How to address group dynamics in virtual worlds

The study of group dynamics highlights the activity in the group in terms of its performance and communication. The experience of facilitating virtual communities and teams (Eunice and Kimball in , 1997) suggests that groups go through the same stages either in face-to-face or in online mode. The paper brings together a theoretical framework based on the literature on virtual communities, Gestalt systems and online facilitation in order to address the issue of electronic togetherness, in particular from a group dynamics perspective. The empirical work on which the paper is based is an observation of a group of students in a training set playing a decision-making game. The model of Tuckman (Tuckman in Psychol Bull 63:384–399, 1965; Tuckman and Jensen in Group Organ Stud 2:419–427, 1977) is used as a framework within which to discuss the findings of the case. The paper finishes with concrete recommendations for facilitators of online communities and designers of the electronic spaces where these communities operate.     

Understanding and analysing activity and learning in virtual communities

Abstract  The purpose of this study is to provide a preliminary framework to observe, analyse and evaluate both activity and learning in virtual communities. So various types of virtual communities will be studied by examining their relationship to socialisation and learning. After a presentation of the main ideas of Wenger's social learning theory, the principal components of the social context of the emergence and evolution of virtual communities will be described. It will show how taking this context into account enables the definition of four principal types of virtual communities: community of interest, goal-oriented community of interest, learners' community and community of practice and describe how the activity of these communities develops according to the goals they set for themselves and to the strategies they adopt to reach them. For each type of virtual community, an attempt will be made to determine the process of negotiation of meaning at the base of learning, and to describe the learning performed in terms of participation and reification processes.     

Community based innovation: How to integrate members of virtual communities into new product development

Online consumer groups represent a large pool of product know-how. Hence, they seem to be a promising source of innovation. At present, except for open source software, little is known about how to utilize this know-how for new product development. In this article we explore if and how members of virtual communities can be integrated into new product development. We explain how to identify and access online communities and how to interact with its members in order to get valuable input for new product development. This approach we term “Community Based Innovation.” The Audi case illustrates the applicability of the method and underscores the innovative capability of consumers encountered in virtual communities. Johann Füller is assistant professor in marketing at Innsbruck University School of Management and board member of HYVE AG, a company specialized in virtual customer integration. He received his Ph.D. in business administration at the Innsbruck University School of Management. Johann holds a degree in mechanical engineering, and industrial engineering and management. His research interests are in the field of innovation creation in online communities and in virtual consumer integration into new product development. Michael Bartl is member of the management board at the HYVE AG in Munich, Germany, specialised in Customized Innovation and Product Design. He finished his Ph.D. Thesis in Business Administration at the Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management (WHU) obtained his Dipl. Kfm. from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and his B.A. (Hons) from the University of Westminster London. Holger Ernst is professor at WHU—Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany where he holds the Chair for Technology and Innovation Management. He is currently visiting professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. His main research interests are in the fields of technology and innovation management, intellectual property management, new product development and entrepreneurship. He has published in the Journal of Product Innovation Management, International Journal of Management Reviews, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Research Policy and R&D Management. He consults multiple European organizations in the area of technology, patent and innovation management. Hans Muhlbacher is Professor of Business Administration at the Innsbruck University School of Management. He has been President of the European Marketing Academy and currently is the Associate Editor for International Business of the Journal of Business Research. All along his career he has extensively taught internationally at business schools such as ESSEC or universities such as Emory University, Tulane University, or Paris Pantheon-Assass. His main research interests are in the field of strategy formation, branding, and innovation.     

Virtual machine tools and virtual machining—A technological review

Virtual manufacturing systems provide a useful means for products to be manufactured ‘right the first time’ without the need of physical testing on the shop floor. Earlier research was mostly on developing a virtual manufacturing environment. Over the years, simple graphical prediction and simulation gave way to complex multi-science predictions. Virtual systems such as Virtual Machine Tool, Virtual Machining, Virtual Assembly, Virtual Tooling and Virtual Prototype have been developed to support virtual manufacturing. Different systems and approaches have different targeted applications. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of existing virtual systems. Their focuses and approaches (i.e. virtual reality, Web-based techniques, mathematical modelling, hardware interactions and STEP-NC-based methodologies) are discussed in detail. To better understand the systems, we have categorized them into different groups according to their application domains. Discussions and concluding remarks are given based on the review.     

