"The Scientific Research Potential of Virtual Worlds"

Courtesy Kris Green, a math professor at St. John Fisher College, I found out about the recent Science article, The Scientific Research Potential of Virtual Worlds.

I remember talking to Zifnab a while ago about the potential for a social networks study simply from the ability to gather data from these things, and it's not surprising at all that others (presumably many others) are having similar ideas. The paper in question, which I only skimmed very briefly, seems to not have any quantitative analysis, so in no way have I been scooped as far as the networks stuff goes. (Moreover, there is so much one can do that there are going to be tons of papers on networks, economies, and so on in virtual worlds before any of this stuff is even remotely exhausted.)

Anyway, I wanted to provide the link because I think it may interest several of you. (And maybe I'll be able to force myself to read the full article before I actually start trying to do the research in question...)