5^th Annual Colloquium on Online Simulations, Role-playing, and Virtual Worlds

October 13-17, 2008

Hong Kong University

Hong Kong

LoW5 Conference Theme:

Future worlds: Virtual worlds today and tomorrow

Hundreds of virtual worlds exist to serve youth, educational, and corporate markets, yet few offer anything more than a glimpse of how technological innovations such as virtual worlds may lead to new forms, methods, and modes of communication, collaboration, and creation. We are experiencing unprecedented growth in the funding and development of virtual worlds, but toward what purpose?

This year, we will consider the opportunities and challenges the proliferation of virtual worlds offer today, and contemplate what they hold for tomorrow. In many ways, the future of virtual worlds depends on how early adopters decide to use them to advance and to extend their organizational mission. But what factors will influence which platforms and worlds survive and which ones do not?

Proposal categories

The League of Worlds colloquium is designed to support sharing and meaningful reflection. Participants should allow one another the opportunity to share experiences, to demonstrate technologies, and to think critically. To facilitate these activities, the colloquium review committee is interested in submissions on the following topics:

· Technologies used to create and manage virtual environments (tools, hardware, software)

· Vision for what virtual environments could be (architecture, metaphors)

· Teaching and Learning in virtual environments

o Role playing and simulations

o Social constructivism

o Communication and collaboration

o Serendipitous interactions and learning

· Community formation in virtual environments (interaction, presentation of self, presence)

· Culture (development of, artefacts)

· Administrative/technical support issues in virtual environments

· Change (Advocacy for, dissemination and sharing of research, how change takes place)

· Resources (to create and/or support any of the above themes)

· Research (on virtual environments in general or in support of any of the above themes)

Paper submissions

The colloquium review committee requests that paper submissions address the following:

· Summary of what you are doing with virtual environments and how it relates to one of the above themes (including description of practice and relevant research)

· Explanation of how this summary can contribute to the dialogue planned for the colloquium.

Paper submissions are double blind peer-reviewed. All accepted papers, the colloquium program, and a list of attendees will be published on the colloquium website. Papers should be between 2500-5000 words (4-8 pages).

Important Dates

Accepted presentations will be required to submit the following by September 5, 2008:

1. Registration for the colloquium Click here to Register
2. An indication of any special requirements related to diets, equipment, or other pertinent needs
3. Participant information, including:
   • Names of submission author and co-authors, if applicable
   • Contact information for each
   • Affiliated institution(s)
   • Job title(s)
   • Brief description of experience with virtual worlds, simulations, and/or role playing technology

Submit all proposals in Word, RTF, PDF or HTML format to:

Dr. Stephen Bronack at bronacksc@appstate.edu

With this post I would like to the opportunity to thank all of you for coming to Karlskrona. It has been a wonderful experience meeting you all here (some for the first time, some I’ve met previously), and I hope to meet all of you again next year at the League of Worlds 5 in Hong Kong. Now it’s time for you, Roni and Robert…

We should also encourage you to bring a jacket (it can be pretty windy by the sea) and a sweater at least. Right now the temperature is around 13°C (approximately 55°F) and hardly any wind, pretty nice autumn weather (for Scandinavia).

The Hotel Conrad is located very near the railway station, but please send us an e-mail (mwb@bth.se) stating your time of arrival and one of us will try to meet you at the station.

There have been a few alternations to the conference schedule, which can be found here, but none of them is a major one. I hope this will work for all of you.

Right now the conference has approximately 60 participants, of which 27 have registered formally. For those of you who haven’t registered yet, please do so. Also please send me an e-mail (to mwb@bth.se) as soon as you have paid the conference fee, enabling me to check when it arrives. More on how to pay here.

We would also like to remind all presenters that it is still possible to alter or add to your proposals. Deadline: Sep 15. They will be posted here on the League of Worlds website soon after.