The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (http://jvwresearch.org/) is happy to announce a special call for MCIS2012 Track on Real Virtual Worlds and Serious Games At the 7th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS 2012) September 2012, Guimarães, Portugal Track Chairs Ruti Gafni, Tel-Aviv Yaffo Academic College, Israel. rutigafn@mta.ac.il Nitza Geri, The Open University of Israel. nitzage@openu.ac.il Yesha Sivan, Tel-Aviv Yaffo Academic College, Israel. yesha.sivan@mta.ac.il You can access this call directly through our website<http://jvwresearch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de4fa2a435382cb1fa67cb708&id=fb42a9c58b&e=4bf1169a5a> . About MCIS 2012 Adopting emergent knowledge and technologies to develop innovative Information Systems (CloudWisdom) Guimarães, Portugal - September 8-10, 2012 http://www.mcis2012.org The Conference will address the design of web services, along with their business models, as well as the development and implementation of information systems that enhance the use and application of knowledge and expertise in a global scale, with the aim of supporting co-creation and the development of innovative solutions to the economic and social challenges that the World faces today. MCIS 2012 aims to: - Inspire innovative and informative IS research that promotes smart, sustainable and inclusive growth of the Mediterranean Region. - Foster ground breaking IS research to improve the quality of life in the Mediterranean Region through enacting the distributed intelligence of Mediterranean populations and promoting the value of knowledge assets they produce. - Raise the visibility of IS-related research, education, policy, and practice carried out in the Mediterranean Region. A direct link to Conference Tracks<http://www.kmowl.org/mcis/index.php/program/tracks> . Fast-Tracking Authors of selected high-quality papers will be invited to submit their work to a special issue of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research. See http://jvwresearch.org<http://jvwresearch.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=de4fa2a435382cb1fa67cb708&id=9111a11474&e=4bf1169a5a> . Track Information Interest in virtual worlds has increased in the last years (For example: Wasko, Teigland, Leidner, and Jarvenpaa, 2011). These artificial environments, which emerged from the gaming and role-play world, have developed to serious applications suitable for various domain such as general business, traveling, teaching (Baker, Wentz, and Woods, 2009), and more. Inexpensive commodity-based products, such as computers and high-speed internet, help making sophisticated simulation technologies affordable and more accessible. Virtual Worlds are 3D, immersive graphical environments representing realistic or imaginary worlds. A "Real Virtual World" is defined as a combination of 3D – 3C: a three- dimensional world in which Communities of real people interact, creating Content, stuff and services, and producing real economic value through e-Commerce (Sivan, Bloomfield, and Gelissen, 2009). Simulations in a virtual world have a number of advantages, for example: the possibility to simulate expensive real-world resources, performing collaborative tasks without meeting physically, and training people in risky activities that would be dangerous in the real world. Moreover, the activities are committed in a "gaming" like interaction, which motivates people to perform even routine and annoying activities. The aim of this track is to examine the opportunities and challenges that such developments pose to organizations, and their potential impacts on competitive, organizational, and legal issues. This track will be of interest to researchers, students, educators, virtual world users, and anyone interested in the potential implications of virtual worlds to organizations, businesses, and individuals. Track Submission Instructions Researchers are cordially invited to submit their full research papers (7-12 pages), research-in-progress papers or extended abstracts (3-7 pages). Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - The business value of virtual worlds - Deploying virtual worlds in the workplace - Business gaming - Virtual worlds through mobile devices - Training and evaluation in virtual worlds - Case studies of experimental projects - Traditional vs. virtual organizations - Serious games - Virtual Reality - Augmented Reality - Work-related learning in virtual worlds - New business models and strategies in virtual worlds - Virtual worlds as disruptive innovation for organizations - Products and services suitable for virtual worlds - Business activities suitable for virtual worlds (recruiting, research, development, marketing, sales, etc) - Security issues in virtual worlds All submissions must be in English and will be blind reviewed by at least two referees. Important Dates Paper submission deadline: March 9, 2012 Notification of acceptance: May 11, 2012 Final paper submission: June 1, 2012 If you have any questions please do not hesitate to e-mail the track co-chairs. BIBLIOGRAPHY Baker, S. C., Wentz, R. K., and Woods, M. M. (2009). Using Virtual Worlds in Education: Second Life® as an Educational Tool. *Teaching of Psychology*, 36(1), 59-64. Sivan, Y., Bloomfield, R., and Gelissen, J. (2009). Special Issue on Technology, Economy and Standards in Virtual Worlds. *The Journal of Virtual Worlds **Research*, 2(3). ISSN: 1941-8477. Wasko, M., Teigland, R., Leidner, D., and Jarvenpaa, S. (2011). Stepping into the internet: New ventures in virtual worlds. *MIS Quarterly*, 35 (3), 645-652. -- =========== *Tzafnat Shpak* Coordinating Editor *The Journal of Virtual World Research* tzafnat.shpak@jvwresearch.org http://jvwresearch.org