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Virtual Chair is beta-testing the academic metaverse, a single virtual platform for informal networking, 1-on-1 meetings, group meetings, weekly seminars, semester institutes, workshops, and conferences. Move all your virtual meetings to the academic metaverse. Virtual Chair invites beta testers for this platform. Further questions on this program can be directed to <cfp+academic-metaverse@virtualchair.net>.
Synopsis
Virtual Chair is building an academic metaverse powered by gather.town that aims to be the virtual meeting platform for academia, from informal networking to international conferences.
Imagine a persistent space where you and your closest collaborators can meet regularly. Each of you has your own personalized desk, a set of meeting rooms, and a social space. Moreover, you can leave your office and easily connect with others in this virtual space who also have their own virtual offices nearby. You can use this space for holding meetings, for informal coffee breaks, for recruiting others to join your team, for guest lectures, or for anything else that will help you connect with those closest to you and conduct research to advance the state of the art in your field. And of course, you can step outside your office and navigate to virtual seminars (see the CFP for Weekly Virtual Seminars, virtual institutes (see the CFP for Semester Virtual Institutes), and virtual conferences (see Virtual Chair website).
The academic metaverse provides the same opportunities for meetings as other virtual meeting technology, with regularly scheduled virtual research meetings and virtual seminars. The main advantages of the academic metaverse over other virtual meeting technologies are:
Enhancing these regularly scheduled meetings with opportunity for informal conversation and networking.
Enabling unscheduled informal discussions without the overhead of scheduling meetings.
Enabling building research connections and research directions from discussions with “weak tie” researchers (Granovetter, 1973).
Beta-tester Application
Applications to beta-test the academic metaverse are accepted on an ongoing basis and should include:
Your name and academic affiliation.
Your email address.
Your main fields of study (via primary conferences or field journals).
Full names of collaborators you aim to meet in the metaverse who may also apply as beta-testers (you are encouraged to invite them to submit their application).
Your goals for utilizing the academic metaverse.
Applications should be submitted here: https://link.virtualchair.net/academic-metaverse/cfp-submissions
Selection Procedure
Virtual offices will be opened for beta-testers within a field of interest when the number of applicants in that field is sufficient to open a new virtual office building (and subject to technical limitations).
