This paper introduces the theoretical lens of the everyday to intersect and extend the emerging bodies of research on contestational design and infrastructures of civic engagement. Our analysis of social theories of everyday life suggests a design space that distinguishes ‘privileged moments’ of civic engagement from a more holistic understanding of the everyday as ‘product-residue.’ We analyze...

Intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) are animated characters that interact with humans and with each other using natural modalities such as speech and gestures. Creation of successful IVA applications is challenging since development requires integration of a broad range of specialized tools and skills. We present a discussion of the advantages and technical challenges of using the Second Life pro...

In this paper we report on our experiences in creating presence for our university in the Second Life environment. After a brief explanation of our motivation(s), we will describe our approach, which resulted in creating a virtual campus acting both as a portal for information, and, more importantly, as a meeting point, offering the opportunity to create a virtual community of learners, in line...

The ultimate goal of artificial intelligence (AI) research is to create a system with human level intelligence. Many researchers conceded that human-like interaction in a social context to be critical for human-like intelligence to emerge. Artificial life (AL) is a branch of AI to simulate the process of evolution and interaction in natural world using multi-agent systems. This suggests that AL...