Body image and virtual worlds: call for study participants
Jon-Paul Cacioli is a Doctor of Clinical Psychology student at Deakin University, and he’s currently conducting a study on body image in virtual worlds. In his words:
“I am looking for participants, male and 18+ to complete a survey regarding both their real world and virtual world body images and psychological states.”
He needs 300 or so [...]
The agenda-setting challenges for virtual worlds: a discussion paper
The past couple of years have seen virtual worlds start to get on government agendas worldwide. From a policy perspective, agenda-setting is a widely researched area and it’s very pertinent to virtual environments. To that extent, I’ve written a discussion paper that analyses the challenges to date in ensuring virtual worlds do end up [...]
Interview – Evelyn McElhinney, Glasgow Caledonian University
(This story appeared earlier today over at Metaverse Health).
Coming from a nursing background myself, I’m always fascinated by the work going on in virtual environments in regards to nurse education. To some extent it’s a natural fit in that clinical simulation is a pivotal part of the education process for nurses anyway – using [...]
The physical health impacts of virtual environments
Over the past few days a product announcement and some interesting research have come together for me in illustrating some of the downsides of heavy regular use of virtual environments. I’m talking specifically about the physical impacts here: we’ve covered the psychological positives and negatives repeatedly (e.g. here and here). In regard to the [...]
Interview – Prof. Young Choi and Dr. Thomas Furness, HIT Lab Australia
In 2008, with not a lot of fanfare, the Human Interface Technology Laboratory Australia (HIT Lab) was created. Part of the University of Tasmania (UTAS), its brief is to be a specialist human interface technology teaching and research centre.
Headed in an interim capacity by Professor Young Ju Choi with significant involvement by veteran [...]
Companies and 3D Virtual Worlds: one detailed analysis
There’s an ever-growing pile of books on virtual worlds available, ranging from tour guides to detailed ethnography.
One publication that slipped under the radar for me at least (it was published in May 2008) is Companies and Virtual 3D Worlds – Analysis of Business Model at the Example of Second Life. Written by Stavros Pechlivanidis, [...]
Sexual expression in virtual worlds – is normalcy achievable?
From our sister site, Metaverse Health:
For many, the Christmas / New Year period is a time when there’s more regular social contact with people. It’s certainly been the case for me and it’s emphasised a well known virtual world conundrum – personal boundaries. Over the past month I’ve had the occasion to discuss virtual worlds [...]