Decision-making in-socio and in-situ: Facilitation in virtual worlds

Past research suggests that “situatedness”, i.e. the context, as well as the social interaction that occurs within it, play an important role in cognitive processes such as learning and decision-making. Thus far, IT tools have been limited in the level and type of situatedness they facilitate. The advent of virtual worlds has changed this. Virtual worlds provide open, three-dimensional platforms for creating and designing real life-like spaces; they also allow for interaction between users in the form of “avatars” in that space. This research study focuses on virtual worlds as platforms for learning and decision-making. We propose a model that explains how individuals in a group learn and make decisions through a process that is influenced by the two unique characteristics of virtual worlds that enable situatedness: the facilitation for designing real life-like spaces, and the facilitation of rich many-to-many interactions.We draw on theories of situated cognition, social cognition, and flow to explicate the influence of these characteristics on the process of learning and decision-making. Data was collected by means of a quasi-experiment in Second Life (SL). Results from this study extend and validate the predictions of situated theories of decision-making within the context of a virtual world environment and suggest guidelines for practitioners who wish to use such environments to support organizational learning and decision-making. Perhaps the most compelling of these is to focus on maximizing the immersion of the individual in the activity by stimulating his or her perceptions of others and activity-related cues in the environment.     

On the linguistic nature of cyberspace and virtual communities

This paper argues for a linguistic explanation of the nature of Virtual Communities. Virtual Communities develop and grow in electronic space. or cyberspace. Authors such as Benedikt Meyrowitz and Mitchell have theorised about the nature of electronic space whilst Lefebvre. Popper, Hakim Bey (aka Lamborn Wilson) and Kuhn have theorised more generally about the nature of space. Extending this tradition and the works of these authors, this paper presents a language based perspective on the nature of electronic spaces. Behaviour in cyberspace is based on and regulated by hardware, software tools and interfaces. A definition of electronic space cannot be given beyond its linguistic characteristics, which underlie and sustain it. The author believes that the more users and developers understand the relationship between language and cyberspace, the more they will be able to use specific metaphors for dwelling and inhabiting it. In particular, MUDs/MOOs and the Web are interesting places for testing and observing social behaviours and dynamics.     

How cues of what can be done in a virtual world influence learning: An affordance perspective

What we know about learning outcomes for collaborative tasks in virtual environments is a confusing set of results. Many organizations have been hesitant about their use of virtual environments for this reason. Virtual worlds (VWs) have received attention as environments for learning, yet little is known about their attributes, or how they affect learning in collaborative tasks. James Gibson proposed a theory of affordance to explain how cues in an environment are perceived and lead to some course of action. Based on his theory, we developed a model to describe how cues of what can be done in a VW influence learning. In doing so, we focused on the situativity afforded by VWs through context and social facilitation. We showed how VW artifacts and cues make it easier for users to understand the conditions and interactions in a VW.     

Virtual goods,real goals: Exploring means-end goal structures of consumers in social virtual worlds

The aim of this study is to understand consumer goals for virtual consumption in social virtual worlds. Using a means-end chain approach, interviews with 93 users were analyzed to produce a hierarchical goal map, revealing that virtual consumption enables a diversity of goals beyond the previously identified experiential goals. The article's theoretical contributions include: (1) extending our understanding of user goals/goal relationships for virtual activities and (2) developing virtual liminoid theory, which describes transitions between users’ real-world and virtual identities and virtual consumption as a transition catalyst. The study illustrates the value of a goal focus for future research on user behavior in virtual worlds.     

