[sf-lug] Superstruct: How to invent the future by playing online games

[Bobbie Sellers]

	Some of us may be interested in this:


Subject: [EE CS Colloq] Superstruct: How to invent the future by 
playing online
      games * 4:15PM, Wed Oct 15, 2008 in Gates B01

               Stanford EE Computer Systems Colloquium
                   4:15PM, Wednesday, Oct 15, 2008
          HP Auditorium, Gates Computer Science Building B01
                     http://ee380.stanford.edu[1]

Topic:    Superstruct: How to invent the future by playing online games

Speaker:  Jane McGonigal
            Institute for the Future


About the talk:

Jane McGonigal, PhD takes play seriously. She is the director of
game research and development at the Institute for the Future,
where she studies how the games we play today might change the
way we do real work and live our real lives in the coming decade.
She has spent the past year developing a new platform at IFTF:
massively multiplayer forecasting games, which aim to apply
crowdsourcing theory and mass collaboration strategies to imagine
and engineering a best-case scenario future. The first version of
the platform -- a game called Superstruct -- launched October 6,
2008. Her talk will explore the theory behind MMFGs and the
design principles of Superstruct -- and reveal the most
interesting insights from the first 10 days of live gameplay!


About the game:

Visit Superstruct,the on-line game, at it's sites,
http://superstructgame.org, and participate if you want.

Superstruct is the world’s first massively multiplayer
forecasting game. By playing the game, you’ll help chronicle
the world of 2019--and imagine how we might solve the problems
we'll face. Because this is about more than just envisioning the
future. It’s about making the future, inventing new ways to
organize the human race and augment our collective human
potential.

     Q: Why should I play Superstruct?

     A: Here are some of favorite reasons: Because you’re curious
     about the future, because you want to make friends and
     collaborators all over the planet, because you want to learn how
     to become a future forecaster, and because you want to change the
     world.

     Q: What does “superstruct” mean?

     Su`per`struct´ v. t. 1.To build over or upon another structure;
     to erect upon a foundation.

     Superstructing is what humans do. We build new structures on old
     structures. We build media on top of language and communication
     networks. We build communities on top of family structures. We
     build corporations on top of platforms for manufacturing,
     marketing, and distribution. Superstructing has allowed us to
     survive in the past and it will help us survive the
     super-threats.

     Q: Who can play Superstruct?

     Everyone! The more players, the better the collective forecast.

     Q: How do I play Superstruct?

     A: Superstruct is played on forums, blogs, videos, wikis, and
     other familiar online spaces. We show you the world as it might
     look in 2019. You show us what it’s like to live there. Bring
     what you know and who you know, and we’ll all figure out how to
     make 2019 a world we want to live in.

     Q: Who is making Superstruct?

     A: Superstruct is being developed by the Ten-Year Forecast team
     at the Institute for the Future, a not-for-profit think tank
     based in Palo Alto, California. Project leads include TYF
     director Kathi Vian, blogger and futurist Jamais Cascio, and game
     designer Jane McGonigal.

     Q: When can I play Superstruct?

     A: The game starts October 6, 2008, and it will last for six
     weeks. Top Superstructure Honors will be given out by our
     celebrity game masters’ favorite superstructures at the end of
     the game, on November 17.

Slides:

There is no downloadable version of the slides for this talk
available at this time.

About the speaker:

In addition to her work at IFTF, Jane is the founder of Avant
Game and has designed numerous award-winning games, most recently
The Lost Ring, in which she invented a new sport for the Summer
2008 Olympics, and World Without Oil, a collaborative simulation
-- or historical pre-enactment -- of a global oil shortage. Her
academic research includes articles on how to design games that
create collective intelligences, how to architect
massively-scaled community, and how to develop scoring algorithms
that motivate collaboration.

Embedded Links:
[ 1 ]    http://ee380.stanford.edu


ABOUT THE COLLOQUIUM:

See the Colloquium website, http://ee380.stanford.edu, for scheduled
speakers, FAQ, and additional information.  Stanford and SCPD students
can enroll in EE380 for one unit of credit.  Anyone is welcome to 
attend;
talks are webcast live and archived for on-demand viewing over the web.

MAILING LIST INFORMATION:

This announcement is sent to multiple mailing lists. If you are signed
up on our private EE380 list you can remove yourself using the widget
at the upper left hand corner of the Colloquium web page. Other 
lists have other management protocols.


         later
	Bobbie Sellers aka
         bliss (cocoa-powered koo-koo) at california dot com

--
     bobbie sellers - (Back to Angband) Team *AMIGA* SF-LUG
	    Social Visionary And Twisted Mystic

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
  It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
  the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
  It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
         --from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.