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Virtual worlds are Internet-based three-dimensional (3D) computer-generated environments where users interact through "avatars"-a computer-generated representation of themselves that they control in terms of appearance and behavior. In recent years, virtual worlds have evolved into sophisticated social systems where millions of people regularly collaborate. For dispersed organizational teams, they represent a viable collaboration environment in which users can integrate different communication channels and manipulate digital artifacts that represent actual team deliverables. In this editorial to the Special Issue on Team Collaboration in Virtual Worlds, we discuss past research and highlight key findings with respect to five dimensions of collaborative work: technology, people, information, process, and leadership. We conclude with a discussion of the key research challenges that lie ahead to shape the research agenda for team collaboration in virtual worlds and metaverses.

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Part 3: Governance, Openess and InstitutionsInternational audienceIntegrating Web 2.0 technologies in e-government opens up new opportunities for improving the quality of online public services and developing new ones, and can potentially contribute in achieving e-government strategic objectives. This paper presents and analyzes the result of an exploratory field study conducted recently with a group of e-government experts in France. Our objective is to identify e-government development trends, and to assess the transformation potential associated with Web 2.0 and Open Innovation (OI). We have adopted an enriched Delphi method, and used a GSS (Group Support System) to facilitate brainstorming and idea generation. Preliminary results are analyzed from two perspectives: Their contribution to e-government 2.0 and to open government, and their differences and complementarities with a recent governmental report on the future of public e-services in France. This work is a first step in a comprehensive research whose purpose is the study of public organizations’ transformation and the emergence of the government 2.0 concept. It is a contribution to a better understanding of e-government future

This paper presents a Collaboration Maturity Model (Col-MM) to assess an organization's team collaboration quality. The Col-MM is intended to be sufficiently generic to be applied to any type of collaboration and useable by practitioners for conducting self-assessments. The Col-MM was developed during a series of Focus Group meetings with professional collaboration experts. The model was piloted and subsequently applied in the automotive industry. This paper reports on the development and first field application of the Col-MM. The paper further serves as a starting point for future research in this area.