Racing Game for iPad Uses iPhones as Controllers

In this game, the iPad is the "game board" and the iPhones are the "controllers"

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/ipad-race-car-game-controlled-by-iphones/

iPad Too Scary To Compete With: Microsoft Cancels Courier, HP Slate Follows

http://www.ozcarguide.com/technology/pc-notebook/2922-ipad-courier-slate

note killing of HP's slate in relation to their acquisition of Palm:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/28/hp-palm-deal-webos/

Casting Call

We are currently seeking resumes to build out our team as projects get greenlit:
* Visual designers
* Art PA
* PA
* Producer w/ writing and CMS experience (for Dan Lewis/Workshop site only)

All positions are freelance. Forward leads to Jess and Tina, thanks!

Human-Robot Jazz Improvisation

via http://mobileuserinterfaces.blogspot.com/

"The robot listens to the human play and tries to match its beat, sync, and themes. It uses choreographic gestures to generate both motion and sound."

Jon Stewart on the new iPhone and Apple

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Appholes
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Webinar Notes: Peep and the Big Wide World

Focused on kids 2-7 - 'Anywhere Science and Math'.

Goals model inquiry process skills
Encourage parents and caregivers to support childrens' hands on science and math

Half hour format
Narrated by Joan Cusack
110 animated stories
110 live action segments
97 offline anywhere science and math activities
New epsiodes exlusive to public television

Measurable Impact on Kids
- making predictions
- Making observations
- Applying problem solving strategies and successfully solving problems

Measurable Impact on Teachers
- Teachers become more involved over time with science
- More confident in teaching science topics
- Better able to create instructional environment supportive of science
- Easier to teach math,
- Easier to ask open ended questions

Educational Outreach
- WGBH worked with series advisers to create resources intended for informal educators and classroom teachers respectively.
- wanted to motivate parents to help them become more comfortable and let them understand they don't need to know everything about a topic in order to teach their youngsters
- This year special focus on Spanish speakers. Latinos very underrepresented in Science careers. Website has a spanish speaking portal.

For Families
- Neighborhood Safari - contains a parents guide and childrens activity pages. 9 Investigations in the Safari, ranging from documentation to how to use natural materials.
- Large library of anything science and math activities - eg. measuring distances with steps. Activities relate to a child's immediate environment.
- Teachers use this activities to help round out teaching principles in the classroom as well.

Explorers guide for Classrooms -
+ Field tested in 52 Head Start classrooms.
+ With 3 thematic units published originally,
+ Embraced by teachers from NHSA, NEA, and NACCRRA.
+ Now expanded to 6 topics.
* Go to peepandthebigwideworld.org/resources

Event Kit for discreet events, useful for PBS Stations.
+ 3 Separate events - shadows, structures and ramps.
+ Informative readers guides
+ Promotional fliers and press release
+ Evaluation form.
* Go to peepandthebigwideworld.org/resources

Station Support at
resourceroom.wgbh.org
+ Station toolkit
+ Web assets
+ NEW costume characters
+ Free tattoos
+ Coming: HTML postcard and e-blast to promote new Peep Explorer's Guide.

Amazing Vanishing Head Illusion - Try it!

Visual tricks can make downloads seem quicker

Via New Scientist:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18754-visual-tricks-can-make-downloads-seem-quicker.html

"Chris Harrison at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, working with Zhiquan Yeo and Scott Hudson, has shown that animated pop-up download progress bars which use visual illusions make the process seem around 10 per cent faster than it really is"

Bright future projected for hand-held games

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627576.200-bright-future-projected-for-handheld-games.html

"Zi Ye and Hammad Khalid of the Human Media Lab at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, have devised a way of using a shoulder-mounted projector system to display - and play - a game on a bendy A4-sized sliver of plastic. Sensors in the screen allow gameplay to be controlled by bending, shaking or tapping it."

Blood-Sugar Monitor Attaches to Nintendo DS, Enticing Kids to Manage Health

http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-04/blood-sugar-monitor-attaches-nintendo-ds-enticing-kids-manage-health

'The battle to control type-1 diabetes in children could get a little easier -- as long as the kids keep playing with their Nintendos. Bayer Diabetes Care unveiled a new gadget Monday that aims to help kids manage their disease by tapping into their love for video games.'

