Virtuality: A fertile and prosperous research field

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Virtuality A fertile and prosperous research
field

• Niki Panteli
• N.Panteli_at_bath.ac.uk

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Virtuality Current Trends

• Emergence of New Technologies Web 2.0
• New public discourse Social Networking Sites
• Research is rapidly moving to new terittories
• Excitement Anxieties TOO!

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Aim of the Paper

• To position the current enthusiasm on and
  research interest in virtual social networks
  within the wider virtuality literature and
  identify inter-dependencies.

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LEVELS OF VIRTUALITY RESEARCH
Multi-player
Virtual Social Networks
Online Communities
Beyond
Organizations
User Interactions
Within
Virtual Teams Organizations
Single-Player
CMC
Widespread
Limited
Technology Availability
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Level 1 Computer-Mediated Communication

• Use/Impact of specific CMC, e.g. email,
  videoconferencing, IM
• Comparative studies on different CMC CMC vs f2f
• Emphasis on media richness
• Appreciation of social construction of
  communication media

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Level 2 Virtual Teams and Virtual Organizations

• Interactions at the team and organizational
  levels
• Appreciation of the challenges involved in
  virtual team collaborations
• Trust conflict
• Awareness of the importance of soft human factors
  in virtual behaviour
• Need to develop strategies for managing virtually

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Level 3Virtual Communities

• Research on the formation, development and
  sustainability of communities within the virtual
  environment.
• Based on common interest
• Trust, identity, deception
• Insights into the development of communities in
  unknown virtual spaces for both social and
  professional relationships

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Level 4 Virtual Social Networks

• Multi-mediated Massive Multi-player sites
• Social Networking sites, but not only
• Rule of the Game change
• Role and Impact of Commercialization and
  Commodification of VSNs (Kreps and Pearson, 2008)
• Privacy and data protection ethical
  considerations
• Social Inclusion/Exclusion Winners vs Losers
• Heterogeneity of VSNs

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Final Thoughts
LEVELS OF VIRTUALITY RESEARCH

• Coherence and Synergy
• Inter-dependencies
• Equal importance
• Virtuality as Prosperous
• Research Field

Virtual Social Networks
User Interactions
Online Communities
Virtual Teams Organizations
CMC