Mindtoggle Blog

Game Sites to Enjoy

admin — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:47:00 +0000

I found an interesting website today; it's a game site for "Older players." The site is2 old 2 play. I don't know if I'm too old, but I think it's a concept worth reviewing. I've also been watching the great games experiment, where I posted a few of my prototypes Lindsay Grace http://www.LGrace.com

Week 1: Top 10 List for My Students

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:42:20 +0000

Week 1 Top 10's: Classic Video Games and History We begin class by learning about the history of video and computer games. Most students know something about Atari 2600 or Pong, but there are many holes we need to fill. Week one's top 10 provides you with a set of resources to further develop your understanding of video game history. These lists aren't necessarily academic, nor are they complete, but they are somewhere between entertaining and educational.

The 10 Most Important Games of all time: As presented at the Game Developer's Conference (something you should know about). This list will be particularly useful when you are studying for your first quiz. If you don't know half of these, you don't know games. Don't worry, we'll play some of them in class. You should also note that Game Informer, IGN, and others do similar lists annually.

Top 10 Cheesiest Classic Game Commercials (Yahoo!Games): Sit back, open a can of Tab and enjoy. We will watch some of these in class. Once you get beyond the laugh, we can start to analyze what sold games then, and what sells games now. Remember, this curse focuses on marketing as well as development.
Top 10 Remakes of Classic Games (Daily Top 10): Download a few games you might not be able to play otherwise. We can't play every game in class, so it's a good idea that you each play some outside of class.

(this is a repost of content I provided my students at http://ai.lgracegames.com/)

Week 2: Top 10 Important Wins and Losses in Video Game History

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:43:11 +0000

Week 2: Top 10 - Important Wins and Loses As we finish our history of games, and begin to discuss the design and development of your game, it's important to understand what succeeds and what fails. When reviewing the success and failures of game history it is important to remember that winning and losing isn't jut about having the best design or technology. Success is at the intersection of multiple factors including marketing, timing, audience, and others. Many great games never succeed commercially, and occasionally a very mediocre game triumphs.

Winning:

Winning isn't everything, but it is pretty important. A win in the industry could be viewed multiple ways. The easiest is commercial successes, but even that can be evaluated multiple ways (pure number, market share, specific demographic, etc). You can also consider a game a win if it pushes your company from just another developer, to noteworthy-ness.

Forbes (via NPD) American's All Time Top Videogames, or you can read a very similar list from Newsweek as the Best Selling Games

Losing:

Industry critics, whether fan boy, 30-year veteran, or academic pull no punches when it comes to weak games. Do a search for worst-game-ever. While it's fun to read or watch the sometimes over the top reviews bashing a game, I found the following to be fair reviews and lists.

PBS just asked a range of Game industry people for their Best and Worst: PBS.org
Gamepro's 10 Worst-Selling consoles: Little note, develop exclusively on these consoles if you want a challenge :)
There's a list maintained on Wikipedia about games with "Negative Reception"

Tie, Draw, and No Show:

There's also the hotly contested, underrated and under appreciated game category. In a game dev class, this is not a very solid place from which to examine games. Simply, there's too much opinion and not much quantitative data to evaluate. However, Gamespy did embark on a fair analysis in 2003.

Week 3: Top 10 Game Ranking Sites and Sales Research

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:43:46 +0000

For Work

Week three starts with a top 10 of top 10's: game rankings and sales. Before you decide to develop your game, you should do the research to see if anyones been down your path, and find out what they learned. You'll never get all the asnwers, but you can get some improtant questions resolved. Here's a few sites for your video game research: We'll start with the basics: Industry Facts as provided by the ESA Then we should review a few of my favorite sales stat resource for video games:

GameRankings.com
Video Game Charts (VgCharts.com)
And round out number 3 with GamesIndustry.biz (charts)

You can also review data from the consumer end resources (e.g. IGN, gamespot, etc) and NPD group.

For Fun

As you start to work through your game ideas and attempt to evalaute what shoulds stay and what should go, you should view a few lists of things that never happened. Typically such games are called vaporware, and the stories by these games are sometimes more interesting than the game that almost was.

How Stuff Works: Best Games That Never Were

After trying to sell a game you know didn't succeed, I thought you might appreciate reading this little post of the top 10 games that will never be made. It's in no way academic, but number one did have me laughing.

The Top Ten Game You'll Never See

There's also a photoshop contest about where people create box art for some games that didn't quite make it to the shelves.

Worth100: Video Games that Were Not Made

FYI, you will be doing some of your own box art in Photoshop, so this really is related directly to class :) (this is a repost of content I provided my students at http://ai.lgracegames.com/)

Novel Game Story and Concepts

admin — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:03:09 +0000

Ico: http://www.us.playstation.com/Content/OGS/SCUS-97113/Site/ "The player of the game takes on the role of Ico, a young boy born with a pair of horns, who must escort a princess named Yorda safely out of a castle without her being captured by the shadowy figures that prowl the castle or being killed by the castle's numerous environmental hazards. Despite selling only 650,000 copies worldwide, Ico received strong reviews, and has become a cult hit among video game enthusiasts." "It makes effective use of minimal dialogue and story to forge strong emotional connections with the characters and environments in the game. It includes action, adventure and puzzle elements. The game also has a notable fictional language which has been theorized [1] to be backwards Japanese."-Wikipedia Video: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=ico System Shock: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Shock "Set aboard the fictional Citadel research and mining space station, in a Cyberpunk future . . . it was critically acclaimed for having detailed 3D environments, an engrossing storyline, deep gameplay and a memorable villain. System Shock is often cited as an inspiration for games like Half-Life and Deus Ex; indeed, some of the same key people behind System Shock worked on the latter." also review Bio Shock Story "Set in 2072, the game casts the player as a computer hacker caught while attempting to remotely access files concerning Citadel space station, which is owned by the TriOptimum Corporation, the largest corporation in the world. The hacker is taken to Citadel and brought before Edward Diego, a greedy TriOptimum executive who offers to drop all charges against the hacker in exchange for a secret hacking job on SHODAN, the artificial intelligence (AI) that controls the station. To make the deal more enticing, the hacker receives a valuable military-grade cybernetic implant with the implantation operation bankrolled by Diego. After hacking SHODAN, removing the AI's ethical constraints, and handing control over to Diego, the hacker is prepared for the promised surgery. Following the operation, the hacker is put into a six-month long controlled healing coma in the surgical suite of the station's medical level. The game begins as the hacker awakens." - Wikipedia Video: System Shock 2 Training Component : http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6072271534991938972&q=system+shock Grim Fandango: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_Fandango The story unfolds in four episodes, each set a year apart on the Day of the Dead. It is from this festival that much of the game's imagery is drawn — most of the game's characters are skeletal calaca figures (based on the work of Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada). Various flowers are also used as tools of murder, in the form of a substance known as "Sproutella", which reacts with bone, destroying it by causing flowers to grow in it extremely rapidly. Characters refer to this manner of death as "sprouting". There is also unique fauna scattered throughout the game, such as bone-eating fire beavers and gigantic cats used for racing. Unusually, the game combines this mythical underworld with 1930s Art Deco design motifs and a dark plot reminiscent of the film noir genre. Manny, whose job combines the roles of Grim Reaper and travel agent, turns detective when he discovers that deserving souls are being denied their rightful post-mortem reward of direct travel to Mictlan, bypassing the four-year trip that all other souls must take. Manny's investigations draw him into a tangled web of corruption, deceit, and murder. The second part of the game, when Manny is running a nightclub, is inspired by Humphrey Bogart films The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo and Casablanca. In the game, the gambler Chowchilla Charlie is extremely reminiscent of Peter Lorre, and the town's corrupt police chief is based on Claude Rains's Captain Renault. Despite this, Tim Schafer stated that the true inspiration was drawn from films like Double Indemnity, in which a weak and undistinguished man (an insurance salesman, not a detective) is involved in murder and intrigue[1]. Video: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=grim+fandango&num=10&so=0&hl=en&start=10 Psychonauts: http://www.psychonauts.com/ "For years, the Psychonauts have deployed their psychically-armed operatives all over the world, but this time trouble is brewing in their own boot camp. A deranged scientist is abducting camp cadets for their brains. One student, a mysterious and powerful new arrival named Raz, stands alone against the lunatic. Raz must develop and unleash an arsenal of paranormal powers including his most powerful weapon of all—the ability to launch himself telepathically into the minds of others. Ultimately he must enter the psyche of his worst enemy and destroy his dark plans at their source while trying not to lose his sanity in the process." - from the psychonauts website American McGee's Alice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_McGee's_Alice "Shortly after her second adventure, Alice's parents are killed in a fire of which she is the only survivor. Driven catatonic and having attempted suicide (implied, but never directly referred to), she is institutionalised in Rutledge Asylum. Years later, Alice is called by the White Rabbit to the aid of a radically altered Wonderland now under the despotic rule of the Red Queen. The Cheshire Cat in particular now looks very different from Sir John Tenniel's original illustration: he is shown here as skeletally thin and his grin looks are more devious than mischievous. The Cat is Alice's constant companion throughout the game, popping up now and again to guide the player or offer advice." - from Wikipedia Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6610946121321985782&q=mcgee%27s+alice&total=188&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

admin — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:55:34 +0000

FYI CALL FOR CHAPTERS Proposals Submission Deadline: 9/5/2008 Full Chapters Due: 2/28/2009 Serious Game Design and Development: Technologies for Training and Learning A book edited by Dr. Janis Cannon-Bowers & Dr. Clint Bowers University of Central Florida Purpose and Goals of the Book The use of gaming approaches for more serious purposes is not a new phenomenon. Teachers have used board games, memory games, and others in classrooms for decades. However, the advent of video gaming technologies created a host of opportunities for people to use the immersive, interactive, environments provided by such technology to deliver pedagogical content in a simulated environment that is thought to engender deeper learning in a more entertaining environment. The use of video games for serious purposes was largely fostered by the US military, which saw the low-fidelity simulation abilities of these platforms as a low-cost way to deliver training. Buoyed by successes in this market, developers have expanded their activities to a whole range of serious applications, including K-12 education, advertising, and social change, to name a few. The increasing use of these games has now drawn the interest of various disciplines within the scientific community, who seek to understand the nature of effective games and to provide guidance for how best to harness the power of gaming technology to successfully accomplish the more serious goal. At this point, several serious games have been fielded, with varying levels of success. Many of these games have not been formally evaluated, while others have been, but the results have not been published. Conversely, scientists are beginning to report results about effective game elements, but there is not a clear conduit to get these results to the developers who could most use them. Our goal, therefore, is to create a volume that seeks to “bridge the gap” between development and science. Specifically, we will approach leaders in the game development community to share their successes and the area where they could benefit from scientific guidance. Similarly, we will invite prominent scientists to describe their current findings and to provide their input on the future of the field. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Serious Games in K-12 Education Serious Games in Postsecondary Education Serious Games in Business and Industry Serious Games in Training Serious Games and Health Serious Games as Social Tools Research in Serious Games Serious Games in the Military Serious Games and Communication Submission Procedure Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before September 5, 2008, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by November 30, 2008 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by February 28, 2009. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference) and “Medical Information Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit http://www.igi-global.com/. Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) or by mail to: Dr. Clint Bowers Department of Psychology University of Central Florida Orlando, FL 32801

Prototypes and Games

admin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:08:14 +0000

Gameplay needs to be tested. However it’s very expensive to evaluate gameplay after you have spent all the time and energy to produce a complete game. Enter prototypes. Prototypes of varying levels of technical sophistication allow the designer and developer to evaluate a game concept before they invest substantial time and energy in a game. This is essentially a “try before you buy” approach. Why would you commit two hundred employees to an idea your unsure about working? In class we will talk about a few tools for prototyping. We will start with the paper-prototype as a low cost tool for testing some design aspects. The paper prototype is practical, low cost, and lets you build a board game equivalent of your video game (that’s a plug for the relationship of board, tabletop, and card games to video games). I'd start with this information about building a prototype from Casual Games.com. It's an easy to read list that takes about 10 mintues to consume and covers the basics. You should follow that reading, with some tips and tricks for paper prototyping from gamasutra. Since paper prototypes do have their limitations (esp. flow), we’ll also have a brief discussion about basic game building technologies. These tools are relatively simple to use and allow you to test a new gameplay experience without the costs of complete development.

As you work, you might want to take a break by reading The Common Pitfalls of Game Prototyping or you could take a bigger break by playing some pitfall (Commodore 64) and super pitfall (NES).

Here are some paper prototypes done by my Protoyping for Games students.

Game Development Notes

admin — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:22:55 +0000

I found this site, notesongamedev.com, through the game education SIG at IGDA. There's a healthy set of blogs and some interesting content about specific designer/developer experiences. It's worth checking out. Lindsay Grace

admin — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:01:00 +0000

Game Competitions for Students

admin — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:49:18 +0000

I posted the following game competition list for my Programming for the Artist students at the Illinois Institute of Art, Chicago last week:

"I suggest that as you work toward completing your games you consider submitting them to small, student competitions. It is a good educational experience. Game Career Guide's list of student competitions should point you in a good direction. Besides, if the honor of winning our in-class competition doesn't motivate you, perhaps a $20,000 grand prize will (see IGF).

You should also consider posting them to something like the Great Games Experiment to start to build an online portfolio. It doesn't make sense if your game is very rough, but those of you who do complete your proposed design, or who win our in-class competition may find the "publicity" beneficial. Of course, bad press, is bad press, so be careful with what you post. Also avoid copyright issues.

In case you didn't know, these may be particularly appropriate: Gamers Institute Competition (Closes September 16, 2008) An AI sponsored online game competition. There is a bias toward web based games (e.g. .swf), but they will consider small games like the ones we are creating. These smaller competitions are really gems for small student games. Independent Games Festival (2008) The premier independent game festival and competition for students. Successes stories include Braid and Portal."

Games for Health Competition

admin — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:12:21 +0000

Games for Health Project Announces Experimental Health Game Jam at University of Baltimore October 18 to 19, 2008 Independent, professional and student game developers to build rapid prototypes in a weekend marathon On October 18 at the University of Baltimore, the Games for Health Project, together with its partners, kicks off an experimental Health Game Jam to encourage rapid prototype development of new games that people can play to learn about and improve their personal health. The Jam is a marathon session that challenges teams of designers, programmers and artists to work round-the-clock to create small, playable games that demonstrate innovative ideas in short amounts of time. Competitors will then showcase their work, which will be critiqued and judged by a panel of professional game developers and educators. "The goal of Games for Health is to use all the resources that exist in the greater game development field to provide solutions to health and health care challenges," said Ben Sawyer, co-founder of the Games for Health Project. "Experimental game jams, which owe their heritage to demo jams in Europe, have become popular events in the past five years. We want to tap into the incredible creativity these jams foster and put that to use in health domain." The Jam's Grand Prize winner will receive $3,000 in prize money from the Games for Health Project. An additional prize of $1,000 will be offered to the best student-built game. The Health Game Jam's host partner is the University of Baltimore. Prize partners include the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development and Microsoft Corporation. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio, which supports innovative ideas that may lead to breakthroughs in the future of heath and health care, is a major supporter of the Games for Health Project and helps makethe Health Game Jam possible. The theme for October's Jam is personal health and wellness. Once participants are gathered, the Games for Health Project will unveil a simple challenge and set of goals for games to be developed over the course of a weekend. Beginning Friday evening, teams will incubate an idea, draw up basic supporting design and art, and then program it into a playable prototype. Winners will be judged not only on the originality, quality and playability of their resulting work, but also by how well the game potentially addresses the problem presented at the outset. Game jams work best when led by a dedicated host and core group of teams. The Health Game Jam's host partner is the University of Baltimore and its game development program, led by Stuart Moulthrop and Kathleen Harmeyer. While not limited to students in the program, student teams, many familiar with the jam concept, will form the core of groups expected to participate. "We are honored to host this event for the Games for Health Project," Harmeyer said. "Our Simulation & Digital Entertainment program at the University of Baltimore integrates the full range of concepts and skills needed to launch a career in game and simulation development. With its internships and capstone development seminar, the Bachelor of Science program provides an ideal entry point for aspiring professionals. We look forward as hosts to watching our students compete with other visiting independent game development teams from around the region." "The Games for Health Conference has been a major event in Baltimore the past three years and is another example of the robust activity in games and serious games in the greater Baltimore region," said Fronda Cohen, director of marketing and communications for the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development. "By bringing the Health Game Jam to the University of Baltimore, we can showcase the next generation of designers, programmers, and artists who will contribute to our local serious games industry." QUALIFYING & REGISTERING TO COMPETE The Health Game Jam is open to individuals and teams of all shapes and sizes, including student groups, independent game developers and individuals with programming chops. Participants can register for the jam by sending their information to gamejam@gamesforhealth.org. Participants must be or have a team with at least one programmer with demonstrable game development programming experience using either Flash, XNA, OpenGL, PyGame, etc. Please provide an example of past work, however basic or advanced, to qualify. Teams may include up to six members with varying skills. All team members must be 18 years of age or over to participate, or be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian at all times during their participation. All games created at the Jam will remain the property of the creators, but life-long promotional use of all executables and screen captures from work produced will be granted to the Games for Health Project by the Jam's participants. Any questions about participating may be addressed to gamejam@gamesforhealth.org ADDITIONAL SUPPORT The Games for Health Project is supported by the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Joining the Games for Health Project with additional support for the Health Game Jam are the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development. ABOUT GAMES FOR HEALTH The Games for Health Project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio, is a growing community of innovators that bridge the worlds of games and health. The Project promotes and advances opportunities to explore the health and economic benefits of applying games and game technology solutions to pressing health and health care challenges. Games for Health was founded by the Serious Games Initiative, a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars effort, to better address the needs, innovations and research questions the growing area of health games posed. The Project also produces the Games for Health Conference, now in its fourth year. For more information, visit http://www.gamesforhealth.org.

