Seeking the Entanglement of Immersion and Emergence: Reflections from an Analysis of the State of IS Research on Virtual Worlds

This paper critically reviews the state of virtual world research within the Information Systems field; revealing areas of interest evident in research studies between 2007-2011, the methods employed to conduct such research, the theories/frameworks used to ground VW research, as well as reoccurring memes/concepts. We argue that virtual worlds are best interpreted as both an immersive and emergent co-creative process, ‘performed’ by users’ actions and interactions both with other users and with artifacts such as virtual goods. Nevertheless, our analysis reveals a near neglect of the substantive nature of digital materiality and of the emergent nature of virtual worlds. We conclude that this ‘human-centric’ stance has taken focus away from the unique nature of the virtual world artifact itself, and posit a research agenda that focuses on virtual world objects as well as the immersive and emergent activities of ‘world-builders’ as necessary to advance virtual world research

Open Source as Open Innovation: Creating and Capturing Value in Value Networks

Given thatexisting theories of the firm do not offer feasible answers as to how firms create and capturevalue with Open source software (OSS) and the fact that open source raises questions about how business caneffectively create and capture value through the application of OSS in a manner thatleverages open innovation qualities, there is a clear need for more research in this regard. Thestudy utilises a theory-building approach, deriving a model from extant research and refiningthe model through case study analysis of three European firms which include a supplier ofmedical equipment and devices, a telecommunications provider and an electronics andsystems company that serve defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide. Thefindings reveal that a firm\u27s ability to create and capture value with OSS is augmented bytheir ability to gain access to external and internal value networks of potentialcomplementors

Investigating Collaborative Development Activities in a Virtual World: An Activity Theory Perspective

Contemporary virtual worlds provide unique environments in which users may collaborate in the development of shared digital artifacts. However, the ways in which such collaboration takes place is to date under researched. This paper uses an activity theory perspective to analyze the development activities of two communities within the virtual world of Second Life, based on data gathered using ethnographic methods. The study reveals (1) the complimentary and diverging practices utilized by these two different communities of practice, (2) the mediating function of various tools, rules, and work roles in collaborative development activities, (3) the tensions created in such activities and the manner in which users overcome these tensions

We Have Everything to Win : Collaboration and Open Innovation in Public Administration

While the concept of open innovation has attracted significant industry and research interest in the past five years, there remains a paucity of research on the application of the concept in noncommercial settings. This paper presents an exploration of a network of Swedish municipal authorities. Within this network, we have observed a move from isolated innovation to the purposive leveraging of knowledge inflows and outflows in a manner characteristic of the open innovation paradigm. This paper presents a characterization of these knowledge exchanges using an existing framework of open innovation archetypes, as well as a description of the business model impacts of these innovation approaches for the participant municipalities. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for future research

Open source networks: an exploration of business model and agility issues

The growing interest of commercial organisations in developing and exploiting open source software (OSS) has led to increased focus on business model aspects of the OSS phenomenon. However, much of the work on OSS business models describes the revenue stream but neglects of other aspects of the business model. In addition, many OSS companies participate in business networks in order to offer the complete product / service offering (whole product) demanded by customers. Such collaboration is seen as vital in competing with large firms in delivering the ‘whole product. However, there are uncertainties about how such collaboration affects (1) the business models of participants and (2) the agility of the network. This paper examines Zope Europe Association (ZEA), a network of small open source companies co-operating to deliver the ‘whole product’. It investigates how participation in the network augments the business models of each participant company, and identifies the business agility challenges faced by the network. The paper concludes identifying the need to address adaptability and alignment issues in addition to business network agility

Applying theory-building techniques to the design of modelling languages

In their 2004 paper Hevner et. al proposed a set of guidelines for conducting design science research projects in the IS discipline. While useful, these guidelines have a relatively high level of abstraction. However, various IT artifacts such as models, methods, techniques and implementations require IS researchers to apply differing methods in order to construct and evaluate purposeful artifacts respectively. In this paper we discuss a particular class of IT artifacts: conceptual modeling languages. As constituent parts of software development methods, a multitude of such languages has been proposed and discussed. Yet, in the related literature on method design only little guidance is provided on how to derive appropriate conceptual modeling languages from empirical data. We believe that “good methods” need to be rigorously grounded in empirical findings. Taking a look at the related literature on inductive theory building reveals that at there are prominent similarities between the elements that constitute theories and those that constitute conceptual modeling languages: whereas theories comprise of constructs and relationships between these, conceptual modeling languages comprise of language constructs and relationships among these. We draw from the body of literature on grounded theory building and propose a new approach to designing conceptual modeling languages

COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD: DISCOURSE, DIGITAL ARTEFACTS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF INTERSUBJECTIVE MEANING

The misconception of virtual worlds as „games‟ has prevented these immersive environments from being treated as legitimate areas of inquiry by the Information Systems community. In this paper we argue that these environments challenge our conceptualisation of technology mediation due to the immersive and co-created nature of the digital environment, and particularly, challenges our understanding of information technology mediated collaborative development activities. Acknowledging the interrelated roles played by both human and non-human actors within virtual worlds, we investigate the construction of intersubjective meaning within three small synchronous collaborative development groups. Our findings highlight the complex roles of mediators within such collaborative activities in immersive environments, and the ways in which such mediation manifests through integrated socio-technical systems that are culturally developed