Culture

[VideoGames] Multiplayer Video Games Complicated Communications

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Halloran, J., Fitzpatrick, G., Rogers, Y. and Marshall, P. (2004) Does it matter if you don't know who's talking? Multiplayer gaming with voiceover IP. To appear in Proceedings of CHI 2004.

Voiceover IP (VoIP) now makes it possible for people in distributed online multiplayer games to talk to each other. This might not only influence game performance, but also social interaction. However, using VoIP in multiplayer games can often make it hard to know who is talking, an issue that other researchers have found to be problematic. In a 10-week study of a fixed group of adult gamers, we found that not knowing who is talking affects game performance differently according to the type of game.

[TheWorld] Social navigation in art

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Lyon-based company Artprice now offers a cool social navigation solution!

With 900,000 clients and over a billion internet searches conducted through our site per year, Artprice possesses a unique database which has been gleaned from hundreds of millions of artist search sessions. As of July this year, and after several years of R&D, we are able to systematically process and analyse all of this information using a behavioural art market data bank baptised Artprice Knowledge ®. The first application of this database will be to identify, for any given artist, the other artists his/her clients may be interested in. (...) Clients looking for works by Henri Cartier-Bresson in our data bank will be invited to consult Ansel Easton Adams, Brassaï, Robert Doisneau, André Kertesz and Berenice Abbott. This affinity has been identified on a consensual basis by the millions of art buyers who visit our site.

[The World] L'effet Pepito

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L’effet pépito souligne l’impact de la compétence collective sur l’activité des entreprises. Suite au transfert de son usine de productions de pépito à l’Est, un groupe de l’agro alimentaire a été confrontée à une baisse de ses ventes de pépito liée à une perte de goût de ceux-ci. La compétence collective qui permettait d’obtenir le goût recherché par les enfants était une compétence collective non transférable. Les exemples de l’impact de la gestion des connaissances abondent dans l’industrie et dans les services.

[VideoGames] Mushroom-related game design

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Myamoto's interview on gamasutra about mushroom-related game design. They have a very interesting point:

The big challenge was the connectivity. Our question was, "How do we use the Game Boy Advance screen, and how do we use the GameCube screen, and find a way to make that fun?" The best example I have of making it fun is actually a very simple one. Basically, a giant bomb will fall onscreen on the GameCube, and there'll be this giant bomb sitting out there, and a timer starts counting down. And essentially, anyone who's still on the GameCube screen when that bomb goes off, it's game over for them. And so at that point, what those characters have to do is they have to find a hidden hole or passageway that will lead them down to the Game Boy Advance screen where they can take shelter from this giant bomb. So essentially it becomes almost like a hide and seek game. So that's a very simple example, but yet it's something that couldn't be done without the two screens connected, without connectivity. So for us, the hard part is not simply forcing the gameplay onto two separate screens and saying, "We have two screens, so at this point let's make them go down here, and at this point let's make them go up to the GameCube screen, and oh, over here they can go back down to the Game Boy Advance, and over here, let's just make them go over to the GameCube." It's about taking that connection and finding a way to take advantage of the fact that you have those two screens, and turn into something that's fun to experience. And so that's what I think is the big challenge, which is to come up with those ideas that make the connectivity mechanism fun.

The interview also put forward the revival of cooperative play against competition! Finally! Here could start lots of work about players' behavior while cooperating!

JM: Lately, there's been a renaissance of cooperative play, as opposed to competitive play. What were your feelings about creating a game driven by cooperation?

EA: The thing that I think is interesting is that cooperation is actually a different style of gameplay, and gives a different response than competition. The thing about Four Swords that's funny is that although it's a game that four players have to cooperate to solve puzzles, when you play it four-player with three of your friends, you actually end up competing a lot more in that game than you do cooperating. Because they're all cooperating to solve the puzzles, but then they're all racing to be the first one to get treasure, and items. So they end up fighting each other a lot. The thing that I think is really fun about that game is the shift between cooperation and competition, and how it can just turn suddenly, where you're cooperating, and then competing, and cooperating. It really makes for a really different interactive vibe between the players, and a very different environment. I think a lot of people are going to sit down to play, maybe not expecting that, and realize, "This is really fun!" [Laughter].

