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On the Problem of Predicting Real World Characteristics from Virtual Worlds

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Predicting Real World Behaviors from Virtual World Data

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Complexity ((SPCOM))

Abstract

Availability of massive amounts of data about the social and behavioral characteristics of a large subset of the population opens up new possibilities that allow researchers to not only observe people’s behaviors in a natural, rather than artificial, environment but also conduct predictive modeling of those behaviors and characteristics. Thus an emerging area of study is the prediction of real world characteristics and behaviors of people in the offline or “real” world based on their behaviors in the online virtual worlds. We explore the challenges and opportunities in the emerging field of prediction of real world characteristics based on people’s virtual world characteristics, i.e., what are the major paradigms in this field, what are the limitations in current predictive models, limitations in terms of generalizability, etc. Lastly, we also address the future challenges and avenues of research in this area.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Mushtaq Ahmad Mirza and Khalida Parveen for being there.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad & Jaideep Srivastava

  2. University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

    Cuihua Shen

  3. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Noshir Contractor

Authors
  1. Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad
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  2. Cuihua Shen
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  3. Jaideep Srivastava
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  4. Noshir Contractor
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad

  2. Emerging Media & Communication Program School of Arts & Humanities, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, USA

    Cuihua Shen

  3. Department of Computer Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Jaideep Srivastava

  4. Dept. of Communication Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA

    Noshir Contractor

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Ahmad, M., Shen, C., Srivastava, J., Contractor, N. (2014). On the Problem of Predicting Real World Characteristics from Virtual Worlds. In: Ahmad, M., Shen, C., Srivastava, J., Contractor, N. (eds) Predicting Real World Behaviors from Virtual World Data. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07142-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07142-8_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-07141-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-07142-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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