Archive for January, 2007

I’ve been gearing up to post on advances in user experience, particularly interfaces that use AJAX (Asynchronous Java and XML), and to give a shout-out to some extraordinary interface designers. Then Lee Wilson sent me a link to this video and article in the upcoming February edition of Fast Company and AJAX faded into the background. Every so often an idea comes along that changes everything, and less frequently somebody pulls it off. This is one of those times (it’s also a large file but worth the wait): [kml_flashembed movie="http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/271543545" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=422563006&playerId=271543545&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://services.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=true&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="486" height="412" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash">" width="400" height="350"/]

“Jefferson Han, a pale, bespectacled engineer dressed in Manhattan black, faced the thousand or so attendees on the first day of TED 2006, the annual technology, entertainment, and design conference in Monterey, California. The 30-year-old was little more than a curiosity at the confab, where, as its ad copy goes, “the world’s leading thinkers and doers gather to find inspiration. [During his presentation] Han pulled up a two-dimensional keyboard that floated slowly across the screen. “There is no reason in this day and age that we should be conforming to a physical device,” he said. “These interfaces should start conforming to us.”

He tapped the screen to produce dozens of fuzzy white balls, which bounced around a playing field he defined with a wave of the hand. A flick of a finger pulled down a mountainous landscape derived from satellite data, and Han began flying through it, using his fingertips to swoop down from a global perspective to a continental one, until finally he was zipping through narrow slot canyons like someone on an Xbox. He rotated his hands like a clock’s, tilting the entire field of view on its axis–an F16 in a barrel roll. He ended his nine-minute presentation by drawing a puppet, which he made dance with two fingers. He basked in the rock-star applause. Story continues here…

“They poison the mind and corrupt the morals of the young, who waste their time sitting on sofas immersed in dangerous fantasy worlds.“ According to a leader in the January 20th edition of The Economist “that was the charge leveled against novels during the 18th century by critics worried about the impact of a new medium on young people.

“Today the idea that novels can harm people sounds daft [...] Criticism of games is merely the latest example of a tendency to demonize new and unfamiliar [...] In 1816 waltzing was condemned as a “fatal contagion” that encouraged promiscuity; in 1910 films were denounced as “an evil pure and simple, destructive of social interchange”; in the 1950’s rock ‘n roll music was said to turn young people into “devil worshipers” and comic books were accused of turning children into drug addicts and criminals.” Story continues here… (subscription required).

The deomonization of games is not my point here — in fact that’s old news and even Hilary Clinton seems to be coming around — but the controversy and dis-comfort around using the word “game” and “education” in the same sentence is. Those of us on point with serious games have seen and heard enough evidence that games are highly effective teaching tool that we’re putting our backs to building an industry. To get everyone else in the K-12 education space on board — administrators, curriculum directors, teachers and parents — we’ll need more proof than the (largely) anecdotal evidence we have today. Anyone want to accept the challenge?

Several days ago before dawn, in a state of mind that can only be described as dangerously pre-caffinated, I was reading a story on CNN.com about the row between Britain and India over racism on the TV series Big Brother. Like Michael Richard’s and Mel Gibson’s career-decimating meltdowns in Los Angeles recently, the incident itself isn’t worth dignifying with a retelling (you can read about it here if you insist) but the issues it raises certainly are. In its conclusion, the CNN story quoted David Aaronovitch of the Times of London, who wrote “But what is so odd is that to discuss real things we have to make them unreal first, and then describe them as reality.” Something struck me about that statement so I poured another cup of joe and zoomed over to the Times of London to find Aaronovitch’s complete commentary so I could read it in context.

Maybe it was just the double expresso kicking in, but when I re-read his last sentence “…that to discuss real things we have to make them unreal first” Epic Games’ Unreal video game engine came to mind, along with the power of television, movies, novels, shamanic ceremonies and my admittedly naive intention to “change the world” as an aspiring 20-something filmmaker (yes, it was a powerful cup of coffee!). But pondering his conclusion was like a needle and thread stitching together my entire career, revealing a truth I have long understood intuitively but never been able to articulate clearly.

While videogames are often maligned by aspiring politicians as violent and misogynist — sometimes rightly so — the medium of videogames and simulations can be a hugely powerful tool for learning and change, for the same reason David Aaronovitch makes in his commentary. We’ve long known that experiential learning where there is a visceral, emotional connection between student and subject is vastly more powerful for most students than reading or lectures alone. Likewise, to learn a skill that is prohibitively difficult, dangerous, expensive or just plain unacceptable to replicate in the real world, creating an unreal environment where that skill can be taught is more effective and better than the real thing. Today, we have the technology and off-the-shelf tools to do that.

USA Today published this concise history of serious games today which is worth a read if you’re trying to wrap your head around what makes games serious:

“The Serious Games Movement got a start in 2002 when the U.S. Army released the video game America’s Army as a free online download (www.americasarmy.com). That game “was the first successful and well-executed serious game that gained total public awareness” says Sawyer. More than 5 million people have become registered users. By exploring the video game, you experience what it is like to be in the Army.