Old School Measuring

Monster Maker featured in the new iPhone Ad

AdMob: Android passes iPhone in U.S. traffic

http://androidandme.com/2010/04/news/admob-android-passes-iphone-in-u-s-traffic/

"In AdMob’s latest March report, Android has surpassed the iPhone and accounts for a greater share of smartphone requests in the United States. AdMob does not represent the traditional view of market share (based on the number of handsets sold), but their reports still provide some insightful data."

Google Reader Play

Subscribe to RSS feeds via Google Reader?
Check this out:

http://www.google.com/reader/play/

Hubble Pop Culture Contest

http://www.spacetelescope.org/projects/20anniversary/hubblepopculture/

In honour of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space 

Telescope’s 20th

anniversary, the European Space Agency (ESA) is proud to present ESA “Hubble Pop Culture” competition — a free competition that calls for everyone who loves Hubble to find examples of it in popular culture. Have you seen a Hubble image on the cover of a CD? Has Hubble been used as inspiration for art? Let us know and you could win great prizes!

When you find an interesting example of Hubble within popular culture, take a picture, write a quick caption and submit it to us. We will award prizes in five categories:

1. Most Artistic,

2. Weirdest,

3. Funniest,

4. Largest,

5. Smallest.

The entries should be submitted on or before 1 June 2010

Kids Online Privacy and Protection hearing

via Cynopsis Kids:

The US Senate Commerce Committee's Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for April 29, 2010 (10a) to discuss the issue of kids online privacy and protection. The hearing will look updating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act in the era of Facebook and new digital platforms.

Augmented Reality game using cereal box

Android Tablet Prototype supports Flash + Adobe Air for Android

Adobe Gives up on Apple, Welcomes Android

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/adobe_gives_up_on_apple_welcomes_android.php

"Adobe is officially giving up on Apple. Or rather, Apple gave up on Adobe and Adobe is just now admitting it. In any event, the news is that Adobe's "Packager for iPhone," the bundled tool in Flash Professional that lets Flash developers leverage their existing skills to produce iPhone apps, shall be no more. The toolkit will still ship with Creative Suite 5 as planned, but no future development or investment is planned in this area - or so says Mike Chambers, the principal product manager for developer relations for Adobe's Flash platform, in a blog post on Tuesday."

Microsoft Docs for Facebook

http://blog.docs.com/2010/04/21/introducing-docs-for-facebook/

Discover, create, and share Microsoft Office documents with your Facebook friends. Built using Microsoft Office 2010.

New Graphics Tech Promises Speed, Hyperrealism

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/unlimited-detail-3-d-graphics/

"...an Australian hobbyist says he has created a technology that can churn out high-quality, computer-generated graphics for video games and other applications without the need for graphics chips or processor-hungry machines."

Blowing up HTML5 video and mapping it into 3D space

http://www.craftymind.com/2010/04/20/blowing-up-html5-video-and-mapping-it-into-3d-space/

Click the video and watch it blow up! This was all done using HTML5.

One man's HTML5 Gaming Engine

"a set of libraries, tools and presets to create pixelated indie-style 8/16-bit era games in Javascript that runs in your browser without any Flash plugin, making use of a small small small subset of the HTML5 features, that are actually available on many modern browsers."

http://www.kesiev.com/akihabara/

Opera Mobile Browser for iPhone, Android

Opera Mobile Browser was released for for  iPhone and has logged a million downloads so far.




Here's a couple of reviews:










http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-04/16/the-new-iphone-browser-an-opera-mini-review.aspx


http://www.walyou.com/blog/2010/04/16/opera-mini-acid-test-failure/

Nadine is in Labor

Design: So You Need A Typeface? - Inspiration Lab

via Eóin Cunningham




InspirationLab.WordPress.com/2010/04/16/so-you-need-a-typeface/

                                     

Education: The Examined Life, Age 8 - NYTimes.com

Via by Eóin Cunningham
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/education/edlife/18philosophy-t.html