Game Artists Page

admin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:57:34 +0000

I found this site today http://www.gameartisans.org/

Call for Submissions: Make Me an Offer

admin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:58:03 +0000

Gallery 350:The Illinois Institute of Art, Chicago Call for Submissions: Make Me an Offer Make Me an Offer is a theme-based gallery exhibition seeking to emphasize the growing ambiguity between the commercial arts and fine arts. It seeks to emphasize the artificial nature of this distinction. There are five types of art that will be exhibited in this one-month show:

Type 1: Art that Seeks to Design Solutions to Fine Art Problems Artists research and engineer products to meet the needs of fine artists. These works will be displayed in their produced or documented forms, along with brief documentation about their purpose and function.
Type 2: Finely Crafted Assembly Line Art Artwork that employs mass production processes, such as those of Takashi Murakami, Andy Warhol’s factory works, or similar models, that reference commercial standards in the art making process.
Type 3: Branded Artists Artists are encouraged to submit works that explore the artist as brand. These works employ marketing solutions and other commercial approaches to accentuate and objectify the artist and his/her practice.
Type 4: Art that Employs Applied Arts means to Achieve Conceptual Ends Artists who reference graphic design, fashion design, game design, interior design, media arts and animation or other commercial arts to address contemporary theoretical issues in fine art.
Type 5: Artists who Challenge the Commercial-Fine Art Binary through Aesthetic Solutions Art whose aesthetic approach intersects with those of the applied arts.

The Space: Selected works will be displayed in Gallery 350 at the Illinois Institute of Art, Chicago. The gallery at 350 N. Orleans is situated between the River North and West Loop Gallery Districts (a few blocks in either direction), located across the street from The Merchandise Mart in Chicago's Apparel Center. Submissions: Submissions may be made via email. Submission must contain the following: • Maximum of 3 hi-resolution JPEG images no more than 1mb total file size • A brief artist’s biography • A brief description of the submitted concept, not to exceed 1 page in length. Media: Due to space restrictions, 2D mediums will be given preference, including: Painting, Photography, Digital Art/Computer Art and Film. Small 3D and site-specific work will be considered if space permits. Submission must be received by midnight October 10th, 2008. Early submission encouraged. Artists will be notified of acceptance by October 28th. All accepted art must be ready to hang or otherwise install. Humor is appreciated. For more information and to submit work please contact submission@lgrace.com or nancy@nancylurosenheim.com or visit http://www.lgrace.com/makemeanoffer.

7th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games

admin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:59:50 +0000

This just came down the wire too.. The 7th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games (NetGames 2008) will be held in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA on October 21-22, 2008. The sponsor is Worcester Polytechnic Institute with cooperation from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM SIGMM and ACM SIGCOMM). The NetGames workshop brings together researchers and developers from academia and industry to present new research in understanding networked games of today and in enabling the next generation of networked games of tomorrow. The highlights of this year's program includes fourteen full-length papers, poster session, an industry panel, a keynote and a game jam! PROGRAM ======= AT A GLANCE Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 8:00 Registration and Breakfast 8:45 Opening remarks 9:00 Cheat Detection 10:30 Break 11:00 Keynote 12:00 Lunch 1:30 Peer-to-Peer 3:00 Poster Session 4:00 Massively Multiplayer Online Games 6:00 Dinner 8:00 Game Jam Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 8:30 Breakfast 9:00 Architectures 10:30 Break 11:00 Panel 12:00 Lunch 1:30 Bandwidth and Latency Reduction 3:00 Closing remarks DETAILS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21ST, 2008 (8:00) Registration and Breakfast (8:45) Opening Remarks (9:00) Cheat Detection A Peer Auditing Scheme for Cheat Elimination in MMOGs Authors: Josh Goodman (McGill University) Clark Verbrugge (McGill University) Stealth Measurements for Cheat Detection in On-line Games Authors: Wu-chang Feng (Portland State University) Ed Kaiser (Portland State University) Travis Schluessler (Intel) Game Bot Identification Based on Manifold Learning Authors: Kuan-Ta Chen (Academia Sinica) Hsing-Kuo Kenneth Pao (National Taiwan University) Hong-Chung Chang (National Taiwan University) (10:30) Break (11:00) Keynote Speaker: Aubrey Hodges, Director of Audio, 38 Studios (12:00) Lunch (1:30) Peer-to-Peer A Case for Mutual Notification: A Survey of P2P Protocols for Massively Multiplayer Online Games Author: Stephan Krause (Universität Karlsruhe) Efficient Triangulation for P2P Networked Virtual Environments Authors: Eliya Buyukkaya (LIP6, University of Paris 6) Maha Abdallah (LIP6, University of Paris 6) Area-Based Gossip Multicast Authors: Christian Seeger (Technische Universität Darmstadt) Patric Kabus (Technische Universität Darmstadt) Bettina Kemme (McGill University) Alejandro Buchmann (Technische Universität Darmstadt) (3:00) Poster Session Quantifying the Effect of Content-based Transport Strategies for Online Role Playing Games Authors: Chih-Ming Chen (National Taiwan University) Te-Yuang Huang (National Taiwan University) Kuan-Ta Chen (Academia Sinica) Polly Huang (National Taiwan University) Dragon Kill Points: Loot Distribution in MMORPGs Authors: Ernst Gunnar Gran (Simula Research Laboratory) Sven-Arne Reinemo (Simula Research Laboratory) Dynamic Voice Communication Support for Multiplayer Online Games Authors: Tomas Hildebrandt (KOM - TU Darmstadt) Sonja Bergsträßer (KOM - TU Darmstadt) Christoph Rensing (KOM - TU Darmstadt) Ralf Steinmetz (KOM - TU Darmstadt) A CAPTCHA System for Nintendo DS Authors: Mohammad Shirali-Shahreza (Sharif University of Technology) Sajad Shirali-Shahreza (Sharif University of Technology) Action-specific Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games Traffic Analysis: A Case Study of World of Warcraft Authors: Mirko Suznjevic (University of Zagreb) Maja Matijasevic (University of Zagreb) Ognjen Dobrijevic (University of Zagreb) (4:00) Massively Multiplayer Online Games An Analysis of WoW Players' Game Hours Authors: Pin-Yun Tarng (National Taiwan University) Kuan-Ta Chen (Academia Sinica) Polly Huang (National Taiwan University) Persistence in Massively Multiplayer Online Games Authors: Kaiwen Zhang (McGill University) Bettina Kemme (McGill University) Alexandre Denault (McGill University) (6:00) Dinner (8:00) Game Jam WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22ND, 2008 (8:30) Breakfast (9:00) Architectures A Hybrid Architecture for Massively Multiplayer Online Games Authors: Jared Jardine (Brigham Young University) Daniel Zappala (Brigham Young University) Dynamic Server Allocation in a Real-Life Deployable Communications Architecture for Networked Games Authors: Peter Quax (Hasselt University) Bart Cornelissen (Hasselt University) Jeroen Dierckx (Hasselt University) Gert Vansichem (Androme NV) Wim Lamotte (Hasselt University) Performance Analysis of Game WorGame World Partitioning Methods for Multiplayer Mobile Gaming Authors: Kusno Prasetya (Bond University) Zheng da Wu (Bond University) (10:30) Break (11:00) Panel Industry Issues in Massively Multiplayer Online Games Panelists: Darius Kazemi, President, Orbus Gameworks Keith Thompson, Senior Staff Engineer, Project Darkstar Jon Laff, Chief Technology Officer, 38 Studios (12:00) Lunch (1:30) Bandwidth and Latency Reduction Latency Reduction by Dynamic Core Selection and Partial Migration of Game State Authors: Paul B. Beskow (Simula / University of Oslo) Knut-Helge Vik (Simula / University of Oslo) Pål Halvorsen (Simula / University of Oslo) Carsten Griwodz (Simula / University of Oslo) Tackling Online Game Development Problems with a Novel Network Scripting Language Authors: Paul Sheppard (ITI Techmedia) George Russell (Codeplay Software Ltd) Rich Rowan (Codeplay Software Ltd) Verena Achenbach (Codeplay Software Ltd) Alastair F. Donaldson (Codeplay Software Ltd) Improving Application Layer Latency for Reliable Thin-stream Game Traffic Authors: Andreas Petlund (Simula / University of Oslo) Kristian Evensen (Simula / University of Oslo) Pål Halvorsen (Simula / University of Oslo) Carsten Griwodz (Simula / University of Oslo) (3:00) Closing Remarks ORGANIZATION ============ WORKSHOP CHAIR: Mark Claypool (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Grenville Armitage (Swinburne University of Technology) Surendar Chandra (Notre Dame) Kajal Claypool (MIT Lincoln Labs) Wu-chang Feng (Portland State University) Wu-chi Feng (Portland State University) David Finkel (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) Tobias Fritcsh (Freie Universitat Berlin) Carsten Griwodz (University of Oslo) Paal Halvorsen (University of Oslo) John Miller (Microsoft Research) Travis Schluessler (Intel Corporation) Anees Shaikh (IBM Research) Ooi Wei Tsang (National University of Singapore) Lars Wolf (Technical University Braunschweig) KEY DATES ============ Early registration: September 21, 2008 Final registration: October 10, 2008* Workshop: October 21-22, 2008 *Note! There will be no on-site registration! +++++++++++++++++ NetGames 2008 Call for Participation ++++++++++++++++++

Technarte 2009 - Call for papers

admin — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:18:15 +0000

Technarte 2009 - Call for papers

Technarte the unique conference where art and new Technologies converge is looking for new speakers for its next edition.

In Technarte the interaction between contemporary art and new technologies has a real application: The most outstanding technological innovations offer a wide range of possibilities for artists and the technological society uses the creativity as inspiration for new projects.

If you are profesionally linked to the worlds of technology and art, send us your paper proposal before the 14th of November.

Technarte takes place at the Euskalduna convention center in Bilbao the 23rd and 24th of April 2009. Send your abstract throught the web (www.technarte.org) ore mail (technarte@technarte.org) before the 14th of November and don't miss this opportunity. See our website for the paper conditions and restrictions. Thank you for your time. Irene Madariaga Technarte Secretariat

More information

www.technarte.org

+34 94 480 51 83

Education Programme at Eurographics 2009

admin — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:08:32 +0000

*********** CALL FOR PAPERS *********** *** Education Programme at Eurographics 2009 *** ****** Munich, Germany, March 31st, 2009 ****** http://www.eurographics2009.de/calls/education_papers/index.html **** Submission Deadline December 11, 2008 **** *Topics* We invite submissions related to, but not limited to, the following topics: * teaching computer graphics in a computer science curriculum; * exploiting visual tools to teach other disciplines; * teaching graphics programming; * designing curricula for computer graphics and related disciplines (e.g., image processing and computer vision); * experimenting educational programs mixing computer graphics with other disciplines; * teaching computer graphics in curricula other then computer science; * setting up collaborative development tools for visual computing; * development of video games as a way to teach computer graphics; * teaching the mathematical foundations of computer graphics and related disciplines. *Important dates* * Submission deadline: Thursday, December 11, 2008 (24:00 GMT) * Notification date: Monday, January 19, 2009 * Final paper and panel proposals due: Friday, February 6, 2009 Looking forward to seeing you in Munich! Education Program Co-Chairs: Gitta Domik domik@uni-paderborn.de, University of Paderborn, Germany Riccardo Scateni, riccardo@unica.it, University of Cagliari, Italy

Meaningful Play 2008: Michigan State University

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:44:31 +0000

Whether designed to entertain or for more “serious” purposes, games have the potential to impact players’ beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, emotions, cognitive abilities, and behaviour. Meaningful Play 2008 is an interdisciplinary academic conference that explores the potential of games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways. The conference includes thought-provoking keynotes from leaders in academia and industry, peer-reviewed paper presentations, panel sessions (including academic and industry discussions), innovative workshops, round table discussions, and exhibitions of games. * Exploring meaningful applications of games o Games to change attitudes, beliefs, or behaviours including social impact games and personal health games o Games to stimulate creativity or innovation o Games to build social skills o Games to advertise (advergames) and persuade o Games to exercise specific cognitive functions o Games to explore personal beliefs and help make decisions o Games to build knowledge and skills (games for learning) o Serious games for history and cultural heritage learning * Issues in designing meaningful play o Game design for specific audience segments o Player types and play styles o Story and storytelling in games o Competitive and cooperative play (single player, multiplayer and massively multiplayer) o Balancing entertainment and serious goals o Repurposing entertainment games for serious purposes o Unintended and unexpected effects of games o Using psychology and neuroscience to design and understand games o Evaluation and assessment of game impacts o Barriers to the adoption of serious games Here's the game exhibition schedule, where I'll have a small game . . .

Game Developer’s Career Guide

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:41:52 +0000

The 2008 complete game developer's career guide is available online at: http://gamedeveloper.texterity.com/gamedeveloper/2008careerguide/ It's a nice little resource.

The 4th International Conference on E-Learning and Games (Edutainment 2009)

admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:18:54 +0000

The 4th International Conference on E-Learning and Games (Edutainment 2009) Banff, Canada August 9-11, 2009 Hosted by: Athabasca University Topics: include but not limit to the followings: -Game-based Learning/Training -Games in Real World (Ubiquitous Learning) -Storytelling and Narrative in Education -Educational Robots and Toys -VR-based Education/Training -Augmented Reality in Education/Training -Multimedia in Education/Training -Digital Museum and Digital Heritage -Social and Cultural issues -Synergies between Digital TV and Edutainment -Interactions in Games -Game AI and Artificial Life -Game Design and Development -Game Physics -Game Engines -Online/Mobile Game/Video Game -Collaborative Environments and Learning -E-Learning Platforms and Tools -E-Learning Standards -Education and Remote Classrooms -Learning Resource Management -Life Long Learning -Mobile Learning -Practice and Experience Sharing -Simulation and animation -Game Rendering/Animations -Vision and Imaging Technology in Games -Virtual Characters/Agents -Engagement and Emotion Important dates: Submissions due: January 10, 2009 Notification of acceptance: February 28, 2009 Final articles due: March 30, 2009 Papers will be published in book form in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. Selected paper will be published in the journal, Transactions on Edutainment <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs/transactions+edutainment?SGWID=0-159704-0-0-0> , published by Springer-Verlag. Website: http://www.ask4research.info/edutainment/2009 For queries, please contact: Maiga Chang (maigac@athabascau.ca)

seige-logo-08.png

admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:21:19 +0000

SIEGE 2008

admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:21:25 +0000

The second annual Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo (SIEGE) is hosted by the Georgia Game Developers Association (GGDA). Scheduled for Oct. 3 - 5, 2008, at the Hyatt Regency Suites hotel, SIEGE focuses on the fast-growing game design industry in the South. SIEGE's speakers include leading figures from a wide spectrum of the industry, including artists, programmers, designers, writers, teachers and business executives. Other speakers include government figures, experts on computer game violence, social issues, and more. Special events include game design tournaments, game playing tournaments, parties, a job fair, and a student fair for high school students and others looking for colleges. The event has attracted a variety of sponsors, including Georgia's Film, Video and Music office, which signed on as a platinum partner. Conference sessions include classes on the latest software, game design techniques, business issues, starting a new company, and more. The site is . . . http://www.siegecon.net/SIEGE2008/

Siege 2008 Logo

admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:22:57 +0000

Meaningful Play

admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:24:11 +0000

From the EDU sig site . . . "Meaningful Play 2008 is an interdisciplinary academic conference that explores the potential of games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways. The conference takes place October 9 - October 11, 2008 in East Lansing, Michigan USA and is hosted by Michigan State University. The conference is for game designers, researchers, and students. Current registered attendees are from over 10 countries and 20 US states. The two primary themes of the conference are "exploring meaningful applications of games" and "issues in designing meaningful play". The first theme includes an examination of games (of all types) from primarily an academic research perspective. The second theme focuses on much more practical knowledge from the front-line of actual design, development, and use of games for meaningful purposes. The conference includes: *** Six thought-provoking keynotes from leaders in academia and industry, including: - "The Game Designer as Change Agent" by Richard Hilleman, Chief Creative Office, Electronic Arts - "The Unknown Possibilities of Existence" by Ian Bogost, Associate Professor at the Georgia Tech and Founding Partner at Persuasive Games LLC - "All Play is Meaningful" by Leigh Anne Cappello, Vice President and Play Futurist with the Future Now division of Hasbro - "Serious Gaming: Assumptions and Realities" by Ute Ritterfeld, Professor for Media Psychology at VU University Amsterdam and co-founded the Center for Advanced Media Research Amsterdam (CAMeRA@VU) - "The Play of Persuasion: Why "Serious" Isn't the Opposite of Fun" by Nick Fortugno, co-founder and President of Rebel Monkey - "The Great White Whale of Meaningful Play" by Tracy Fullerton, Associate Professor in the Interactive Media Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and Director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab *** Ten breakout speaker sessions featuring prominent members of industry and academia, including: - "From Experiment Gameplay to the Wonderful World of Goo" by Drew Davidson, Director of the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University - "Turning Gamers to Soldiers: War Games in the Modern Military " by David Versaw, CFO and Director of Business Development at WILL Interactive, Inc. - "Player-Centered Design for Instructional Games" by Robert Appelman from Indiana University and Sonny Kirkley with Information in Place, Inc. - "The Emerging Flash Game Industry and the Opportunities for Meaningful Play" by Jared Riley, president of Hero Interactive - "Making an Impact: Serious Issues in Non-Serious Games" by Monica Evans, Assistant Professor of Computer Game Design at the University of Texas at Dallas - "The Science of Fun" by Nate Bolt, El Presidente of Bolt | Peters, Inc. - "Designing K-6 educational games from Playstation to PSP" by Dave Adams and Peter Rogan, PLATO Learning, Inc. - "Creating Crossover Learning Products" by Scott Traylor, Chief KID, CEO, and founder of 360KID - "The Mandate and Measure of Meaningful Play" by Tim Nixon, CEO of Straylight Studios - "Bringing Tangential Learning to Games" by James Portnow, CCO and founder of Divide by Zero Games *** Over 45 peer-reviewed paper presentations presenting the latest game research coming out of academia, on a various topics such as: - Games for Learning - Games and Physical Health - Designing Games for Health - Games to Change Brains - Emergent Gameplay - Player Involvement - Player Motivation - Social Play - Analyzing and Understanding Games - Games and Culture - Alternative platforms for learning games - Game design and development - Exploring non-digital games - MMORPGs and Virtual Worlds *** Seven exciting panel and roundtable discussions, including: - Playing with Public Policy: Games to involve and inform the public - User-Created Content And Program-Modification In Video Games And Virtual Worlds - When Will Games Grow Up?: Handling Adult Topics In Video Games - Talent, Incentives, and Infrastructure: Growing the Game Industry in Michigan - Suitable for all ages: Game design for the 60+ demographic - Game Face(book): The Intersection of Games and Social Network Sites - Approaches to Language Learning as Meaningful Play *** A poster session featuring 14 late-breaking advances and work-in-progress reports from ongoing research or design work *** An exciting exhibition of 13 innovative games Don't miss you opportunity to attend Meaningful Play 2008. For more details and to register, visit: http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu"

