Call for papers – Futures of Real and Virtual Worlds
Published: March 10, 2015
A special exploratory issue edited by:
Yesha Sivan, Editor in Chief, the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research
The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (https://jvwr.net/) is an online, open access academic journal that engages a wide spectrum of scholarship and welcomes contributions from the many disciplines and approaches that intersect with virtual worlds research. Virtual worlds ignite a continuously evolving area of study that spans multiple disciplines and the JVWR editorial team looks forward to engaging a wide range of creative and scholarly research.
Design the future
This call is about the future or more so “possible futures“. We are looking for reflective papers (1000-3000 words) that will describe specific angles to the real and virtual worlds. We are exploring and defining our future. The collection of reflective futures will help us design the next 7 years of the journal.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• 3D fun
• Mini robots
• Social networks that change our mind
• Artificial limbs
• New forms of hardware
• Augmented and mixed environments
• Wearables
• User generated content
• 3D printing
• Visual data streaming
• Immersive technologies
• Shopping from home
• Projections of the real
• Wireless people
• Portable friends
• The Internet of Things
• Virtual currencies
• E-readers
• …
• And more
Motivation & Scope
The journal, JVWR, is celebrating its 8th year anniversary in 2015. In 2015 we will also publish** the book 3D3C Platforms: Applications and Tools for Three Dimensional Platforms for Community, Creation and Commerce published by Springer, as a summary of the field’s state of the art.
In 2008, when Jeremiah Spence founded the JVWR, the excitement of flexible, user-generated world was very high. It seemed that the world of Second Life have taken years of hardware, software, and social-ware experience into a new level; that it will “change” the world. This was yet another wave of promise of virtual reality.
In 2008, users, business analysts and academics alike used to be at awe because Second Life had millions of users; commerce was done virtually; there were grievers in virtual worlds, and people could create 3D objects by themselves. In 2015, today, 7 years later, Facebook has more than 1.35 billion monthly active users*; commerce is done with a fingerprint via Apple pay; cyber criminals are attacking real companies, and people are printing their own outfits and objects.
Much has changed. The virtual is becoming the real and the real is becoming the virtual. It seems that the term “virtual worlds” as a key term for an academic domain, does not make sense anymore.
It is time for us, as an academic journal, to take an “academic sabbatical” to define the future of our journal in light of the possible futures of both worlds (real and virtual). Of course, this will be an active Sabbatical where we try to grapple with several questions that revolve around the nature of the field, and on how we best advance it as an academic journal.
* http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
** Update from October 2015: the book was published with 2016 publishing date. See the Springer page about the book.
Submission Instructions
Authors are invited to submit original scholarly papers of 1000-3000 words including footnotes, references, and appendices. Interested authors should submit a full paper by the deadline indicated below. All submissions should be made via the JVWR publishing system (see www.jvwr.net > About JVWR > For Authors). All submissions will be
Deadlines and Timeline
Authors submit full papers: June 30, 2015
Editors return review report and initial decisions: July 15, 2015
Authors submit the revised papers: September 15, 2015
Editors return final comments and decisions: September 20, 2015
Authors submit final versions: October 20, 2015
Planned Publication: October 31, 2015
Further Information
Please contact:
Yesha Sivan yesha.sivan AT jvwresearch DOT org
Tzafnat Shpak tzafnat.shpak AT jvwresearch DOT org
