A quick link to a research group in Rome that seems kind of interesting, readapting the strong tradition of italian ethnographic research to mobile audiences.

During the Cross Media Storytelling conference I had the chance to learn more about LAMP, (Laboratory of Advanced Media Production), aimed to upgrade media professionals to cutting-edge production modes, which means of course cross media.As far as I know nothing like that is actually happening in Europe, except maybe the (internal) training at BBC 360°, the Immovator meetings in the Netherlands, which are not exactly training, and perhaps something within the Media program (the brilliant Sagas courses have been denied funding this year, let’s hope in the next one). I understand something in that direction is going to happen at the MEC centre in Mechelen, will post about it later on.Probably for this to happen in Europe we will need cross media to reach some sort of “official” status, which it still has not. Let’s wait and see..

Another event related to the Magic Circle, this time in Tampere, from the Hypermedia Lab - my source is the Terranova blog, anyway here it is:?Breaking the Magic Circle?Call for Papers: Game Studies Seminar, Tampere 10-11 April, 2008One of the classic theories of games and play was presented by Johan Huizinga in his work Homo Ludens (orig. from 1938). Huizinga wrote about the free and voluntary nature of play, how it is “an activity connected with no material interest” and how it “proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space”, involving and absorbing players utterly into a separate world set off from the “ordinary” life, while being created and maintained by communities of players.Huizinga’s view has become widely known within contemporary game studies, and it is often referred as the ‘Magic Circle’ view on games and play. This concept has also been widely criticised, as it has become increasingly obvious how various “games external” areas play an important role in digital play, and also because digital games have become more widely enmeshed with and applied into various economical, educational and other social and cultural processes and uses.”Breaking the Magic Circle” seminar invites presentations from multiple?> points of view, including theoretical as well as empirically based studies into that question or expand existing conceptions regarding digital games and play. Particular fields of study might include, but are not limited to:• pervasive, mobile or location based gaming,?• alternate reality gaming?• casual, non-immersive or coincidental forms of play,?• professional gaming,?• money gaming, betting and gambling within digital games and play.The seminar is fourth in the annual series of game studies working paper seminars organised by the Games Research Lab in the University of Tampere. Due to the work-in-progress emphasis, we strongly encourage submitting late breaking results, working papers and/or submissions from graduate students. Early considerations from projects currently in progress are most welcome, as the purpose of the seminar is to have peer-to-peer discussions and thereby provide support in refining and improving research work in this area. After the seminar, separate consideration will be given to various options of publishing the seminar papers.The papers to be presented will be chosen based on abstract review. Full papers are distributed prior the event to all participants, in order to facilitate discussion.The two-day event consists of themed sessions that aim to introduce current research projects and discuss ongoing work in studies of games, play and their relation to surrounding phenomena. The seminar will be chaired by professor Frans Mäyrä (Hypermedia Laboratory, University of Tampere). Paper commentators include researchers Markus Montola, Aki Järvinen and Simon Niedenthal, associate professor of interaction design.The seminar will be held in Tampere, Finland and will be free of charge; the number of participants will be restricted.Important Dates• Abstract Deadline: January 15, 2008?• Notification of Acceptance: January 30, 2008?• Full Paper deadline: March 27, 2007?• Seminar dates: April 10-11, 2007Submission GuidelinesAbstract submissions should include maximum of 1.000 words (excluding references). Abstracts should be send to info-gamestudies{at}uta.fi as plain text only (no attachments). Guidelines for submitting a full seminar paper will be provided with the notification of acceptance.Our aim is that everyone participating has been able to read materials submitted to the seminar, therefore the maximum length for a full paper is set to 6.000 words (excluding references). Note also that the presentations held at the seminar should also encourage discussion, instead of only repeating the information presented in the papers.Tentatively, every paper will be presented for 10 minutes and discussed for 20 minutes. -

Technorati Tags: Call for papers, conference, cross media, games, locative games

Orphan of Christy Dena’s blog, who did all the dirty work of finding what was actually going on, and much more than that, I will have to post more about new cross media productions, in case somebody is actually reading this blog :)A new TV spin off ARG is seeing the light, here is one of the original posts in the Jericho community:Yes, that’s right! A Jericho alternate reality game! Betcha didn’t see that one coming! Or at least, I sure didn’t!A few days (maybe a week?) ago, some people in the fandom received an email which linked them to the ARG. Apparently, it’s been around for awhile or something, but right now, the morse code involved is being updated regularly with new clues.It pretty much set the CBS message boards on fire with speculation and excitement (does this mean they’re actually promoting our show?!).So, if anyone wants to play along, the main site is www.jenningsandrall.com. It’s also being followed closely and discussed on these threads on the CBS message boards: jenningsandrall and Black Hills Radio Broadcasts.Associated sites are www.sacredhatcasino.com, www.blackhillsradiocontrol.com, and I think there might be a fourth as well so if you want to play along, check out those sites and get involved! :)Also, the production blog was updated with photos of the cast walking the picket lines with the writers…you can check them out at www.jerichorises.com.I d follow it, but I am still too busy trying to keep up with Year Zero

Last year in January a very cool, cosy and international event by the name of “Philosophy of Games conference” took place in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Next year it is going to be in Potsdam, Germany, less than an hour from Berlin, May 8 to 10, and the call for papers is now open - 2008 is the year of the magic circle, for some reason.

Technorati Tags: Call for papers, conference, event, games

While googling for inspiration about children and new technologies, I found this intriguing post and a website:“This is Sophia Berglund - Right now she is 25 months old and growing so fast in her capabilities in communication - already she can muster small sentences in English, Korean, Japanese and some German! She can even translate! Sophia can create lines, shapes and forms by way of painting her communication…”“Part of her 1st and 2nd years were spent in S.Korea where she was born into one of the most advanced mobile “handphone” cultures in the world - literally 5minutes after birth her first ever picture (and video) taken by a mobile/handphone and sent to our friends and relatives, she made her first mobile location based phone call at 5months and at 6months she was surfing mobile internet and watching mobileTV! She had her first “co-location” experience in 2006 when friends “broadcast” the ? / Bi (Rain)**concert live over their handphone to my handphone - Seoul - to - Jeju…Sophia is growing up into a digital world. Already she has a real-demo phone given to her by a friend at LGe - which she mimmicks her immediate social circle in making calls and surfing data.”My apologies to Andrew Berglund (the father) for thinking at first this was a hoax I must have been reading too much SF novels. He said the child is now , hope he will post more.My question about technology usage in toddlers is first: how do we avoid sedentary attitudes and postural problems, not to talk about the over-developed thumb, a urban legend regarding mobile use among japanese teenagers, recurrent in Sunday magazines.Another question would be: although communication tools encourage enhanced sociability, how does the lack of face-to-face interaction affects learning of emotions, empathy, and all the other skills that Daniel Goleman calls “emotional intelligence”.

A friend just send me a very depressing article about the situation of PhD students in Italy, actually reality is much more depressing, but if you are so lucky to work in another country perhaps you can’t imagine how it is like - please take a look.PS I notice now the article is old, from 2001; well, the last time I looked around for a PhD scholarship in Italy was 2004, and the situation was even worse.

Technorati Tags: educational, Italy

Cross media as an academic topic is definitely gaining ground: a conference about Cross Media Storytelling is going to take place November 23-25 in Mechelen (half an hour from Brussels).

The program features many interesting scholars from around the world and an interesting angle between academic and professionals, addressing narrative issues from all sides.

Technorati Tags: conference, cross media