EMPAC Opening October 3-19, 2008

admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:45:29 +0000

EMPAC Opening October 3-19, 2008 The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY 12180 RESERVATIONS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE http://www.empac.rpi.edu

Participating artists: The Wooster Group; dumb type; Workspace Unlimited; Verdensteatret; Vox Vocal Ensemble and International Contemporary Ensemble; Per Tengstrand; Madlib; Cecil Taylor; Pauline Oliveros; Richard Siegal/The Bakery; Robert Normandeau, Fieldwork, Gamelan Galak Tika + Ensemble Robot, and more. The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center opens with a celebration spanning three weekends, from October 3-19 (see schedule below). EMPAC is located 2.5 hours north of New York City, 3 hours south of Montreal, and 3 hours west of Boston in Troy, NY. All opening events are free and open to the public, and most events require tickets. Reserve now, as seating is limited! Dedicated to the advancement of artistic production integrating new approaches and research at the intersection of technology, media and the performing arts, a major emphasis at EMPAC is the commissioning of new performances and time-based installations. EMPAC's new 220,000-square foot building, designed by the British firm Grimshaw, is both a signature work of architecture and a unique facility that combines many specialized venues under one roof, including: a 1,200-seat concert hall; a 400-seat theater; two black-box studio spaces; and artist/researcher work spaces, all capable of simultaneous, acoustically isolated use. Technical innovations are found in all venues: from the Concert Hall's adjustable fabric ceiling, which allows acoustical flexibility, and its near-silent HVAC; the Studios' "tunable" tilting wall tiles; to the Theater's 70-foot fly tower and computer controlled rigging. Both a place and a program, EMPAC is an arts institution that draws strength from being part of a great research university. It operates nationally and internationally: attracting innovative artists, both renowned and emerging, from around the world; offering artists, researchers, and audiences opportunities that are available nowhere else; providing unsurpassed facilities for research and creative exploration, sending new artworks onto the global stage. FRIDAY – SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3 – 5, 2008 The Gala Weekend offers audiences an introduction to the EMPAC program and mission with performances ranging from 15th-century choral music performed in a 21st-century concert hall to interactive 360-degree video installations to contemporary performances that merge visual media, theater and sound. A Presidential Colloquy and the official Ribbon Cutting on October 3 begin the weekend—and the festivities. Public artistic performances and research presentations begin Saturday, October 4. THURSDAY – SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9 – 11, 2008 The Symposium Weekend brings together an internationally diverse group of directors from leading research institutions to share their work in art, design and media-based research, spanning augmented reality to the visualization and auralization of scientific data. Performances, installations and exhibitions continue throughout the long weekend. FRIDAY – SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17 – 19, 2008 Homecoming and Family Weekend focuses on the greater Rensselaer community. Events and performances ranging in genre and style—including many student groups—will reflect the diversity of the Rensselaer campus activities. For full schedule, reservations and further information, go to www.empac.rpi.edu.

Vida Call for Artists (due 10/6)

admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:49:31 +0000

Also down the pipeline . . .

VIDA 11.0 AWARDS

VIDA 11.0 call for entries

VIDA 11.0 - FINISHED PROJECTS

VIDA 11.0 rewards works of art developed with artificial life technologies and related disciplines: robotics, artificial intelligence, etc. It is looking for works of art with emerging behaviours, which evolve over time, react with their environment and seem to have a life of their own. VIDA 11.0 is searching projects that relate technology with biology and that research synthetic characteristics of modern life. In previous editions, prizes have been awarded to artistic projects created with robots, avatars, recursive chaotic algorithms, knowbots, cellular automata, computer viruses, virtual ecologies that evolve with user interaction, interactive architectures, augmented reality pieces and works that explore the social aspects of A-life. A total of €40,000 will be awarded to the three projects selected by the jury: First prize: €18,000(*), Second prize: €14,000(*), Third prize: €8,000(*). The winning pieces may be exhibited at Fundación Telefónica Virtual Museum and in the exhibitions related to art and new technologies it organises or takes part in. Works of art submitted must not be more than two years old. This enables the Competition to keep updated and aware of the last technological trends in the field of artificial life.

VIDA 11.0 - ARTISTIC PRODUCTION INCENTIVES IN IBEROAMERICA, SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

The second category of the VIDA 11.0 International Competition aims to help fund artistic A-life projects (and related disciplines) that have not yet been created. The competition is open to participants from Iberoamerica, Spain and Portugal. With prize money totalling €40,000 (*)., this category will reward from one to three projects that deal with a relevant A-life concept and demonstrate the artist's capacity to produce the piece and outstanding quality in previous work.

ENTRY

To enter both categories (“Finished Projects” and “Artistic Production Incentives”), carefully read TERMS AND CONDITIONS and complete the ENTRY FORM. ALL material should be submitted on electronic media (CD or DVD) before the 6th of October 2008, to any Fundación Telefónica office in Spain (Madrid) or Latin America (Mexico D.F., Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile and Lima). The addresses are included in the documentation. Entry forms can also be sent via email to vida@telefonica.es, provided that the applicant enables a url containing the rest of the audiovisual material required.

DATES

Dates for submitting projects: from the 15th of June 2008 to the 6th of October 2008.

JURY

The pieces presented will be examined by an international jury. The members of the jury are: Mónica Bello Bugallo (Spaina), Daniel Canogar, (Spain), Sally-Jane Norman (France/New Zealand), José-Carlos Mariátegui (Peru), Simon Penny (USA/Australia), Nell Tenhaaf (Canada).

ENQUIRIES

Applicants may view the projects that won previous editions of the competition on the VIDA website (PREVIOUS EDITIONS), in order to check whether their projects adapt to the philosophy of the award. If you have any questions, you can check the FAQ section. You can also contact us by sending an email to vida@telefonica.es or calling (0034) 91 584 23 00.

. (*) The prize money will be subject to the corresponding deductions.

CASA 2009

admin — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 13:36:27 +0000

Preliminary Call For Papers

The Human Media Interaction (HMI) department of the University of Twente in the Netherlands and the Computer Graphics Society (CGS) are pleased to announce the 22nd Annual Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents (CASA 2009) to be held on June 17-19, 2009 in "Het Trippenhuis", Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

CASA is the leading international conference in the field of computer animation and social agents. CASA 2009 will provide great opportunities to interact with leading experts, share your own work, and educate yourself through exposure to the research of your peers from around the world. In addition, make friends and experience wonderful Amsterdam. The conference venue is located on one of the famous canals of Amsterdam.

We are seeking regular full papers, short papers, and posters with the following topics, but which are not limited to:

Animation Techniques : Motion Control, Motion Capture and Retargeting, Path Planning, Physics based Animation, Image based Animation, Behavioral Animation, Artificial Life, Deformation, Facial Animation, Multi-Resolution and Multi-Scale Models, Knowledge-based Animation, Motion Synthesis;

Social Agents: Social Agents and Avatars, Emotion and Personality, Virtual Humans, Autonomous Actors, AI based Animation, Social and Conversational Agents, Inter-Agent Communication, Social Behavior, Gesture Generation, Crowd Simulation;

Other Related Topics: Animation Compression and Transmission, Semantics and Ontologies for Virtual Humans/Environments, Animation Analysis and Structuring, Anthropometric Virtual Human Models, Acquisition and Reconstruction of Animation Data, Level of Details, Semantic Representation of Motion and Animation, Medical Simulation, Cultural Heritage, Interaction for Virtual Humans, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, Computer Games and Online Virtual Worlds.

All accepted full papers, about 35 of them, will be published, at the time of the conference, in a special issue of The Journal of Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds by Wiley. Short papers and posters will be published as CD or hardcopy proceedings with ISBN.

Important Dates are:

Full papers

*Submission: February 10, 2009

*Notification of acceptance: March 10, 2009

*Camera ready: April 1, 2009

Short papers and Posters

*Submission: March 15, 2009

*Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2009

*Camera/CD ready: May 10, 2009

Conference Chair: Anton Nijholt, anijholt@cs.utwente.nl

Program Chairs: Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, Mark Overmars, and Scott King

Local Chairs: Arjan Egges and Herwin van Welbergen

Webpage: http://hmi.ewi.utwente.nl/CASA09

CAA 2009

admin — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:32:03 +0000

Los Angeles 2009

The Getty Villa in Malibu houses a stellar collection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities in a Roman-inspired architectural setting

Enjoy a winter break in sunny California. The 97th CAA Annual Conference will be held February 25–28, 2009, in downtown Los Angeles. All sessions, the Book and Trade Fair, and the Career Fair take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center; the headquarters hotel is the Westin Bonaventure Hotel. The downtown Los Angeles area boasts many cultural sites, including the Frank Gehry–designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, which also houses REDCAT, an art gallery programmed by CalArts. Also found in the area are the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and its satellite space, Geffen Contemporary; the Japanese American National Museum; and a district of cutting-edge contemporary-art galleries in Chinatown. Among other important art museums nearby are the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the J. Paul Getty Museum; the Norton Simon Museum; the Skirball Cultural Center; the Hammer Museum; and the Fowler Museum of Cultural History. Registration Costs Beginning October 2008, CAA members can register for the Annual Conference by completing the online registration form (with your credit-card information). Or you may fill out the form in the 2009 Conference Registration and Information booklet, which will be sent to you in the fall; mail or fax the form to CAA with your check or credit-card information. Early registration costs are good through December 19, 2008:

Members: $155
Students and retired members: $90
Nonmembers: $280

Advance registration takes place after this date, until January 23, 2009:

Members: $225
Students and retired members: $130
Nonmembers: $350

Onsite registration can be done at the conference:

Members: $270
Students and retired members: $155
Nonmembers: $400

For questions about registration, please contact CAA’s Member Services at 212-691-1051, ext. 12, or memsvcs@collegeart.org. For questions about the conference, please contact Lauren Stark, CAA Manager of Programs.

Travel Grants

CAA offers Annual Conference travel grants to graduate students in art history and studio art and to international artists and scholars.

ICa 2009 Call For Papers

admin — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:05:39 +0000

More information at http://www.icahdq.org/conferences/2009/ General Guidelines for All Submissions ALL divisions and interest groups will accept only online submissions for the Chicago conference. Contact information for each division and interest group will be provided for questions only. If you have specific questions regarding a division or interest group program, you may contact the unit program planner for that division or interest group. The following guidelines apply to ALL submissions, including theme sessions and affiliate organizations. Deadline: All submissions must be completed online no later than 11:00 p.m. EDT, November 3, 2008. To avoid technical problems, early submission is strongly encouraged. The conference submission website will go online around September 15, 2008. To reach the conference website, go to the ICA home page at http://www.icahdq.org and follow the link for 2009 Conference Submission. It is essential that you read the complete instructions carefully and prepare your submission prior to logging on. Eligibility: You do not need to be an ICA member to submit a paper or proposal for the conference. When you visit the conference submission website, you will choose the “ICA Member” or the “Non-ICA Member” category and proceed according to onscreen instructions. Members must use the same email addresses as that in the ICA membership database to avoid creating a duplicate record. Oak Street Beach at Night. (© Araceli Arroyo; used with permission.) 6 2009 Chicago ICA Conference: Call for Papers Exclusive submissions: Each paper/proposal may be submitted to only ONE division or interest group, OR to the theme sessions. Submission of the same paper or proposal to more than one unit is NOT permitted. Submission of the same paper to more than one unit will disqualify the paper for presentation. You are welcome, however, to submit different papers or proposals to the same or different units; you may have your name, as an author or coauthor, on up to four different papers or panels. Decision notices will be sent around mid-January 2009. Conference registration: Registration of your paper or proposal on the conference submission website does NOT enroll you as an ICA member, nor does it automatically register you for the conference itself. If your paper or proposal is accepted for presentation at the Chicago conference, you will be notified and must then register for the conference and pay the conference fee. Online membership application is always available on the ICA home page. Online registration for the Chicago conference will be available beginning in early 2009.

ISAGA2009 Call for Papers

admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:13:03 +0000

I SAGA 2009 will be held in Singapore - 29 June to 3 July 2009. This will be a special event, being both the 40th Anniversary and the 1st S.E.Asian ISAGA conference. The theme of the conference is "Learn to Game, Game to Learn". We learn about games and simulations; and then we learn from games and simulations. The conference theme embodies this double aspect. Between the learning and the game are people, methodology, and technology. The theme acknowledges the idea that players should first learn how to play and participate before being able to learn. It also acknowledges the idea that teachers, trainers and researchers should learn about games and simulations, and how to use them. They should also learn about the methodologies and technologies. Then they may help their participants to reach through the methodology and technology to the games and simulations that they organize. The theme is broad and encompasses all aspects of games, simulations, experiential learning exercises and related methods as used in learning, training, development, research and other areas. The 40th ISAGA conference will be an opportunity for people to take stock, reflect on (debrief) the last 40 years, and to survey the current state of simulation/gaming, and to reflect forward (brief) into the future. Tracks have 3 main focuses: technology, content and methodology, covering areas that include the followings but are not limited to: Interactive Digitial Media Mobile Gaming Simulators Virtual Communities Virtual Reality Education & Learning Engineering Healthcare Humanities Natural Resources Professional Training Social & Policy sciences You are cordially invited to submit proposals to the following type of sessions: Single Papers - Technical papers will be presented in single paper sessions, with papers of related issues (e.g., from the same track) scheduled in the same session as much as possible. A paper presentation will be typically scheduled for 20-30 minutes in a session. Interactive sessions - These are sessions in which a fair amount of time is spent interacting with participants. Sessions can take the form of a tutorial, a workshop, a demo, partcipation in a game, simulation or exercise. A session may consist of several contributions by several participants with a common theme. The proposer will be the session leader who invites the other contributors and organises the session. Each interactive session is scheduled in multiples of 1-hour time slot. Poster sessions - The aim of a poster session is to allow a less formal presentation to advertise and share an ongoing research with conference participants. Space in a room or in a common area at the conference venue will be allocated to allow a quick and efficient communication of presentation to the viewers, allowing viewers to discuss it one on one with the presenter. A limited number of posters will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis. Laptop sessions - These are similar to poster sessions and subject to the same space constraint, except that the presentations will be done on the presenters' own equipment such as a laptop. Open space activities - The aim of such sessions is to allow extended people movement in games and simulations, through exhibits, game-stations, and product demonstrations or others. Proposals are to be submitted online at www.isaga2009.org. We look forward to hearing from you and meeting you at ISAGA2009.

