TRANSFORMATION TO VIRTUAL SOCIETIES - FORCES AND ISSUES

This article presents a conceptual research framework for investigatin g virtual societies. As this subject area is relatively new to the res earch world, this paper presents a framework for studying virtual soci eties. To date, much of the relevant research has been in the area of telecommuting or teleworking, But the changes to people's lives that m ay be a result of the movement to virtual societies encompass far more than alterations to the way we perform work in the future. The framew ork portrays the driving forces and the issues related to the study of this ensuing societal form. A review of the driving forces and issues of the virtual society stimulated the development of the research fra mework. It identifies technology as the enabler that is paving the way for society to be transformed into virtual communities, but does not dwell solely on the technology. Our endeavors focus on identifying the critical forces and issues within a global context in order to provid e a foundation for future research.