Natascha Karlova

Facet Analysis of Video Game Genres

Genre is an important feature for organizing and accessing video games. However, current descriptors of video game genres are unstandardized, undefined, and embedded with multiple information dimensions. This paper describes the development of a more complex and sophisticated scheme consisting of 12 facets and 358 foci for describing and representing video game genre information. Using facet analysis, the authors analyzed existing genre labels from scholarly, commercial, and popular sources, and then synthesized them into discrete categories of indexing terms. This new, more robust scheme provides a framework for improved intellectual access to video games along multiple dimensions.

Notes from the underground city of disinformation: A conceptual investigation

Inaccurate information, in the field of library and information science, is often regarded as a problem that needs to be corrected or simply understood as either misinformation or disinformation without further consideration. Misinformation and disinformation, however, may cause significant problems for users in online environments, where they are constantly exposed to an abundance of inaccurate and/or misleading information. This paper aims to establish conceptual groundwork for future empirical research by examining the relationships among information, misinformation, and disinformation. Our analysis extends to a discussion of cues to deception, as means for detecting misinformation and disinformation. We argue that misinformation and disinformation are related yet distinct sub-categories of information. Misinformation is a multifaceted concept, more complex than simply being inaccurate or incomplete, and disinformation does not always entail misinformation. We conclude our discussion by highlighting the significant roles of context and time in defining misinformation and disinformation.

Playing with information: information work in online gaming environments

Digital games are saturated with information. Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) require players to collect, organize, manage, and interpret vast volumes and varieties of information in a distributed, networked environment. Yet, they often provide players insufficient tools to effectively accomplish these information tasks. In response, some members of the player community build modifications (mods) and addons to the game software. Mods and addons usefully and creatively address some problems of utilizing information in digital environments; by analyzing them, we can gain insights into possibilities for organizing information in digital environments.

Challenges and Opportunities in Virtual Worlds: Informed Consent and Data Collection

This paper introduces innovative techniques for conducting research in virtual worlds. We analyze two unique methods: 1) informed consent via a ‘consent bot’ and 2) data collection via a ‘Heads-Up Display’. Such methods represent novel solutions that can be extended to other online research settings.

Avatar transparency and the establishment of trust in virtual information eco-systems

This poster addresses the issue of avatar transparency in virtual worlds, and its relationship to the establishment of trustworthiness. Preliminary analysis of interviews with Second Life® users offers insights on this topic. The authors describe the tension between anonymity and trust in participant contexts, and suggest a framework for describing avatar transparency and trust issues.

A Room of One's Own: The Virtual Study Room as an Information Services Delivery Model

Libraries are facing the challenge of innovation to meet user needs. Virtual worlds offer unique opportunities for curated, immersive, integrated, interactive, and flexible spaces. The Virtual Study Room is a unique design concept leveraging these opportunities and supporting information behavior in a virtual world. Participant feedback from a research event in Second Life indicates that the Virtual Study Room is a useful environment for individual and group information problem-solving, and serves as a model for the delivery of online library information services.

Trust and community: Continued engagement in Second Life

3D social virtual worlds (VWs), like Second Life (SL), have potential as alternative modes for information seeking and socialization. Yet, finding trustworthy social connections for expertise and social support can be challenging in Second Life (SL) where identities are fluid. We explored how long-time SL users established and diffused trust within their communities by vetting each other as trusted information sources. By drawing on the relationship among trust, being highly sought after, social status, and continued engagement in SL, we identify challenges that VWs like SL face, and provide recommendations for social navigation systems to support continued engagement in social virtual worlds.

Future InfoExpo: the future of information seeking & services exposition in Second Life™

Phase I of the Virtual Information Behavior Environments (VIBE) project uncovered opportunities and limitations for the sharing, access, and organization of information in the 3D virtual world Second Life. Phase II of the project designed a major event in Second Life, called the Future InfoExpo, in which participants engaged with a variety of new virtual world tools, provided feedback on their experiences, and envisioned the future of their information practices. An overview of the design of the Future InfoExpo is presented, along with a preliminary review of the data.