10th Edition of the e-magiciens Festival

admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:14:00 +0000

Valenciennes, in the north of France, greets, for the 9th consecutive time, the European meetings of the young digital creation, which will be held from 27th to 30th November 2007. Organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Valenciennes region, this event is the annual meeting of young creators, students and professionals of digital animation, cinema, sound and video game. On 5,000 visitors, we include 500 professionals coming from 10 countries. Every year the festival presents in preview nearly 300 animation films and multimedia works from about 50 European countries. In the program on the National Scene of the Phoenix theatre: projections, conferences, previews, tributes and teaching workshops. One of the main event of the festival is a set of student's contest and awards on animation, web sites, games... This year the ENJMIN (Graduate School of Games and Interactive Media,www.enjmin.fr) is in charge of the competition related to video games. The participation is open to students registered in university or college, including students registered for the year 2006-2007. Candidates have to supply two copies of a file (1) and a lay-out of the game (2). (1) : The file must contain : the attached application form, a description of the game and its originality, and the possibility of achievement if it is a project. (2) : With the games or the lay-out of the game, you have to join an installation guide, a user guide explaining technical constraints, setup conditions, a .avi format video as a record of one game's session, and a "walkthrough" (description of a course in the game that has to be achieved). The game must operate with PC Windows XP or a portable games console (Nintendo DS or PSP). In case it is a game for portable console, the totality of the operation device has to be suppplied and will be returned to candidate after the evaluation. The game will be appreciated according to the script intentions, the originality of concepts and universe, as well as the feasibility to carry it out. The comprehensive layout represents an illustration of these different aspects. Information : www.youngcreation.net/ For any question about the game contest contact Pr. Stephane Natkin stephane.natkin@cnam.fr

Foundations of Digital Games

admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:40:43 +0000

(PDF Version) FDG �09, the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, is a focal point for academic efforts in all areas of research and education involving computer and console games, game technologies, game play and game design. Previously known as Academic Days on Game Development in Computer Science Education (GDCSE 08), this year's conference expands its scope to encompass all aspects of Computer Science focused game research, along with game-oriented education research, and game studies and game design research. The goal of the conference is the advancement of the science of digital games, including new game technologies, capabilities, designs, applications, educational uses, and modes of play. The conference will be held aboard the Disney Wonder cruise ship, departing from and returning to Port Canaveral, FL with port calls in the Bahamas and at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. FDG 2009 will include presentation of peer-reviewed papers, invited talks by high-profile industry and academic leaders, hands-on tutorials and topical panels on a range of subjects related to games research and education. We invite researchers and educators to share insights and cutting-edge results relating to game technologies and their use. FDG 2009 will accept both full paper and poster submissions (the details of each are described below). To encourage submissions across a range of topics, this year's program includes six distinct theme areas. Authors may choose to submit their papers to the general conference or to a specific theme area of particular relevance. The conference themes are a) artificial intelligence, b) computer science and games education, c) databases, d) game studies/game design, e) graphics and interfaces and f ) networking and security. Papers that fall outside these topic areas are strongly encouraged and should be submitted to the general track. All submissions will be rigorously peer reviewed for their technical merit, significance, clarity and relevance to the advancement of the sciences of games. All full papers must describe a completed unit of work and show rigorous and compelling evaluation of the ideas they present. Poster submissions should describe novel work in progress that is not at the same level of research maturity as a full submission. All accepted paper and poster submissions will be published in the conference proceedings, which will be available on a USB drive. For a paper or poster to appear in the proceedings, at least one author must register for the conference by the deadline for camera-ready copy submission. One author of each accepted submission will be provided with a special registration package that allows them to register at the early registration rate. Papers from previous years' conferences have been included in the ACM Digital Library and we anticipate that all paper, poster, and doctoral consortium publications from this year's conference will appear there as well. Conference organizers are working with the ACM to obtain in-cooperation sponsorship status, and anticipate approval in late October 2008. Electronic paper and poster submission is required. Authors should submit their papers at the conference submission site, http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icfdg2009 . Both paper and poster authors must submit their papers by 11PM Pacific time on December 19, 2008. Papers must not exceed eight pages and poster submissions must not exceed two pages. All submissions must comply with the official ACM proceedings format using one of the templates provided at http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html. FDG 2009 will not accept any paper that, at the time of submission, is under review for or has already been published or accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. This restriction does not apply to submissions for workshops and other venues with a limited audience. Authors whose papers align with a particular theme area should choose to submit their paper under that theme. Theme areas for FDG 2009 are defined broadly using the descriptions here:

Artificial Intelligence

We solicit papers on artificial intelligence research that provides novel solutions to traditional game AI problems (e.g. path planning, camera control, terrain analysis, user modeling, tactical/strategic decision making, etc.), supports novel game concepts or gameplay elements (e.g. interactive drama, narrative/character development, NPC belief/attitude/emotion modeling, etc.), provides automated or semi-automated solutions to game production challenges (e.g. game design, content creation, testing, prodcedural animation, etc.), or describes the integration of AI technologies (e.g. machine learning, logical inference, planning, etc.) into game AI architectures.

Computer Science and Games Education

The Computer Science and Games Education Theme Area invites researchers and educators to submit papers illustrating the latest advances and innovation in curricula for games and computer science, in both formal and informal educational contexts. All papers must show rigorous and compelling evaluation. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: game design and development curricula, effective practices and infrastructure for the use of games and game technologies in Computer Science courses and programs, Web-based (adaptive) educational games and interdisciplinary collaboration among computer scientists and others to create games in educational contexts.

Databases

The database track is soliciting papers with either novel applications of database techniques to computer games or with novel database techniques especially designed for digital games. Topics include database engines, query processing, and query optimization for games workloads; declarative languages for game programming; distributed database techniques and consistency models for networked games; data management for games that cross physical and virtual worlds.

Game Studies | Game Design

The Game Studies | Game Design theme seeks reports of creative design practice and methods, as well as the exploration and development of innovative gameplay forms and mechanics. Research on new models for player involvement, design as co-construction with players and their communities, and iterative player-centered design are also very welcome. Within the domain of game studies more generally, submissions are welcome in the areas of player experience, game ontology, the social and cultural aspects of gameplay, cross-cultural analyses, networked play (including consoles), casual and serious gaming. Submissions that provide a rigorous analysis of new or emerging phenomena are of strong interest.

Graphics and Interfaces

The graphics and interfaces theme seeks papers on all aspects of computer graphics and user interfaces that are specifically related to digital games, including but not limited to: animation; modeling; rendering; 2D and 3D user interfaces; collaborative user interfaces; mobile user interfaces; tangible user interfaces; design of (interfaces for) Web 2.0 game focused web applications; integration of web-based and computer/console based game worlds; augmented reality and virtual reality; and novel interaction devices and displays.

Networks and Security

We invite submissions that focus on the many aspects of constructing networked games and networked game services. Submissions that fall under the following areas are encouraged: networked game architectures, network protocol design for games, latency issues, lag compensation, and synchronization methods, mobile and/or resource-constrained games, software and middleware support for developing networked games, content delivery and adaptation, services for supporting networked games, cheat detection techniques, cheat prevention via secure game design and the networking and security aspects of Web-based games and game portals. December 19, 2008:Full paper and poster submission deadline http://www.foundationsofdigitalgames.org/

IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games

admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:57:50 +0000

Since the dawn of computing, games have posed fascinating challenges for AI and machine learning research. In recent years there has been increasing interest in this field, both in traditional games such as Go, and also in video games, where more convincing AI is a priority for next generation games. As the physics models in games become ever more realistic, they also offer a convenient testing ground for many types of robotics research. This increased interest is reflected by the new conferences in the area (e.g. IEEE CIG, and AIIDE), together with workshops, special sessions and tutorials at major neural network and machine learning conferences (e.g. NIPS, ICML, WCCI, PPSN). There is now an important new journal to provide a focus for archival quality research in the area: IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games http://ieee-cis.org/pubs/tciaig/ The journal is now open for submissions, with the first issue due to be published in March 2009. Scope The IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND AI in GAMES (T-CIAIG), published four times a year, publishes archival journal quality original papers in computational intelligence and related areas in artificial intelligence applied to games, including but not limited to video games, mathematical games, human-computer interactions in games, and games involving physical objects. Emphasis will also be placed on the use of these methods to improve performance in and understanding of the dynamics of games, as well as gaining insight into the properties of the methods as applied to games. It will also include using games as a platform for building intelligent embedded agents for the real world. Papers connecting games to all areas of computational intelligence and traditional AI will be considered. Given the importance and vibrancy of the field, the support of eight IEEE societies, and a strong research base, IEEE T-CIAIG is expected to rapidly become the leading journal in the field, with a correspondingly high impact factor.

State of the Industry Panel Presentation

admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:07:39 +0000

Over the last month every day we turn on the news and hear more devastating news about the economy. Companies are closing, layoffs are becoming more frequent and our 401K statements are simply too painful to open. I’m sure all of us are wondering how this is impacting the video game industry and more specifically how this will impact the industry in Chicago. Is it true that video game companies fare well in a depressed economy? Are their segments of the industry that will become more stable than others? Is development in Chicago increasing or decreasing? Where do we see the future of game development overall and in Chicago?

We have a very well rounded panel including not only console developers, but also the full scope of the industry including mobile game developers, arcade developers and slot-machine developers. This is a rare opportunity to hear from the best and brightest in our industry.

Our panel of experts will include:

Matt Booty, interim CEO of Midway Games

Andreja Djokovic, Founder of Babaroga

Scott Herrington, Lead Producer at WMS

Eugene Jarvis, Founder of Raw Thrills

Tom Kim, Executive Producer for Gamasutra Podcast on GDC Radio

Alex Seropian, Founder of Wideload Games

Additional information on our panelists will be forthcoming, but as most of you know this is a rock-star line up of industry experts and is a panel not to be missed. Space will be limited however to the first 150 people to RSVP.

This meeting will be sponsored by and hosted at Flashpoint Academy. Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, is Chicago’s first digital media arts college, offering an intensive two-year program for high school graduates and adult learners in five digital disciplines: Film, Recording Arts, VFX & Animation, Game Development and Broadcast Media.

Flashpoint is geared for those individuals with a passion for anything digital, a desire for creative expression, a story that needs to be told, or an imaginative spark that needs ignition. For those students that aren’t thinking pre-med or pre-law or any "traditional" pre-determined path. Students that have the potential, but have yet to find the proper focus. No preparatory classes are required; Flashpoint’s nurturing staff has crafted a curriculum that starts at square one.

MEETING DETAILS:

When: Monday, October 20^th, 2008, Doors open at 6:15 PM, Presentation starts at 7 PM

Where: Flashpoint Academy, 26 N. Clark, Chicago, IL 60602. Flashpoint Academy is near the intersection of Clark & Washington and is very close to all major el lines in Chicago. The closest parking facility is near the intersection of Washington & Wells.

Cost: $10 non-members, 5$ IGDA members and Flashpoint Academy Students. Light snacks and refreshments provided

RSVP: Space is limited to the first 150 guests. Please RSVP to igdachicago@gmail.com.

Australasian Conference on INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT: 3rd – 4th December, 2008 – Brisbane, Australia

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:07:35 +0000

Registration Open for IE2008

Early bird cutoff is 10^th November, 2008

LOCATION:

The primary component of the conference will be located at the Gardens Point campus of QUT. This campus is nestled between Queensland Parliament House, the City Botanical Gardens and the Brisbane River with easy access to a variety of accommodation. It is also just a short walk to South Bank and the Central Business District where each have a wide range of restaurants and shopping facilities.

Exhibitions and the Great Debate will be held at the Creative Industries Precinct at Kelvin Grove campus of QUT. “The Creative Industries Precinct is Australia’s first site dedicated to creative experimentation and commercial development in the creative industries. It provides a unique opportunity for designers, artists, researchers, educators and entrepreneurs to easily connect and collaborate with others to create new work, develop new ideas and grow the creative industries sector in Queensland.”

PROGRAM INCLUDES:

Invited Speakers (both local and international): John Passfield (Pandemic Studios), Ken Forbus (Northwestern University, US), Caryl Shaw (Spore)

Papers: See list of papers under http://ieconference.org/ie2008/program/

Panels Sessions: with representatives from the arts and the technologies

Debates: where industry meets academia

Exhibition: Working title - An interactive entertainment research product / outcomes space - come and play with works in progress

ASSOCIATED ACTIVITIES OF INTEREST:

Premier of Queensland’s National New Media Art Award: “This exhibition features the work of leading new media artists invited to participate in the inaugural Premier of Queensland’s National Art Award in New Media.”

http://www.qag.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/coming_soon/premier_of_queenslands_national_new_media_art_award

Game On: “Game On tracks the development of video games from the first computer game to arcade-era hits and the very latest from today’s billion-dollar industry. With more than 100 playable games, as well as rarely seen consoles, controllers and collectables, this is a showcase of games history like no other.”

http://www.ourbrisbane.com/whats-on/events/1405930.game-on

Call for Papers

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:08:59 +0000

IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games Since the dawn of computing, games have posed fascinating challenges for AI and machine learning research. In recent years there has been increasing interest in this field, both in traditional games such as Go, and also in video games, where more convincing AI is a priority for next generation games. As the physics models in games become ever more realistic, they also offer a convenient testing ground for many types of robotics research. This increased interest is reflected by the new conferences in the area (e.g. IEEE CIG, and AIIDE), together with workshops, special sessions and tutorials at major neural network and machine learning conferences (e.g. NIPS, ICML, WCCI, PPSN). There is now an important new journal to provide a focus for archival quality research in the area: IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games http://ieee-cis.org/pubs/tciaig/ The journal is now open for submissions, with the first issue due to be published in March 2009. Scope The IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND AI in GAMES (T-CIAIG), published four times a year, publishes archival journal quality original papers in computational intelligence and related areas in artificial intelligence applied to games, including but not limited to video games, mathematical games, human-computer interactions in games, and games involving physical objects. Emphasis will also be placed on the use of these methods to improve performance in and understanding of the dynamics of games, as well as gaining insight into the properties of the methods as applied to games. It will also include using games as a platform for building intelligent embedded agents for the real world. Papers connecting games to all areas of computational intelligence and traditional AI will be considered. Given the importance and vibrancy of the field, the support of eight IEEE societies, and a strong research base, IEEE T-CIAIG is expected to rapidly become the leading journal in the field, with a correspondingly high impact factor.

CITSA 2009

admin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:45:14 +0000

Organizers of The 6th International Conference on Cybernetics and Information Technologies, Systems and Applications (CITSA 2009) have put out a call for papers and abstracts, with an emphasis this year on works with a computer games development topic. Authors may submit original and unpublished works of analogy-based thinking hypothesis, innovations, experience-based reflections and ideas, specific problems requiring solutions, case studies, and position papers, in the fields of computer, communication and control and their social and industrial applications, as well as in the relationships between two of these areas or among all of them. The deadline to submit is October 28. The authors of accepted works will be notified by January 14, 2009, and camera-ready papers must be delivered by February 25, 2009. Submitted papers or extended abstracts will have three kinds of reviews: double blind (by at least three reviewers), non-blind, and participative peer-to-peer reviews. Authors of accepted papers who register for the conference can have access to the reviews made to their submission so they can accordingly improve the final version of their papers. Non-registered authors may not have access to the reviews of their respective submissions. Awards will be granted to the best paper of those presented at each session. The best 10 to 20 percent of the papers presented at the conference will be selected for publication in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. The conference’s stated purpose is to provide researchers, practitioners, developers, consultants, and end-users of computerized, communications and control systems and technologies, as well as their industrial and social applications in the private and the public sectors, an opportunity to join in a common place sharing experience and knowledge. It is intended to be a forum to expose and share current and future research work and innovations in these areas, as well as in the relationships among them. One of the primary objectives of the 2009 conference is to promote and encourage learning and sharing of research across disciplines. And intellectually, the conference is meant to promote systemic thinking and practices, including the analogical thinking that characterizes the Systems Approach. Additional details for submitting papers and abstracts area available online. The conference will take place in Orlando, Fla., July 10 through 13, 2009.

ACE 2008:Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:47:59 +0000

December 3rd - 5th, 2008 in Yokohama, Japan Entertainment is one of the important magical ingredients in the 21st Century society. ACE 2008 is an annual international conference devoted to computer entertainment to provide a premium forum for researchers, developers, practitioners, artists and designers to present and discuss new problems, solutions, content design and technologies in entertainment areas. The conference is sponsored by ACM Chapter (Singapore) in cooperation with VRSJ SIG-A+E and IPSJ SIG-EC. Early registration deadline is October 31 24:00 (JST) . Register now at http://www.ace-conf.org/ace2008/registration.html

World Conference on Innovative Virtual Reality 2009

admin — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:53:47 +0000

WIN VR 09* on the 25 and 26 February 2009 in Chalon- sur- Saône (the Burgundy region of France) Additional information is available on the conference website: http://www.asmeconferences.org/WINVR09/. The main topics of WIN VR'09 include but are not limited to the following areas: *- **Trends in Virtual Reality: Towards low-cost approaches* *- Innovative Virtual Reality for SME's: Development & Application* *- Virtual Reality Technologies, Methods and Applications* *- Advanced Interfaces* *- Virtual reality in Industrial Systems Design* *- Virtual Reality Applications: Human Factors Issues* *- Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality* *- Collaborative Virtual Reality* *- Virtual Reality in Education and Training* *- Investment Management of Virtual Reality Systems*

E-Learn 2008

admin — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:17:13 +0000

Dear Colleagues: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn Keynote/Invited Speakers: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/speakers You are invited to the most unique e-learning conference ever held. This promises to be one of the most interesting and engaging conferences you could ever attend. Not surprisingly, the E-Learn Conference has already surpassed its record for registrants! 10 Facts about E-Learn Keynote/Invited Speakers; Attend E-Learn and Learn More from These Speakers This Speaker: 1. Led the efforts to create an internationally known online repository called Connexions that is used by millions of people each year. In 2006, he gave a talk on open source learning at famous TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) Conference in Monterey, California just prior to singer Peter Gabriel. Come get “Connexted.” 2. Is developing innovative learning applications for the iPhone. For more than two decades, he has been one of the most engaging and entertaining presenters on the planet. Come hear his invited talk with his colleague from Texas that promises to start the E-Learn Conference off with a bang and be disruptive to K-20 education as we know it! 3. Taught her entire class last fall in YouTube; come here the results! 4. Developed a new learning theory called 'Connectivism' and is now teaching a class on it with 2,000 participants, only a few of whom are actually enrolled in the course. 5. Helped start the field of learning objects and is on the advisory of the Peer 2 Peer University announced today in the Chronicle of Higher Education. This invited presenter is also the world’s first Chief Openness Officer (COO) at Flat World Knowledge. 6. Created a popular podcast show for learning Mandarin that is currently listened to by more than 300,000 people per month. Not only is he the voice of ChinesePod, but he also has started similar podcasts for teaching English, Spanish, Italian, and French. The invited talk from this Irishman from Shanghai is certain to be quite fascinating! 7. Became famous a few ago after translating Lord of Rings to Chinese. He then used his royalties to translate MIT courses to traditional and simplified Chinese. This month, he is on the cover of a Taiwanese magazine as a symbol of the current generation. He will tell about his vision for the future of open education and edutainment. 8. Authored several online learning books and is an internationally known consultant with IBM Global Services. 9. Will be speaking to us from a sailboat off the coast of Central America. Yes, at E-Learn, we plan to make some waves this year! 10. Co-authored the 2000 National Academy Press volume How People Learn and is now Director of the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning which has just received an NSF grant on mobile learning. E-Learning in Asia Preconference Symposium: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/symposium2008.htm ------------------------------------------------- To add to the conference experience, the E-Learn 2008 Program Chairs would like to invite you to the E-Learning in Asia Symposium that has been added to the already excellent program. Monday, November 17th; 8:30 am-4:45 pm with a special reception: 5-6 pm This 1-day, preconference Symposium will feature 12 invited speakers from 12 different countries giving their perspectives and insight into the E-Learning environment, trends, and opportunities. E-learning is exploding in Asia. This is your chance to learn from those who have been developing, delivering, and researching new online programs there. Meet them all and hear their stories, challenges, opportunities, and adventures firsthand. It promises to be a highly interactive and informative event! Included in the symposium will be a continental breakfast, beverage breaks, lunch, and a reception following the event. Cost: $165. If you already have registered for E-Learn 2008, you may add this one day Symposium by contacting Tracy Jacobs (business@aace.org). She can add the event to your existing registration. Or until Nov. 3, you still can register online for the Conference and Symposium at: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/registration Best regards, Curtis J. Bonk, Mimi Miyoung Lee, and Tom Reynolds E-Learn 2008 Program Chairs

