Source: https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/vili-lehdonvirta/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 00:49:19+00:00

Document:
Vili Lehdonvirta is an Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. He is an economic sociologist whose research focuses on digital technologies, such as apps, platforms, and marketplaces — how they are governed, how they shape the organization of economic activities, and with what implications to workers, consumers, businesses, and policy. His research has been published in the Journal of Management, New Media & Society, Work, Employment & Society, and other leading academic journals (Google Scholar).
Lehdonvirta is the principal investigator of iLabour, a major research project on online freelancing and the gig economy, funded by the European Research Council. He also leads research projects on online labour markets’ effects in rural areas and crowdworkers’ skill development. His other recent research takes a critical look at Bitcoin and blockchain. His previous research on virtual goods, virtual consumption and digital games is summarized in Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis, published by MIT Press and translated to Chinese by China Renmin University Press.
Lehdonvirta’s research draws on theories and approaches from economic sociology, new institutional economics, labour sociology, and science and technology studies. He and his students and postdoctoral researchers use a range of conventional social research methods as well as novel data science approaches. Lehdonvirta sits on the editorial boards of the journals Policy & Internet, The Information Society, Electronic Commerce Research and the Journal of International Business Policy.
Lehdonvirta is a Hugh Price Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, an associate member of the Department of Sociology, Oxford, and a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, London, where he co-convenes the Protocol Governance interest group. Lehdonvirta holds a PhD in Economic Sociology from the University of Turku (2009) and a MSc from the Helsinki University of Technology (2005). Previously he worked at the London School of Economics, the University of Tokyo, and the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology. Before his academic career, he worked as a game programmer.
Lehdonvirta has advised companies, policy makers, and international organizations in Europe, United States, and Japan. He is a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on the Online Platform Economy and the High-Level Expert Group on Digital Transformation and EU Labour Markets. His research has been covered by The Economist, The Guardian, Washington Post, Die Zeit, Le Monde, NHK World, and other popular media around the world.
Lehdonvirta, V., Kässi, O., Hjorth, I., Barnard, H., and Graham, M. (2019) The Global Platform Economy: A New Offshoring Institution Enabling Emerging-Economy Microproviders. Journal of Management 45(2): 567-599.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2018) Flexibility in the Gig Economy: Managing Time on Three Online Piecework Platforms. New Technology, Work & Employment: 33 (1) 13-29.
Corporaal, G.F. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2017) Platform Sourcing: How Fortune 500 Firms Are Adopting Online Freelancing Platforms. Oxford: Oxford Internet Institute.
Lehdonvirta, V., Ratan, R.A., Kennedy, T.L.M. and Williams, D. (2014) Pink and Blue Pixel$: Gender and Economic Disparity in Two Massive Online Games. The Information Society 30 (4) 243-255.
Lehdonvirta, V. and Castronova, E. (2014) Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis. MIT Press.
Wood, A., Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V. and Hjorth, I. (2018) Good gig, bad gig: autonomy and algorithmic control in the global gig economy. Work, Employment and Society.
Nash, V., Bright, J., Margetts, H. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2017) Public Policy in the Platform Society. Policy & Internet 9(4): 368-373.
Graham, M., Hjorth, I. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2017) Digital labour and development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 23(2): 135-162.
Lehdonvirta, V. and Bright, J. (2015) Crowdsourcing for Public Policy and Government. Policy & Internet 7(3): 263-267.
Lehdonvirta, V., Ratan, R.A., Kennedy, T.L.M. and Williams, D. (2014) Pink and Blue Pixel$: Gender and Economic Disparity in Two Massive Online Games. The Information Society 30(4): 243-255.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2014) Past and Emerging Themes in Policy and Internet Studies. Policy & Internet 6(2): 109-114.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2013) The Helsinki Spring: an essay on entrepreneurship and cultural change. Research on Finnish Society 6: 25-28.
Nakajima, T. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2013) Designing motivation using persuasive ambient mirrors. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 17(1): 107-126.
Liu, Y., Lehdonvirta, V., Alexandrova, T. and Nakajima, T. (2012) Drawing on Mobile Crowds via Social Media. Case UbiAsk: Image Based Mobile Social Search Across Languages. Multimedia Systems 18(1): 53-67.
Lehdonvirta, M., Nagashima, Y., Lehdonvirta, V. and Baba, A. (2012) The Stoic Male: How Avatar Gender Affects Help-Seeking Behavior in an Online Game. Games and Culture 7(1): 29-47.