[Culture] Mimiyo Tomozawa's work

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I am a great fan of Mimiyo Tomozawa's artwork. Especially the booklet called "Viens chez moi" which describes the house of the future, explained for children, with children. You can also find a very nice book at dokidoki.fr. I am still trying to find one of her manga but it is really hard.

[Tech] Bloglines supports social nav like rss4you.com

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Gosh, finally another web-based aggregator supports social navigation: Bloglines. That's what they say: shareyour news feeds and blogs to discover new friends and explore new communities. This is like rss4you. Which is cool, the idea is spread! BUt here it is just based on people's interest. The idea could go further.

Bloglines Recommendations, a feature that offers Amazon.com-like tailored suggestions of other feeds and blogs you might like based on your current subscription interests.(...). Bloglines introduced sharing capabilities such as the ability to email interesting blog articles to others, and make one's list of Bloglines subscriptions available to the view of friends and like-minded individuals.

[Prospective] RSS Aggregators' future: let's put this in rss4you.com

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Steve Gillmor's article about web aggregators:

To begin with, we need to harness the information we already possess about who and what we read. Rather than relying on content creators to signal already consumed material, let's let the RSS aggregator (offline or online) filter out the links, but not the supporting commentary, to already consumed posts. Instrumenting the browser to record what is read, in what order, and for how long is trivial, says Adam Bosworth, in the context of his Alchemy caching architecture.

Next, let's incent that cache, mirrored on both server and client, to save posts that appear of interest or import not just to me but my peers on the network, as represented by the RSS feeds that I and they are subscribed to. If Jon Udell, Dave Winer, Doc Searls and 70% of their subscribers find the RSS BitTorrent thread compelling, then please send a message to my cache engine not to throw that post away, no matter whether I have ever heard of the poster or the horse they rode in on, the idea he or she is promoting.

Next, compare all the posts and posters and produce a weighted priority list that takes into account variables such as author, subject, updates, Technorati cosmos tracking, the amount of time I have before the next meeting on my calendar, and so on, producing a post rank based not just on my attention but the attention dynamics of those I choose to do my filtering with and for me.

That should be incorporated as a roadmap for rss4you.com, the aggregator roby and I did!!!

[SemanticWeb] Syndication Nation throughout the nation till the next station

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At Supernova, the panel about syndication appears to be smart: Paul Boutin (Wired magazine), Scott Rosenberg (Salon.com), Tim Bray (Sun Microsystems) and Kevin Marks sat in for David Sifry (Technorati). Excerpts from session notes I've read:

Boutin: Most of people know about syndication as a way to read 10, 20, 30, maybe hundreds of blogs a day. I wanted to explore some of the other uses out there.(...) aggregated feeds are a way to mix the best of the Web with the best of email.

Kevin Marks: As the universe of syndicated content grows, there will be more interesting uses there. By tracking the connections between feeds, we can identify who the experts in a field are. Syndication isn't limited to publication; it's a way of saying, "Here's something new."

Rosenberg: I'm not hugely optimistic about a world in which every corporation has a universe of bloggers in it. The software industry is unique. Software developers are a great group to have blogging because they feel empowered and can go work somewhere else. Most organizations don't have that luxury, and most employees will feel cowed about saying what they really think. (...) some people are starting to put ads in their RSS feeds. As that happens, it might be far less attractive. (...) My fear is that it's been nine years publishing on the Web, and today, we see some people in the advertising world begin to understand the medium of the Web. The concepts are very slow to filter through that universe. Advertising moves really slowly. They don't go to technology conferences.

[SciFi] Afro-futurism project?

