Enhancing Interdisciplinary and Cross-cultural Communication in Virtual Collaborative Environments

Virtual collaborative spaces have transformed how professionals across various sectors interact and fuse their expertise toward shared goals. These platforms, crucial in driving innovation, allow real-time interaction among team members from diverse backgrounds, enhancing creativity by integrating diverse skill sets to tackle intricate challenges. Such environments not only boost productivity by transcending geographical barriers but also amalgamate insights from different disciplines, enriching project outcomes. However, challenges persist, especially in cultivating effective communication among users familiar with distinct professional lexicons, methodologies, and cognitive approaches. This issue can result in misunderstandings or miscommunications that hinder collaboration.

This Research Topic aims to explore and elucidate the tools and methods that enhance communication between individuals from different disciplines within virtual environments. The objective is to develop and highlight solutions that can modify collaborative interfaces to suit varied cultural preferences and promote an ethos of inclusivity and respect. By incorporating training on cultural competence and leveraging AI technology, such as real-time translation, sentiment analysis, and automated summaries, these virtual spaces can become more effective. AI applications can also detect communication patterns that may suggest misunderstandings, thereby proposing corrective measures to foster clearer exchanges.

To further our understanding of effective communication in virtual collaborative spaces, contributions are sought that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

- Integration of AI chatbots to facilitate communication
- Ensuring safety and security in virtual worlds
- Fostering interdisciplinary exchanges through customizable tools
- Enhancing cultural inclusivity with advanced AI support

By addressing these areas, the Research Topic aims to compile a robust corpus of scholarship that advances our understanding of how best to configure virtual collaborative spaces to harness the full potential of diverse teams.

These core problems addressed at the 2024 VR Summit conference at Ruhr University Bochum will be highlighted and further disseminated through this Research Topic collection.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Registered Report
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Shared spaces, metaverse, communication, collaboration, virtual reality, avatars

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.