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.

Paulette Robinson phd Paulette is Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning & Technology at the Nation Defense University, iCollege, Washington DC.

Show Links

• Paulette Robinson
  • Twitter: @pjrobinson
  • Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds

• Background
  • Jesse Schell’s 20120 DICE Talk Design Outside the Box
  • Randy Hinicks
    • Blog
    • University of Washington Course
  • CHarles Wankel
    • St Johns University Bio
• Further Reading
  • Dancing Ink Productions’ report on IBM’s adoption of Virtual Worlds into the enterprise – IBM: From the Fire Pit to the Forbidden City

Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

]]> http://www.virtualpolicy.net/sct009.html/feed 0 Enterprise,Federal,Virtual Worlds #VirtualWorlds #Enterprise Paulette Robinson talks about the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds 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. Paulette Robinson phd Paulette is Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning & Technology at the Nation Defense University, iCollege, Washington DC. Show Links Paulette Robinson Twitter: @pjrobinson Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds Background Jesse Schell's 20120 DICE Talk Design Outside the Box Randy Hinicks Blog University of Washington Course CHarles Wankel St Johns University Bio Further Reading Dancing Ink Productions' report on IBM's adoption of Virtual Worlds into the enterprise - IBM: From the Fire Pit to the Forbidden City << Episode #8 What's social about Social Games All Episodes Next episode coming soon Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots. the Virtual Policy Network no 12:24 http://www.virtualpolicy.net/sct008.html http://www.virtualpolicy.net/sct008.html#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 18:42:30 +0000 tVPN Admin http://www.virtualpolicy.net/?p=1988

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.

Featuring: Dr Mia Consalvo Mia is Canada  Research Chair in Games Studies and Design at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. She was a Visiting Associate Professor in the Comparative Media Studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and before that an Associate Professor at Ohio University in the School of Media Arts and Studies. She is the author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames, and is currently writing a book about Japan’s influence on the videogame industry and game culture. She has published in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Games & Culture, Game Studies, and Convergence, and she was previously the President of the Association of Internet Researchers.

Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames “In Cheating, Mia Consalvo investigates how players choose to play games, and what happens when they can’t always play the way they’d like. She explores a broad range of player behavior, including cheating (alone and in groups), examines the varying ways that players and industry define cheating, describes how the game industry itself has helped systematize cheating, and studies online cheating in context in an online ethnography of Final Fantasy XI. She develops the concept of “gaming capital” as a key way to understand individuals’ interaction with games, information about games, the game industry, and other players.Consalvo provides a cultural history of cheating in videogames, looking at how the packaging and selling of such cheat-enablers as cheat books, GameSharks, and mod chips created a cheat industry.“

Featuring: Ron Meiners Ron is Director of Community at Electronic Arts for The Sims. He has been in community management and building for over fifteen years working on everything from Myst to Burning Man. Ron is a specialist in understanding how cultural dynamics influence the online social experience, how memes propagate, and how to create exciting and positive communities. Ron also runs the blog Virtual Cultures with academic Celia Pearce.

Show Links

• Mia Consalvo
  • Academia.edu profile
  • Twitter: @MiaC
• Ron Meiners
  • Linked-in Profile
  • Blog: Virtual Cultures
  • Twitter: @ronchanel

• Background
  • Electronic Arts
  • The Sims
• Further Reading
  • Nicole Lazzaro –  XEODesign
  • Zinga
    • CastleVille
  • Tripple Town
  • TL Taylor (with Mikael Jakobsson): The Sopranos Meets EverQuest: Socialization Processes in Massively Multiuser Games
  • Ray Mazza’s 2012 GDC (Game Developers Conference) Sims Social talk
    • Gamasutra’s preview
    • Game.com’s coverage
  • Nick Yee’s data on ‘gender bending’ in MMOs
  • Wikipedia entry on the Blizzard / World of Warcraft RealID controversy

Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

]]> http://www.virtualpolicy.net/sct008.html/feed 0 Facebook,Identity,play,Sims,SocialGames,SocialNetwork #SocialGames #Identity Dr Mia Consalvo and Ron Meiners talk about social games, social relationship and identity 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' an... the Virtual Policy Network no 22:09 http://www.virtualpolicy.net/sct007.html http://www.virtualpolicy.net/sct007.html#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:31:08 +0000 tVPN Admin http://www.virtualpolicy.net/?p=1913

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.

Featuring: Rita J. King Rita is Executive Vice President of Business Development and head of Science House Creative. In addition to her work at Science House Rita is Resident Futurist at the National Institute for Aerospace (NASA Langley’s Think Tank). She is Founder / Creative Director of Dancing Ink Productions. Rita has served as Innovator-in-Residence at IBM’s Analytics Virtual Center, a former Senior Fellow at The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and a current Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress in Washington DC.