Lehdonvirta, M., Lehdonvirta, V. and Baba, A. (2011) Prosocial behaviour in avatar‐mediated interaction: the influence of character gender on material versus emotional help‐giving. On the Horizon 19(3): 165-173.
Lehdonvirta, M., Lehdonvirta, V. and Nagashima, Y. (2011) Collecting conversations: three approaches to obtaining user‐to‐user communications data from virtual environments. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 3(3).
Näsi, M., Räsänen, P. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2011) Identification with online and offline communities: Understanding ICT disparities in Finland. Technology in Society 33(1-2): 4-11.
Lehdonvirta, V. and Räsänen, P. (2011) How do young people identify with online and offline peer groups? A comparison between UK, Spain and Japan. Journal of Youth Studies 14(1): 91-108.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2010) Online spaces have material culture: goodbye to digital post-materialism and hello to virtual consumption. Media, Culture & Society 32(5): 883-889.
Hamari, J. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2010) Game design as marketing: How game mechanics create demand for virtual goods. International Journal of Business Science and Applied Management 5(1): 14-29.
Lehdonvirta, V. and Virtanen, P. (2010) A New Frontier in Digital Content Policy: Case Studies in the Regulation of Virtual Goods and Artificial Scarcity. Policy & Internet 2 (3) 6-28.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2010) Virtual worlds don’t exist: Questioning the dichotomous approach in MMO studies. Game Studies 10(1).
Lehdonvirta, V. (2009) “Virtual item sales as a revenue model: identifying attributes that drive purchase decisions. Electronic Commerce Research 9(1-2): 97-113.
Lehdonvirta, V., Wilska, T. and Johnson, M. (2009) Virtual Consumerism: Case Habbo Hotel. Information, Communication and Society 12(7): 1059-1079.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2004) European Union Data Protection Directive: Adequacy of Data Protection in Singapore. Singapore Journal of Legal Studies : 511-546.
Graham, M., Hjorth, I., and Lehdonvirta, V. (2019) Digital labor and development: Impacts of global digital labor platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods. In: M. Graham (ed.), Digital Economies at Global Margins. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 269-294.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2016) Algorithms That Divide and Unite: Delocalization, Identity, and Collective Action in ‘Microwork’. In: J. Flecker (ed.), Space, Place and Global Digital Work. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 53-80.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2015) “ヘルシンキの春” In: Furuichi, N. and Toivonen, T. (eds), 国家がよみがえるとき 持たざる国であるフィンランドが何度も再生できた理由. Tokyo: Magazine House.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2014) Virtuality in the sphere of economics. In: Grimshaw, M. (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2013) A history of the digitalization of consumer culture. In: Molesworth, M. and Denegri-Knott, J. (eds), Digital Virtual Consumption. London: Routledge. 11-28.
El-Fatatry, M., Lee, S., Khan, T. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2011) A digital media approach to Islamic marketing. In: Handbook of Islamic Marketing. 338-360.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2008) Real-Money Trade of Virtual Assets: New Strategies for Virtual World Operators. In: Ipe, M. (eds). Virtual Worlds. Hyderabad: Icfai University Press. 113-137.
Hamari, J. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2010) Pelimekaniikat osana ansaintalogiikkaa – Miten pelisuunnittelulla luodaan kysyntää. In: Suominen, J., Koskimaa, R., Mäyrä, F. and Sotamaa, O. (eds.), Pelitutkimuksen vuosikirja 2010.
MacDonald-Korth, D., Lehdonvirta, V. and Meyer, E. (2018) The Art Market 2.0: Blockchain and Financialisation in Visual Arts. Oxford: Oxford Internet Institute.
Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V., Wood, A., Barnard, H., Hjorth, I. and Peter Simon, D. (2017) The Risks and Rewards of Online Gig Work At the Global Margins. Oxford: Oxford Internet Institute.
Lehdonvirta, V. and Robleh, A. (2016) Governance and Regulation. In: Distributed Ledger Technology: Beyond Blockchain. London: UK Government Office for Science.
Lehdonvirta, V. and Ernkvist, M. (2011) Knowledge Map of the Virtual Economy. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2011) Digital labour in online games. In: O. Sotamaa et al. (eds), New Paradigms for Digital Games: The Finnish Perspective. Tampere: University of Tampere.
Lehdonvirta, V. and Huotari, K. (2010) Advanced Virtual Economy Applications: Project Final Report. Espoo: Helsinki Institute for Information Technology.
Wood, A., Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V., Barnard, H. and Hjorth, I. (2016) “Virtual Production Networks: Fixing Commodification and Disembeddedness”, Development Studies Association 2016. DSA 2016: Development Studies Association Conference.
