Exploring Virtual Worlds Research

             Mark W. Bell’s Blog

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Mark W. Bell

Background
Contact Information
Department of Telecommunications
Indiana University
Radio and TV Center
1229 E. 7th Street
Bloomington, IN 47405
Tel: 317.413.6886
Email: bellmw@indiana.edu
Web: markwbell.com

Employment

PhD Student of Telecommunications, Indiana University- Bloomington, 2007 - present.

Professional Affiliations

Member, Phi Kappa Phi

Education

MA Telecommunications, Ball State University, 2007
BA , English, University of Waterloo, 1993

Areas of Research Interest

Virtual worlds, avatars, trust, social networks, internet culture.

Writing

Books

Build a Website For Free. Pearson. 2009.
Second Life For Dummies. Wiley. 2007.

Blog

Mark W. Bell’s Blog. http://blog.markwbell.com. Owner and author.

Articles

Peer Reviewed

  1. “Convergence of the Virtual” in Rocky Mountain Communication Review (In Press, 2009)
  2. “A Test of the Law of Demand in a Virtual World: Exploring the Petri Dish Approach to Social Science” Castronova, Carlton, Cornell, Cummings, Emigh, Falk, Fatten, LaFourest, Mishler, Reynard,Robbins- Bell, Ross, Ryan, Starks in International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations (In Press, 2009).

Invited

  1. “Virtual Assisted Self Interviewing (VASI):An Expansion of Survey Data Collection Methods to the Virtual Worlds by Means of VDCI” Castronova, Wagner (July 30, 2008).
  2. “Toward a Definition of “Virtual Worlds” in The Journal Of Virtual Worlds Research (June 2008).
  3. “Para uma definição expandida de “Mundos Virtuais”Bell-Robbins in E-Papers Editora: Rio de Janeiro, June 2008.
  4. “Constructing Arden: Life Inside the Machine.” Castronova, Cornell, Falk, Haselton, Ross in IEEE Multimedia. January-March 2008 (Vol. 15, No. 1) pp. 4-8
  5. “Synthetic worlds - real community, real money” Castronova, in Vodafone Receiver 19 (November, 2007)
  6. “By The Numbers: Quantitative Research Methods In Second Life.” Proceedings of the Second Life Education Workshop at the Second Life Community Convention. Chicago, Il. 2007.
  7. “Nature & Narratives: The Romantic Structure of O’Reilly Technical Books” in The Review of Communication, (October 2006), 358-364.
  8. “The Salvation Of Comics: Digital Prophets and Iconoclasts” in The Review of Communication, Vol. 6, Nos. 1-2, (January - April 2006), 131-140.

Book Chapters

  1. “Virtual world Economies: A Case Study of the Economics of Arden”.(2008).  Castronova, Cummings, Emigh,Fatten, Mishler, Ross, Ryan, Falkin. In  Heider (ed.) Living Virtually: Researching New Worlds.  New York: Peter Lang.
  2. “Synthetic Worlds as Experimental Instruments”. (2008).  Castronova, Cornell, Cummings, Falk, Ross, Robbins.  In Peron & Wold (eds.) Video Game Theory Reader II. New York:Routledge.
  3. “I mondi virtuali e Second Life” Castronova, in Web 2.0 ed. Di Bari. 2007.

Grants, Awards, and Fellowships

  • German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) “An international survey research center in Second Life. Part II”, August 2008 - December 2008.
  • German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) “An international survey research center in Second Life.”, January 2008 - August 2008.
  • Merit Fellowship, Graduate Committee in the Department of Telecommunications, 2007-2010.

Production

  • Dusk. Developer and lead programmer. A economic simulation for studying the quantity theory of money.
  • Virtual Data Collection Interface (VDCI). Developer and lead programmer. A virtual data collection utility for administrating surveys in virtual worlds.
  • Arden: The World of William Shakespeare. Advisor to funded team at Indiana University.

Presentations

Peer Reviewed

  1. “Virtual Assisted Self-Interview Research” Open University’s Re:Live ‘09, Milton Keynes, UK. November, 2008
  2. “Virtual Assisted Self-Interview Research” Association Of Internet Researcher IR 9.0, Copenhagen, Denmark. October, 2008
  3. “Using Second Life to Create Research Tools” - Second Life Education Convention, Tampa, Fl.September, 2008.
  4. “The Many Applications and Opportunities of Second Life” NCA Annual Conference November 2007.
  5. “Wiimote Control: Nintendo’s HCI Masterpiece” Interacting with Immersive Worlds. July 2007, St Catherine’s, Ontario, Canada.
  6. “By The Numbers: Quantitative Research Methods In Second Life.” Second Life Community Convention. Chicago, Il. August, 2007.
  7. “Masculinity and Online Social Networks: Male Self-Identification on Facebook.com”. Eastern Communication Association 98th Annual Meeting. April, 2007. Providence, RI with Nicholas W. Geidner
  8. “Can You See The virtual Real me” Conference on College Composition and Communication. March 2007, New York, NY.

Invited

  1. “Virtual Worlds Research Tools” - Cidade Universidade do Sao Paulo, August 2008
  2. “Definition and Taxonomy of Virtual Worlds.” Paper presented at New Digital Media (Audiovisual, Games And Music): Economic, Social And Political Impacts, June 2008 Sao Paulo, Brazil.
  3. “Human-Centered Research for Avatars: Qualitative and Quantitative Best Practice” Virtual Business Expo April 2008.
  4. “Knowledge as Technology Dependent: A Comparison of the Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia” Invited class presentation Ball State University, April 2008.
  5. “Virtual Economics And Web 2.0″ Invited class presentation Brock University March 2008.
  6. “Make More Mistakes” JISC CETIS November, 2007.
  7. “Survivor: Graduate School- A Roundtable on Coping with the Challenges of the Graduate School Experience” IR 8.0, October, 2007, Vancouver, B.C.

Professional Activity

Associate Editor, The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research
Research Assistant Virtual Data Collection Project. Spring 2008 - present.
Graduate Assistantship Indiana University Fall 2007 - Associate Instructor for T-205. Betsy Grabe: Instructor of Record.
Graduate Assistantship Ball State University Summer 2006 -Lead Programmer for Google Maps Beta Project

References

Available on request