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Since I am considering working on a Yet Another Side-Project about the dark hip hop scene (AntiPop Consortium, Cannibal Ox...), I am gathering ideas from various stuff like afro-futurism:Jahsonic proposes a definition:

In his book More Brilliant than the Sun Kodwo Eshun gives a concise summary of Afro-Futurism's history: "AfroFuturism comes from Mark Dery's '93 book [Flame Wars], but the trajectory starts with Mark Sinker. In 1992, Sinker starts writing on Black Science Fiction; that's because he's just been to the States and Greg Tate's been writing a lot about the interface between science fiction and Black Music. Tate wrote this review called 'Yo Hermeneutics' which was a review of David Toop's Rap Attack plus a Houston Baker book, and it was one of the first pieces to lay out this science fiction of black technological music right there. And so anyway Mark went over, spoke to Greg, came back, started writing on Black Science Fiction. He wrote a big piece in The Wire, a really early piece on Black Science Fiction in which he posed this question, asks "What does it mean to be human?" In other words, Mark made the correlation between Blade Runner and slavery, between the idea of alien abduction and the real events of slavery." - Kodwo Eshun [...]

[Weird] the onion's editor interview

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Interesting interview of the onion's editor Carol Kolb.

HB: Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnell once tried to describe the "fine line between clever and stupid"; you guys seem to have no problem staying on the side of the former, though. Is it hard to be consistent? Do you guys ever get negative feedback from readers, despite your distinct lack of a "letters to the editor" section?

CK: Sure, it's hard to be consistent. I can't say how much we are. I hope we do okay. We get tons of emails and quite a few letters. I don't usually read them, mostly because I don't have the time. We do get quite a few negative ones. But I don't know, one will say the latest issue was the worst thing ever, and the next will say the same issue's the best in months. I think we find new readers and the ones that get sick of what it is move on to something else. That all makes sense to me.

[Misc] About cognitive ergonomics

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From ergoweb:

Ergonomics is sometimes described as "fitting the system to the human," meaning that through informed decisions; equipment, tools, environments and tasks can be selected and designed to fit unique human abilities and limitations. Typical examples in the "physical ergonomics" arena include designing a lifting job to occur at or near waist height, selecting a tool shape that reduces awkward postures, and reducing unnecessary tasks and movements to increase production or reduce errors and waste. "Cognitive ergonomics," on the other hand, focuses on the fit between human cognitive abilities and limitations and the machine, task, environment, etc. Example cognitive ergonomics applications include designing a software interface to be "easy to use," designing a sign so that the majority of people will understand and act in the intended manner, designing an airplane cockpit or nuclear power plant control system so that the operators will not make catastrophic errors.

[VideoGames] Few misconceptions often found among computer game students

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Via DIGRA:

Below I list a few misconceptions often found among computer game students (and researchers I might add).

These are not set in stone but are based on my own experience as a student, comments from other students, and supervising students:

1. There is no academic research in computer games. There is plenty of research in the game-resarch.com reference database there is more than 500 references to games research, and it is far from complete [link]. Rest assure that somewhere out there others have wrestled or are wrestling with similar problems as yours. You are not alone.

2. Computer games require its own form of academic writing: The normal principles for academic writing apply when you approach computer games. It may very well be hard to keep you personal feelings and subjective opinions in leash, when analysing your favourite game. But make sure to maintain a balanced academic approach.

3. The field is too new to have basic themes, canons, and important theorist. This is not the case, and there is no excuse for not knowing the most basic theorist in the field. Be sure to have a quick breeze through Jonas H. Smiths 101 on Game research, where many important researchers are mentioned [link].

4. Computer games are entirely different from everything else: This is hardly the case and much game research draws heavily on other disciplines like literature, psychology, media studies, history, sociology, and anthropology. Still, computer games have characteristics that set them aside.

5. It is not important to have played computer games to study them: Think again. How many other areas do you find, where students and researchers have no first hand experience with their object of study.

6. Playing computer games since you were 6 years old is no guarantee: You should not confuse experience with computer games with academic ability although it definitely helps to know your object of study.

7. Studying computer games must be paradise: I am not the one to shoot down dreams but as everything else studying computer games is hard work with an occasional glimpse of paradise.

8. Computer games were invented yesterday: The history of computer games runs at least 40 years back in time, and probably more depending on your level of detail and criteria for computer games. Do not ignore history as it tends to repeat itself. There is a wealth of history books out there. Just make your pick. I recommend you start with the Dot Eaters [link].

