“Mini-conference” in SL on social networking, gaming and virtual worlds this Sunday

I just got word that there will be an interesting "mini-conference" sponsored by the Communication and Information Technology
Section of the American Sociological Association (CITASA) on social networking, computer games and virtual worlds this Sunday from 2-5:30PM PST in Second Life:

For
the third year in a row the Communication and Information Technology
Section (CITASA) of the American Sociological Association (ASA) will
hold a Mini-Conference as part of the ASA’s annual meeting. This year’s
ASA meeting will be held in New York City, while the primary venue for
CITASA’s MC3.0 will be held in Second Life.
The virtual location for MC3.0
will be the Virtual Centre for Digital Media created by the Masters of
Digital Media Program at Great Northern Way Campus (teleport SLURL.) MC3.0 will focus on three broad areas: Social Networking Sites (Facebook, Flickr, YouTube etc); Videogames & Gaming (World Of Warcraft, Console games etc); and Virtual Worlds (Second Life, Active Worlds etc)

Key questions that will be addressed include:

1. What is the sociological significance of the Web2.0 (and beyond) mediated form of social interaction?
2. How can these forms of online interaction serve as bases for sociological research?
3. Specifically, what is the pedagogical value of the virtual world experience?

Looks like a very interesting program with a host of smart folks including Sarah "Intellagirl" Robbins, a scholar at Ball State University (pictured here). For more info, see the CITASA website.