HCIEd 2009 – Playing with our Education

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:39:41 +0000

HCI Educators 2009 22nd to 24th April 2009 University of Abertay Dundee Dundee SCOTLAND, UK HCIEd 2009 is the annual international conference of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) educators. The theme of this year’s conference is PLAY – education through play, play through education. Play is enjoyed by all and in terms of HCI education it is a concept that can be considered from many viewpoints. Initiated by the BCS Interaction SG (previously the BCS HCI Specialist Group) in 2001 as an informal workshop amongst HCI educators, the workshop has since grown into a small conference with strong participation from various national and international HCI organisations. This year the event is organised by the University of Abertay, Dundee and co-sponsored by IFIP WG 13.1 Education in HCI and HCI Curriculum and the BCS Interaction SG. HCIEd 2009 will seek to extend the discussions of previous conferences and continue the remit of HCIEd 2008 to consider “Architecting the Future”. In previous years the roles of inventivity and creativity have been the focus of the discussions and presentations and we believe that continuing varied discussions across these issues creates a virtuous circle of educational pedagogy. We therefore cordially invite educators, researchers, developers, artists and practitioners to take part in this event and to contribute original work from any relevant perspective that reflects on their own practice. HCI education continues to look at a variety of areas, methods and issues. As previously, we encourage papers that wish to discuss any novel and interesting aspects of teaching HCI. This year we also particularly welcome contributions that specifically address the theme of play and so topics of particular interest in this call include, but are not limited to:

Teaching interactivity and design through the theory and technology of Play.
Designing and developing the interfaces of Play by considering concepts such as unobtrusive interaction and collaborative interaction.
Consideration of the appeal of the new technology of play to all generations and how that impacts on interactive processes.

HCI education needs to consider the importance of Play as a tool to aid our teaching, but also presumably must ensure that interfaces and interaction styles of play are part of the curriculum. We therefore also encourage papers that describe methods for teaching the concepts of Play at the interface, in terms of design, developing, interaction styles, users, etc. To emphasise the wide remit of this call we view the following areas as of relevance:

HCI education theories, methods and practices
Interaction design principles
Techniques, methods and environments for design or development through Play
Education and training methods that encourage the design for Play
Individual and collaborative practices for enhancing the Play interface
Creative design process
Concept, development and evaluation of interactive systems
Interactivity and experience
Case studies on education, play and/or design
Transdisciplinary methods and models

The conference proceedings will be published by the Abertay University Press and electronically by the BCS. A post conference publication of selected papers is envisaged through Springer. We welcome long papers, short papers/posters Long Papers Long Papers should present studies that contribute to our understanding of HCI education as an engaging experience, critical and reflective approaches to the design of interactive technology, research on how to approach the concept, development and evaluation of innovative as well as mundane artefacts related to Play or other interesting concepts related to HCI Education. Deadline: 7th January 2009 Short Papers Short papers and posters can be based on case studies or reports of best practices showing the process by which the concept of Play or other aspects of interest to HCI education can be encouraged and experienced by HCI students. Also, these may report small experiments or techniques in a concise format. Deadline: 7th January 2007 All papers will be double blind refereed and should respect the ACM SIGCHI two-column format (see http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html) Full papers must be no longer than 8 pages in the prescribed format and short papers no longer than 4 pages, including all the additional materials such as references, appendices, and pictures. Full research papers must include a title, sufficient space for the author names, contact information and affiliations, abstract, keywords, body, and references. The abstract must be no longer than 150 words and must be included in the paper; it must clearly state the paper’s contribution to the conference subject. All references must be complete, accurate and accessible to the public, formatted in the prescribed ACM format style. Please send your submissions via the conference website (below)> If you have any queries related to the submission system, please email j.archibald@abertay.ac.uk It is anticipated that a number of workshops will be offered which will explore the use of playful interaction as an educational tool for HCI. KEY DATES

First call for papers: 15 September 2008
Last call for papers: 3 December 2008
Deadline for submission of papers: 7 January 2009
Early bird registration opens: 14 January 2009
Authors notified of accepted papers: 25 February 2009
Late registration begins: 11 March 2009
Final versions (camera ready copies) of accepted papers due: 18 March 2009
HCIEd 2009 Conference: 22-24 April 2009

11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices

admin — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:41:04 +0000

The 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services will be held between September 15-18th, 2009 at the University of Bonn in the city of Bonn in Germany, organized by Fraunhofer FIT and the University of Siegen, in cooperation with ACM SIGCHI and ACM SIGMOBILE. The MobileHCI 2009 is supported by the B-IT Research School and the UMIC Cluster on Mobile Communications at RWTH Aachen.The RSS feed here.

Call for Papers

Theme The 11th conference in the MobileHCI series provides a forum for academics and practitioners to discuss the challenges and potential solutions for effective interaction with mobile systems and services. It covers the design, evaluation and application of techniques for all mobile and wearable computing devices and services. Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

Interfaces for mobile communities
In-car user interfaces
Interaction techniques
Interaction metaphors
Multimodal interaction
Audio / speech interaction
Mobile interaction
Group interaction and mobility
Social aspects in mobile
Context-aware systems
End user development and personalization
Ambient intelligence
Ubiquitous services
Perception of the environment
Moding of the environment
Personal assistance mobility and work environments
Mobile special purpose interfaces assistance for all
Mobile social networks
3G/4G devices
Wearable computing
Smart clothes
Services for mobile devices
3G/4G services
Mobile entertainment
Location based gaming
Usability of mobile devices and services
Evaluation of mobile devices and services
Evaluation methods
User centred design for mobile systems
Ethnographical and field studies
Model-based design
Mobile visualization techniques
Mobile safety
Trust and privacy
Legal aspects

The 11th mobileHCI in Bonn has introduced a new category for submission - Future Innovations – encouraging to submit late breaking ideas with potential to shape the future of mobile Human Computer Interaction.

Thinking after Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video

admin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:06:06 +0000

Research Group on the Creation and Formation of Cinematographic and Theatrical Institutions (GRAFICS) from the University of Montreal and the NT2 Laboratory on Hypermedia Art and Literature from the University of Quebec in Montreal, solicits your proposals for the bilingual (French/English) international conference titled «Thinking after Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games». This conference will be held in Montréal from April 23 to 25, 2009. Call for papers As fear is the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind (Lovecraft), human beings have always taken a malicious pleasure in frightening themselves. If literature and cinema were and still represent good means for the expression of horror, nowadays, the experience of fear is as intense in video games. While academia has been studying horrific literature and films for a few decades, such an interest for the videoludic side of horror has not, until now, showed up. Yet, since the cinematic staging of fear in Alone in the Dark in 1992, the Survival Horror has become a prolific genre offering a wide selection of significant games such as the Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Fatal Frame series. Because it is at the crossroads of diverse cultural heritages and the latest technological developments, and because it exhibits the ins and outs of the matrix that governs all but a few games (spatial navigation and survival), horror video games require a deeper study. This international conference wishes to study horror video games (not necessarily labeled survival horror) from an eclectic range of critical and theoretical perspectives. It aims to fill a gap in game studies between general theory and analysis of particular genres and games. Possible Topics Here are some examples of relevant themes we wish to explore in this conference: Historical approach - Origins and history of horror video games - Impact of the technological evolution on horror video games Theoretical approach - Simulation of horror, fear, terror - Narratives and themes of horror video games Transmedial approach - Transmedial study of horror video games (Games/Films/Literature) - Remediation in films, literature and video games Socio-cultural approach - Transnational analysis of horror video games (United States/Japan) - Social and cultural meanings of horror video games - Horror video games and censorship Analytical approach - Aesthetics of horror video games (lighting, sound, editing, 1st/3rd person perspective) - Study of specific games or series (Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, Fatal Frame, etc.) The organizing committee remains open to proposals that respect the general spirit of this call for papers. Please submit your proposals no later than January 15, 2009 at the following e-mail address: <thinking.after.dark@ca.inter.net>. Acceptance and rejection notifications will be sent by the beginning of February. Your proposal must include: 1. The title of your paper and an abstract (no more that 500 words). 2. Your academic status, your institutional affiliation, your department and your contact information (mailing address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail address) 3. A short biography underlining your work related to the themes of the conference (no more than 250 words). A selection of papers will be published in a special issue of Loading…, the journal of the Canadian Game Study Association. For further information, please visit our website: <http://conference2009.ludicine.ca>. Organizing committee Bernard Perron, Conference Head, Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Film Studies, University of Montreal Martin Picard, coordinator, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal Richard Bégin, Invited Professor in Film Studies, Literatures Departement, Laval University. Carl Therrien, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal Dominic Arsenault, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal Guillaume Roux-Girard, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal

Call for Abstracts:HCI International Conference 2009 Session invitation on the topic of:

admin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:18:26 +0000

Deadline for Abstract Receipt: Tuesday, 11 November 2008 Notification of Abstract Review Outcome: Tuesday, 30 November 2008 Deadline for Review of Papers: Monday, 12 January 2009 Deadline for Camera-ready Receipt: Monday, 16 February 2009 HCI International Conference 2009 Session invitation on the topic of: Beyond Virtual: Building Intercultural Competence with Social Games and Online Communities We invite potential presenters to join the session entitled "Beyond Virtual: Building Intercultural Competence with Social Games and Online Communities" to be held during the 3rd International Conference on Online Communities and Social Computing (OCSC 2009). OCSC 2009 is one of the affiliated conferences jointly held with HCI International 2009, the 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, San Diego, CA, USA, 19-24 July 2009. (http://www.hcii2009.org/) In this session we explore different approaches to solving the challenge of building intercultural competence through the use of game technology, online communities, and virtual world applications. Intercultural competence is the ability to reflect on one's own cultural underpinnings, express openness to diverse points of view, and exhibit a willingness to incorporate these contributions into one's local and global perspectives. Developing these real-world skills are critical to fostering multinational and multicultural cooperation in the 21st century. We seek to bring together researchers, academics, and designers from several disciplines, including industry, education, serious game design, intercultural communication, sociology, computer science, visual art, etc. who are deeply interested in understanding more about how we can build intercultural competence from playing and reflecting in technology -mediated settings such as computer or video games, mobile games, massively multi-player online role playing games (MMORPG), online communities, and more. How can technology-mediated settings help us develop self-reflection, and awareness of ourselves and others? How can we learn behavioral flexibility with regard to intercultural discovery through games or communities? What technologies (e.g. avatars, tutoring systems, etc.) enable social learning? We are also interested in how we, as designers, create games and online communities that provide learning opportunities for lasting skills development that extend beyond virtual in to real life. If you are interested in participating, please send the title of the presentation, a 100-300 word abstract and your contact details to Elaine Raybourn, emraybo@sandia.gov, by 11 November 2008 (Tuesday).

ACM SIGGRAPH 2009 invites you to Network Your Senses

admin — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:25:10 +0000

Call for Submissions Network Your Senses at SIGGRAPH 2009 ACM SIGGRAPH 2009 invites you to Network Your Sensesas a contributor or volunteer at the 36th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 3 - 7 August 2009 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in festive New Orleans, Louisiana. SIGGRAPH thrives because of the quality and diversity of our members, and the tremendous value of the work they produce in a wide range of disciplines. From students to studio heads, from independent artists to scientists and researchers, SIGGRAPH gives you an opportunity to present your work to colleagues, old friends, and industry peers you have yet to meet. You'll also get to see their work, and meet and socialize with them. This year we're also expanding our focus to include gaming as well as music and audio. As was done last year, SIGGRAPH will again implement a unified General Submission process that allows contributors to submit content to be evaluated across several formats. Every piece submitted to SIGGRAPH 2009 through the Call for Submissions is reviewed by a highly qualified jury composed of top practitioners in the relevant field. Because we want each jury to have the time to review each piece carefully, submission deadlines generally are several months ahead of the conference itself. All the submission deadlines are strictly enforced, so plan ahead! For focused ideas on how you can contribute to SIGGRAPH 2009, see our Calls for Submission for: Animation & Effects Production Art Education Games Information Aesthetics Music & Audio Research Students ________________________________ Important Submission Deadlines XSV: Ex-Student Volunteers Applications Monday, 10 November 2008 Art Papers Thursday, 8 January 2009 Technical Papers Tuesday, 20 January 2009 Student Volunteer Team Leader Applications Monday, 9 February 2009 General Submissions: BioLogic Art, Courses, Game Papers, Information Aesthetics Showcase, Emerging Technologies, Panels, Posters, Talks Wednesday, 18 February 2009 Student Volunteers Applications Monday, 23 February 2009 Computer Animation Festival: Competition Films, Real-Time Rendering Wednesday, 4 March 2009 Late-Breaking Work: FJORG!, Research Challenge, Late-Breaking Posters, Late-Breaking Talks Wednesday, 6 May 2009 *All deadlines are 22:00 UTC/GMT ________________________________ Contributor Benefits Participant benefits, if submitted work or volunteer service is accepted for SIGGRAPH 2009, include: The opportunity to participate in the world's premier conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques. Direct interaction and collaboration with dynamic industry leaders and innovators. Inspiration and insights into a world where technology, art, and science converge. Invaluable training and networking opportunities. At SIGGRAPH 2009, you can present your work to some of the most creative artists, entrepreneurs, researchers, musicians, and other creative people on the planet, in a vibrant and exciting city that is known for its food, music, and hospitality. For more information on how to submit your materials visit the official SIGGRAPH 2009 Call for Submissions page. We invite you to contribute and look forward to seeing you in New Orleans! Sponsored by ACMSIGGRAPH The siggraph_distribution2009 list may contain more than one e-mail address for a single contact. If you receive SIGGRAPH 2009 e-mails through more than one e-mail account, please unsubscribe from those addresses you wish to have removed from the distribution list. You are currently subscribed to siggraph_distribution2009 as datsoupi@evl.uic.edu. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to leave-761119-28280123D@siggraphitti.siggraph.org. SIGGRAPH 2009 Conference Management SmithBucklin Corporation 401 North Michigan Avenue, #2200 Chicago, Illinois 60611 USA

Computer Animation and Social Agents

admin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:28:54 +0000

More information about CASA09, similar to what I posted before:

Computer Animation and Social Agents (CASA 09)

http://hmi.ewi.utwente.nl/CASA09

June 17-19 2009, Amsterdam

Call For Papers

We are seeking regular full papers, short papers, and posters with the following topics, but which are not limited to:

Important Dates are:

Full papers

*Submission: February 10, 2009

*Notification of acceptance: March 10, 2009

*Camera ready: April 1, 2009

Short papers and Posters

*Submission: March 15, 2009

*Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2009

*Camera/CD ready: May 10, 2009

Conference Chair: Anton Nijholt, anijholt@cs.utwente.nl

Program Chairs: Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, Mark Overmars, and Scott King

Local Chairs: Arjan Egges and Herwin van Welbergen

Webpage: http://hmi.ewi.utwente.nl/CASA09

Media Design Documents

admin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:52:31 +0000

I was surprised to find out how little information there is about Media Design Documents on the web. I posted the following for my prototyping students. They prototyping a game in 22 weeks, following a rough version of a game company's production cycle: Media Design Document The Media Design Document or MDD is your opportunity to specify the artistic expectations of the games. It’s similar to a packing list before a big trip. You are trying to identify all the visual and audio assets that will be created or purchased for the game. Like much of the documentation in the game development and project management world, the Media Design Document does not have a set format. At the minimum, here’s what the document should contain:

A list of all art (2D art, 3D models, environments, etc)
A list of all sounds
The relationship of those objects to the game

One of the benefits of the media design document is that it helps to clarify your design document. Once upon a time games were built by little teams and the experience could be spec’d in a neat little document. The art might have even been created by the same person who coded the game and perhaps authored the sound and music. As you know this isn’t true anymore. For some, large AAA teams putting everything about the game into a single design document is too much. Instead the content is divided into a few logical parts:

Design
Art
Development

This is similar to the pattern maintained by other software projects. In website development, for example, there might be a business spec, a development spec and an asset spec. In both cases, there might also be one person responsible for each high-level focus. The game design would be responsible for the Design Document, the Art lead for the MDD, and the development lead for the development spec. The titles and specific of jurisdiction change, but the general concept is the same. As current cross-company research indicates it is not practical to expect to spec the entire game at the start. As you now, designs change, technical hurdles happen, and the world changes quickly. Trying to do so is like trying to create a packing list for every conceivable situation. What’s most reasonable is to plan to the best of your ability and understand there is a slight margin of error. At least we hope the margin of error is slight. For your media design document you must answer the basic questions:

What assets will I need for the scope I have determined?
Can I re-use any of those assets (e.g. retexture the same models for variety)

You will follow the media design document with a rough Art-Pipeline. We will talk more about the Art-Pipeline in the following week, but here is a preview of what you will be working toward. If the Media Design Document is your packing list, the art-pipeline is your road map. It is a workflow document for integrating all your assets and specifying how those assets should be authored (e.g. texture sizes, polycounts,etc) The rest of the content is here http://aii.LGrace.com/html/week6_Media_Design_Doc.htm

IGF Student Competition Closing in 5 Days

admin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:53:51 +0000

FYI, the IGF 2009 student competition is closing on November 15th, 2008: Submit here

IFIP 8th International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC 2009)

admin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:59:16 +0000

September 3 - 5, 2009

CNAM, Paris, France

http://www.entertainmentcomputing.org/icec2009/ Sponsored by International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We invite you to participate at the prestigious 8th International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC2009). Entertainment has been taking very important parts in our life by refreshing us and activating our creativity. Recently by the advancement of computers and networks new types of entertainment have been emerging such as video games, entertainment robots, and network games. Based on the very successful preceding workshop and conferences, the next ICEC2009 has been set up to offer an occasion to exchange experience and knowledge among researchers and developers in the field of entertainment computing.

