John Carey
Abstract
Technological innovation is always social innovation, if the application will be used by people. Yet, many technologies have been introduced with little concern for the social side of the innovation. Virtual worlds are intended to be immersive social experiences that can offer an alternative to face-to-face interactions, as well as provide new forms of human experience. People living in virtual worlds will need a rich array of communication tools if they are to get the kinds of emotional satisfaction that are possible in everyday social exchanges. Expressive communication is one of those tools. Expressive communication includes gestures, tone of voice, body orientation, and other nonverbal signals that are present in face-to-face settings. Two related issues are the sense of space people experience in virtual worlds and the social conventions that govern how people behave. One of our first research tasks will be to collect and analyze research from related areas that can inform us about human factors in virtual worlds. This would include research about videoconferencing, virtual reality, videogames, the Web, and computer mediated communication. Are people communicating effectively and do they feel comfortable in virtual worlds? Have communities emerged and, if so, what is the shape of those communities? In assessing expressive communication, it will be useful to understand how avatars, gestures, and voice are integrated into social interactions, and how these interactions differ from early text-based interactions such as forums.
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Index Terms
- Expressive communication and social conventions in virtual worlds
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