Participation framework(s) in second life meetings: Communication media and roles

Motivation - To understand the interrelation between participation framework(s) and uses of communication media (spatiality, voice, text, gestures) in Second Life meetings. Research approach - Our approach is based on observational data as well as interviews of participants in six meetings in educational and professional settings. Findings/Design - Our preliminary results suggest (1) interrelation between avatars' spatial position, roles and feeling of spatialised co-presence, (2) Regulation of attention workload by the span of used modalities depending on role, (3) Parallel dialogs via various modalities and mediation role. Research limitations/Implications - Only six SL meetings were analysed with SL newcomers and users. Originality/Value - Our analytical framework is based on the combination of two perspectives: a third view perspective based on analyses of observational data and a first view perspective based on users reports on their experience in SL. Take away message - Designing collaborative virtual environment should be based on the understanding of the variety of use-cases with concomitant variance in SL communication media.