By tVPN Admin on May 8, 2012
In Episode 9 of Social Change Technology Ren Reynolds talks to Paulette Robinson phd from the US National Defense University’s iCollege about this years’ Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds conference. It will be be held in Washington DC from 16th – 18th of May 2012, and over the internet via live streams and virtual world based meetings. The event is free to watch over the internet but it’s asked that you register.
This year’s conference features speaker from a range of backgrounds including Jesse Schell who some may know from his 2012 DICE talk Design Outside the Box and his recent book The Art of Game Design. Other speakers include Randy Hinrichs from the University of Washington, Michelle Fox from the US Department of Energy and Charles Wankel from St John’s University New York.
In the podcast, Ren and Paulette talk about the future of virtual worlds as enterprise tools in the context that most organisations are seeing a drastic reduction in travel budgets. One of the biggest challenges faced by large organisations such as the US Federal Government in the adoption of virtual worlds has been the security issues of accessing something on the internet with a proprietary application and protocol. The market has now changed so that there are a range of virtual world options that either sit ‘within the firewall’ or that use standard interfaces such as browsers. They also discuss the future of virtual words not as a thing apart from other applications or our lives but as things that we may slide in and out of.
If you are interested in this podcast you may also like From Ghana to Second Life – public diplomacy in the digital age our interview with Bill May about the US State Departments’ use of Virtual Worlds and social media. To make sure you catch all the episodes of Social Change Technology subscribe on iTunes or via our RSS feed.
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Posted in Business & Innovation, Education, News, Policy, US, podcast | Tagged Enterprise, Federal, Virtual Worlds |
By tVPN Admin on May 7, 2012
Episode 8 of Social Change Technology explores the social aspects of so-called social games with Dr Mia Consalvo of Concordia University and Ron Miners of Electronic Arts.
In the episode Ren, Mia, and Ron talk about what we mean by ’social games’ and the social conventions and norms that are emerging from them. For example the common practice of gift giving has been adopted by main games as a key part of the play mechanic. However, in some social games this voluntary action has morphed into a social obligation on our socially-networked co-players; a process which in turn has been automated to such a degree that it has almost lost touch with the notion of gift giving that inspired it.
The podcast also covers the relationship between our social / family identity, as expressed in Facebook, and our our gamer identity. Do our social relations constrain our game actions? Do our game actions re-construct our social world? For example, in games that have ‘relationship’ options, are people prepared to have an in-game partner who is not an out-of-game partner, are people prepared to play a different gender or sexuality – all to achieve game play goals?
Make sure you catch every episode of Social Change Technology by subscribing on iTunes or via our RSS feed.
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Posted in News, Policy, Uncategorized, podcast | Tagged Facebook, Identity, play, Sims, SocialGames, SocialNetwork |
By tVPN Admin on April 24, 2012
In episode 7 of Social Change Technology we speak to Rita J. King of Science House, New York. Rita is EVP of Business Development and head of Science House Creative.
In the episode Ren Reynolds talks to Rita King about the work that Science House does to bring ‘hard science’ together with business. They touch on the range of Science House’s work from being a start-up incubator based in New York to outreach programmes bringing science education to children around the world.
One area covered in greater detail in the podcast is that of the actual and perceived future of robotics. Rita raises the issue of robots as a new source of possible technogenic disaster in the minds of media and the public alike. That is, the idea that robots may bring about some catastrophic global event – think the Terminator’s Skynet or the robot takeover in the Matrix or AI for popular science fiction interpretations of such a catastrophe.
Such notions have recently been taken up from various angles by academics such as Sherry Turkle, who has written about the ethics of the emotional bonds that humans may form with robots. At the other end of the spectrum a research team at Georgia Tech has been looking at military robots with the capacity to deceive.
All this has given rise to conferences such as the inaugural We Robot conference on legal and policy issues relating to robotics, held in Miami in April of 2012. It should be noted that academic communities such as those researching ethics of technology (See: ELTHICOMP and CEPE), law of emerging technology (see Gikii), and specialised research areas such as the ethics of tele-care have been researching this for some years.
In future episodes we hope to have more on the social, legal and policy implications of robotics. To make sure you catch it, you can subscribe to Social Change Technology on iTunes or via our RSS feed.
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Posted in News, Policy, Uncategorized, podcast | Tagged innovation, Robots, Science, Start-up |
By tVPN Admin on April 24, 2012
Since launching our podcast in February 2012 we’ve had some great guests and a fantastic response. After six episodes and a short break we have decided to change the title of the podcast to better reflect the content and guests. The most fitting name seems to be “Social Change Technology” – as what the Virtual Policy Network and the podcast is about is how technology and society shape each other.