"A few times each month, second graders at a charter school in Springfield, Mass., take time from math and reading to engage in philosophical debate. There is no mention of Hegel or Descartes, no study of syllogism or solipsism. Instead, Prof. Thomas E. Wartenberg and his undergraduate students from nearby Mount Holyoke College use classic children’s books to raise philosophical questions, which the young students then dissect with the vigor of the ancient Greeks."Read More

6 Social Media Stats You Can't Live Without

"When you're blogging, putting out Facebook ads and Twittering away, who is in the audience you should be targeting?" http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_news/archive/2010/02/24/6-social-media-stats-you-can-t-live-without.aspx

Server Environments

Via Keren 2/25/10 For your reference below are the environments we are working with: Production:  Liferay: 10,11,12,13,14,15 Alfresco: ALF 01,02,03,04   ContentDev (previously Beta2 Games) Alfresco:  AlfDev   CodeTest (Previously called UAT) Alfresco: Alf04

STEM Advisory Seminar #3: Math Examples

Advisors presented STEM overview and current methodology, and explored both the integration of and the underlying processes linking content areas for both the Sesame Street and The Electric Company target audiences.

Sesame Worskhop will be focusing on STEM over a 2 year period, targeting all platforms including TV, Online, Publishing, Products etc.

Sara Sweetman, M.Ed.        Science Inquiry Specialist, University of Rhode Island
Preeti Gupta, Ph.D.           Senior Vice President for Education and Family Programs, New York Hall of Science   
Sybilla Beckmann, Ph.D.      Professor of Mathematics, University of Georgia

--------------------------------------------------------------


3. Math Examples
Sybilla Beckmann, Professor of Mathematics, University of Georgia.

When thinking of math in terms of STEM, one way can describe math as the LANGUAGE of science and technology.

MATH PROCESS
1. Understand what the problem is --> what do we want to figure out?
2. Mathematize the situation --> bring out the math!
3. Solve the problem --> Explain the solution.
4. Look back and make connections to other situations.

UNITIZINGUnitizing makes math owrk. Creating a unit out of something, that makes a component out of something bigger.

** we could make a nice game out of this.

MATHEMATIZINGMathematical aspects:
    how many?
    how many more?
    how many in all?
    what kind of shape is this?

Formulate the situation in a mathematical way.
    eg.  small circles stand for actual things
           geometric shapes to model real-world objects.

COUNTING VS HOW MANYIt can be a difficult concept for pre-k kids to understand the concept of counting vs 'how many all together'.  Sybilla gave an example activity that showed how this can help:

More bugs or Beds?

Grouping by tens

Understanding teen numbers as tens and some ones

SHOW STRUCTURE BEHIND PROBLEMS
Showing physical examples of multiplication

STEM Advisory Seminar #2: Engineering / physics

Advisors presented STEM overview and current methodology, and explored both the integration of and the underlying processes linking content areas for both the Sesame Street and The Electric Company target audiences.

Sesame Worskhop will be focusing on STEM over a 2 year period, targeting all platforms including TV, Online, Publishing, Products etc.

Sara Sweetman, M.Ed.        Science Inquiry Specialist, University of Rhode Island
Preeti Gupta, Ph.D.           Senior Vice President for Education and Family Programs, New York Hall of Science   
Sybilla Beckmann, Ph.D.      Professor of Mathematics, University of Georgia

--------------------------------------------------------------

2. Preeti Gupta talks about the New York Hall of Science 

BUBBLES
Preeti talked about experiments that are cross-generational in terms of engagement and things you can discover : Bubbles is a good example. At the exhibit in the NY Hall of Science, everyone loves to play with them.

Used the term 'co-play discovery' in the sense that kids will come up with questions about size and duration, but adults might ask questions about light refraction in the room etc.

SLIDES
There is also a great slide in the outdoor playground which kids love. It also helps them ask questions about force and engery such as which slide goes fastest? Which goes slowest? What material makes me go faster?

Inquiring about forces and motion with slides can also lead further discovery as kids get older to more complicated structures, like roller coasters.

Preeti discussed the type of experiments that are very engaging in the classroom. In particular, kids love big, massive projects that can physically take up an entire classroom.

