I just discovered through Ilya’s post a study of the Perception of the Presence of Brands in Second Life by CB News in partnership with Repères Second Life. It is an excellent study because it gives some spot on advice about brands in SL but also because it provides a snapshot of SL residents. Here are some of the findings:
The main thing learnt from the poll was that the presence of RL brands is perceived as positive by a great majority of Second Life residents: 66% believe that the presence of RL brands has a positive impact on SL, whereas 22% believe that RL brands have no impact on SL, and only 11% believe that RL brands have a negative impact on SL.
As many of you would be aware, I wrote the section on ARGs & Academia for the International Game Developers Association Alternate Reality Game SIG Whitepaper. *whew! * I looked around far and wide to find academics and educators who are looking at ARGs and presented what was at the time a pretty comprehensive listing of people in the area. Since then there has been a great many more researchers who have either made themselves known or commenced studying ARGs. There has been more, however, educators who are looking at ARGs as a pedagogical device in secondary and tertiary education and the public sector. Because of the publicity around the whitepaper they joined the IGDA ARG SIG listerv, ready for conversation, sharing and advice…which is great. The list is unfortunately, not as active as it could be.
There are a few reasons I could posit, one being that there are soooo many people on the list that people feel reluctant to share to such a massive audience. Another reason is that the area is so new everyone feels a bit out of water. Who knows what the reasons are? What I do know is I receive alot of emails offlist from academics and educators wanting to talk and share. So, in the interests of facilitating some good academic exchange I’ve started another listserv for ARG Academic Researchers and Educators. I hope the list is seen as being complementary to the current SIG list and not a competitor since both can co-exist quite well. Indeed, the fact that more specialised lists are needed is a sign that the area is maturing. Hey, the new list may not even work as a conversation space either…but I hope it does…because I’m keen to share and hear other people’s thoughts and knowledge. So, without further delay, here is the link to signup to the
In this second part of my series of posts (part one) about my recent cross-media tour of five countries, I cover my trip to Sweden to deliver a keynote at the First International Conference on Cross Media Interaction Design. Very exciting it was (she says with Yoda grammar). It was held in at a ski resort (see the pic which is the view from my room) in Hemavan. The general chair was Charlotte Wiberg and program chair Mikael Wiberg, of Umea University. Here is the intro description of the event:
During the conference we have the opportunity to address the modern media landscape as a mixture o fapplications, platforms and media belnded with advanced navigational structures in spport of various kinds of acticvities including marketing, gaming, collabroation, blogging, and much more. As we can see, the web as a media platform is becoming more and more focal, and more and more often, web sites employ the cross-media concept which include a wide range of media, such as television, chat, or mobile SMS and MMS. […]
The aim of this conference is therefore set to improve our understanding of interaction design as a cross-media activity without boundaries. An understanding that takes into account interaction intense user experiences and novel interaction and media technologies.
Day One
The first day of the conference was on Thursday 22nd March. The general chair of the conference, Charlotte Wiberg, opened the day with an overview of all the people at the conference from different parts of the globe. I, being from Australia, came the furthest. Charlotte outlined some of the items that are relevant in considering cross-media and interaction design, for instance: “context of use” and “user experiences” and “how to handle relations between media inheritages”.
The first talk was an industry one delivered by Claes Nilsson, the Channel Sales Manager of AVID, Sweden and Denmark. Nilsson spoke about the impact of cross-media on AVID, a first he said for him and AVID as his talks are always about the product only. Nilsson outlined the phases of AVID’s history:
* Phase One (1989-1999): single user, replicate analog equipment
* Phase Two (2000-2006): shared workgroups
* Phase Three (2007+): editing is the same, where it comes from and where it goes is different
For AVID, the Internet has changed the how (collaboration between facilities), where (new distribution methods) and what (new content types). “It’s all about,” Nilsson says, ” serving the creation through the consumption cycle”. Â After that we went off and socialised during our opening dinner.