Show Links

• Rita J. King
  • Science House
  • Dancing Ink Productions
  • IMAGINATION: Creating the future of education and work
  • NASA Langley Research Center

• Background
  • Technogenic Disasters
    • Technogenic Disasters: A Deadly New Normal for the Media (Rita J. King – Scientific American Blog, July 2011)
  • Deceptive Robots
    • Acting Deceptively: Providing Robots with the Capacity for Deception.” International Journal of Social Robotics
    • Alan R. Wagner (Georgia Tech)
    • Ronald C. Arkin (Georgie Tech)
• Further Reading
  • Ethics of Robot Care
    • Sherry Turkle (MIT)
  • Conferences
    • We Robot
    • ETHICOMP
    • Gikii

Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

]]> http://www.virtualpolicy.net/sct007.html/feed 0 innovation,Robots,Science,Start-up #robotics #ethics #science Rita J King talks about the work of Science House and an incubator and force for learning about science, and we touch on the current worries about robots as a cause of technogenic disaster. 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. Featuring: Rita J. King Rita is Executive Vice President of Business Development and head of Science House Creative. In addition to her work at Science House Rita is Resident Futurist at the National Institute for Aerospace (NASA Langley's Think Tank). She is Founder / Creative Director of Dancing Ink Productions. Rita has served as Innovator-in-Residence at IBM’s Analytics Virtual Center, a former Senior Fellow at The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and a current Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress in Washington DC. Show Links Rita J. King Science House Dancing Ink Productions IMAGINATION: Creating the future of education and work NASA Langley Research Center Background Technogenic Disasters Technogenic Disasters: A Deadly New Normal for the Media (Rita J. King - Scientific American Blog, July 2011) Deceptive Robots Acting Deceptively: Providing Robots with the Capacity for Deception." International Journal of Social Robotics Alan R. Wagner (Georgia Tech) Ronald C. Arkin (Georgie Tech) Further Reading Ethics of Robot Care Sherry Turkle (MIT) Conferences We Robot ETHICOMP Gikii << Episode #6 The co-creators: audience, artists & the future of music All Episodes Episode 7>> What's social about social games? Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots. the Virtual Policy Network no 13:28 http://www.virtualpolicy.net/welcome-to-sct.html http://www.virtualpolicy.net/welcome-to-sct.html#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:54:07 +0000 tVPN Admin http://www.virtualpolicy.net/?p=1926 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.

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.

Featuring

Show Links

• Featured people
  • Michael Andersen of argn.com
    • The rise of the producer-novelist: shifting perceptions of authorship in transmedia publishing (.pdf) – Journal of Law, Technology & the Internet Vol. 2:2.
  • Dr. Burcu Bakioglu
• Featured content
  • Skeleton Creek By Scholastic
  • The Fantastic Flying Book of Morris Lessmore – Oscar
  • Emmys’ Interactive Meida Category
  • Cathy’s Book
  • Mc Farlane v. Gaiman
    • Spawn
    • Todd McFarlane
    • Neil Gaiman (twitter: @neilhimself)
  • Mazda Canada’s 33 keys
  • Schlasic’s 39 clues
  • Rick Riordan
  • Lance Weiler (twitter: @LanceWeiler) and the Workbook Project
  • Scott Walker’s (twitter: @scott_walker) Brain Candy

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.

Guests

External Links

• RjDj
• 100 Robots
  • 100 Robots vs The Audience
• Personal Web sites / works:
  • Jim Purbrick
  • Robert Thomas
  • Robert Thomas aka Dizzy Banjo’s YouTube Channel
• Background
  • Brian Eno
  • Icarus (band)

Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

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.

Guests

External Links

• Jon Matonis
  • The Monetary Future blog
  • Forbes Piece: Virtual Currencies & Roach Motels

• Virtual Currencies mentioned in the podcast:
  • Avination C Dollars (C$)
  • Bitcoin
  • Facebook Credits
  • Linden Lab’s Second Life and the Linden Dollar (L$)
  • Open Metaverse Currency (OMC)
• Edward Castronova’s Terranova blog post on Bitcoin
• See also
  • Ren Reynolds’s Terranova blog post on Bitcoin
  • Other Virtual Currencies
    • Hub Culture’s Ven (eco currency)
    • The Terra: Trade Reference Currency (TRC)
  • Local Currencies
    • Bay Bucks
    • Brixton Pound
    • Cascadia Hour Exchange
  • Time Banks

Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

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.

Guests

tVPN Links

• Virtually Policy #1: Dutch Supreme Court on Virtual Theft

External Links

• Jon Matonis
  • The Monetary Future blog
  • Forbes Piece: Virtual Currencies & Roach Motels
• Virtual Currencies mentioned in the podcast:
  • Avination C Dollars (C$)
  • Bitcoin
  • Facebook Credits
  • Linden Lab’s Second Life and the Linden Dollar (L$)
  • Open Metaverse Currency (OMC)
• Edward Castronova’s Terranova blog post on Bitcoin
• See also
  • Ren Reynolds’s Terranova blog post on Bitcoin
  • Other Virtual Currencies
    • Hub Culture’s Ven (eco currency)
    • The Terra: Trade Reference Currency (TRC)
  • Local Currencies
    • Bay Bucks
    • Brixton Pound
    • Cascadia Hour Exchange
  • Time Banks

Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

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.

Guests

External Links

• This I believe
• Nourhan El Zafarany’s comments on avatar mediated interaction in Second Life
• The K2C: Kansas to Cairo Project (Second Life video’s by Draxtor)
  • K2C: In the beginning
  • K2C Part 1
  • K2C Part 2
  • K2C Part 3

Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

• White Paper: Virtual Items and Public Policy