Some example websites to check out include
+ Crayon Physics
+ Funderstanding Science (eg. create a roller coaster)

LIVING THINGS
Kids love learning about and studying living things. Preeti gave an example of an activity where kids are asked to construct a habitat that would be suitable for a type of animal.

There is a real Gecko in the NY Hall of Science that is also a hit attraction. Geckos move up walls using little velcro-like spikes on their feet. This is how the inventor of velcro in fact got his idea! It's a great way of demonstrating how technologies are often inspired by natural structures.

** game idea of matching living things to new technologies they inspired.


BUILDING BLOCKS
Plan, then plot, then build. A good way of presenting process of urban construction.  Or you could play SIMS :p

ROCKETS
Preeti discussed how rockets are good for students to PREDICT and figure out how to break down information -- CLAIMS, EVIDENCE, REASON.
She then went on to give the seminar a real rocket experiment, whereby we predicted which one of 8 different rockets would go the farthest (each had different attributes such as size, number of fins etc). Hilariously, Alison Folino got hit in the head with about four of the rockets.

----

STEM Advisory Seminar #1: SCIENCE INQUIRY

April 15 2010

Advisors presented STEM overview and current methodology, and explored both the integration of and the underlying processes linking content areas for both the Sesame Street and The Electric Company target audiences.

Sesame Worskhop will be focusing on STEM over a 2 year period, targeting all platforms including TV, Online, Publishing, Products etc.

Sara Sweetman, M.Ed.        Science Inquiry Specialist, University of Rhode Island
Preeti Gupta, Ph.D.            Senior Vice President for Education and Family Programs, New York Hall of Science   
Sybilla Beckmann, Ph.D.    Professor of Mathematics, University of Georgia


1. SCIENCE INQUIRY
Sara Sweetman, M.Ed.       
Talked about the definition of 'technology' and how people often forget that it doesn't just refer to 'digital'. Technology refers to anything we create that makes life better. For example, a spoon is a piece of technology.

In describing the meaning of science inquiry Sarah outlined cross-content enduring knowledge as

d- Forces, Energy and Motion.

A - PROPERTIES OF MATTER
+ attributes such as size, color, shape, tescture, state
+ describe
+ sort and classify
+ recognize / identify
+ test / experiment

B - FORM & FUNCTION

FORM	FUNCTION
fin	swim
wheel	roll
boomerang	throw & return

C - MODELS & DESIGNS
Sarah described this category in terms of planning cost-saving effective tools for gathering evidence, gathering support and managing society.

D - FORCES, ENGERY & MOTION

Things that move, are stable, have balance, push and pull, stop and go.
Gave the example of a class science experiment about balls -- which ball was the bounciest? Students had to come up with a hypothesis then test against specific criteria different balls such as squash balls, ping pong balls, tennis balls etc. How squishy was it? How many times did it bounce?

* Sarah gave a suggested TV content idea that covered forces and motion: Super Grover moves 3 objects of different masses. He  goes about it the same way with each object resulting in three different reactions. Payoff - Grover, by default learns Newton's 2nd law. By applying KNOWLEDGE he then experiences Newton's 3rd law.

* Sarah's game content idea: design and build a cart that can be pushed and pulled.

* Sarah's TEC game idea: STEM superpowers
    - power of Observation
    - power of Data Collection
    - power of open mindedness (ability to discover and explore new concepts)
    - power of Scientific Illustration

SUMMARY

Sarah finished off with three core takeaways

1. "Because" --> there are no claims without evidence
2. Try experiments before you teach them. Have fun with them.
3. Create a THINKING curriculum, not a telling curriculum.

CHI 2010: Family Story Play (Nokia / Sesame)

Family Story Play – Hayes Raffle / Nokia
Families spread apart yet struggle with technology – esp kids under 5 (abstract concept of telephone as person’s voice)
Young kids + grandparents have most desire to communicate and time to do so

Design guidelines –

(1)     promote dialogic reading activities (reading book combo w/ dialogue around it, engage in questions)

(2)     support typical reading experiences (bed time stories, page turning)

(3)     provide shared context (coordinating page turns)

(4)     accessible and playful

story play compared to skype:

·         engagement higher on FSP – engaging with physicality of book

·         spent longer time reading the story on FSP

·         gparents asked twice as many questions on FSP vs skype

a new kind of collaborative storytelling

CHI 2010: Co-Designing for + with the iChild

Designing for the iChild – Allison Druin U of MD, Mona Leigh Guha U of MD, Jerry Alan Fails (Montclair)

Add’l dimensions in design now:
Partner location (collacted to distrbutied)
Scale of content (closed to infinite) – e.g. internet
Relationship to physical (dependent not deep, disconnected) – role of taking content onto mobile vs not

The iChild is…
Interactive, independent, international, information active, socially aware, highly mobile

Gary Marsden work in South Africa – pictures of kids with cell phones

http://people.cs.uct.ac.za/~gaz/research.html

Kids leapfrogging over old tech to new tech (kids in Africa didn’t have desktop computer, but have a cell phone)

Cooperative Inquiry:

• A method of design partnering with children – Druin, 1999
• Kids are researchers, adults are partners
• Techniques include sticky note critiquing, low tech prototyping, mixing ideas

Bonded Design techniques include:
Drawing, brainstorming, games, journaling, demonstrations, surveys

• Adults bring materials, short shots such as coming into school for selected period of time

Bluebells technique (Kelly et. A. 2006)

• Three phased design process:
• Before play (adults make decisions)
• During play (children)
• After play (adults)

Children as software designers (Kafai 1996, 1999)
Children become programmers of software, children are designers – not partners

#1: Co-designing for Mobility Technique:

Low tech prototypes with art supplies in small groups with high ratio of adults to children (working as partners – not observing)
Examples:

(1)     tangible flags: use tablets to enhance learning on field trips (Chipman et al. 2006)

(2)     mobile stories: use mobile devices for collaborative narrative system (Jerry Fails phd research)

Task: work on app or change ipad hardware for kid reporters – what does future ipad look like to enable you to be a kid reporter at this conference?

#2: Layered Elaboration Technique:

Groups create a storyboard to solve a problem
Groups iterate upon each other’s designs using transparencies
Groups share their ideas in “stand up” meetings

Example:
Interactive game designed to teach children about energy conservation (see note from conference proceedings)

#3: Distributed co-design

• Techniques for working with design partners who are not physically co-located, and may be working across time zones
• Depending on needs and resources of teams, can be done in variety of ways including:
• video co-design (video conference)
• eCo-design (send ideas via email “the hub” and adults are the “spokes” – doing elaboration from those ideas)

interactive co-design (new tech allow users to pass information)

CHI 2010: Accuracy of Deictic Pointing in CVEs

Where Are You Pointing? The Accuracy of Deictic Pointing in CVEs

Nelson Wong Univ of Saskatchewan, Canada

Download full text (pdf)>>
Related Papers>>


We investigate how well people can point and interpret the direction or another person’s pointing gesture.  Our results show that deixis can be successful in CVEs for many pointing situations.

Pointing in Computerized Virtual Environments –
Effective in CVEs depending on accuracy of pointing

Issues:
In WoW you can point w/ your avatar, but can only do fixed animations.
Second Life: point = object highlights, bubbles go from hand to object.  à this is called augmented pointing

Aug pointing is intrusive and complicated compared to natural pointing.  But it is useful.  Not used to show general directions, how to get to places (even though in real world we use pointing for such gestures)

Wong Interested in natural pointing … doesn’t effect the environment

Pointing Stages:

(1)     orientation: orient yourself so other person can see you and thing you r pointing at

(2)     preparation: eye contact or simple gestures so recipient knows you’re about to point

(3)     production: actual point gesture

(4)     holding: keep point held

Observations of Distant Pointing:
Need high degree of accuracy – can’t really point to objects in a group. 
Need to be in relative close proximity or general direction for out-of-view targets
(Accuracy requirement depends on situational circumstances)

Pointing Accuracy – Producing and Observing (Tested in real world room w/ laser pointer and in a desktop CVE using mouse to control an avatar arm, click to point)

(1)     How accurately can people point?

o        Real World more accurate pointing vs. in CVE

(2)     How well can people interpret pointing direction?

o        Less accurate than producing a pointing gesture

o        Diff btw CVE and RW is only 3cm – so we can interpret pointing directions in CVEs almost as well as we can in the real world

Found that when people stood 6cm away from a wall (vs further) that they were more accurate.