Wood, A., Graham, M. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2016) “The new frontier of outsourcing: online labour markets and the consequences for poverty in the Global South.”, Work, Employment and Society Conference. SAGE Publications (UK and US).
Wood, A., Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V., Barnard, H. and Hjorth, I. (2016) “Virtual Production Networks: Fixing Commodification and Disembeddedness”, GPNs and social upgrading: labour and beyond – Workshop.
Kassi, O. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2016) “Building the Online Labour Index: A Tool for Policy and Research”, CSCW 2016 workshop on The Future of Platforms as Sites of Work, Collaboration and Trust,.
Lehdonvirta, V., Barnard, H., Graham, M. and Hjorth, I. (2014) “Online labour markets – levelling the playing field for international service markets?”, IPP2014: Crowdsourcing for Politics and Policy conference, University of Oxford,.
Hosio, S., Goncalves, J., Lehdonvirta, V., Ferreira, D. and Kostakos, V. (2014) “Situated crowdsourcing using a market model“, UIST 2014 – Proceedings of the 27th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. 55-64.
Ratan, R., Lehdonvirta, V., Kennedy, T. and Williams, D. (2012) “Razing the virtual glass ceiling: Gendered economic disparity in two massive online games”, ICA Annual Conference.
Liu, Y., Lehdonvirta, V., Alexandrova, T. and Nakajima, T. (2012) “Drawing on mobile crowds via social media Case UbiAsk: Image based mobile social search across languages“, Multimedia Systems. 18 (1) 53-67.
Liu, Y., Alexandrova, T., Nakajima, T. and Lehdonvirta, V. (2011) “Mobile image search via local crowd: A user study“, Proceedings – 1st International Workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems, Networks, and Applications, CPSNA 2011, Workshop Held During RTCSA 2011. 2 109-112.
Liu, Y., Lehdonvirta, V., Alexandrova, T. and Nakajima, T. (2011) “Real-Time Crowd Computing Using Social Media”, CrowdConf 2011.
Liu, Y., Lehdonvirta, V., Alexandrova, T., Liu, M. and Nakajima, T. (2011) “Engaging Social Medias: Case Mobile Crowdsourcing”, First International Workshop on Social Media Engagement (SoME 2011), 20th International World Wide Web Conference.
Liu, Y., Lehdonvirta, V., Kleppe, M., Alexandrova, T., Kimura, H. and Nakajima, T. (2010) “A Crowdsourcing Based Mobile Image Translation and Knowledge Sharing Service”, Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM 2010).
Yamabe, T., Lehdonvirta, V., Ito, H., Soma, H., Kimura, H. and Nakajima, T. (2010) “Activity-based micro-pricing: Realizing sustainable behavior changes through economic incentives“, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). 6137 LNCS 193-204.
Lehdonvirta, V. (2010) “Digital free time: social leisure and leisurely shopping in online peer groups”, XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology RC13/RC23 joint session on Emerging Technologies and Leisure.
Lehdonvirta, V., Soma, H., Ito, H., Yamabe, T., Kimura, H. and Nakajima, T. (2009) “UbiPay: Minimizing transaction costs with smart mobile payments“, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Mobile Technology, Application and Systems, Mobility ’09.
Takayama, C., Lehdonvirta, V., Shiraishi, M., Washio, Y., Kimura, H. and Nakajima, T. (2009) “ECOISLAND: A system for persuading users to reduce CO2emissions“, Proceedings – 1st International Workshop on Software Technologies for Future Dependable Distributed Systems, STFSSD 2009. 59-63.
Shiraishi, M., Lehdonvirta, V., Washio, Y., Kimura, H., Takayama, C. and Nakajima, T. (2009) “Tracking behavior in persuasive apps: Is sensor-based detection always better than user self-reporting?“, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – Proceedings. 4045-4050.
Shiraishi, M., Washio, Y., Takayama, C., Lehdonvirta, V., Kimura, H. and Nakajima, T. (2009) “Using individual, social and economic persuasion techniques to reduce CO 2 emissions in a family setting“, ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. 350.
Yamabe, T., Lehdonvirta, V., Ito, H., Soma, H., Kimura, H., Nakajima, T. and ACM (2009) “Applying Pervasive Technologies to Create Economic Incentives that Alter Consumer Behavior”, UBICOMP’09: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11TH ACM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING. 175-184.
Nakajima, T., Lehdonvirta, V., Tokunaga, E. and Kimura, H. (2008) “Reflecting human behavior to motivate desirable lifestyle“, Proceedings of the Conference on Designing Interactive Systems: Processes, Practices, Methods, and Techniques, DIS. 405-414.
