Second Call For Papers here

Slactions 2013
International research conference on virtual worlds - Learning with
simulations
21-23 November, 2013
http://www.slactions.org/
In cooperation with VS-GAMES - international conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for
Serious Applications
CALL FOR PAPERS
Slactions 2013 is the fifth edition of SLACTIONS, the original international conference held
simultaneously in several countries on the topic of virtual worlds and metaverse platforms.
This edition initiates a cooperation with the VS-GAMES conference, on the form of the
workshop “Technology Challenges of Virtual Worlds in Education & Training towards
widespread adoption.”
Virtual worlds and metaverse platforms have evolved from their text-only MUD origins to
fully graphic massive locales, such as World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Second
Life, Minecraft, Habbo Hotel, IMVU, League of Legends, and many others. Alongside these
ready-to-use environments, many technological platforms support do-it-yourself creation of
virtual worlds, such as OpenSimulator, Open Cobalt, Open Wonderland, and more. Social
media has recently also presented itself as a channel for virtual worlds such as Cloud Party
or The Sims Social.
This increasing use of virtual world technologies that act as platforms for end-users to
create, develop, and interact, is expanding the realm of human cooperation, interaction, and
creativity. Slactions is looking to present selections from submitted research, focusing on
both basic research and applications of the aforementioned metaverse platforms and others,
including MMORPGs and social media virtual worlds, providing a forum for the research
community to present and discuss innovative approaches, techniques, processes, and
research results. Multiple disciplines meet at Slactions, enabling a global perspective on
research topics and concerns: Slactions has been contributing to the creation of a worldwide
research community of virtual worlds / metaverse researchers. Slactions unique in its
format too, as an event conducted both in a metaverse platform and on-site in multiple
countries throughout the world. It contributed to the current redefinition of the way we
think about hybrid online and on-site scholarly collaborations.
Slactions looks forward to receive contributions of research results, case studies, panel
discussions, and demonstrations that scholars, educators, and businesses can port to their
own environments and apply in their research, teaching, and business strategy. We will
accept papers from the full spectrum of intellectual disciplines and technological endeavors
in which metaverse platforms are currently being used: from Education to Business,
Sociology to Social Sciences, Media Production to Technology Development, Architecture
and Urban Planning to the Arts.
The 2013 edition includes the theme “Learning with simulations”. Special
panels/workshops will convey this theme. The use of simulations in learning is
now an important field of research in education and professional development,
and virtual worlds/metaverse platforms play a significant role in this context. So
join us for Slactions 2013, for the fora where researchers can present and discuss
developments in simulations aiming to assist learning in science and technology
education.
Topics covered may include but are not limited to:
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Education and Learning Perspectives (e.g., learning with simulations in science
education, educational use of virtual worlds)
Computer Science and HCI Perspectives (e.g., systems integration, content
generation, automated behaviours, user experience)
Social Science Perspectives (e.g., communication, behavioural studies, law,
sociology, anthropology)
Arts and Humanities Perspectives (e.g., creativity, design, embodiment, art)
Business, Management, and Economics Perspectives (e.g., e-business, ecommerce, non.profit, methods, processes, best practices)
Format
Slactions has the format of a hybrid online and physical conference. All paper presentations
and plenary sessions by guest speakers will be held in an online virtual world (instrucions
will be provided in the conference website), and projected locally at local chapters, for
participants attending physically. Physical participants can interact with the online
participants via a "physical chapter avatar" and microphone.
Workshops and other events may also take place locally in specific chapters or in mixed
format across several participating chapters.
Submissions
Authors are invited to submit:
● A full paper of eight to ten pages for oral presentation
● A "work in progress" paper of 4 pages for oral presentation
● A Flickr image or YouTube video, indexed with the tag “slactions2013” for poster
presentations ‘in-world’
● A live presentation in an online virtual world.
All submissions are subject to a double blind review process and should be professionally
proofread before submission. All manuscripts should be formatted according to the ASIS&T
proceedings template. (Disclaimer: SLACTIONS is not associated with ASIS&T.)
Publication venues
All accepted papers and posters will be published online and in ISBN-registered digital
proceedings. Video posters and live presentations can submit an abstract for inclusion in the
digital proceedings.
The authors of the best papers will be invited to provide revised and expanded versions for
publications in special editions of journals or as single contributions to theme-specific
journals, including a special issue of an SSCI-indexed journal.
Check out www.slactions.org regularly for more information and developments on the
proceedings publisher and journal venues for best papers.
Official language of the conference
The official language for the online space and all submissions is English only. However, at
the physical site of local chapters you can also use the native language of that location.
Important dates
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Submissions deadline:
○ Main Slactions conference 1st Call: June 30, 2013
○ Main Slactions conference 2nd Call: July, 25, 2013 (Extended)
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September 9, 2013 - Submission results provided for main Slactions conference
submissions
September 11-13, 2013 - Slactions workshop in VS-GAMES conference
October 10, 2013 - Deadline for print-ready versions of main Slactions conference
papers
November 21-23, 2013 - Main Slactions conference
Workshop at VS-GAMES 2013, Bournemouth, UK
We’re inviting submissions on the current technology challenges of virtual worlds in
education and training, towards widespread adoption of these platforms. Authors are invited
to submit papers on the matter of making technology available to educational actors, the
matter of content production, the matter of large scale deployment & systems integration,
and more.
