An investigation of innovation and knowledge creation in virtual worlds
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Date
2011-11
Authors
O'Riordan, Niamh
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
Published Version
Abstract
The Internet and World Wide Web have had, and continue to have, an incredible
impact on our civilization. These technologies have radically influenced the way
that society is organised and the manner in which people around the world
communicate and interact. The structure and function of individual, social,
organisational, economic and political life begin to resemble the digital network
architectures upon which they are increasingly reliant. It is increasingly difficult
to imagine how our ‘offline’ world would look or function without the ‘online’
world; it is becoming less meaningful to distinguish between the ‘actual’ and the
‘virtual’. Thus, the major architectural project of the twenty-first century is to
“imagine, build, and enhance an interactive and ever changing cyberspace” (Lévy,
1997, p. 10). Virtual worlds are at the forefront of this evolving digital landscape.
Virtual worlds have “critical implications for business, education, social sciences,
and our society at large” (Messinger et al., 2009, p. 204).
This study focuses on the possibilities of virtual worlds in terms of
communication, collaboration, innovation and creativity. The concept of
knowledge creation is at the core of this research. The study shows that scholars
increasingly recognise that knowledge creation, as a socially enacted process,
goes to the very heart of innovation. However, efforts to build upon these insights
have struggled to escape the influence of the information processing paradigm of
old and have failed to move beyond the persistent but problematic
conceptualisation of knowledge creation in terms of tacit and explicit knowledge.
Based on these insights, the study leverages extant research to develop the
conceptual apparatus necessary to carry out an investigation of innovation and
knowledge creation in virtual worlds. The study derives and articulates a set of
definitions (of virtual worlds, innovation, knowledge and knowledge creation) to
guide research. The study also leverages a number of extant theories in order to
develop a preliminary framework to model knowledge creation in virtual worlds.
Using a combination of participant observation and six case studies of innovative
educational projects in Second Life, the study yields a range of insights into the
process of knowledge creation in virtual worlds and into the factors that affect it.
The study’s contributions to theory are expressed as a series of propositions and
findings and are represented as a revised and empirically grounded theoretical
framework of knowledge creation in virtual worlds. These findings highlight the
importance of prior related knowledge and intrinsic motivation in terms of
shaping and stimulating knowledge creation in virtual worlds. At the same time,
they highlight the importance of meta-knowledge (knowledge about knowledge)
in terms of guiding the knowledge creation process whilst revealing the diversity
of behavioural approaches actually used to create knowledge in virtual worlds
and. This theoretical framework is itself one of the chief contributions of the study
and the analysis explores how it can be used to guide further research in virtual
worlds and on knowledge creation. The study’s contributions to practice are
presented as actionable guide to simulate knowledge creation in virtual worlds.
This guide utilises a theoretically based classification of four knowledge-creator
archetypes (the sage, the lore master, the artisan, and the apprentice) and derives
an actionable set of behavioural prescriptions for each archetype. The study
concludes with a discussion of the study’s implications in terms of future
research.
Description
Keywords
World wide web , Virtual world , Knowledge creation , Communication , Collaboration , Innovation , Creativity , Case studies
Citation
O Riordan, N. 2011. An investigation of innovation and knowledge creation in virtual worlds. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.