Virtual social interactions: Evolutionary, social psychological and technological perspectives

This paper represents an exploratory and quantitative investigation into online dating from evolutionary, psychological, and technological points of view. In the past decade, the relatively inexpensive availability of user-friendly, fast, and reliable Internet technology has appealed to millions of consumers who suddenly found themselves engrossed by this sensational medium of communication, information, consumerism, and service. The majority of Internet users tend to be either recreational or utilitarian oriented, using such medium for a wide variety of tasks ranging from corresponding with friends and significant others, information gathering, purchasing goods and services, and, increasingly so, seeking and securing suitable dating and marital partners. The following research questions constitute the driving force for the current investigation: What are the evolutionary and social psychological intricacies of online dating? What are the technological variants or dimensions that render the consumption of online dating services appealing to users? An online survey was administered to 247 subjects to explore these questions and determine the technological dimensions of virtual social interaction. Exploratory factor analysis was then conducted to analyse the data. Eight technological dimensions emerged as a result of the analysis and served as the basis for the study’s technological perspectives model of virtual social interactions.     

Design and evaluation of an adaptive incentive mechanism for sustained educational online communities

Most online communities, such as discussion forums, file-sharing communities, e-learning communities, and others, suffer from insufficient user participation in their initial phase of development. Therefore, it is important to provide incentives to encourage participation, until the community reaches a critical mass and “takes off”. However, too much participation, especially of low-quality can also be detrimental for the community, since it leads to information overload, which makes users leave the community. Therefore, to regulate the quality and the quantity of user contributions and ensure a sustainable level of user participation in the online community, it is important to adapt the rewards for particular forms of participation for individual users depending on their reputation and the current needs of the community. An incentive mechanism with these properties is proposed. The main idea is to measure and reward the desirable user activities and compute a user participation measure, then cluster the users based on their participation measure into different classes, which have different status in the community and enjoy special privileges. For each user, the reward for each type of activity is computed dynamically based on a model of community needs and an individual user model. The model of the community needs predicts what types of contributions (e.g. more new papers or more ratings) are most valuable at the current moment for the community. The individual model predicts the style of contributions of the user based on her past performance (whether the user tends to make high-quality contributions or not, whether she fairly rates the contributions of others). The adaptive rewards are displayed to the user at the beginning of each session and the user can decide what form of contribution to make considering the rewards that she will earn. The mechanism was evaluated in an online class resource-sharing system, Comtella. The results indicate that the mechanism successfully encourages stable and active user participation; it lowers the level of information overload and therefore enhances the sustainability of the community.     

Interactive effects of individual- and group-level variables on virtual purchase behavior in online communities

Focusing on social network theories, we examine the interactive influence of both group-level (i.e. community influences) and individual-level variables (intrinsic and extrinsic motivations) simultaneously as the drivers of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) players’ virtual purchase behavior. We demonstrate that several aspects of real-world behavior are reflected in virtual purchase behavior. Notably, normative interpersonal influences and community identity are critical drivers and moderators of virtual purchases. Moreover, clear advancement and enjoyment opportunities offer important triggers for virtual purchase behavior. This study provides insights for game developers to increase virtual purchases, and identifies domain-specificity of each gaming platform.     

Motivations in virtual health communities and their relationship to community,connectedness and stress

This study explores the relationships between motivations for joining virtual health communities, online behaviors, and psycho-social outcomes. A sample of 144 women from two virtual health communities focusing on infertility completed survey measures assessing motivations, posting and receiving support, connectedness, community, and stress. Our results indicate that socio-emotional support motivations for joining the community were associated with posting support within the virtual community, while informational motivations were related to receiving support. Further, receiving support was associated with greater sense of virtual community as well as more general feelings of connectedness, which was related to less stress. Implications for virtual health community research are discussed.     

Learning medicine through collaboration and action: collaborative,experiential, networked learning environments

The SUMMIT Lab and William LeRoy Heinrichs, at Stanford University, were honored to be the 2002 awardees of the Satava Award for Virtual Reality in Medicine. Since the award, the group has followed two main threads of research, which we describe below. The first, “building a high-performance, network-aware, collaborative learning environment” has investigated the framework and components needed when students in multiple locations collaborate using computation-intensive simulations and large image datasets. The second thread, “online, interactive human physiology for medical education and training”, has focused on the application of interactive physiology models embedded in 3D visualizations of virtual patients in naturalistic medical environments. These environments support immersive, experiential learning where students act as medical providers and manage authentic medical events and crises. These research efforts, and our conclusions, are presented in the chapter below.     

