April 28, 2023
Philadelphia, USA
Institute for Business and Information Technology
Digital Innovation Foundry
The next generation of the internet will be open and interconnected, a digital enabler for commerce and society. The technologies associated with the metaverse, AR, VR, MR and digital twins are capable of accelerating engagement, socialization, collaboration, and experiences, that offer new ways to enjoy music at a concert, examine a product, and check out the real estate complex where you may end up living. For organizations, the opportunity is to envision how the next generation internet will enable a better experience for their products and services. For instance, how will the metaverse impact commerce? How can AR improve training? How will real estate apply 3d modelling and digital twins? How will entertainment apply VR?
The experiments are expanding rapidly; a national radio station just announced that they were on the metaverse! The experiment was disappointing. You could walk around aimlessly in an amusement park or play trivial games. There were very few people in this virtual world. One explanation is that the chosen metaverse has little if anything to do with music. Moreover, the commercial opportunity and business model was unclear, the sourcing of technology did not seem to fit, and the success measure beyond claiming ‘we are in metaverse’ was unclear. Given the expanding availability of next generation internet enabled technologies such as metaverses, AR, VR, MR, and digital twins, the workshop will focus on following important organizational questions:
- How can organizations envision appropriate opportunities?
- How will organizations source capabilities?
- How will organizations measure the impact of engagement and experience?
- What are the implications for current and new business models?
Topics
The focus of the workshop is on strategic, entrepreneurial, design, business model, architecture, human-computer interaction, platforming, and ecosystem perspectives. To make progress on the above questions, we are interested in the following related topics:
- Talent: Who will build metaverses for businesses? Concepts such as gravity, motion, mechanics are an order of magnitude more difficult than the flat 2D world of websites, and envisioning and programming in 3D is challenging. How will we train entrepreneurs, designers, and programmers to think in more than 2 dimensions and imagine new realities where appropriate? Will we need new roles such as component developer, infrastructure provider, service developer, and virtual host?
- Tools: What tools are needed to create content for multidimensional worlds? How will we embed programming inside objects? If an aquarium wants to envision a virtual shark – who will program the virtual shark to swim in 3D, open and close its jaws, and integrate into the existing environment? And how will the tools measure the use of the shark? Is the answer the number of times the jaw opens? Or the number of users engaging while it swims? Clicks and impressions may be insufficient.
- Ecosystems and models: Will we need new markets and associated platforms to source live objects like the shark or entire metaverses? As products or as services? What will the pricing, ownership, and business models look like? What kinds of standards are needed?
- Management: What are the appropriate governance mechanisms? In the 2D world, acquiring or creating content such as graphics is low cost. In the multidimensional world of programmable objects, the acquisition cost will be higher necessitating changes in sourcing and planning. Given the above, will we need new sharing and licensing mechanisms?
We are less interested in topics such as the dark side of the metaverse, ethics, privacy, avatars, social only interaction, and gaming. These important topics are being discussed extensively in other forums.
Participants and format
The workshop is limited to a total of 25 researchers and industry professionals. About half of the participants are recognized scholars that can envision how organizations can build and gain value from metaverse, AR, VR, MR, and digital twin technologies. The other half of the workshop includes accomplished industry professionals pursuing next generation internet engagement and experience strategies.
The workshop is organized around short provocative presentations and scripted discussions focusing on gaining answers to the above questions framed in the context of talent, tools, ecosystems, and governance. It will also feature use case presentations that provide compelling examples. The event will start with a reception on April 27, 2023 (Thursday) followed by a full day on April 28 (Friday).
Academics – Benefits and how to participate
The format and participants provide a unique opportunity to engage with accomplished researchers and executives working on the questions and topics listed above. The Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) and the Digital Innovation Foundry (DIF) will fund the hotel cost for selected participants. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to participate in one or more industry reports to be published by IBIT.
Selected workshop participants may be invited to further develop their work for submission to MISQ Executive or the International Journal of Information Management (IJIM). If there are multiple publishable papers, then MISQ Executive and IJIM will dedicate a special issue or section to the workshop. MISQ Executive is appropriate for author(s) interested in writing for managers and information systems practice, while IJIM is appropriate for author(s) interested in contributing to advancing information management theory and practice.
If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please submit a 500-word extended abstract to ibit@temple.edu by February 17, 2023. Please highlight how your work impacts one or more of the four organizational questions listed above. We will review submissions promptly in three business days. If you have questions, please contact the workshop chairs listed below.
Industry – Benefits and how to participate
The format and participants provide a unique opportunity to engage with accomplished researchers and executives working on the questions and topics listed above. The workshop will feature internationally recognized scholars working on the topic from around the world. Industry participants will have the opportunity to present or discuss specific problems and use cases related to the topic. Industry participants can also pose specific problems for research by the workshop participants.
If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please send a note to ibit@temple.edu. Please highlight how your interest relates to one or more of the four organizational questions listed above. If you have questions, please contact the workshop chairs listed below.
Workshop chairs
- Ilias Pappas, University of Agder, Norway (ilias.pappas@uia.no)
- Solon Moreira, Temple University, USA (solon.moreira@temple.edu)
- Munir Mandviwalla, Temple University, USA (mandviwa@temple.edu)
Workshop committee
- Blake Ives, College of Charleston, USA
- Matti Rossi, Aalto University, Finland
- Yajiong (Lucky) Xue, East Carolina University, USA
- Yogesh K Dwivedi, Swansea University, United Kingdom
- Laurel Miller, Temple University