9. Computer games are different from games: Computer games and games share a lot of the same characteristics but there is also interesting differences. In many areas of computer game studies you can find relevant research done earlier on non-electronic games.

[Semantic Web] plink: a foaf search engine

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Let's use plink !

PLINK gets all its user data from 'FOAF' (Friend-of-a-Friend) files which anyone can add to their web site.FOAF files are machine readable (XML) text files that you can use to describe basic information about yourself and the people you know. Anyone can create a FOAF file quite simply by using tools like the excellent Foaf-a-matic.

[Prospective] Sherry Turkle in Harvard Business Review

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I think I missed this paper from Sherry Turkle in the Harvard Business Review: Technology and Human Vulnerability (2003):

or most of the last 50 years, technology knew its place. It's very different today. Technology is not only ubiquitous but has become highly intrusive as well. On the Internet, people invent imaginary identities in virtual chat rooms. Children are growing up with interactive toy animals. If we want to be sure we'll like who we've become in 50 years, we need to take a closer look at the psychological effects of current and future technologies. The smartest people in technology have already started. Universities like MIT and Caltech have been pouring millions of dollars into researching what happens when technology and humanity meet. To learn more about this research, HBR senior editor Diane L. Coutu spoke with one of the field's most distinguished scholars--Sherry Turkle, MIT's Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society and the author of Life on the Screen, which explores how the Internet is changing the way we define ourselves. In a conversation with Coutu, Turkle discusses the psychological dynamics that can develop between people and their high-tech toys, describes ways in which machines might substitute for managers, and explains how technology is redefining what it means to be human. She warns that relatively small differences in technology design can have disproportionate effects on how humans relate to technology, to one another, and to themselves.

(Culture) Serendipity is my main mode

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Formalising the Concept of Serendipity in Web Searching by Olivier Ertzscheid, Information Science - University of Social Sciences Toulouse.

In the context of traditional models of information retrieval, this presentation analyses a new emergent paradigm in web searching : serendipity, placing it among related technologies (such as clustering, profiling and mapping) that comprise the major trends in information retrieval on the web. The presentation focuses on (1) mapping the results of web search and (2) building dynamic clusters based upon the results of web searches. The reasons for this increasing role of serendipity in web searching are discussed and linked to a) the exponential growth of information available upon the network; b) the complexity of expert searching via search engines for non-expert users (boolean queries, scope of different extensions and limitations); and c) the economic model of these search engines. Serendipity is nowadays an intuitive way to "find without searching". It raises important questions in an "information society", such as the monopolistic situation of major search engines such as Google, and the "objectivity" of search results, as well as the behaviour of non-professionnal information seekers.

Definition of serendipty by Wikipedia.

Serendipity is finding something unexpected and useful while searching for something else entirely. For instance, the discovery of the antibacterial properties of penicillin by Alexander Fleming is said to have been serendipitious, because he was merely cleaning up his laboratory when he discovered that the Penicillium mould had contaminated one of his old experiments.

(Prospective) A-Team, Vigilante, Federalism

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If I had times, I would write a short political essay about this. I was thinking at the A team or all the vigilante stuff in the US pop culture. USA is the one of the place where you can find "vigilantes" as a cultural phenomenon (I mean superheros that may protect the Earth as well as human beings). Those superheros should be seen as a particular type of mercenaries (not "soldier of fortune" who works for gold but rather because they have higher intents: they do it because that is their mission).Of course, we can find mercs everywhere but this is so important in the US that this concept has been spread in the pop culture. You cannot find the french A Team or the german Watchmen. What I want to point here is the cultural spread of vigilantes in the pop culture could be seen as a metaphor of how citizen trust their Nation. The consequences is that...

WOW I stop here, mixing media studies and political sciences... that's not my field, I have 0 legitimity... It was just quick thoughts...

[Tech] Game Boy to handle text messaging

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According to news.com, the Game Boy will handle text messaging .

Software maker Majesco is readying a wireless application for Nintendo's popular Game Boy console that will let the gadget handle cell-style text messaging. (...) The product will be available later this year. Majesco already makes video compression technology that lets Advance users watch commercial-grade video on their Nintendo device.