and I will add it.

Updated: see also JVWR’s call on technology, economy and standards.  Read more

SLACTIONS 2009
Research conference in the Second Life® world – Life, imagination, and work using metaverse platforms

September 24-26, 2009

http://www.slactions.org

CALL FOR PAPERS  Read more

We are pleased to announce the launch of the new and improved Virtual Economy Research Network (VERN): a communication hub for scholars, students and developers interested in virtual goods, currencies and economies. The new site features:

   Read more

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Reporting in from Tampere, Finland. I am here at Mindtrek, or should I say, I am ON a Mindtrek. Mindtrek is an annual mediaweek with variety of events and competitions for new innovations and products. Since last year they have also had an academic conference beside all the other wide ranging activities. I also participated in Mindtrek in 2000, which was on the primetime of the dot-com bubble. This year the themes are ranging from games to social media and to ubiquitous computing. Anyway, today I’m here in my original hometown taking part to the academic track on games.

This track consists of three main themes: 1) creativity engagement and algorithms in games 2) games in education, learning and health care, and 3) policies in game industry. All of these are intriguing topics, but what I’m especially interested in is the final presentation/paper about "Revenue Model Innovation in the Chinese Online Market" by Jessie Qun Ren and Philip Hardwick.

UPDATE: The webcast videos & seminar presentation slides are now available. See the end of this post.

The Monday, 2nd June seminar on quantitative research in virtual economies will be available as a webcast. We’ll also make the videos available afterwards. The programme is available here. Note that we’re starting 9:45 AM Finnish time, which is GMT + 3 during the summer. Visit this site to figure out the correct time.  Read more

Despite advances in mediated presence, for many purposes there still is no substitute to being there in person. Joost van Dreunen has put together a long list of virtual world related conferences and events in meatspace.  Read more

UPDATE: seminar programme details, including the presentation topics, available below.

On Monday, 2nd June, the AVEA project at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT) organizes an open research seminar on so-called virtual economies.

In the seminar we focus on the following question: “Why should economists and social scientists be interested in virtual economies?” Through discussion and presentations by academic researchers and industry representatives, we investigate the potential of conducting quantitative research on virtual economies that is of interest to mainstream, “serious” researchers.  Read more