Important Dates:

ICEC 2009 Tutorial Proposals: 23rd February 2009 Full Paper Submissions: 2nd March 2009 Decisions on Full Paper Submissions: 30th March 2009 Short Paper, Poster and Demo Submissions: 20th April 2009 Decisions on Short Paper, Poster and Demo Submissions: 4th May 2009 Camera Ready Submissions for all Papers: 1st June 2009

Conference Topics:

Suggested research topics include, but are not limited to:

· l Interactive Design for Entertainment

· Aesthetics, Ontology and Social Reflection

· Art, Design and Novel Media

· Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality

· Computer Games and Game Based Interfaces

· Education, Training, and Edutainment Technologies

· Entertainment and Healthcare

· Novel and Evolutionary Platforms / Hardware Devices

· Social and Human Factors of Entertainment

· Interactive Digital Storytelling, and Interactive Tele-Vision

· Mobile Entertainment via e.g. Mobile Phones, PDAs etc

· Narrative Environments and Intelligent Medias

· New Genres, New Standards

· Pervasive Entertainment and Game-Playing

· Robots and Cyber Pets

· Self Reflecting Entertainment

· Simulation Applications of Games, and Military Training

· Sound, Music, Creative Environments

· Real time and Interactive Technologies for entertainment (Graphics, Sound, AI...)

Artworks:

We are planning a dedicated Art Exhibition. Confirmation and details of this event will be published soon!

Proceedings:

The proceedings of ICEC2009 will be published Springer in the series of Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS).

ICEC2009 Committee: General Conference Chair:

Stephane Natkin (CNAM/ENJMIN, France)

Progam Committee Co-Chairs:

Stephane NATKIN (CNAM/ENJIM, France) Masayuki NAKAJIMA (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) Bras BUSHMAN (University of Michigan, USA)

International Steering Committee:

Ryohei Nakatsu (National University of Singapore, Singapore) Mark Cavazza (University of Teesside, UK) Zhigeng Pan (Zhejiang University, China) Stephane Natkin (CNAM/ENJIM, France) Matthias Rauberberg (Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands) Don Marinelli (Carnegie Mellon University, USA) Hyun Yang (KAIST, Korea) Roy Ascott (University of Plymouth, UK) Sara Diamond (Ontario College of Art and Design, Canada) Scott Fischer (USC, USA)

Organizing Committee:

Chair：Ben Salem (Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands) Stephane Gros (CNAM, France) Xan Qiu Hou (CNAR, France)

Polglot Snap Demo: Shape and Sound

admin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:59:50 +0000

This is one version of the game I made that elminates the extrinsic real-world knowledge around which the game was designed. Instead I return to my critique of many games, which is a high reliance on intrinsic game world knowledge. It also just seemed like an interesting idea.

The Polyglot Poster

admin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:02:40 +0000

The poster I created to show the Polyglot game at Meaningful Play

Polyglot Game Submitted

admin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:02:53 +0000

It's time to put the Polyglot Cubed game to bed. I finished a few revisions, including a mod tool for adding more language packs "easily." The video of the latest version of my Polyglot games is here on your tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_-jyYDhSD0 I submitted it to IGF as a long shot. I'd like to get some feedback on how to make the game more interesting and maybe some day, even exciting :)

Polyglot is an educational game for learning languages. It is designed to entertain while enforcing language comprehension. The highly modular system was designed at the University of Illinois, Chicago by Lindsay Grace, an MFA student. It is designed to aid in the retention of listening vocabulary. Polyglot can be used to improve comprehension of a variety of languages with minimal training. The game is designed around 6 rooms of floating, cubicle tiles. Each tile is assigned a foreign language word, and a pictographic representation of that word. The cubes are clustered by topic, usage,or form of speech to encourage contextual recognition and aid visual memory. The player must match the spoken word with the cube that corresponds to it. Polyglot [cubed] recieved best student game at Michigan State University's Meaningful Play Game Overview (.pdf)

Download Polyglot [Cubed]

The following software prototype is in beta, please use accordingly. It was written and tested by Lindsay Grace as a proof of concept. It is provided under standard United States commercial intellectual property license. It may not be redistributed without consent from the author, but please feel free to link directly to this site. This software does not include any adware, pay-per-click software, nag screens or related technology. It's just good old fashioned honest code :) You can also download the Mod Tool to build your own lessons / games. However, the mod tool require the .Net Framework and some patience :)

Version	Download
Windows Vista, XP, NT, 2000	Mandarin Chinese Language Demo Version (17.7 mb) Alternate download 2

Windows Mobile/CE (Java)	(sorry mobile version not ready yet- still working on it)

Language Packs
	Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) Criolu (Portuguese dialect) \| 7.7mb Alternate Download 2

	Urban Slang: Standard American English (humor)
Mods
	Snap (shape-sound match) Match tones to shapes (built using the mod tool) - 7mb .zip file Alternate download #2

Mod Tool	Download the mod tool to make your own versions of the game. Use this program to make other language packs for Polyglot or to create other matching games using the polylogt design. Screenshot

Digital Games Research Association Conference 2009

admin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:07:43 +0000

Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory Brunel University, West London, United Kingdom, Tuesday 1st September -- Friday 4th September 2009

The Conference organisers for the Digital games Research Association conference 2009 are pleased to announce the first Call for Papers. DiGRA is an organisation that embraces all aspects of game studies, and the conference aims to provide a diverse platform for discussion and a lively forum for debate. We therefore welcome papers from any discipline focused on any aspect of games, play, game culture and industry. The conference will be the fourth DiGRA conference, following Utrecht, Vancouver and Tokyo, and welcomes contributions from scholars working in any area of interest to the association. The official business of the Subject Association will also be conducted at the conference.

The Conference invites the following proposals for consideration:

Individual or Collaborative Papers Panels Workshops Posters

Initial selection will be through the peer review of both full papers and abstracts of 500-700 words in all categories. Selection of presentations will be proportionate to the submissions received, and no distinction will be made between papers selected from abstract or full paper review. Panel and Workshop proposals should include abstracts for the contributions of all participants.

Individual or collaborative papers – addressing topics relevant to the wide remit of DiGRA (including therefore industry, education, political, social, theoretical concerns appropriate to the association). Presentations should be limited to 15-20 mins.

Panel proposals – 3 – 4 papers which address a common theme, a common research method, a shared conceptual issue etc.

Workshops – proposals are invited for 2 – 3 hour workshops that address a range of themes relevant to the aims of the association. Workshops that are particularly targeted at a wide audience are most welcome.

Poster sessions – presentations of work in progress in the format are most welcome and will be showcased throughout the event.

The conference committee are also interested in including featured symposia/colloquia to address particular ‘late-breaking’ research projects or issue-based topics (an example might be a colloquia based around Wii research or a symposium based around Women in Games. Please contact a member of the conference organising committee with any expressions of interest.

Graduate student participation

In order to support graduate students and early career researchers the conference will focus on graduate student issues on its opening day, 1st September 2009. The conference organizers seek appropriate mentors to work with those addressing common themes/topics/issues in graduate roundtables.

Strands

Please also indicate your preference for consideration in one of the following broad strands:

Games Culture Games and Commerce Games Aesthetics Games Education Games Design Games and Theory

Key Dates

Deadline for all submissions for presentation at the conference (includes full papers, abstracts and workshop/panel/symposia proposals): Friday 6 March 5pm GMT

Deadline for full papers for inclusion in digital proceedings: Friday 26 June 2009 5pm GMT

Notification of acceptance: June 1 2009

Deadline for booking on-campus accommodation June 30 2009

Conference Dates: 1-4th September 2009

Abstracts should be of 500-700 words and include an indicative bibliography. Full paper submissions may be of up to 6,000 words, not including bibliography. Full details of the submissions procedure, including the method of electronic submission, will be published here and on other forums as soon as possible.

All contributions must be original, unpublished work. The conference language is English, and papers, abstracts and other proposals should be written in English. Delegates are also advised that individuals will be limited to one paper presentation and one other form of presentation to allow space and time for the largest number of participants.

About the Conference Location

Brunel University is located conveniently near Heathrow Airport and is on the London Tube system. A range of affordable accommodation is available on campus, including 1500 en suite rooms all on one campus, 400 standard bedrooms, 8 holiday flats (5-7 persons per flat), 51 specially adapted rooms for people with disabilities, plus hotel standard rooms in the Lancaster Suite. The Brunel Conference Centre boasts 22 theatres, 29 classrooms and 5 seminar rooms all presented to the highest standard. The following are also available: Free car parking (on application); Full office support for photocopying, faxing, internet and word processing (on application); Comprehensive range of audio visual and media services; Mini market; Pharmacy; Banking facilities; Reference library; Sports Facilities; Fitness Suite; Medical centre; 24 hour security; Self service cafeteria; Licensed bars and cafes. There are also a range of restaurants, cinemas and shopping in Uxbridge town.

Local attractions

Historic Windsor & Eton -Windsor Castle, Legoland and shopping are just 20 minutes drive away London - Central London and West End are easily accessed by bus or Underground. Historic Oxford is a 40 minute bus ride away.

The Conference Organisers

The conference is being hosted by a consortium consisting of Brunel University, University of the West of England and the University of Wales, Newport.

Tanya Krzywinska, Professor of Screen Media, Brunel University Helen Kennedy, University of the West of England Barry Atkins, University of Wales Reader in Computer Games Design

Computer Games / Players / Game Cultures Conference

admin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:11:27 +0000

The University of Magdeburg, Institute for Educational Science, and the Commission "Media Education" of the "German Association for Educational Science" (Kommission Medienpädagogik der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft) invite to submit abstracts and papers for the international conference "Computer Games / Players / Game Cultures". The conference will be held in Magdeburg (Germany) from March 18 to 21, 2009. Call for Papers - revised (2nd) version The conference seeks to provide an interdisciplinary forum to present and reflect upon the state which digital game studies has obtained in the past decade as well as discuss perspectives for the future. The focus lies on aesthetic, social, cultural and educational aspects of computer games, including persistent (multiplayer) game worlds like MMOGs and new phenomena like mobile digital gaming (for more details see http://wase.urz.uni-magdeburg.de/bscw/bscw.cgi/d166949/CFP%20English.pdf). We invite to submit suggestions for papers/talks or posters (with working title, allocation to main topic) via e-mail to Johannes Fromme: jfromme@ovgu.de until December, 7th, 2008.

Submissions may include: - Abstracts (700-1000 words) or full versions of papers of original, unpublished research or theoretical work (individual or collaborative papers). General surveys of key debates, problems, and empirical findings are especially encouraged. - Abstracts (500-700 words) for poster presentations (presentations of work in progress in a poster session) - Abstracts (500-700 words) for presentations of Ph.D. projects in a special forum for doctoral candidates. All submitted abstracts und papers will be peer reviewed. Accepted papers, posters und Ph.D. projects will be presented during the conference. The full versions of the papers (talks) will be published in a handbook after the conference (presumably by the end of 2009). Authors will have the chance to revise their papers for the publication after the presentation and discussion at the conference. The full version of the CFP can be downloaded here:

http://wase.urz.uni-magdeburg.de/bscw/bscw.cgi/d166949/CFP%20English.pdf Best, Johannes Fromme