Natural pointing in CVEs can be successful

Depth cues can make pointing easier
Want to integrate augmented (good for high accuracy) and natural pointing (good for situ that don’t require high accuracy)
Natural point requires additional input mappings

CHI 2010: Understanding and Evaluating Cooperative Games

via Ashley @ CHI2010
Understanding and Evaluating Cooperative Games
Research sponsored by Bardel Entertainment, who is developing a VW for kids
Simon Fraser University
Related Paper>>
Very few successful VIDEO games (not facebook games)
Build as cooperation as after thought

What cooperative patterns work and what don’t?

14 games w / coop patterns 4 kids
e.g.: Harry potter and goblet of fire, lego star wars, wall e, kung fu panda, rock band, little big planet, kameo, etc.

Principles of cooperative design (Rocha et al 2008):

• Complementarity between character roles
• Synergies btw abilities (allow one character to help the other)
• Abilities that can only be used on another player
• Shared goals – forces player to cooperate together thru synchronized goals
• Special rules to allow collaboration (specific constraints on how actions affect friendly players)
• Camera:
• Split
• Static
• Dynamic with team
• Two characters Interacting with same object
• Shared puzzles
• Shared character (lego star wars – two players can share character between them)

Mario Galaxy:
Limited resources – number of stars collected in shared resource
Shared goal – goal for both players is to gather certain amt of stars

8 – 12 year olds target (tested 6 – 16 y.o.s) – video tape playing + post play interviews

Performance metrics:

• Laughter or excitement together
• Worked out strategies planned strategies, succeeded
• Helping by controlling vs telling
• When did they wait for ea other
• When did they get in ea other’s way

Laughter:
Lego Star Wars: got most laughter; little big planet 2^nd most
Causes for increased laughter: narrative, funny character moments, shared goals btw players

Worked out strategies:
Lego SW b/c sharing puzzles together within a game… shared goals and complementarity betw characters

Helping each other:
Kameo, then LSW – action adventure games
Kameo is 3d… it was hard for younger kids, so a lot of helping from peers
Shared goals, synergies between goals

Wait for each other:
LSW, Kameo
Causes: shared puzzles, shared goals, camera (in LSW, all characters have to be together before you proceed to next room – have to wait for everyone and work together to move on)

Got in each other’s way:
LSW b/c of camera – condensing all characters in one space, tend to get in each other’s way

Conclusions:
Camera = really important – interesting pattern affecting cooperation

CHI 2010: Motivating Players in Physical Activity Games

via Ashley @ CHI2010
physical activity motivating games: virtual rewards for real activity
Problem: too much sedentary activity, which is often addictive and self-reinforcing
Solution: incorporate physical activity into normally sedentary activity (new tech = “play mate”)

Literature:

• Campbell, ngo, fogarty “game design principles in every fitness applications”
• Consolvo, everitt, smith, landay “design req for technologies that encourage physical activity”
• Fujiji, kazakos, puri, buddharaju, pavlidis, Levine: “NEAT-o games: blending physical activity and fun in the daily routine” ACM Computers and Ent 2008

Bodily game interfaces:
Dance dance revolution
Wii
Natal

Motivating factors:
Virtual rewards for real activity

Neverball – open source software. Navigate ball to end of maze in x amt of time
Active version:

• Virtual opponent and/or shortened level times
• Physical activity gains extra time
• 3d accelerometer on child’s body via wireless transmission
• Game can be paused

Tested 9 – 12 year olds:

• Shortened time to play = kids jumped much more
• Shortened time + playing against virtual opponent = increased physical activity
• Physical activity did not change kids’ opinion of enjoyment
• But they played it for longer and were more likely to purchase games / spend more money on game purchases
• Girls jumped more than boys – statistically significant difference

CHI 2010: Intimacy in World of Warcraft

via Ashley @ CHI2010


The Rogue in the Lovely Black Dress: Intimacy in World of Warcraft
Jeffrey Bardzell, Indiana University
Read Full Paper >>
Recall + describe a specific incident in which you experience what you would call an intimate experience in a virtual world

