Call for Book Chapters: Postcards from the Metaverse

Postcards from the Metaverse
—–
Reflections on how the entangling of the virtual with the physical may impact society, politics, and the economy

Editors:
Robin Teigland, Stockholm School of Economics
Dominic Power, Uppsala University


New waves of internet and information technology are beginning to promise ever richer and more immersive ways to connect with technology and with each other. Developments in augmented reality, social media, virtual worlds and the immersive/3D internet signal a move towards communications technologies and virtual spaces that offer immersive experiences persuasive enough to begin to blur the lines between the virtual and the physical. This book aims to compile leading edge voices from diverse backgrounds to write about how they imagine the future immersive internet will shape or misshape society, politics, and the economy.

The intention is to create a book based on a collection of short thought pieces that will critically engage with the future directions that the immersive internet might, should, or even should not take. The idea is not to collect a series of empirical pieces but to collect pieces that provoke and attempt to take in the big picture and the long term.

As the immersive internet – including social media, augmented reality, virtual worlds, online games, 3D internet and beyond – is being explored by a number of different disciplines we encourage participation from a wide range of academic disciplines: e.g.,  artificial intelligence, business administration, cognitive psychology, communication, economics, geography, human-computer interaction, neuroscience, social psychology, sociology. Equally since the future of the immersive internet is very much an open creative process, we invite contributions from social commentators, business people, technology creators, writers and thinkers. To date, we have participation confirmations from more than 10 leading researchers such as Tom Boellstorff, Mia Consalvo, Edward Castranova, Tony O’Driscoll, and Barry Wellman.

The idea is to create a thought-provoking and challenging book that builds on thoughtful short chapters (5-10 pages in length) that take a progressive and/or critical perspective on some aspect of how the immersive internet can be a space for progressive social, political and economic development in the future. Our plan is to create a book that encompasses a diverse group of opinions by including approximately 30 individual chapters.

Submission guidelines and timeline:

After the initial call is completed, we will approach several major publishers. The production of the book will be facilitated by the editors as well as members of the Nordic Virtual Worlds Network (NVWN, www.nordicworlds.net). The initial intention is to publish the collection as an eBook that will be available across multiple platforms: e.g. Amazon, iTunes, and direct download. The book will be licensed under Creative Commons. We also aim to publish the book in paper format.

March 1, 2011: Please enter your abstract or short outline of your contribution of maximum 300 words at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PostcardsfromMetaverse or by email to the editors.

July 1, 2011: Upon abstract acceptance, authors will be invited to submit full chapters of between 3500 and 5000 words. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind basis by subject experts. The editors will strive to be an active and helpful resource to the chapter authors.

Fourth quarter 2011: Anticipated date for book to be ready for publication.

Please do not hesitate to contact either of the editors if you have further questions: robin.teigland@hhs.se or dominic.power@kultgeog.uu.se.

CFP – postcards from the metaverse_NVWN_final

Robin Teigland

About Robin Teigland


Robin Teigland is an Associate Professor at the Center for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), as well as the caretaker of SSE’s island in Second Life. Robin’s research interests revolve around the creation and diffusion of knowledge in social networks and the impact on a firm’s competitive advantage. The focus of her current research is on investigating how virtual worlds and social media are enabling firms to create value outside the boundaries of the firm. She has published numerous articles in international books and academic journals, and in 2008 she received the “Researcher of the Year” award at the Stockholm School of Economics. In addition, she is a reviewer for the US National Science Foundation as well as a globally sought after speaker. Robin really enjoys teaching students at the Stockholm School of Economics and lecturing for executives. In March 2010, she started the NVWN a pan-Nordic project financed by the Nordic Innovation Center investigating innovation and entrepreneurship in virtual worlds.

7 Comments to “Call for Book Chapters: Postcards from the Metaverse”

  1. Pathfinder 10 December 2010 at 6:55 pm #

    Nice! I’m definitely going to put together an abstract and submit it.

  2. Robin Teigland
    robin.teigland 11 December 2010 at 9:41 am #

    Thanks!!! That is great news! I am so excited to see the list of excellent participants growing!

  3. John Woollard 18 December 2010 at 10:21 am #

    Yes, how are conventional teachers going to respond to learners’ expectations to engage face-to-face, online and in-world? How do we ensure learners’ resilience when learning in an environment of stimulating, distracting and vicarious influence? How do we train the next generation of teachers to exploit the opportunities offered by 3Di? Based on 2 years research and trial the chapter would…

  4. Robin Teigland
    robin.teigland 18 December 2010 at 6:25 pm #

    Hello John, Thank you very much for your interesting ideas for a book chapter! I look forward to receiving your abstract submission on our submission site: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PostcardsfromMetaverse.

  5. Peggy D. Lee 22 December 2010 at 6:19 pm #

    Great idea for a book! I definitely intend to submit an abstract based on teaching, researching and living in virtual spaces.

  6. [...] WP6 Update. a.     Dominic and Robin are looking for a publisher for the Postcards from the Metaverse book. The idea is that it will be more of a popular book than a heavy academic book or [...]

  7. [...] Postcards from Metaverse edited volume: We received more than 60 abstracts, and now we are in the process of contacting publishers. However, so far it is unclear if any of them has a good web/electronic platform/exposure. It seems that most are purely print. Our goal is to make everything available on the net. An email with information regarding the final submission will be sent out next week. [...]


Leave a Reply

Connect with Facebook