EUROMEDIA 2009

admin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:12:11 +0000

15TH ANNUAL MEDIA CONFERENCE 1ST CALL FOR PAPERS WEBSITE http://www.eurosis.org/cms/?q=taxonomy/term/172 NOVOTEL BRUGGE CENTRUM BRUGES-BELGIUM APRIL 15-17, 2009 Organized by ETI Sponsored by EUROSIS University Hasselt Delft University of Technology Belgacom TTVI Ghent University DG-INFSO The 2009 EUROMEDIA conference covers the latest developments in web-multimedia and communications technology while also looking at their implementation in Broadband networking, mobile computing, broadband networking, distributed computing, telematics, E-technology and real world environments like embedded systems, security systems and training systems. New topics are human computer interaction with a focus on the interaction of users with multimodal interfaces and the usability and experiences of users with multimodal systems based on different media. The EUROMEDIA conference is held concurrently with the ECEC and FUBUTEC conferences. The conference is structured around 5 tracks: WEBTEC, which deals with web technology-COMTEC, which covers communications technology-MEDIATEC, which covers multimedia technology-APTEC, which provides an overview of media-integration and ETEC, which covers electronic commerce. The conference also features special workshops on E-Business, D-TV, Medical Imaging, Facial and Biometric Recognition, Computer Graphics and Cyber Security. WEBTEC The WEBTEC conference focuses on new developments with respect to Internet, Intranet, HTML/XML..., and WEB 2.0. Because of the large amount of new tools and developments, scientific papers focusing on this subject should always include references to other ideas and products. If your paper describes a new language or tool, include the theoretical basis, application, and (tested) experiences. Topics: Internet Viewers and Programs * Development and Design Tools for the Web * Tactical Internet * Web Programming * Web Simulation and Animation * Interactive Web Publishing Tools * Dynamic New Languages and Standards * Java Security * CORBA and the Web * IPV6 (next generation internetprotocol) Visual Programming Languages * Advanced Web Authoring and Development Tools * Visual Web Programming * Visual HTML - XML , XSL editors * Applets and Scripting Languages over Networks 3D Web Programs * 3D Worlds * Rule Based Programming for 3D Environments (avatars) * Building Online Communities * Web 2.0 social software Video and Audio Streaming on the Web * Video Telephony, Web Video and Web Conferencing * Video and Audio Libraries * Internet telephone networks AI on the Web * Intelligent Agents, Knowbots and REBOL Bots * Worm Programs, Data Mining and MDX, SQL, SQLJ Based Tools * Mobile Network Agents * Site Analysis Tools * Collaborative Filtering * Intelligent Interactive Characters * Semantic Web Applications * Webbased Information Systems Software for Web-based Business Applications and E-Commerce * Building Interactive Advertising and Information Interfaces * Business Objects and Business to Business E-Commerce * Customer Tracking Tools, E-Commerce Tools & Architectures * Electronic Cash Transfer Protocols on the Web * Joint Electronic Payments Initiative * Internet Open Trading Protocols * Security and E-Commerce * Web Based Training and Web Based Networked Simulation * PC VR Based Training MEDIATEC The MEDIATEC conference looks at new developments in multimedia technology. Step by step, multimedia computing becomes more common and more popular. CD-ROM-DVD technology, videoconferencing, and real-time 3-D animation have become widely available for standard hardware platforms. The type of papers we are looking for try to give a theoretical foundation to developments in multimedia hardware and software, if possible comparing different alternatives so that empirical results can form a basis for new standards and choice among alternatives. Topics: Multimedia Techniques and Telecommunications * Real Time Interactive Systems * Hardware for multimedia storage * Hardware and networks for multimedia transmission * CD-Interactive Systems and Online DVD Technology * Removable Storage Technology * Multimedia Sensors (RF Tags) * Intelligent Analysis and Interpretation of Multimedia Data Multimedia Authoring Tools and Software * Presentation Tools * Presentation Software * Animation /Facial Animation * Animation Tools * 3D Authoring Tools, 3D Graphics, 3D Accelerators and Motion Capture * Video and Audio Editing * PC-DVD Video Imaging, Editing Techniques and Tools * Video Compression Techniques and Tools * Video Accelerators * Non Linear Video Editing Systems * Digital Video * MPEG 5 PC-Video Encoding and Decoding * (MPEG) Image Compression * Colour Palette Strategies * Audio Editing * Digital Audio Software * CD Recording Software * Voice Recognition Systems * Industrial Applications * automatic speech recognition * Software Defined Radio Multimedia Building Blocks * Multimedia Databases * Toolboxes for Moving Graphics * Productivity Tools * Multimedia and CORBA COMTEC The COMTEC conference covers different types of communication technology utilising both fixed and mobile infrastructures. Of course, this conference must be seen in alliance with the overall theme of the conference: new media that are used on a world-wide basis in relation to information and communication infrastructures. Topics: Telecommunications Technologies * High Speed Interconnects * Optical Networks and Switching * Transport Networks * HSI in Parallel/Distributed Systems * Message Passing Communication Standards * Communication Servers and Networks * Access Networks and Protocols * Systems and Applications Software * Clusters and Load Balancing * Traffic Models and Performance Simulations * Fault Tolerance, Reliability Models, Performance Studies and System Validation Networks * Quality of Service * Multicast * ISDN, Intelligent Networks, LAN-WAN Interconnection, WIFI * Broadband and Wideband Networks * Information Super Highways, GRID * Network Management * Case Studies on Large Networks Simulation technology * Network Planning & Management & Software Radio * Broadband convergence networks (BcN) Network Security * Encryption and Coding * Software Protocols * Privacy, ID Verification, Authentication, Message Integrity, Message Non-Repudiation and Security Policies * Access Control + Firewalls + Intrusion Detection * Smart Card Technology Mobile Communications * Satellite Services * WAP compliant Broadband Mobile Communication * Voice Paging, Mobile Fax, Mobile Video Text * 3G Networks * Mobile Networks Planning * W-CDMA (3rd generation mobile telecommunications) * Mobile adhoc networks (MANETS) TV Technology * CATV, HDTV, 3D TV * Interactive Video * DAVIC * Digital TV * DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) QoS * QoS in TP Networks * QoS in ATM Networks * QoS in Public Networks * QoS in Mobile Networks * QoS in Heterogeneous Networks * QoS Charging APTEC The APTEC conference shows how effectiveness and efficiency of individuals and public and private organisations can be improved using telematics, advanced communications, and multimedia technology. Papers in the APTEC conference should present the relation between the type of activity that is supported by new technology and the characteristics of the technology itself. If possible, empirical test results should be included in the paper. Topics: Telematics Consumer Applications * Home Banking * Video-on-Demand, Video and PC-Gaming * Video Kiosks Cooperative Telematics Applications * Home Shopping * Teleconsulting * Teleworking * Teleprocessing * Telepresence * Web Enabled Devices Tele-Education * Tele-Teaching * Multimedia and DVD Technology * Computer Based Training * CBT Authoring Software * Computer Assisted Instruction * Simulation Based Training * Interactive Tools * Tele-Education on the Web * Case Studies Integrated Enterprise Software and Groupware * Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) * VHDL and Verilog Applications * Product Data Interchange * Synthetic Environments and Simulation on the Web * Distributed Simulation (DIS) * Virtual Reality * Innovative e-mail applications * Shared Memory, Shared Screen * Group Decision Support * Group Scheduling * Group Editing * Video Conferencing and standards * Desktop Video Conferencing * Workflow Software * Putting Interactive Training Online Telemedicine * Multimedia * Real-Time Systems * Telediagnostic * Fault Tolerance * Telemonitoring * Data Bases * Case Studies Ubiquitous computing Applications * health care * Pervasive computing * Video human interaction * Mediascapes * Interactive posters * Electronic tags * Ambient intelligence * System architecture and concepts, software and intelligent receptors * Smart homes and transport (cars,planes, Digital home concept) * smart surroundings using ubiquitous wireless sensor networks * self organising digital sensor networks of individual motes * GPS, active RFID technology * context aware systems (f.ex SIREN) * privacy and security from motes, smart sensors to smart dust Embedded Systems and future product market combinations * modelling specification and validation of embedded systems * intelligent clothing and polytronics * rfid technology * intelligent products and environments * active silenced machines (adaptronics) * simulated environments (reverse engineering) * man-machine interaction (converging technology) * security systems (biometric and other dataprocessing techniques Multimodal communication *context sensitive sensing *affective computing *speech recognition, recognition of facial expressions *recognition of emotion in text, speech and video *usability *engineering experiences ETEC The ETEC conference reviews the latest trends and technologies applied in the growing field of electronic commerce. This track will be exclusively dedicated to practical applications in business to business and business to customer environments. E-Commerce provides valuable guidance on reconfiguring the structure and interaction between organisations, businesses, and customers, to create effective new possibilities and to stay ahead of competition, by implementing new advanced information and communications technology. The track focuses on the reality rather than the hype which tends to surround these items. This conference is a unique occasion to find out the key issues and essential facts from case studies and unbiased expert presentations. . Tele-X . E-commerce . Security . Medical Information Systems . Challenges of tomorrow and beyond Trust and security: provisions and instruments . Online availability of public services . Service survivability and maintainability . Interoperability of services . Security in e-democracy (including e-participation and e-voting) . E-justice (administration and workflow security for legal processes) . Secure federating information access (from different government and third party agencies) . Security and reliability in media integration . Secure e-government and Identity Management . Security and reliability of Smart Card System . Availability and reliability of mobile services . Data protection and data privacy (e.g. e-health and e-education) . Intrusion detection and prevention . Anti-spam legislation and solution . Public-private- partnerships management . Role-based management and usage restriction Special Tracks Special Track on Knowledge Management and e-Mobility * Knowledge warehouse * Knowledge acquisition and datamining * E-blended learning * MPEG2 standards in e-mobility Special Track on In-Car Applications This track will cover the embedded systems envisaged in future car design based on multimedia applications. * Look-Ahead Radar * Automatic Braking * Blind Spot Detection * Steer by Wire * LEDS * Lane Departure Warning * Conversational Voice Recognition * Drowsiness Sensors * Cockpit Controllers * Split Displays * In-car Entertainment Systems * Glass Cockpit/HUD Displays * Smart Navigation * Networking * Integrated Sensors Special Track on Facial Recognition or Non Verbal Communication Facial expressions play an important role in human communication. We are able to read emotions from human faces. Turn taking in human dialogues can be regulated by facial expressions. There is an ongoing discussion about the universal character of emotions. Psychologist P. Ekman claims that there are 6 universal emotions corresponding with unique facial expressions: happiness, sadness, disgust, anger, fear and surprise. But there are much more emotions, which can be conveyed by facial expressions, way of speaking, gestures and other body language. For many years researchers have been involved in the automatic recognition and generation of emotions. There are systems which are able to read faces and analyze speech signals to recognize emotions. Researchers have developed “talking faces” which are able to show facial expressions and to speak with appropriate emotions. At this moment here robots and avatars which are able to display emotions and are able to recognize emotion. The goal of the session/track is to invite researchers to present papers in the area of non verbal communication. Special Track on Virtual Reality 2.0 Applications This track will cover Virtual Reality 2.0 Applications using Motion Capture Technology in * Advertising * Healthcare * Market research * Auto Safety * Mobile Phones * Security Workshops e-business information management or e-BIM Information is a strategic resource in every organisation. In Business Information Management (BIM) we focus on the continuous improvement of the quality of the information, that is intrinsic in business processes and is supporting management decisionmaking. In e-Business Information Management (e-BIM) internet based information modelling analyzing and presentation is a hot issue and is part of a company’s competitivity. Themes: * e-business, e-marketing, e-services * business process modelling * management information systems * content management * business intelligence * management reporting * e-learning Organised by Jeanne Schreurs, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium Medical Imaging Systems In recent years, extensive research has been performed to develop more and more efficient and powerful medical imaging systems. Such systems are crucial for medical specialists, allowing a deeper analysis and to understand what is going inside the human body, and therefore they play an essential role for adequate medical diagnosis and treatments. To accomplish efficient and powerful medical imaging systems, many research works have being done in many domains, like the ones related with medical image devices, signal processing, image processing and analysis, biomechanical simulation and data visualization. The main goal of the Workshop “Medical Imaging Systems” is to bring together researchers involved in the related domains, in order to set the major lines of development for the near future. Therefore, the proposed Workshop will consist of researchers representing various fields related to Medical Devices, Signal Processing, Computational Vision, Computer Graphics, Computational Mechanics, Scientific Visualization, Mathematics and Medical Imaging. The Workshop endeavors to contribute to obtain better solutions for more efficient and powerful medical imaging systems, and attempts to establish a bridge between clinicians and researchers from these diverse fields. The proposed Workshop will cover topics related with medical imaging systems, such as: € image acquisition € signal processing € image processing and analysis € modelling and simulation € computer aided diagnosis € surgery, therapy, and treatment € computational bioimaging and visualization € software development € virtual reality € telemedicine systems and their applications Organised by Joao Tavares of the University of Porto, Portugal D-TV Workshop 3rd Workshop on Digital Television & Digital Special Interest Channels at the Euromedia 2009 - From Realisable Visions to Feasible and Sustainable Applications. Scope: In contrast to traditional TV DTV is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound by means of digital signals. It uses digitally compressed modulation data, which requires decoding by a specially designed television set or a standard receiver (set-top box) as well as via PC-TV based on ADLS (VDSL). Digital Television has several advantages regarding technically as well as content and programme related aspects. One of the most significant is the use of a smaller channel bandwidth. This frees up space for more digital channels, other non-television services such as pay-multimedia services and the generation of new revenue models based on interactive advertisement and marketing features. Furthermore there are special services such as multicasting (more than one programme on the same channel), electronic programme guides and interactivity providing a wider range of application. Accordingly within the last year a growing up of specialised digital TV channels (Special Interest Channels) has to be observed European wide. This new growing up stream is mainly characterised by the phenomena of merging television (TV) and information technology (IT) know how, methods and techniques. In this context the workshop targets to show up the development in both directions: the technically aspects as well as the content and programme issues. It provides a presentation and discussion platform for exchanging experiences made within the establishment as well as the maintenance of digital special interest channels. Main focus will be to point out the interdependencies and the mutual influences of technically streams and content respectively service related issues. Topics: * Broadband Television * Interactive Television * IPTV - Web-TV * DVB-H, DVB-T, DVB-S, DVB-C * MHP & Interactive Television * Set-Top-Boxes * Full Digital Production Chain Management * Digital-Video-Journalism * DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) * FreeTV & PayTV * Interactive Video * Interactive Advertising Formats * Event Oriented Interview Formats * Event Driven Program Schemes & Formats * Mobile Content * Cross-Format Content & Knowledge Pooling * Cross-Media Content Production & Distribution * Indexing and Retrieval of Digital Content * Semantically Enrichment of Digital Content * Security & Digital Rights Management (DRM) * Watermarking & Copyrights & Protection * Cross-platform productions on TV Media-Convergence * Peer-to-peer Grid TV Applications Organised by Hasn-Joachim Nern, DT-TV Cybersecurity Access Control, Applications of Cryptography, Attacks and Viral Software, Authentication and Authorization, Biometrics and Applications, Critical ICT Resources Protection, Data and System Integrity, Data Protection, Ethics, Digital Content Security, Identity Management, Information Hiding, Information Warfare, Internet and Web Security, Intrusion Detection, Peer-to-Peer Security, Privacy Enhancing Technologies, Risk Analysis and Management, Secure Electronic Voting, Secure Sensor Networks, Secure Systems Development, Security Architectures, Security Economics, Security Education, Security Management, Security Metrics, Smart Cards, SPAM, SPIT, SPIM, Trust Management and Models Computer Graphics Applications TUTORIALS Tutorials can be proposed in the following three categories: T1- Introductory tutorials T2- State of the Art Tutorials T3- Software and Modelware Tutorials Tutorial proposals should be emailed to Philippe.Geril@eurosis.org POSTER SESSION The poster session only features work in progress. Next to the actual poster presentation, these submissions also feature as short papers in the Proceedings. STUDENTS SESSION This session is for students who want to present their work in progress or part of their doctoral thesis as a paper. Student papers are denoted by the fact that only the name of the student appears on the paper as an author. They are published as short papers in the Proceedings. DIVERSE ACTIVITIES For demonstrations or video sessions, please contact EUROSIS. Special session will be set up for vendor presentations in coordination with the scientific program. User Group meetings for simulation languages and tools can be organised the day before the conference. If you would like to arrange a meeting, please contact the Conference Chairs. We will be happy to provide a meeting room and other necessary equipment. Exhibition There will be a special exhibition section for universities and non-profit organisations, and a special section for publishers and commercial stands. If you would like to take part in this exhibition please contact the EUROSIS for a full price schedule and stand layout. Deadlines and Requirements DECEMBER 15, 2008 (EARLY BIRD SUBMISSION) JANUARY 20, 2009 (SUBMISSION DATE) FEBRUARY 5, 2009 (LATE SUBMISSION) Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent in the period FEBRUARY 15, 2009 Camera-Ready Copies: MARCH 25, 2009 All EUROSIS Proceedings are indexed by ISI-THOMSON and INSPEC As this event is being held in Belgium, our home country, we are required to add on a 21% VAT surcharge. In order for you to get a VAT refund, have your registration paid by your university, institute or company as they have a VAT number. If you prepay personally it is possible you cannot reclaim the VAT. All prices below are without VAT. REGISTRATION FEES Registration Authors EUROSIS Other Fees Members Participants Pre-Reg before 495 Euro 495 Euro 555 Euro March 25, 2009 Reg after Pre- March 25, 2009 registration 535 Euro 595 Euro Required Registration fees should preferably be paid in EUROs, but can also be paid in the equivalent amount of US$.. Payment is possible by Creditcard The registration fee includes one copy of the Conference Proceedings, coffee and tea during the breaks, all lunches, a welcome cocktail, the conference dinner and conference visit. Author Registration Authors are expected to register early (at a reduced fee) and to attend the conference at their own expense to present the accepted papers. Without early registration and payment, the paper will not be published in the Conference Proceedings. Each registration covers one presentation. PAPER SUBMISSION TYPES FULL PAPER (including abstract, conclusions, diagrams, references, at least five pages, double column) During review, the submitted full papers can be accepted as a regular 5 page paper. If excellent, full papers can be accepted by the program committee as an extended (8-page) paper. Each submission will be reviewed by at least three members of the International Program Committee. EXTENDED ABSTRACT (at least five pages, single column) Participants may also submit a 5 page extended abstract for a regular (5 pages) or short (3 pages) paper or poster, which will be reviewed by the International Program Committee. All accepted papers will be published in the EUROMEDIA'2009 Conference Proceedings. SHORT ABSTRACT (at least three pages) Participants may also submit a 3 page abstract for a short paper or poster, which will be reviewed by the International Program Committee. All accepted papers will be published in the EUROMEDIA'2009 Conference Proceedings. ONE PAGE ABSTRACTS ARE NOT ACCEPTED. Refereeing and Camera-ready papers The notification of acceptance or rejection, in combination with suggestions to improve the paper, will be sent by FEBRUARY 15, 2009. Along with the notification of acceptance, an author kit with complete instructions for preparing a camera-ready copy for the Proceedings will be sent to authors of accepted abstracts or drafts. The camera-ready copy of the papers must be in by MARCH 20, 2009. In order to guarantee a high-quality conference, the camera-ready papers will be checked as well, to check see the suggestions of the program committee have been incorporated. VENUE The EUROMEDIA 2009 will be co-located with the FUBUTEC 2009/ECEC 2009 conferences. Paying registration for either one of the conferences allows you to visit sessions from all three conferences. The conference itself is held in the beautiful Medieval city of Bruges (an UNESCO Heritage site) known as the Venice of the North. http://www.brugge.be http://foto.brugge.be/slides/slides.htm All conferences are co-located at the Novotel Brugge Centrum. http://www.novotel.com/gb/hotel-1033-novotel-brugge-centrum/index.shtml which is located in the very heart of the historic city of Bruges. CONFERENCE VISIT A visit will be envisaged to a company relevant to the conference. In this case it will be New Holland in Zedelgem, just outside Bruges. http://www.cnh.com/wps/portal/cnhportal The conference dinner will be held at the Huisbrouwerij Halve Maan http://www.halvemaan.be/ While a reception will be given on Wednesday the 15th of April at the Town Hall of Bruges. REPLY CARD Surname:.................................................. First Name:............................................... Affiliation:.............................................. MailingAddress:........................................... .......................................................... ......................................................... Zipcode:...........City:.................................. Country:.................................................. Telephone:....................Fax:........................ E-mail:................................................... Yes, I intend to attend the 2009 Euromedia Conference: * Without presenting a paper * Contributing to the Exhibition * Proposing a vendor presentation with the following title:.................................................... * Proposing a tutorial about the following subject: * Proposing a panel discussion with the following title: * Proposing the following short paper (abstract at least 2 pages) * Proposing the following full paper (based on extended abstract or full paper submission Title of submission .................................. ................................... The paper belongs to the following theme (please tick one): [] WEBTEC * Internet Viewers and Programs * Visual Programming Languages * 3D Web Programs * Video and Audio Streaming on the Web * AI on the Web * Software for Web-based Business Applications [] MEDIATEC * Multimedia Techniques and Telecom * Multimedia Authoring Tools and Software * Multimedia Building Blocks [] COMTEC * Telecommunications Technologies * Networks * Network Security * Mobile Communications * TV Technology * QoS [] APTEC * Telematics Consumer Applications * Cooperative Consumer Application * Tele-Education * Integrated Enterprise Software and Groupware * Telemedicine * Ubiquitous Computing Applications * Embedded Systems and Future Product Market Combinations * Multimodal communication [] ETEC * Tele-X and E-Commerce * Knowledge Management and E-Mobility Special Tracks: [] Knowledge Management and e-Mobility [] In-Car Applications [] Facial Recognition or Non Verbal Communication [] Virtual Reality 2.0 Applications Special Workshops: [] e-BIM [] Medical Imaging Systems [] D-TV [] Cybersecurity [] Computer Graphics Do you know others interested in the topic of the conference? Name: .................................... Address: ..................................... ........................................... For general information, contact the EUROSIS: European Simulation Office, c/o Philippe Geril Greenbridge NV Wetenschapspark 1 Plassendale 1 B-8400 Ostend, Belgium Tel: +32 59 255.330 Fax: + 32 59.255.339 Email: philippe.geril@eurosis.org Further information about the 2009 EUROMEDIA Conference can be found on WWW under: http://www.eurosis.org/cms/?q=taxonomy/term/172

Eurographics 2009 Workshop on 3D Object Retrieval

admin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:13:31 +0000

( http://3dor.ge.imati.cnr.it/ <http://3dor.ge.imati.cnr.it/> )

March 29, 2009 Munich, Germany

3D content is now widely recognized as the upcoming wave of digital media. Inexperience and professional users are becoming more and more actively involved in the content creation pipeline and ask for intuitive and effective tools for creating, sharing, retrieving and re-using 3D content. Search and retrieval of 3D objects is therefore rapidly become a key issue in the upcoming panorama of multimedia content, both in general usage scenarios, such as online gaming or 3D social networks, and in scientific domains, such as molecular biology and medicine. The development of efficient search mechanisms is required for the effective retrieval of 3D objects from large repositories, both of a single class (such as human faces) and across classes. The aim of this workshop is to stimulate researchers from different fields (computer vision, computer graphics, machine learning, human-computer interaction, semantic web) who work on the common goal of 3D object retrieval, to present state-of-the-art work in the field and thus provide a cross-fertilization ground that will stimulate discussions on the next steps in this important research area.

