Texas A&M International University (USA) professor Ned Kock believes that much of e-collaboration in the future will take place in virtual worlds.  As editor-in-chief of the progressive International Journal of e-Collaboration, Kock bases his prediction of increased virtual environment use off of emerging patterns in the technology field.

“Recent years have seen the growing use of virtual worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft for entertainment and business purposes, and a rising interest from researchers in the impact that virtual worlds can have on patterns of e-collaboration behavior and collaborative task outcomes,” says Kock.

A short time ago, Kock published an article in his journal examining whether actual work can be accomplished in virtual worlds, whether virtual worlds can provide the basis for trade (B2C and C2C e-commerce), and whether they can serve as a platform for credible studies of e-collaboration behavior and related outcomes.  The article argues that virtual worlds hold great potential in each of these three areas, even though there are certainly pitfalls ahead.

“The prominent emergence of virtual worlds such as Second Life and their rapidly growing user base does not necessarily imply that they have an immediately practical e-collaboration appeal,” says Kock.  “For a virtual world to have a practical e-collaboration appeal, meaning that actual work can be done in the virtual world, the benefits of e-collaborating through the virtual world must outweigh the costs.”

Kock sugguests possible benefits as time and dollar savings due to the reduced need for physical transportation to meeting sites.  However, possible costs include reduced communication fluency and increased communication ambiguity due to cumbersome interfaces and interaction delays.

“Past experience tells us that if a virtual community of users is created around a technology and grows beyond a critical mass, then practical e-collaboration applications will follow.  Any virtual world that attracts a large number of users on a global scale will eventually have a business impact, even if for no other reason than its marketing appeal.  This will, in turn, lead to technological improvements that will eventually make e-collaboration through virtual worlds attractive as the benefits of e-collaboration outweigh the costs.”

For more on Ned Kock and his extensive research into e-collaboration, visit his journal’s Web site at: www.igi-global.com/ijec.