[AISWorld] CFP: Last call-Special Issue 'Opportunities and challenges in the Metaverse' in Internet Research

[Xusen Cheng]

Dear Colleagues,

Calls for papers
Internet Research Special Issue
Opportunities and challenges in the Metaverse

Submissions Deadline: 31 August 2022

Special Issue Guest Co-Editors:
Xusen Cheng (Renmin University of China, xusen.cheng at ruc.edu.cn)
Jian Mou (Pusan National University, jian.mou at pusan.ac.kr)
Xiao-Liang Shen (Wuhan University, xlshen at whu.edu.cn)
Triparna de Vreede (University of South Florida, tdevreede at usf.edu)
Rainer Alt (Leipzig University, iwi-as at uni-leipzig.de)

Introduction:
The Metaverse generally refers to an
interactive, immersive, and collaborative virtual world environment that is
shared among the online crowds (Kim, 2021). With the development of
advanced technologies, such as virtual reality (VR)/augmented reality (AR)
devices, artificial intelligence, cloud computing techniques, blockchain
and 5G/6G wireless communication networks, the Metaverse offers an infusion
of physical, virtual, and augmented reality to afford
socialization, play, and work. As real as the reality, Metaverse is
characterized by a three-dimensional (3D) virtual world that allows social
connection through avatars. An increasing proportion of our daily lives has
become a mix of physical and virtual worlds (Hacker et al., 2020;
Srivastava and Chandra, 2018; Zhang et al., 2020). However, different from
traditional online interactive environments (Haines, 2021; Sjöblom et al.,
2020; Thies et al., 2016), the Metaverse is creeping towards reality and
affords the embodied interactions to break the blurring lines between real
and virtual reality.

The virtual world is gradually transforming from temporal immersion into a
state of new normal. Second Life, as a popular three-dimensional(3D)
virtual world (Chandra and Leenders, 2012), has been in service for
decades. Artifacts could be designed and sold, and residents in Second Life
can go to live concerts for social gatherings. Nowadays, a booming
application of Metaverse lies in entertainment, including the famous
Minecraft that affords amazing creations through sandbox construction and
the popular Animal Crossing as an online self-built happy home paradise.
Furthermore, the Metaverse can afford enterprises business by empowering a
virtual space to engage customers and employees and has been advocated to
be applied in the health management field (Chen and Zhang, 2022; Gorini et
al., 2008). More recently, the social media giant Facebook has also claimed
its grand ambitions to embrace the Metaverse for the
next evolution of social connection. Furthermore, business sectors also
actively embrace Metaverse. For instance, Microsoft Mesh enables
geographically distributed team members discuss and collaborate in the
shared mixed reality conferences. Walmart is also working to leap into
Metaverse by creating its own cryptocurrency and collection of NFTs.

Online interactions in the Metaverses are featured by immersive
participation from mass crowds with diverse avatars. With the embodied
avatars, individuals in the Metaverse can self-present themselves to engage
in distributed collaboration, voice their self-recognitions, and socialize
in different scenarios. The Metaverse thus unlocks new opportunities to
connect buyers and sellers. Enabled by cryptocurrencies and NFTs,
individuals in the Metaverse could purchase virtual goods and trade items
anytime and anywhere. With blended real and magic experiences, individuals
in the Metaverse could design more fancy creations combining reality and
imagination. Furthermore, the realization of Metaverse requires joint
effort from business model designers, software engineers and device
providers. Therefore, Metaverse has brought about several opportunities.

The Metaverse also challenges our traditional interaction and collaboration
in many different ways. Due to the interconnected nature of the Metaverse,
the challenge of personal privacy heightens (Di Pietro and Cresci, 2021).
Hackers may easily stalk non-accessed devices to steal data and personal
information. Likewise, individuals may have distrust issues regarding the
deep usage of the Metaverse. Another challenge lies in the reputation and
identity issues in Metaverse. Since facial features and voices can be
imitated, identity authentication or verification is essentially important
to eliminate potential problems with ethics. The challenges that the
Metaverse brings out also include the inability of the platforms to engage
users in an immersive virtual world. To form meaningful relationships,
virtual world communities should thus afford visual fidelity with the
ability to touch and feel. In addition, time and space perceptions might be
different between real world and virtual environments, traditional business
models and marketing tactics may lose effectiveness in the dynamic
Metaverse (Kim, 2021).

In responding to the challenges posed by the Metaverse, this special issue
aims to call for attention to the latest trends of Metaverse and the
opportunities and challenges of the Metaverse. This special issue invites
contributions from a variety of conceptual and theoretical perspectives. We
particularly welcome behavioral studies that address the challenges and
opportunities the Metaverse presents, explore the new interaction and
collaboration modes, provide multidisciplinary perspectives, and/or adopt
mixed methods research approaches.

Topics of Interest:
Topics that are of interest to this special issue include, but are not
limited to:
* Team management in distributed virtual world collaboration
* Engagement influencing factors in the Metaverse
* Artifact design for an immersive virtual world
* User behaviors in the virtual world
* Business model innovation in the Metaverse
* Avatar designs to afford immersive online experiences
* Online communication and collaboration issues in the virtual world
* Digital marketing strategies in the Metaverse
* Online interaction patterns in the Metaverse
* Deep learning applications for a better metaverse experience
* Social media analytics about the 3D virtual world
* Metaverse and decentralized (blockchain) infrastructures
* Digital payment systems in the Metaverse
* Reputation building in the Metaverse
* Negative impacts of the Metaverse on individuals, organizations, and
society
* User misbehavior in the Metaverse
* Addiction and overuse/misuse of the Metaverse
* Technostress and IT anxiety in the Metaverse
* Trust and distrust in the Metaverse
* Value co-creation and co-destruction in the Metaverse
* Governance of data and algorithm of the Metaverse
* Digital divide and information inequalities amplified by the Metaverse
* Information security, privacy and ethical issues in the Metaverse
* Unexpected effects of blurring the boundaries between real and virtual
reality

Important Dates:
* Submission system open: 1 May, 2022
* Submission due date: 31 August 2022
* First round review decision: 15 November 2022
* Revised submission due: 15 Jan 2023
* Second round review decision: 30 March 2023
* Revised submission due: 30 May 2023
* Final review decision: 30 June 2023

Please refer to more information about the special issue at:
https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/calls-for-papers/opportunities-and-challenges-metaverse


Author guidelines:
https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/intr#author-guidelines

Kind Regards

Xusen Cheng, Ph.D
Professor of Information Systems
School of Information, Renmin University of China
Beijing, China, 100872
Email: xusen.cheng at gmail.com



<xusen.cheng at gmail.com>