Conveying information effectively in a virtual world: Insights from synthesized task closure and media richness

Abstract

Scholars and practitioners alike increasingly emphasize the importance of the virtual world as a new medium of communication. Key to the success of this digital medium is its ability to support information exchange when compared with face‐to‐face communication. Its potential is highlighted by the literature illustrating the inadequacy of traditional computer‐mediated communication (CMC) tools, such as e‐mail and video conferencing, to support communication among geographically dispersed coworkers. Many of the traditional CMC tools lack the needed support for effective information exchange to varying degrees. The emergence of a sophisticated virtual world, such as Second Life, has met this dearth. We draw on the theories of task closure and media richness to propose a parsimonious model of information exchange behavior in a virtual world context. Observations from a series of group‐based project discussion sessions in face‐to‐face and virtual world settings, respectively, suggest that the information exchange between coworkers in both settings could be similar. Specifically, virtual coworkers might be able to achieve task closure (i.e., the complete transmission of intended work‐related information) in the same way as their counterparts in the face‐to‐face context.

Antecedents of social presence and gratification of social connection needs in SNS: A study of Twitter users and their mobile and non-mobile usage

“…The immediacy of feedback has also been found to increase social presence (Tan, Tan, & Teo, 2012;Rice, 1993;Qiu & Benbasat, 2005;Suh & Shin, 2008). In Twitter, for example, people can post responses to others' posts in dialog form in real time.…”

“…By providing communication without the limitations of time and place (Campbell & Kwak, 2010), mobile communication enables much more immediate communication experiences than other media channels (Ling, 2008), which in turn can lead to higher social presence (Tan et al, 2012). Thus, we hypothesize the following:…”

Understanding group maintenance behavior in Free/Libre Open-Source Software projects: The case of Fire and Gaim

“…In FLOSS development, developers mainly interact through text-based communication tools such as developer email lists and discussion fora. Media Richness Theory has pointed out that text-based communication is less rich than face-to-face communication because it disables the conveyance of nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, which is important in helping building relations [35,36]. As a result, participants adopt alternative strategies to provide paralinguistic and social cues [37].…”

The Effect of Online Collaboration on Adolescent Sense of Community in Eighth-Grade Physical Science

“…Likewise, these findings also support that further examination is needed in regard to the richness of the media. In other words, the more closely the media mimics a realistic environment-in this case, the face-to-face environment-the more likely efficient and effective communication will be facilitated (Minocha 2009;Tan et al 2012). Kwon et al (2014) examined collaborative learning in the higher education environment and found that students who participate in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) tend to spend more time and effort in communicating than those participating in the traditional face-to-face environment.…”