(Digra – digital games research association)

Four intimacy themes – common patterns and features in the responses

(1)     intimacy is often located across real and VWs and not in one or the other (across the two – mixed reality phenomenon)

WoW à Facebook or Google Talk à phone à real world (decreasing mediated interaction)

(2)     intimacy emerges from mundane, rather than extraordinary experience

Play feels like work b/c you’re fulfilling quests (e.g. farming) … more likely to socialize with friends because it’s so boring

Intimacy often occurs in poignant moment that breaks thru the mundane

WoW successful because it is disengaging – end of a long day, don’t want to face big boss

Mundane à surprise à new social bond à new mundane

(3) intimacy involves reciprocity (or exchange)

market exchange reciprocity (market value)

vs

reciprocity exchange – exchanged gifts of hard to measure and unequal value because of exchange, become friends (exchange vulnerability and empathy)

(4)     intimacy is exp in and articulated with temporal categories and concepts

2 rhetorical strategies of describing intimacy: (defined temporally)
a) episode – single event, exploring it in detail
b) history – narrative that sketches intimacy across many individual episodes or periods of time

Q+As

add’l graphic dimension of 3d offers add’l expressive opportunities / people choose more graphical emotes

CHI 2010: Messy Futures: Culture, Technology and Research

Messy Futures: Culture, Technology and Research - via Ashley @ Chi2010

Genevieve Bell, Intel Dir of User Experience

Real consumers = mess + clutter. Devices compete for attention.

What does future hold?  Books will be legacy artifact (past, present, future)

Shifts: demographic, technical, practice

Demographic Shifts 5 – 10 years change landscape

(1)     Changing nature of places we live. 2025: 75% will be living in cities. Smaller houses, high density occupation, 2/3s have shared walls – raises issues for wireless networking.

(2)     Diminishing family size

(3)     Asian population growth – by 2020 half will be baby boomers

(4)     Populations aging, shifting where wealth is.

Technical Shifts

(1)     Only 20% of Internet users are American.  This means a great number of non-Americans are bringing new ways to view information, think about things

(2)     Consumers more likely to surf certain sites while watching TV – e.g. Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Yahoo Mail, YouTube, MSN Windows Live

Rateyournetworkdiagram.com
(3) Increased network complexity – convergence didn’t happen; there is not one device to rule them all.  How can HCI help users manage complexity?

New anxieties:

(1)     privacy … now about: what you’re really doing e.g. devices talk to each other + auto-populate your facebook and twitter status updates with what you’re watching on TV.  Anxiety is about reputation, image, authenticity, trust.

New set of socio-technical anxieties emerging

Implications for research:
a new set of research directions, objects of study, possible questions and theoretical tools
areas where humans are deeply engaged, strong role for technology, areas to explore:

(1)     religion continues to be one of the single most important things in people’s lives. 80% of people n planet are religious (text wailing wall in Jerusalem, “secret archives” button on Vatican website, people giving up text for Lent, debate in NY – what is relationship between iphones and Sabbath? Using mobile phones to orient yourself toward mecca

(2)     government. Challenges about internet time vs. government time (response time to emails, for example)

(3)     Sex. Proliferation of images. What does it mean for people’s notions about self?

(4)     Sports. Driver of new technology options (e.g. Americans buying HD TVs), now: new video capture, 3D.  Fantasy sports online. No one is writing about it.

(5)     Manners + etiquette about technology.  Changing notions about where tech should be used, by whom (e.g. not using phone in church, but ok to use in bathroom). Choices in vacation time (e.g. go somewhere where it’s a dead zone and you can’t get connected).  Linguistically we don’t have the language to talk about it – lang only addresses what they are not doing (unconnected, on wrong side of digital divide). US = 20% aren’t online or online regularly.

(6)     Gender. One of most pop apps for men is called PMS buddy (track up to 5 women simultaneously – these are the times to avoid these women!!). Pop apps for women – calendars for “aunt flo”. Profoundly different ideas at play at same phenomena for diff audiences.  Talk about App store – how would we read this thru a critical lens (or a feminist lens, etc.)

What are our research agendas? Co-interlocutors? Challenges? Barriers? And obligations?