Lehdonvirta, V., Kimura, H., Soma, H., Nakajima, T. and Ito, H. (2008) “UbiPay: Conducting everyday payments with minimum user involvement“, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – Proceedings. 3537-3542.
Nakajima, T., Kimura, H., Yamabe, T., Lehdonvirta, V., Takayama, C., Shiraishi, M. and Washio, Y. (2008) “Using aesthetic and empathetic expressions to motivate desirable lifestyle“, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). 5279 LNCS 220-234.
Nakajima, T., Lehdonvirta, V., Tokunaga, E., Ayabe, M., Kimura, H. and Okuda, Y. (2007) “Lifestyle ubiquitous gaming: Making daily lives more plesurable“, Proceedings – 13th IEEE International Conference on Embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications, RTCSA 2007. 257-264.
This course will teach students how to apply basic social science theory towards analysing the impact of digital technologies on economic organization.
In this seminar, hosted by The Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), together with the Kalevi Sorsa Foundation, OII Associate Professor Vili Lehdonvirta discusses how the rights of workers can be protected in the platform economy.
This option course for the OII MSc in "Social Science of the Internet" will teach students how to apply basic social science theory towards analysing the impact of digital technologies on economic organization.
This course is designed to give students hands-on experience with the power and the pitfalls of using crowd sourced labour in social science research. Crowd sourced labour is becoming increasingly attractive as a part of the researcher’s toolkit.
In this intensive one-day course, we will use the iPython web interface to collect data from Reddit and Twitter. We will discuss issues with data formats, APIs, authentication and strategies for the non-coder.
Crowdsourcing is increasingly used in science as a means of obtaining, transforming, and analysing data. We ask what we can achieve with crowdsourcing that they couldn’t achieve before?
This workshop aims to bring together scholars from diverse backgrounds to discuss the potential research value of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies.
She could end up earning 11 percent less than her male colleagues. Image from EVE Online by zcar.300. Digital technology has uneven impacts on global economic ... Read More Playbor: Who is paid in play money, and who keeps the conventional rewards?
Determinants of economic wellbeing have long been investigated from many angles in the social sciences: a key finding that is consistent across economies and ... Read More Gender gaps in virtual economies: are there virtual ‘pink’ and ‘blue’ collar occupations?
What can ‘real’ economies and the economists who run them learn from these virtual economies? How can a focus on social fabric — rather ... Read More Economics for Orcs: how can virtual world economies inform national economies and those who design them?
Vili Lehdonvirta comments in an article about the future regulation of Bitcoin, the virtual currency.
Vili Lehdonvirta comments on the changes being introduced to Bitcoin production which, he says, could make the virtual currency less accessible.
Vili Lehdonvirta comments on the significance of the news that Microsoft is accepting Bitcoin payments for Xbox games and other digital applications.
The online magazine features Vili Lehdonvirta's recent book, Virtual Economies:Design and Analysis.
Vili Lehdonvirta contributes to an article on free-to- play online games which encourage players including children to run-up big bills. 'It would be smart of the industry to do some self-regulation', he says.
In the wake of the MtGox bitcoin exchange collapse npr explains the background and considers the implications. Vili Lehdonvirta says that Bitcoin allows people to dream dreams about how things could be different.
Vili Lehdonvirta adds to the debate about the collapse of MtGox a prominent Bitcoin exchange which could prove very expensive for customers.
In the wake of the abrupt closure of the ‘Flappy Birds’ game, Vili Lehdonvirta answers questions about its popularity.
An article highlighting potential problems which could leave the whole Bitcoin currency vulnerable quotes Vili Lehdonvirta.
Vili Lehdonvirta contributes to an article on how the virtual currency, Bitcoin is attracting attention from governments and companies.
Bitcoin just turned 5. And we have no idea who started it.
The Switch, the technology section of the Washington Post speculates on the possible creator of bitcoin, the virtual currency. It suggests that it might be OII researcher Vili Lehdonvirta.
Bitcoins: What Does the Future Hold?
China Radio interviewed Vili Lehdonvirta about Bitcoin. China accounts for more than half the daily turnover of Bitcoins.
Finland’s largest Swedish language daily paper quotes Vili Lehdonvirta in an article about the Channel 4 ‘Dispatches’ programme which exposed the activities of so-called click farms used to artificially indicate approval of a product on social media.
Pod Academy which highlights current research interviewed Vili Lehdonvirta about Bit.coin (both podcast and transcript).

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