The Metaverse Assembled issue features the best papers from the SLACTIONS 2009 conference,
as well as, peer reviewed articles sumbitted directly to the Journal. The metaverse is emerging,
through the increasing use of virtual world technologies that act as platforms for end-users
to create, develop, and interact, expanding the realm of human cooperation, interaction, and
creativity. This issue focuses on applications and developments of metaverse platforms,
including: Second Life, OpenSim, Open Croquet, Activeworlds, Open Source Metaverse, Project
Wonderland, among others., and seeks the best papers examining the integration of metaverse
platforms with external systems, integration of platforms, GIS/metaverse mash-ups, and using
metaverse platforms for cooperation.
http://jvwresearch.org
Journal of Virtual Worlds Research readers receive a 20% discount when registering with code C0015VWI.
Editor-Chief′s Corner
Culture of the Cloud
Tom Boellstorff
ExtSim: A Flexible Data Mapping and Synchronization Middleware for Scientific Visualization in Virtual Worlds
Johan Berntsson, Norman Lin, Zoltan Dezso
The Effects of Avatar Appearance in Virtual Worlds
Nicholas Merola, Jorge Peña
SLACTIONS 2009 Selected Papers
Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Realities
Benjamin Gregor Aas, Katharina Meyerbröker, Paul M. G. Emmelkamp
Digital Guqin Museum from a Virtual World to the Real World : Conception and design of an ongoing cultural sim
Shuen-git Chow
Building Knowledge in the Virtual World – Influence of Real Life Relationships
Ana Loureiro, Teresa Bettencourt
Brands and Consumption in Virtual Worlds
Ioanna Nikolaou
A Second Life First Year Experience
Paul Penfold, Peter Duffy
Some Remarks on Ontological-Cognitive Structures in the Metaverse
Luis Carlos Petry
ArchHouseGenerator – A Framework for House Generation
Nuno Rodrigues, Luís Magalhães, João Paulo Moura, Alan Chalmers, Filipe Santos, Leonel Morgado
The Ontological Aspects of Puzzles into Metaverses
Cristiano Natal Tonéis, Luís Carlos Petry
Fractal Village Unplugged: Design-Based Research On Computing with Marginalized Youth
Sneha Veeragoudar Harrell, Dor Abrahamson
Peer Reviewed Research Papers
The effects of Avatars’ Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Online 3D Virtual Worlds
Domna Banakou, Konstantinos Chorianopoulos
Evaluating Participation in an International Bilingual Virtual World Educational Intervention for Youth
Laura Beals, Marina Umaschi Bers
Compounding the Results: The Integration of Virtual Worlds with the Semantic Web
Charles J. Lesko, Yolanda A. Hollingsworth
Staging the New Retail Drama: at a Metaverse Near You!
Savvas Papagiannidis, Michael Bourlakis
Producing knowledge in collaborative research about virtual worlds: discursive constructions of Second Life
Louise Jane Phillips
My Second Life as a Cyber Border Crosser
Carleen D. Sanchez
Essays
Trucking Towards a Virtual World: The Development and Implementation of FMCSA’s Transportation Nation Second Life Island
Adam Schlicht
“Think Pieces”
The Essence of Virtuality: Exploring the Digital Body
Mark Ortwein
Implications for Virtual Worlds: A Comparative Study of United Kingdom, United States and Australia on Network Readiness, Government Investment and Cyber-security.
Kate Roth