Development and evaluation of a virtual campus on Second Life: The case of SecondDMI

Video games and new communication metaphors are quickly changing today’s young people habits. Considering the actual e-learning scenarios, embedded in a fully technological enabled environment it is crucial to take advantage of this kind of capabilities to let learning process gain best results.     

Correlating the effects of flow and telepresence in virtual worlds: Enhancing our understanding of user behavior in game-based learning

Recent research on online learning suggests that virtual worlds are becoming an important environment to observe the experience of flow. From these simulated spaces, researchers may gather a deeper understanding of cognition in the context of game-based learning. Csikszentmihalyi (1997) describes flow as a feeling of increased psychological immersion and energized focus, with outcomes that evoke disregard for external pressures and the loss of time consciousness, issuing in a sense of pleasure. Past studies suggest that flow is encountered in an array of activities and places, including those in virtual worlds. The authors’ posit that flow in virtual worlds, such as Second Life (SL), can be positively associated with degrees of the cognitive phenomenon of immersion and telepresence. Flow may also contribute to a better attitude and behavior during virtual game-based learning. This study tested three hypotheses related to flow and telepresence, using SL. Findings suggest that both flow and telepresence are experienced in SL and that there is a significant correlation between them. These findings shed light on the complex interrelationships and interactions that lead to flow experience in virtual gameplay and learning, while engendering hope that learners, who experience flow, may acquire an improved attitude of learning online.     

Geology explorer: virtual geologic mapping and interpretation

We are developing internet-based freeware for virtual mapping and geologic interpretation. This takes the form of a synthetic, virtual world, Planet Oit, where students are given the means and the equipment to carry out geologic investigation and interpretation as a geologist would in the field. The environment is designed to give students an authentic experience that includes elements of: (1) exploration of a spatially oriented, virtual, world; (2) practical, field oriented, expedition planning and decision-making; and (3) scientific problem solving (i.e. a “hands on” approach to mapping, geologic investigation, data acquisition, and interpretation). The game-like environment is networked, multi-player, and simulation-based. Planet Oit can be visited on the Internet at http://oit.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/     

Faceless students, virtual places: Emergence and communal accountability in online classrooms

A pedagogical problem growing out of virtual classrooms is the temptation to act without communal accountability, the reciprocal commitment among individuals to maintain the health of their interconnections. Drawing on an ethnographic study of a fully online composition class, I argue that teachers can encourage accountability within virtual sites by conceiving of the online classroom as an emergent phenomenon. The relationships and activities among language, physical reality, and interpretant provide the matrix out of which place organizes itself. This ecological orientation provides local and systemic strategies for fostering communal health. I begin my exploration of online place by describing the value of complex systems theory and emergence for conceptualizing place. Next, I describe the roles of language, physical reality, and interpretant, pointing out the contribution of each to the configuration of virtual place and to communal accountability. Then, I focus on the emergence of place, which reorganizes language, reality, and interpretant, opening up a new dimension to communal accountability.     

Team development and group processes of virtual learning teams

This study describes the community building process of virtual learning teams as they form, establish roles and group norms, and address conflict. Students enrolled in an HRD masters program taught entirely online were studied to determine (1) how virtual learning teams develop their group process, and (2) what process and strategies they use as they work through the stages of group development. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry were used to capture the dynamic interaction within groups and the underlying factors that guided group process and decision-making. The results show that virtual learning groups can collaborate effectively from a distance to accomplish group tasks. The development of virtual learning teams is closely connected to the timeline for their class projects. Virtual teams are also similar in terms of their task process and the use of communication technologies. In contrast to face-to-face teams, the leadership role of virtual teams is shared among team members. Recommendations are discussed in order to facilitate peak integration of virtual learning teams into Internet-based training courses.