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The conference program
| Monday, July 27th 2009 | |
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| 09:00 - 09:30 | Welcome / Opening |
| 09:30 - 10:30 | Keynote: Aram Bartholl - "Are You Human?" |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | coffee break |
| 11:00 - 12:30 | Track 1: |
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Exploring the Use of Virtual Worlds as a Scientific Research Platform: The Meta-Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA) S. G. Djorgovski (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena), P. Hut (The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), S. McMillan, E. Vesperini (both: Drexel University, Philadelphia), R. Knop (), W. Farr (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge), and M. J. Graham (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena) |
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Dual Reality: Merging the Real and Virtual Joshua Lifton and Joseph A. Paradiso (MIT Media Lab) |
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Development of Virtual Geographic Environments and Geography Research Fengru Huang, Hui Lin (both: Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, Chinese University of Hong Kong), Bin Chen (Institute of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System, Peking University) |
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| 12:30 - 14:00 | lunch |
| 14:00 - 15:30 | Track 2: |
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Landmarks and Time-Pressure in Virtual Navigation: Towards Designing Gender-Neutral Virtual Environments Elena Gavrielidou and Maarten H. Lamers (both: LIACS, Leiden University, The Netherlands) |
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Characterizing Mobility and Contact Networks in Virtual Worlds Felipe Machado, Matheus Santos, Virgilio Almeida, and Dorgival Guedes (all: Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil) |
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The Effects of Virtual Weather on Presence Bartholomäus Wissmath, David Weibel (both: Swiss University, Institute of Distance Education) and Fred W. Mast (all three: University of Berne, Switzerland) |
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| 15:30 - 16:00 | coffee break |
| 16:00 - ? |
Hyperlocality - How Online-Games and eSports will change society of tomorrow. The mergence of virtuality and reality in competitive gaming. Invited Speaker Ibrahim Mazari (Turtle Entertainment GmbH) Interactive Track |
| Tuesday, July 28th 2009 | |
| 09:00 - 10:30 | Track 3: |
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The Role of Semantics in Next-Generation Online Virtual World-Based Retail Store Geetika Sharma, C. Anantaram, and Hiranmay Ghosh (all: Tata Consultancy Services, Haryana, India) |
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Complexity of Virtual Worlds' Terms of Service Holger M. Kienle (University of Victoria, Victoria), Andreas Lober (RAe Schulte Riesenkampff, Frankfurt am Main), Crina A. Vasiliu (University of Victoria, Victoria), and Hausi A. Müller (RAe Schulte Riesenkampff, Frankfurt am Main) |
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StellarSim: A Plug-in Architecture for Scientific Visualizations in Virtual Worlds Amy Henckel and Cristina V. Lopes (both: University of California, Irvine) |
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| 10:30 - 11:00 | coffee break |
| 11:00 - 11:30 |
Much Ado about (virtually) Nothing? - A Civil Law Perspective on Operators' Contractual Liability for Virtual Goods Invited Speaker Carina Neumüller (RAe Schulte Riesenkampff, Frankfurt am Main) |
| 11:30 - 13:00 | Track 4: |
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Formalizing and Promoting Collaboration in 3D Virtual Environments - A Blueprint for the Creation of Group Interaction Patterns Andreas Schmeil and Martin J. Eppler (both: Faculty of Communication Sciences, University of Lugano, Switzerland) |
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Usability Issues of an Augmented Virtuality Environment for Design Xiangyu Wang and Irene Rui Chen (both: Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, The University of Sydney, Australia) |
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Conceptual Design Scheme for Virtual Characters Gino Brunetti (INI-GraphicsNet Stiftung, Darmstadt), and Rocco Servidio (Linguistics Department, University of Calabria) |
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| 13:00 - 14:30 | lunch |
| 14:30 - 16:00 | Track 5: |
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The Managed Hearthstone: Labor and Emotional Work in the Online Community of World of Warcraft Andras Lukacs, David Embrick, and Talmadge Wright (all: Loyola University Chicago) |
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Human Rights and Private Ordering in Virtual Worlds Olivier Oosterbaan (Create Law, Amsterdam) |
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Investigating the Concept of Consumers as Producers in Virtual Worlds: Looking Through Social, Technical, Economic, and Legal Lenses Holger M. Kienle (University of Victoria, Victoria), Andreas Lober (RAe Schulte Riesenkampff, Frankfurt am Main), Crina A. Vasiliu (University of Victoria, Victoria), and Hausi A. Müller (RAe Schulte Riesenkampff, Frankfurt am Main) |
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| 16:00 - 16:30 | coffee break |
| 16:30 - 17:30 | Closing |
| 19:30 | Conference Dinner |
| Wednesday, July 29th 2009 | |
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Legal Workshop on International Operation of Virtual Worlds Greg Boyd , Konstantin Ewald , Vincent Scheurer |
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| 09:30 - 11:00 | Legal Session 1 |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | coffee break |
| 11:30 - 13:00 | Legal Session 2 |
In this two part workshop, we will look at the major international issues
facing virtual world operators today. The workshop will be taught through
short presentations of background material followed by group discussion and
problem solving using real-world situations to prompt discussion. The issues
covered in this workshop include children in virtual worlds, user contracts
across international boundaries and age groups, screening user content and free
speech, privacy, ratings issues, and intellectual property. Our
international panel will lead a lively interactive discussion on these topics
while sharing their personal experiences working through these problems.Main audience:Game industry professionals and academics interested in the game industry. The entire workshop is built around practical solutions to real world international game industry problems.Details: A short presentation on background information (30-45 minutes) will be given. Then, we will pass out written materials with hypothetical business cases. We will run the workshop as a round table discussion integrating the background material, the experience of the workshop leaders, and the experience of the audience. The three workshop leaders will share responsibility for both workshops. We will divide the presentation and hypotheticals among ourselves so we can bring our expertise into the workshop and work to prevent audience fatigue listening to one speaker and one point of view. We have deliberately chosen 3 people working in different major commercial international jurisdictions to give a wide variety of views on each case. |
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| 13:00 - 14:30 | lunch |
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Education Workshop on What to Teach about Virtual Worlds Constructing a good virtual world studies program Richard A. Bartle |
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| 14:30 - 16:30 | (incl. coffee break) |
Cancelled |
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With the growth of virtual worlds, especially MMORPGs, there is an
increasing demand among students for courses in this area. Yet what
should such courses teach? Few academics have any experience of virtual
worlds except as a player - it's like asking a beer-drinker to teach
brewing. This workshop aims to identify the essential points that any
course aiming to teach students about virtual worlds should cover.Main audience:Academics interested in teaching material directly concerned with virtual worlds (whether game worlds such as World of Warcraft, or social worlds such as Second Life). Also, industry people who want to ensure that the academics aren't teaching crazy things. It is assumed that all attendees have some experience of playing a virtual world.Details: The workshop begins with a short presentation explaining the different basic approaches to teaching this kind of subject matter. It is followed by a short but intense information-gathering phase in which all attendees have a chance to make multiple points. After the coffee break, the format switches to that of a roundtable. The information which was gathered earlier in the workshop is used as a catalyst to identify what key points everyone studying virtual worlds should know. A summary of what has been divined ends the workshop. |
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