FaVE 2009 – Track 1 -- Development of Virtual Geographic Environments and Geography Research -- Dual Reality: Merging the Real and Virtual -- Exploring the Use of Virtual Worlds as a Scientific Research Platform: The Meta-Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA) -- FaVE 2009 – Track 2 -- Characterizing Mobility and Contact Networks in Virtual Worlds -- Landmarks and Time-Pressure in Virtual Navigation: Towards Designing Gender-Neutral Virtual Environments -- The Effects of Virtual Weather on Presence -- FaVE 2009 – Track 3 -- Complexity of Virtual Worlds’ Terms of Service -- The Role of Semantics in Next-Generation Online Virtual World-Based Retail Store -- StellarSim: A Plug-In Architecture for Scientific Visualizations in Virtual Worlds -- FaVE 2009 – Track 4 -- Formalizing and Promoting Collaboration in 3D Virtual Environments – A Blueprint for the Creation of Group Interaction Patterns -- Conceptual Design Scheme for Virtual Characters -- Usability Issues of an Augmented Virtuality Environment for Design -- FaVE 2009 – Track 5 -- The Managed Hearthstone: Labor and Emotional Work in the Online Community of World of Warcraft -- Human Rights and Private Ordering in Virtual Worlds -- Investigating the Concept of Consumers as Producers in Virtual Worlds: Looking through Social, Technical, Economic, and Legal Lenses.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the First International ICST Conference on Facets of Virtual Conference, FaVE 2009, held in Berlin, Germany, in July 2009. The 15 invited and regular papers present in the first set the application of virtual worlds to science and in the second set the social aspects of using virtual worlds, both for research and application.