Second Life and Other Virtual Worlds : A Roadmap for Research

Virtual worlds like Second Life are becoming important tools for, among other activities, socialization, social networking, entertainment, collaboration, and business development. These environments offer information systems researchers a unique opportunity to study how these environments are built and managed by operators, how they are used and misused by users, and the impact that they have on users, communities, organizations, and societies at large. This panel is designed to introduce the information systems community to this topic. We have assembled both academic and practitioners involved in building, managing, and using virtual worlds to discuss a roadmap for research on virtual worlds