FaVE 2009 - First ICST conference on Facets of Virtual Environments FaVE 2009

First ICST conference on Facets of Virtual Environments

**** FaVE 2009 ****

July 27-29, 2009, Berlin

http://www.fave-conference.org


FaVE (Facets of Virtual Environments) 2009 is a refereed international
academic conference devoted to persistent, multi-user virtual environments.

The recent rise of World of Warcraft, Second Life and similar applications
has caught the imagination of the public and scholars alike, yet until now
the study of virtual environments has been subordinated to a collection of
subtopics of established academic disciplines. FaVE 2009 seeks to establish
virtual environments as a research field in its own right. The conference
brings together under one academic umbrella current research and emerging
developments in the social, technical, legal, economic, design and cultural
aspects of virtual environments. To this end, FaVE 2009 invites researchers
and practitioners to participate in its interdisciplinary exchange of
knowledge and experience. It should be fun!

FaVE 2009 welcomes contributions relating to virtual environments, from
all fields. Topics include, but are not limited to:


Space & Place (theory of virtuality & space; virtual geography; geospatial
web, Web3D & location-based media; mixed & augmented reality; non-euclidean
geometries)

Virtual Societies (communities & networks; interaction patterns & social
dynamics; reputation, prestige & peer pressure; produsage; governance &
politics)

Law & Ethics (virtual government; application of real-world laws &
regulations; EULA & ToS; intellectual & virtual property; virtual crime &
ethics of virtual behavior)

History & Culture (history & historiography of VEs; archiving & preserving
VEs; cultural heritage; VEs as art; culture and acceptance)

Technology (scalability & distributed peer-to-peer architectures;
interoperability; open standards & the metaverse; security; availability,
logging & recovery)

Human-Computer Interaction (interfaces & interaction devices; usability &
user experience; accessibility; art direction & design; enabling user-
generated content)

Productive Uses (serious games; education; collaborative virtual environments;
virtual laboratories & experiments)

Economy (business models; virtual economy & currency; taxation & financial
regulation; branding, in-game advertising & franchising)

Play & Games (game mechanics; storytelling; virtual agents; balancing,
realm and quest design)

Uses & Effects (presence; avatars & identity; cybersickness & the uncanny
valley; effects on real-life behavior)

Users & Players (user demographics; diversity & gender)



Paper Submissions
=================
Papers presenting original, previously unpublished research or design work,
not currently under review by another conference or journal are solicited.



Publication
===========
All submitted papers will be subjected to double-blind peer review by the
international technical program committee on the basis of technical quality,
relevance, significance, and clarity. All accepted papers will be included in
the printed and electronic FaVE 2009 Conference Proceedings to be published
in the ICST Lecture Notes Series by Springer (LNICST).



Important Dates
===============
Full Papers Due: February 13th, 2009
Notification of Acceptance: April 10th, 2009
Camera Ready Manuscripts Due: April 30th, 2009
Conference Dates: July 27th -- July 29th, 2009



Location and Venue
==================
FaVE 2009 will take place in Berlin, Germany, at the Steigenberger Hotel
(www.steigenberger.com/berlin). Hundreds of world-class museums, as well as
cinemas, theatres, concert halls, shopping hotspots and fine international
restaurants make Berlin an exciting place to visit during summer. We are
planning an extensive social program for anyone interested in experiencing the
city and its many cultural highlights.



Conference Committees
=====================

Organizing Committee:

General Conference Chair Richard A. Bartle (University of Essex)
General Conference Vice Chair Sven Grottke (University of Stuttgart)

Technical Program Chair Jan Sablatnig (Technische Universitaet Berlin)
Workshops Chair Jessica Mulligan
Panels Chair Julian Kuecklich (University of the Arts London)

Local Arrangements Chair Sabine Cikic (Technische Universitaet Berlin)

Publicity Chair Sebastian Deterding (Universiteit Utrecht)
Publication Chair Fritz Lehmann-Grube (Technische Universitaet Berlin)
Web Chair Sharon Boensch (Technische Universitaet Berlin)
Sponsorship Chair Sabina Jeschke (University of Stuttgart)

Conference Coordinator Robert Varga (ICST)


Steering Committee:

Imrich Chlamtac (Create-Net)
Sabine Cikic (Technische Universitaet Berlin)
Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger (Harvard University)