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Taryn Stanko and Jonathon Richter presenting at Oregon Immersive Ed 2010 on their NSF - supported research on collaborative virtual work.
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Identity at “Play” in Virtual Worlds
Taryn StankoJonathon Richter
University of Oregon
Oregon Immersive Education Conference, 2010
Research Overview and Introduction
Virtual Organizations as SocioTechnical Systems grant from the National Science Foundation
Alan Meyer, Kathryn Aten, Luciara Nardon, Taryn Stanko, & Jonathon Richter
Sun Microsystems: Nicole Yankelovich & Kevin Roebuck
St. Paul College: Warren Sheaffer
Comparing team use of Second Life vs. Wonderland within Sun
Development of a Collaboratory: working in, authentic context, showcase results
Intercultural issues, open source as a phenomenon, collaboration routines & identity
Identity at “Play” in Virtual Worlds
Identity in Virtual Worlds
Researchers have examined virtual worlds as a place to explore and “play” with identity (e.g. Turkle, 1995; Ducheneaut & Moore, 2004)
Emphasis is often on how individuals use virtual worlds for play/online gaming
Some important exceptions (e.g. Reeves and Read, 2009)
What About “Work” Identity?
Work identity: How an individual defines himself or herself at work (Wrzesniewski and Dutton, 2001)
Work activities provide opportunities for identity building (Van Mannnen, 2009)
How does work identity emerge and evolve in a virtual work environment?
Sociomateriality as a Lens
Why is sociomateriality a useful concept for studying identity in virtual environments?
All Interactions mediated through technology
Level of plasticity
Immersive nature
Importance of Routines
Routines as a way to help us view and study both the social and material in action and how they shape one another in this environment
Organizational routines provide opportunity for self-reflective behavior (Feldman and Pentland, 2003)
Data and Methods
Grounded theory approach In-depth interviews
Scientists, educators, software developers Routines protocol and identity protocol
Participant observation
Pictures, machinima, written descriptions of routines
Findings
Work in virtual settings elicits self-perceived & profound changes in work identity over time.
Witnessing a remarkable variation in adoption of work routines across work settings and by individual role.
Alignment of work and identity in virtual worlds requires adjustments in both domains.
The “real” affects the virtual... and vice versa
Emergent Themes
Push to align avatar with offline self Transformative forces on work Routines developed around affordances:
Plasticity and Immediacy
Back Channel Communication
Feedback Loops
How these routines shape identity
Theme 1: Plasticity and Immediacy
Plasticity and flexibility around both environment and avatar
Age, size, shape, clothing, color, gender, etc.
Alternate avatars Ease of change
Theme 1: Plasticity and Immediacy
Theme 2: Back Channel Communication
Multiple forms of communication Individual to individual text Individual to group text Audio
Informal Simultaneous
Theme 2: Back Channel Communication
Theme 3: Dynamic Interaction
Building on multiple affordances Manipulating objects Simultaneous text and audio
Sharing, creating complex knowledge Highly dynamic, interactive
Theme 3: Dynamic Interaction
Phases of Adoption
Phases
l------------------l---------------------l----------------------------------l-----------------------------l--------------------------lPre-entry Entry Reality Check Starting to Click Retooling Maturity
Time ------>
Phases
l------------------l---------------------l----------------------------------l-----------------------------l--------------------------lPre-entry Entry Reality Check Starting to Click Retooling Maturity
Time ------>
Emerging Questions
What is the most appropriate balance between transferring offline routines for virtual world use and creating new ones?
How should issues around ownership of “self” in virtual worlds be managed?
To what extent should we keep vs. discard the elements of ‘play’ or ‘game’ like dimensions of virtual worlds?
The Collaboratory
Design Charrettes with Nancy Cheng
Architect Brian Lockyear Use of a Pattern Language that fits our data (data – wiki - collaboratory) Google Sketchup (SketchLife) Sketchup model to Open Wonderland Connecting Wonderland and Second Life Collaboratories
http://virtualinnovation.wikispaces.com/
Questions?