Second Life and Other Virtual Worlds: A Roadmap for Research (Follow-Up Article to the 2007 International Conference on Information Systems Panel)

Abstract

Virtual worlds like Second Life are becoming important tools for, among other activities, socialization, social networking, entertainment, collaboration, and business development. These environments offer information systems researchers a unique opportunity to study how these environments are built and managed by operators, how they are used and misused by users, and the impact that they have on users, communities, organizations, and societies at large. This paper summarizes the discussion of this topic that was presented at the ICIS 2007 panel entitled "Second Life and other Virtual Worlds: A Roadmap for Research." The paper provides an introduction to this topic and offers a roadmap for research on virtual worlds based on insights offered by several academics and practitioners who are actively involved in building, managing, and using virtual worlds.

Keywords: virtual worlds, synthetic worlds, multi-user virtual environments, online games, virtual reality, human computer interaction, Second Life, research frameworks

JEL Classification: D23, D70, D73, D83