Mikko’s research topics at University of Oulu

Keywords:

collaborative virtual environments, computer-supported collaborative work.

Coordination support in online virtual worlds

My master thesis project examined differences in system support in online virtual worlds for leisure-oriented coordination activities in comparison to collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) designed for work. I found out, for instance, that when skillful users become famous (e.g. for being able to make good-looking avatars for other users) their requirements for coordination support become quite different from other users and users of work-oriented CVEs. This has clear implications to the famous users’ privacy-related requirements on system support.

International conference papers:

M.J. Rissanen and X. Zheng. On privacy of famous users in Active Worlds. In: Proceedings of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers Annual Conference, Sapporo, Japan, August 3-6, 2004, pp. 35-38. Japanese Society of Instrument and Control Engineers.

Thesis:

Mikko Rissanen. Differences in support for cooperation and collaboration in a virtual environment: observations in Active Worlds (in Finnish), Master’s Thesis, University of Oulu, November, 2003.

Sources of inspiration:

Collaborative virtual environments edited by Elizabeth Churchill, David Snowdon and Alan Munro was the main reference in my master thesis giving me solid basis about CVEs in terms of interaction and CSCW support.

David Silverman’s Doing qualitative research explained all a good student should know about qualitative research methods.

Temporal links by Chris Greenhalgh, Steve Benford et al. gave me the original inspiration of studying record and replay functions in virtual environments which later lead to the PhD thesis topic.