As academics began to recognize the potential scope of video game technology, conferences sprang up. In 2003, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars held a “Serious Games Day.” In 2004, the first Serious Games Summit was held at the Game Developers Conference. That same year, MIT Comparative Media Studies helped to sponsor the first Education Arcade: Games in Education Conference in Los Angeles two days before the E3, the video gaming industry’s yearly conference…

As the Serious Games Movement has gained creditability, funding is starting to become available. Foundations, governmental agencies, non-profits and venture capitalists have provided money for development of serious games. Even universities are supporting development of serious games by permitting students to produce these games for academic credit.” Story continues here…

My blogging is normally focused on emerging digital media, educational technology products and serious games, but this post from Medialoper strikes me as a cautionary tale for anyone involved in product development and marketing.

“Recently quasi-celebrity P-Diddy and Burger King conducted a master class on how NOT to use the evolving Web 2.0 environment to build a brand [...and...] speaks volumes about the dangers of trying to import traditional “talking at consumers” brand-building approaches into the Brave New World of user-generated content.”

“This e-disaster started with a tin-ear, cringe-inducing video posted on online video megasite YouTube, which showed famous-for-being-famous P-Diddy going into “his local Burger King” to “have it his way.” Implausible as it is that Mr. Bling would actually deign to enter a Burger King, the brand destruction really gets under way when Diddy says that “Burger King has named me ‘The King of Music and Fashion.’” This hit another false note, with the wanna-be icon spouting a blatant attempt to connect his brand with that of BK.”  Story continues here…

Like Clark Kent, The Venice Project has shed it’s jacket and tie and… ta daaa!… has been rechristened Joost. If you signed up for the beta you already knew this, but still many details were lacking. This morning Wired published Why Joost is Good for TV and let some light in. If you’re attending NATPE this week in Las Vegas there’s got to be a buzz on the floor. If you’re foregoing that schmooze-fest, read on:

“Somewhere between amazing greatness and raving geek fantasies of world domination lives the Venice Project — or Joost, as it is expected to be rechristened by the time you read this. Zennström and Friis have day jobs as Skype’s CEO and executive vice president of innovation, respectively. But in the cute way that Internet billionaires can do whatever the hell they want, they’re teeing up the mother of all side projects. “It’s really pretty simple,” Friis says, shifting into mantra mode. “We’ve taken the best things about television and added the best things from the Internet.” Why Joost is Good for TV continues here…

The merger of ePals with In2Books that was announced today should be of interest to educators seeking ways to integrate reading and technology in the classroom. ePals, an early entrant into student safe email and blogging that I’ve worked with at Scholastic and as a business development consultant, had been penetrating the US school market slowly and this may help them pick up the pace. In2Books CEO Ed Fish commented, “Our product strategy is focused on the use of the Internet as a safe learning environment to enable new forms of learning experiences in and out of the classroom. ePALS brings powerful collaboration and social networking tools to millions of connected teachers and students around the world. Once we complete product integration, we will be able to introduce In2Books’ full line of products and services to the schools and families in the ePALS community and create a unique online learning community engaged in ambitious, research proven literacy-based subject matter curricula.” Story continues here…

This morning Steve Jobs delivered his annual keynote speech at MacWorld and living up to expectations has announced two long-rumored products: Apple TV and a wide-screen ipod/web-connected iPhone that uses a patented high resolution touch screen display. Read David Pogue’s hands-on review here and Time magazine’s in-depth story about the iPhone here. With Apple’s solid track record, both devices are likely to have significant impact on their respective markets and, in the case of Apple TV, effectively creating a market for web video viewing on a home TV that until now was all but non-existent. Read between the lines and there’s a bigger story: Apple has morphed into a media company and even changed their name from “Apple Computer” to “Apple, Inc.”

When you add Apple’s announcements and their subtext — to the news and gadgets pouring out of the 40th annual Consumer Electronics Show this week, 2007 is starting to look like another year of disruption, disintermediation, and new business opportunities for digital media.

Eliane Alhadeff’s Future-Making Serious Games blog is loaded with recent posts on the subject and her photo set of serious games on Flickr brings dozens of screenshots together in one place. Tracing the source of this image I found it was from Ayiti: the Cost of Life which was chosen “best simulation of 2006″ by Jay Is Games. Also of note, this sim and four of five runner ups were developed in Flash. I’ve taken note of that and will consider adding a section on Flash to the Serious Game Engine Shootout I’m writing at the moment.

Two new reports on digital teens and digital consumers were released this week, and are worth adding to your New Year’s market research reading list:

Social Networking Websites and Teens from the Pew Internet and American Life Project is based on a telephone survey with 935 teens age 12 to 17 years-old and their parents. “A social networking site is an online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users. In the past five years, such sites have rocketed from a niche activity into a phenomenon that engages tens of millions of internet users. More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.” Download report (pdf) here…

The Digital Consumer report from Oppenheimer Research looks at digital media consumption going forward. “Technology advancements combined with deregulation during the mid 1990s began an Internet revolution that has now spawned entirely new modes of social behavior and interaction. Emerging from the ruins of the tech bubble’s burst, new entities such as Amazon, Yahoo!, eBay, and Google have harnessed the breadth and diversity of the Internet to build strong business models and significant market valuations.”