Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Research Update

Several of our works on virtual spaces are going on their way. The paper on distribution of avatars in space is now available online (In Press, still, but should be in the next issue of Computers in Human Behavior), and I got today the proofs of the paper on the impact of meta-media on virtual communities. Looking very good ! Using as a model the Star Wars Role-Play community of Second Life, this paper analysed the impact of "Galactic News Network", a news-styled blog relating the events taking place in the SWRP community of Second Life in a "in character" immersive way, on the community itself, using as a theoretical framework the 3C model I presented in previous work. Interestingly, the typological analysis of what I described in this paper really reinforce the model I think. Big thanks for Daana Kira and Rakiko Lowtide, the two main "Reporters" of GNN, without whom I would not have been able to do this work.

On the other side of our research ... we are launching a series of new projects on bionics. And that makes me happy, as (as I kept telling to people), we are finally linking the two parts of human-machine interactions : the behavioral aspects with virtual spaces, and the fundamental biomedical aspects, with bionic applications, which could only arise from animal research. It will take time, but we are going there finally !