The Immersive Internet Reflections on the Entangling of the Virtual with Society, Politics and the Economy

The internet has begun to develop into a much more immersive and multi-dimensional space. Three dimensional spaces and sites of interaction have not just gripped our attention but have begun to weave or be woven into the fabric of our professional and social lives. The Immersive Internet – including social media, augmented reality, virtual worlds, online games, 3D internet and beyond – is still nascent, but is moving towards a future where communications technologies and virtual spaces offer immersive experiences persuasive enough to blur the lines between the virtual and the physical. It is this emerging Immersive Internet that is the focus of this book of short thought pieces – postcards from the metaverse – by some of the leading thinkers in the field. The book questions what a more immersive and intimate internet might mean for society and for each of us.

Dominic Power is Professor of Economic Geography at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Robin Teigland is Associate Professor at the Center for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), Sweden, the caretaker of SSE's virtual campus, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Agder, Norway.

1. Postcards from the Metaverse: An Introduction to the Immersive Internet; Dominic Power and Robin Teigland
2. Niggling Inequality: A Second Introduction to the Immersive Internet; Edward Castronova
3. The Distributed Self: Virtual Worlds and the Future of Human Identity; Richard Gilbert and Andrew Forney
4. Meta-dreaming: Entangling the Virtual and the Physical; Denise Doyle
5. Individually Social: Approaching the Merging of Virtual Worlds, the Semantic Web, and Social Networks; Francisco Gerardo Toledo Ramírez
6. Virtual Worlds as Radical Theater: Extending the Proscenium; Anthony M. Townsend and Brian E. Mennecke
7. Virtual Worlds and Indigenous Narratives; James Barrett
8. The Immersive Hand: Nonverbal Communication in Virtual Environments; Smiljana Antonijevic
9. Discovering the 'I' in Avatar: Performance and Self-Therapy; Alicia B. Corts
10. Reflections and Projections: Enabling the Social Enterprise; Steve Mahaley, Chuck Hamilton and Tony O'Driscoll
11. Added Value of Teaching in a Virtual World; Inger-Marie Falgren Christensen, Andrew Marunchak and Cristina Stefanelli
12. Play & Fun Politics to Increase the Pervasiveness of Social Community: The Experience of Angels 4 Travellers; Maria Laura Toraldo, Gianluigi Mangia, Stefano Consiglio and Riccardo Mercurio
13. Framing Online Games Positively: Entertaining and Engagement through 'Mindful Loss' of Flow; Müberra Yüksel
14. Inhabitants of Virtual Worlds, Players of Online Games - Beware!; Antti Ainamo and Tuukka Tammi
15. Relationships, Community, and Networked Individuals; Rhonda McEwen and Barry Wellman
16. Gemeinschaft Identity in a Gesellschaft Metaverse; Cynthia Calongne, Peggy Sheehy and Andrew Stricker
Sorting out the Metaverse and How the Metaverse is Sorting Us Out; Isto Huvila
17. On the Shoulders of Giants: Understanding Internet-based Generative Platforms; Jonny Holmström
18. Social Norms, Regulatory Policies, and Virtual Behavior; Andrew Harrison, Brian E. Mennecke and William N. Dilla
19. Self-organising Virtuality; Rick Oller
20. Making Currency Personal: The Salutory Tale of the Downfall of the DomDrachma; Matthew Zook
21. Afterword; Tom Boellstorff