This workshop will take place on September 13th, at Bournemouth, UK, as part of the VSGAMES 2013 conference. More information at:
http://www.vsgames2013.org/p/workshops.html
Main Slactions 2013 conference - Local physical chapters
Portuguese Chapter
Venues:
UTAD, Vila Real, Portugal
About UTAD:
www.utad.pt
Local theme:
Science and technology education with computer simulations
Topics covered may include but are not limited to:
● Computer simulations in the classroom
● Teacher mediation with computer simulations
● Computer simulations as mediating artifacts in learning
Coordinators:
J. Bernardino Lopes [[email protected]]
J. P. Cravino [[email protected]]
Further local chapters in preparation.
Check out www.slactions.org for updated lists and contacts.
Note: If you believe your institution can hold a physical chapter in an as-yet unsupported
region, please contact the organization at info slactions.org.
Conference Chair
J. Bernardino Lopes – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Conference Co-Chairs
J. Paulo Cravino – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Christian Gütl - Technical University of Graz, Austria
Paulo Martins – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Steering Committee
Leonel Morgado - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Nelson Zagalo - University of Minho, Portugal
Ana Boa-Ventura, University of Texas-Austin, USA
Scientific Committee
Ahmer Iqbal – University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Ana Amélia Carvalho – University of Coimbra, Portugal
Ana Boa-Ventura – University of Texas-Austin, USA
Andrew Crooks – George Mason University, USA
António Alberto Silva – Higher School of Education, Polytechnic Institute of Oporto,
Portugal
António Fernando Coelho – University of Porto, Portugal
António Lopes – Lusófona University, Portugal
António Quintas Mendes – Open University, Portugal
Baltasar Fernández-Manjón – Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain
Benjamim Fonseca – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Chris Haskell – Boise State University, USA
Christian Gütl – Graz University of Technology, Austria
Dan Hunter – New York Law School, USA
Daniel Gonçalves – Higher Technical Institute, Portugal
David Deeds – Colegios Peterson, Mexico
David Gibson – University of Vermont, USA
Donizetti Louro – Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Emanuel Peres – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Erik Champion – Curtin University, Australia
Filipe Alexandre Silva Santos – Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal
Fotis Liarokapis – Coventry University, UK
Greg Lastowka – Rutgers School of Law /Camden, USA
Hanan Gazit – Juloot Interactive/Tel-Aviv University/Shenkar College of Engineering,
Design & Art, Israel
Helen Farley – University of Southern Queensland, Australia
Hugo Paredes – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Isabel Valverde – Intelligent Agents and Synthetic Characters Group, Portugal
J. Bernardino Lopes – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
J. Paulo Cravino – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
João Barroso – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
João Varajão – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
John Jamison – imagiLEARNING, USA
Jordi Vallverdú Segura -Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
Leonel Morgado – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Lina Morgado – Open University, Portugal
Luís Magalhães – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Luís Pedro – University of Aveiro, Portugal
Lynn Alves -Universidade do Estado da Bahia, Brazil
Marco António Chávez-Aguayo -University of Guadalajara, Mexico
Michal Yerushalmy – University of Haifa, Israel
Michele Dickey, Miami University, USA
Mikhail Fominykh – Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Narciso Cerpa – University of Talca, Chile
Nelson Zagalo – University of Minho, Portugal
Nico Rutten – University of Twente, The Netherlands
Paulo Martins – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Pedro Sequeira – Higher School of Sport of Rio Maior, Portugal
Pilar Lacasa – University of Alcalá, Spain
Ramesh Sharma – Indira Gandhi National Open University, India
Ramiro Gonçalves – Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Samia Khan -University of British Columbia, Canada
Scott Grant – Monash University, Australia
Shalini Chandra – Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Sneha Veeragoudar Harrell – Independent Scholar, USA
Steve Cooper – Alice project, USA
Steven Warburton – King’s College London, United Kingdom
Teresa Bettencourt – University of Aveiro, Portugal
Torsten Reiners – University of Hamburg, Germany
Vincent Ng – Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Vitor Duarte Teodoro – New University of Lisbon, Portugal
Wafa Bourkhis – Université de la Manouba, Tunísia
Yesha Sivan – Shenkar College and Metaverse Labs Ltd., Israel
Organization Committee
Ana Margarida Maia – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Daniela Pedrosa – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Gonçalo Cruz Matos – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Ricardo Rodrigues Nunes – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Website Designer & Content Manager
André Pinheiro - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Paulo Fernandes - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Public Relations Officer
António Correia - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Local Chapters Manager
Diogo Azevedo - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Sponsors Manager
Fernando Cassola Marques - INESC Porto
Academic Journals Officer
Maria da Glória Fraga - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Contacts
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: https://www.slactions.org/2013
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Slactions2013
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SLACTIONS
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Slactions
Scribd: http://pt.scribd.com/Slactions