With our new title and some new voices we have a fantastic range of guests and content lined up for your listening pleasure.
Posted in News, Policy | Tagged podcast |
By tVPN Admin on March 24, 2012
In Episode 6 of Virtually Policy, Burcu Bakioglu (Postdoctoral Fellow in New Media at Lawrence University) talks to Michael Andersen, senior editor of the Alternate Realty Gaming Network (argn.com), about transmedia fiction and games.
In the show, they explore how transmedia storytelling and multiple authorships are challenging the ‘romantic’ notion of author as solitary creator and how emerging issues are casting legal shadows on the inclusion and acknowledgement of fan content in developing creative forms.
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Posted in News, Policy, law, podcast | Tagged ARG, IP, law, podcast, transmedia |
By tVPN Admin on March 15, 2012
Episode 5 is an extended interview with Robert Thomas, Chief Creative Officer of RjDj, and Jim Purbrick & Max Williams, who together are 100 Robots (the group which provide the theme music for the Virtually Policy podcast).
RjDj is a reactive music application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch that creates a unique sonic experience each time you listen to a ’scene’. 100 Robots combines analog music creation with live control of electronically generated sounds using drum interfaces and iPhones/iPads/iPod Touches.
Both RjDj and 100 Robots have experimented with enabling their audiences to be co-creators of the live performance experience. They discuss how advances in technology are bringing music back to its participatory roots.
In this episode, we discuss how technology has changed our relationship with music from the pre-industrial age, where music was often a communally created and consumed experience, through the twentieth century that emphasised passive consumption of a recordings by ’star’ artists, to the present, where technologies such as karaoke, SingStar and Rock Band have enabled people to re-connect with music making.
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Posted in Business & Innovation, Intellectual Property, News, Uncategorized, podcast | Tagged co-creation, innovation, IP, Music, podcast, reactive music |
By tVPN Admin on March 6, 2012
This episode of Virtually Policy is the second half of atwo-part interview with virtual currency expert Jon Matonis. Jon is editor of The Monetary Future, an economics blog.
In this second part of the interview we look at Bitcoin: what it is, how it works, why government don’t like it and how it might revolutionise the online gaming industry, and how it relates to human rights.
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Posted in News, Policy, podcast | Tagged Bitcoin, Digital Currency, Virtual Currency, virtualgoods |
By tVPN Admin on February 28, 2012
This episode of Virtually Policy is part one of a two-part interview with virtual currency expert Jon Matonis. Jon is editor of The Monetary Future, an economics blog that examines the intersection of free banking, cryptography, and digital currency. His work on digital cash has been published by Dow Jones and the London School of Economics, and he was previously CEO of Hushmail and Chief Forex Trader at VISA. Currently Jon is a board advisor to startups in Bitcoin, gaming, prepaid and mobile payment systems.
In this part of the interview we focus on the nature of currency and characteristics of virtual currencies, including Facebook Credits, Warcraft Gold and Linden Dollars.
Next week, in the second half of the interview Jon focuses on Bitcoin – what it is, how it works and how it relates to human rights.
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Posted in News, Policy, podcast | Tagged Bitcoin, currency, law, linden, podcast, second life |
By tVPN Admin on February 24, 2012
In the second episode of Virtually Policy, Bill May talks with Ren Reynolds about using social media and Second Life in public diplomacy.
After 30 working in the US Government, NGO’s and the private sector, Bill is now working on international public diplomacy initiatives and a social-technology start up venture. He recently left his position at the US State Department as Director of the Office of Innovative Engagement (OIE) where he led public diplomacy initiatives using new media and social networks to engage the world in support of the President, the Secretary of State and key strategic policy objectives. Previously in the State Department, Bill worked with international exchange programs, within the State Department’s Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), where he received a Hammer Award from the Vice President’s office for developing an innovative information system, which improved the information flow between the USG and NGO’s.
In the podcast, Bill talks about using appropriate technologies and themes to engage with people across the globe and across cultures. Including the use of SMS and traditional media for President Obama’s visit to Ghana to bringing American and Egyptian students together in Second Life to create architecture.
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Posted in News, Policy, US, podcast | Tagged podcast, public diplomacy, second live, US |
By tVPN Admin on February 22, 2012
the Virtual Policy Network’s white paper on virtual items and public policy has been updated to include the Dutch Supreme Court RuneScape case.
Posted in News, Policy | Tagged VirtualItems |
