Call for Papers: Virtual Communities
America´s Conference on Information Systems 2008
Toronto, Canada
August 14-17, 2008
(supported by Fachgruppe CSCW of Gesellschaft fuer Informatik,
http://www.fgcscw.gi-ev.de/)
Virtual communities based on message boards, chat rooms, user groups and
blogs have emerged as high activity domains on the Internet. Virtual
communities are designed for a variety of purposes that could range from
Communities of Interest, Communities of Relationship, Gaming Communities,
and Communities of Transaction to Peer-to-Peer Communities or Mobile
Communities and Second Life. The significance of these communities is
evident by the impact they have on information generation and
transmission, and socialization. For example, today, blogs are quickly
becoming a primary source of information in a variety of domains. The
dynamic and interactive nature of these forums makes them very attractive
for the users. An additional value offered by many of these communities is
their ability to support socialization and offer an identity for the
participants. While most virtual communities share these characteristics,
it is also important to recognize that virtual communities are not
homogeneous; they differ significantly based on the domain, purpose and
benefits. For example, virtual investing-related communities are focused
on offering an important forum for individual investors to discuss stock
performance. Open source communities, on the other hand, are virtual
communities that offer a platform for participants to collaborate and
produce a product of value to the entire community. Within the field of
information systems researchers are interested at studying interaction
patterns, transaction processes, management aspects, business models, and
design aspects of information systems and services for virtual
communities. Community members interact via digital media and contribute
value in the form of content, reviews, and recommendations. Related issues
are trust, network effects, transaction costs and the design of services.
Well-organized communities even expand their power across various channels
and into the Offline world. Empirical and conceptual work will be welcome
for this Mini-Track. Despite the increasing popularity of virtual
communities, several questions relating to virtual communities remain
largely unexplored.
We call for papers on social as well as business communities. Possible
topics include (but are not limited to):
- Social, political and economic impact of Virtual Communities
- Community models, platforms, services, and interactions, multi-channel communities
- Management and organizational behavior of communities
- Community-related business models
- Transaction-oriented Virtual Communities, customer collaboration
- Peer-to-Peer or mobile services for Virtual Communities
- Case studies and empirical studies, best practices and lessons learned
- Motivation of participants in virtual communities
- Benefits of participation in virtual communities
- Competition among virtual communities
- Information dispersion in virtual communities
- Typologies of virtual communities
- Evolution of and innovation in virtual communities
- Gaming Communities and Second Life
This mini-track builds on the success of the preceding AMCIS mini-tracks
on Virtual Communities. During the last six years we have been building a
community of researchers who are interested in the field of Virtual
Communities and related issues. Information on last years? mini-tracks is
available at: http://www.virtual-community.org/index.php/AMCIS
Important Dates:
Abstract Due (optional): Monday, February 5, 2008
Papers Due: Monday, March 3, 2008
Notification of Acceptance: Monday, April 14, 2008
Camera Ready Copy Due: Monday, April 28, 2008
Information about Conference and Submission Formats can be found at:
http://www.business.mcmaster.ca/amcis2008/
For questions about the mini-track please contact mini-track chairs at
AMCISMT0862008@gmail.com
Minitrack Chairs:
Achim Dannecker, Universität der Bundeswehr Muenchen, Germany
Jan Marco Leimeister, Technische Univeristaet Muenchen, Germany
Balaji Rajagopalan, Oakland University, USA
E-Mail: : AMCISMT0862008@gmail.com
Web: http://www.virtual-community.org