Special Issue of Virtual Reality on "Mediated Presence: Virtual
Reality, Mixed Environments and Social Networks"

Guest Editors:

Prof Luciano Gamberini PhD and Anna Spagnolli PhD (University
of Padova)

Matthew Lombard PhD (Temple University)

Often described as a sense of "being there" in a mediated
environment, presence is broadly defined as a psychological state
or subjective perception in which a person fails to accurately and
completely acknowledge the role of technology in an experience.
It is a rich, fascinating subject of scientific investigation, artistic
exploration and diverse application, with increasingly important
implications for the ways in which people interact and
technologies are developed. Designing technologies and
imagining practices to modify, prolong and reconfigure the
possibilities of being present has been a continuous endeavour of
the human species, from early attempts at constructing
communication and transportation devices, to the many current
technologies we continue to develop to reach other places and
people. Originally focused on bringing "presence" from the real
world to a simulated one, the phenomenon is today analyzed and
investigated in the context of diverse environments and involves
questioning simple distinctions between "'real" and "artificial". This
opening to a wide range of mediated environments is
accompanied by a growing involvement of different research
fields that are continuously updating and modifying the contours
of presence scholarship. The phenomenon of presence is
challenging from a scientific point of view as much as it is viable
in everyday life, where people participate in simultaneous
mediated experiences, feeling present or copresent in digital
locations without any need for explicit instructions and
orchestrating technical and cognitive resources to control and
enhance presence. What it means to be present in mediated
environments is then an extremely relevant and enticing question,
bearing all sorts of implications for the design and application of
diverse technologies.

This special issue aims at illustrating the variety of research
questions and approaches that are needed in order to tackle the
phenomenon of mediated presence in virtual reality, mixed
environments and social network. Topics include:

o Presence in shared virtual environments and online
communities

o Presence in social interactions with virtual agents and digital
counterparts; parasocial interaction and relationships

o Real bodies, avatars and cyborgs

o Presence and ubiquity with mobile and geo-location
technologies

o Presence as a socio-cultural achievement; practices,
preferences and material resources to manifest presence

o Linguistic and non-verbal strategies to create, negotiate and
challenge presence in mediated environments

o Realistic action in virtual environments

o Cognitive processes and the sense of presence; neuro-
psychology of presence

o Presence affordances in digital technologies

o 3D sound, acoustic environments and presence

o Advanced broadcast and cinematic displays (stereoscopic TV,
HDTV, IMAX)

o Haptic and tactile displays

o Holography

o Affective and socio-affective interfaces

o Presence analysis, evaluation, and measurement techniques

o Causes and consequences (effects) of presence

o Presence augmentation through social, physical, and contextual
cues

o Presence, involvement and digital addiction

o Presence applications (education and training; medicine; e-
health and cybertherapy; entertainment; communication and
collaboration; teleoperation; usability and design; art and
performance, etc.)

The special issue will appear in the Springer journal Virtual
Reality (www.springeronline.com/journal/10055). Submissions are
invited from authors who contributed to 11th Annual International
Workshop of Presence, authors who did not contribute to the
workshop are also welcome.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Papers should typically be around 8,000 words and of standard
journal content: reports of original research, or review papers.
Submissions will be peer reviewed in accordance with the
journal's normal process.

Papers should be submitted online in Microsoft Word format and
uploaded to http://www.editorialmanager.com/vire/. In order to use
this system, authors need first to register in it, wait to receive a
password by e-mail and then log in. When choosing 'Submit new
manuscript' they are asked to select on article type from a list.
They must select: 'S.I. Presence'.

Please direct all correspondence to
luciano.gamberini@unipd.it,anna.spagnolli@unipd.it and
lombard@temple.edu.

DEADLINES (extended):

Submission of paper: January 31 st, 2009

Notification of acceptance to authors: March 21st, 2009

Revised papers received by April 20th, 2009

Publication: June 2009