Topics

Topics of interest include but are not limited to : - 3D object similarity and matching - 3D Object classification, indexing, and mining - Feature extraction, model decomposition and segmentation - Partial and many-to-many matching - Matching under uncertainty and noise - Query interfaces and search modalities - Multi-level representations for matching and retrieval - Semantics-driven 3D object retrieval and classification - Sketch-based retrieval - Benchmarking issues - Relevance feedback methods - Active learning - Generative / Discriminative approaches in 3D object categorisation - Applications in Multimedia industry - Applications in CAD industry - Applications in Games industry - Applications in Biometrics - Applications in e-Science - Applications in e-Learning - Applications in Medicine and Biology - Applications in Cultural Heritage

Important Dates

Submission deadline: Friday, January 9, 2009 (24:00 GMT) Notification of acceptance: Friday, February 20, 2009 Camera-ready papers deadline: Thursday, February 26, 2009 Workshop: Sunday, March 29, 2009 (one full day)

Organisation

Workshop Chairs Ioannis Pratikakis ( IIT / NCSR ‘Demokritos’, Greece ) Michela Spagnuolo ( IMATI / CNR, Italy ) Programme Chairs Theoharis Theoharis ( Department of Informatics, University of Athens, Greece ) Remco Veltkamp, ( Utrecht University, NL ) International Programme Committee Yiannis Aloimonos (UMIACS, USA) Philipos Azariadis (University of the Aegean, Greece) Alberto Del Bimbo (University of Florence, Italy) Petros Daras (Informatics and Telematics Institute, Greece) Bianca Falcidieno (IMATI-CNR, Italy) Dieter W. Fellner (Fraunhofer IGD, Germany) Daniela Giorgi (IMATI-CNR, Italy) Frank Ter Haar (Utrecht University, The Netherlands) Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann (University of Geneva, Switzerland) Simone Marini (IMATI-CNR, Italy) Ron Kimmel (Technion, Israel) Georgios Papaioannou (AUEB, Greece) Nicholas Patrikalakis (MIT, USA) Stavros Perantonis (IIT / NCSR Demokritos, Greece) Karthik Ramani (Purdue University, USA) William Regli (Drexel University, USA) Marcos Rodrigues (University of Sheffield, UK) Nikolaos Sapidis (University of the Aegean, Greece) Dietmar Saupe (University of Konstanz, Germany) Francis Schmitt (TELECOM ParisTech, France) Ariel Shamir (Efi Arazi School of Computer Science, Israel) Daniel Thalmann (EPFL, Switzerland) Theodore Trafalis (University of Oklahoma, USA) Titus Zaharia (Institut National des Telecommunications, France)

Contact Information

Ioannis PRATIKAKIS Computational Intelligence Laboratory Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos" 15310 Athens, Greece Tel: +30-210-650 3183 E-mail: ipratika@iit.demokritos.gr Michela SPAGNUOLO Istituto per la Matematica Applicata e le Tecnologie Informatiche Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Via De Marini, 6 - 16149 Genova Phone: +39-0106475677 Fax: +39-0106475660 Email: spagnuolo@ge.imati.cnr.it

ISEA 2009: Deadline Tomorrow

admin — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:57:34 +0000

2nd Call for Artworks and Art Projects, Papers, Exhibitions, curated shows, Workshops, Open Spaces and more ACROSS EIGHT SUB-THEMES Deadline 17th of November 2008 Descriptors of Artworks and Art Projects, Papers, Exhibitions, curated shows, Workshops, Open Spaces and abstracts for papers are sought for ISEA 2009 that will illuminate both the near and long term Future of Digital Media Culture. Papers which present research outcomes, track trends or developments, describe case studies or works in progress, are speculative projection, challenge existing paradigms or record a history, are all welcome. Submissions are encouraged from any professional, craft or scholarly field that relates to communications art/design, cultural expression, practice and aesthetics, and the technical means by which they are enabled. The sub-themes: Citizenship and contested spaces Interactive storytelling and memory building in post-conflict society Interactive textiles Tracking emotions Posthumanism: New technologies and creative strategies Positionings: local and global transactions Transformative creativity - participatory practices Entertainment and Mobility GO TO www.isea2009.org to make your proposal online NOW!

WIN VR09

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:42:22 +0000

WIN VR09 is co-organized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the French Society of Mechanical Engineering (AFM). The main topics of WIN VR'09 include but not limited to the following areas: - Trends in Virtual Reality: Towards low-cost approaches - Innovative Virtual Reality for SME's: Development & Application - Virtual Reality Technologies, Methods and Applications - Advanced Interfaces - Virtual reality in Industrial Systems Design - Virtual Reality Applications: Human Factors Issues - Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality - Collaborative Virtual Reality - Virtual Reality in Education and Training Additional information are available in the conference website: http://www.asmeconferences.org/WINVR09/.

Help Clinton Evade Scandal: The Game

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:51:45 +0000

My quick little game for a politics seminar made it on you tube. A few hours worth of work at best. Basically, you help Clinton evade scandals and collect support. You can shoot the bad guys with your saxaphone music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwt0q7SdEt4 The game is here: http://gamefiction.com/games/

Just to clarify, I liked Clinton. His record was strong, and items like FMLA seem essential to me.

The 3rd International Conference on Knowledge Generation (KGCM 2009)

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:33:15 +0000

Call for Papers/Abstracts and Invited Sessions Proposals for The 3rd International Conference on Knowledge Generation, Communication and Management: KGCM 2009 (http://www.2009iiisconferences.org/kgcm). It will take place in Orlando, Florida, USA, on July 10th - 13th, 2009. Deadlines: Papers/Abstracts Submissions and Invited Sessions Proposals: December 19th, 2008 Authors Notifications: January 14th, 2009 Camera-ready, full papers: February 11th, 2009 ------------------------------------------------------- MainTopics: Knowledge Communication Knowledge Generation Knowledge Management Knowledge Engineering Knowledge Representation Knowledge Communication and Conferences Knowledge Verification and Validation Peer Reviewing Scientific and Technical Publishing Electronic Publishing Electronic Libraries All Submitted papers/abstracts will go through three reviewing processes: (1) double-blind (at least three reviewers), (2) non-blind, and (3) participative peer reviews. All accepted papers of registered authors will be included in both the printed and the CD versions of the proceedings. Awards will be granted to the best paper of those presented at each session. From these session's best papers, the best 10%-20% of the papers presented at the conference will be invited to adapt their papers for their publication in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, with no additional cost for their authors. For Invited Sessions Proposals, please go to the conference web site or, directly, to http://www.2009iiisconferences.org/KGCM/organizer.asp KGCM 2009 Organizing Committee

IEEE Potentials

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:20:06 +0000

IEEE Potentials and IEEE Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) are dedicated to serving the needs of undergraduate and graduate students as well as engineers who have graduated within the last ten years. To this end, IEEE Potentials is seeking articles of relevance to young engineers that will be published in a special GOLD-themed edition in March 2009. Article subjects are explored through timely manuscripts with a goal of assisting readers on a technical, professional, and personal level. If you're an engineer who has cutting-edge technical ideas, formulated concepts about what will work, advice about professional/career development, or opinions about the forces that influence the problem-solving process, IEEE Potentials would like to hear from you. IEEE Potentials is interested in manuscripts that deal with theory, practical applications, or new research. They can be tutorial in nature. Submissions may consist of either full articles or shorter, opinion-oriented essays. When submitting an article, please remember: All manuscripts should be written at the level of the audience who are students and engineers who have graduated within the last ten years. • Articles without equations are preferred; however, a minimum of equations is acceptable. • List no more than 12 references at the end of your manuscript. No embedded reference numbers should be included in the text. If you need to attribute the source of key points or quotes, state names in the text and give the full reference at the end. • Limit figures to 10 or less. • Articles should be approximately 2,000-4,000 words in length; essays should be 900-1,000 words. • Include a brief biography of four to six lines for each author. • Please state your IEEE membership number(s) and membership level, including whether you are a GOLD member. Submit your articles on or before 1 December, 2008 to: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pot-ieee For inquiries please e-mail Adrian Pais at a.pais@ieee.org.

paicv.jpg

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:29:30 +0000

forest.jpg

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:30:10 +0000

prison.jpg

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:30:35 +0000

DocuGame

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:30:58 +0000

I’m working on a docugame about the Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verdean War of Independence. It is a first-person shooter designed to explore concepts in propaganda, emotion and perspective. I have many other things I should be working on, but the idea just grabbed me. These prototypes screenshots demonstrate my weekend’s work:

I thought it would be interesting to create a game where the player is fighting the anti-democratic colonial force. Here’s the situation:

The player is a Cape Verdean recruit in the PAIGC, the organization that gained freedom for Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau in 1974. The player’s missions are centered on the tactics of the PAIGC, and the environment matches the Guinea Bissau environment. The player fights the Portuguese, in the 1970s

It is an attempt at creating an educational game with more traditional appeal. I also really liked the parallel to current “terrorist” campaigns and flipping the protagonist to someone with whom we did not clearly ally ourselves then, but in hindsight may have. Interestingly, China, Russia, and to a lesser extent Cuba did. I witnessed China’s strong consumer base in Cape Verde first hand – they are still very much “profiting from this investment.” Although that’s honestly conjecture, as I’ve never seen what the profit margin is on a Chinese Loja.

There are plenty of anaologies to be made, but one of the interesting claims made by people reporting about the war is that Portuguese effectively lost to the PAIGC because the incumbent Portuguese party was going bankrupt. I’m still doing the research, but I’m finding some really interesting info here.

Project Activities:

I completed the following so far (this took about 24 hours of this weekend – I let it consume the weekend)

· Create 3D Models of environment (Portuguese Colonia Barracks, Portuguese Colonia Soldier, PAIGC Solider, Guinea Bissau Village Hut, Chinese weapons’ box)

· Create Game Environment (trees, grass system, artificial intelligence, etc)

· Create Game Missions (Mission 1 is to sabotage, mission 2 is to fight, mission 3 is a surprise J )

I have the first two missions completed, and if I have time I’ll move on to the next.

The AI is pretty basic: a way point system with incidental logic. The players have individual attack logic (or greet logic for friendlies), group attack, etc. I put together a subtitle system for giving missions, and I slapped together the rough models you see in the screenshots.

Resources:

· Military Photos.net: I could only find a few reference images of the war, which is listed as one of the worlds atrocities (15K died during the 10 year “war for independence”). Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cape Verde: Lobban and Lopes

· A couple of websites via Stanford’s library, that offer 1960-1974 era pictures of Africa (Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Cape Verde)

· A few records of Mar Verde, one of the big offensives from the war.

I can share the rest when I pull them all back together. I’ll need to do this for the website I’ll create anyway.

Oh, and I might have just coined the term docugame, but who knows, someone must have used it before me.

ED-MEDIA 2009

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:30:52 +0000

>> Call for Participation Deadline: December 19th << ED-MEDIA 2009-- World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/call.htm _______________________________________________________________ ED-MEDIA 2009 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications June 22-26, 2009 * Honolulu, Hawaii (Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort) CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ** Submissions Due: Dec. 19, 2008 ** Hosted by the University of Hawaii Organized by Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) http://www.aace.org Co-sponsored by: Education & Information Technology Digital Library (htttp://www.EdITLib.org) ______________________________________________________________ ** What are your colleagues saying about ED-MEDIA conferences? ** http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/testimonials.htm COLOR POSTER--ED-MEDIA 2009 CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Available to Print & Distribute (PDF to print; 200kb) http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/ed09poster.pdf >> CONTENTS & LINKS (details below) << 1. Call for Papers and Submission & Presenter Guidelines, Deadline Dec. 19th: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/call.htm http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/submitguide.htm http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/PresenterLounge 2. Major Topics: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/topics.htm 3. Presentation Categories: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/categories.htm 4. Corporate Showcases & Demonstrations: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/corporate.htm 5. Proceedings & Paper Awards: http://www.aace.org/pubs 6. For Budgeting Purposes: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/rates.htm 7. Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii http://www.aace.org/conf/Cities/Honolulu 8. Deadlines: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/deadlines.htm INVITATION: ED-MEDIA 2009--World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications is an international conference, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). This annual conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications/distance education. ED-MEDIA, the premiere international conference in the field, spans all disciplines and levels of education and attracts more than 1,500 attendees from over 60 countries. We invite you to attend ED-MEDIA and submit proposals for presentations. All presentation proposals are peer reviewed and selected by three reviewers on the respected international Program Committee for inclusion in the conference program, proceedings book, and CD-ROM proceedings. For Call for Presentations, connect to: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/call.htm All authors MUST follow the submission guidelines and complete the Web form at: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/submitguide.htm For Presentation and AV Guidelines, see: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/PresenterLounge PROGRAM ACTIVITIES: * Keynote Speakers * Invited Panels/Speakers * Papers * Panels * Demonstrations/Posters * Corporate Showcases & Demonstrations * Tutorials/Workshops * Roundtables TOPICS: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/topics.htm The scope of the conference includes, but is not limited to, the following major topics as they relate to the educational and developmental aspects of multimedia/hypermedia and telecommunications: 1. Infrastructure: (in the large) - Architectures for Educational Technology Systems - Design of Distance Learning Systems - Distributed Learning Environments - Methodologies for system design - Multimedia/Hypermedia Systems - WWW-based course-support systems 2. Tools & Content-oriented Applications: - Agents - Authoring tools - Evaluation of impact - Interactive Learning Environments - Groupware tools - Multimedia/Hypermedia Applications - Research perspectives - Virtual Reality - WWW-based course sites - WWW-based learning resources - WWW-based tools 3. New Roles of the Instructor & Learner: - Constructivist perspectives - Cooperative/collaborative learning - Implementation experiences - Improving Classroom Teaching - Instructor networking - Instructor training and support - Pedagogical Issues - Teaching/Learning Strategies 4. Human-computer Interaction (HCI/CHI): - Computer-Mediated Communication - Design principles - Usability/user studies - User interface design 5. Cases & Projects: - Country-Specific Developments - Exemplary projects - Institution-specific cases - Virtual universities 6. Special Strand: ** Universal Web Accessibility ** PRESENTATION CATEGORIES: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/categories.htm The Technical Program includes a wide range of interesting and useful activities designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information. CORPORATE SHOWCASES & DEMONSTRATIONS: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/corporate.htm Companies have the opportunity to demonstrate and discuss their educational technology products and services in through Corporate Showcases and Demonstrations/Literature. PROCEEDINGS & PAPER AWARDS: http://www.aace.org/pubs Accepted papers will be published by AACE in the Proceedings Book and on CD-ROM. Proceedings in this series serve as major resources in the multimedia/ hypermedia/telecommunications community, reflecting the current state of the art in the discipline. In addition, the Proceedings also are internationally distributed through and archived in the Education and Information Technology Digital Library, http://www.EdITLib.org Do You Subscribe? Papers with high review scores will be invited for publication consideration by AACE's respected journals, especially for: - Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia (JEMH), - International Journal on E-Learning (IJEJ), or - Journal of Interactive Learning Research (JILR). All presented papers will be considered for Best Paper Awards within several categories. Award winning papers may be invited for publication in the AACE journals. FOR BUDGETING PURPOSES: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/rates.htm The conference registration fee for all presenters and participants will be approximately $395 U.S. (AACE members), $450 U.S. (non-members). Registration includes proceedings on CD, receptions, and all sessions except tutorials. All conference sessions will be held at the Sheraton Waikiki Resort ( http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/hotel.htm) located on the famous Waikiki Beach and in walking distance to the city's shopping district - with magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean. Special discount hotel have been obtained for ED-MEDIA participants! WAIKIKI BEACH, HONOLULU, HAWAII http://www.aace.org/conf/Cities/Honolulu Whether your idea of fun is soaking up the sun on a pristine, white sand beach or nightclubbing in Waikiki, hiking the trails or sampling some of the fantastic Hawaiian Regional Cuisine, we know that you're going to enjoy yourself on O'ahu. Explore Hawaii online at: http://www.gohawaii.com * http://www.visit-oahu.com DEADLINES: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/deadlines.htm Submissions Due: December 19, 2008 Authors Notified: February 23, 2009 Proceedings File Due: May 1, 2009 Early Registration: May 1, 2009 Hotel Reservations: May 20, 2009 Conference: June 22-26, 2009 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To be added to the mailing list for this conference, link to http://www.aace.org/info.htm If you have a question about ED-MEDIA, please send an e-mail to AACE Conference Services, conf@aace.org Contact: AACE--Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education P.O. Box 1545 Chesapeake, Virginia 23327 USA Phone: 757-366-5606 * Fax: 703-997-8760 E-mail: conf@aace.org * http://www.AACE.org

Games and Ethics Book

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:34:53 +0000

CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS Proposal Submission Deadline: January 15, 2009 Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play A book edited by Karen Schrier, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA, and Dr. David Gibson, University of Vermont, USA http://www.columbia.edu/~kls2108/callforchapters.htm Introduction Ethics is the practice of enacting moral judgment to achieve a better life—the process of making choices according to one's own conception of how to be a good person. Games and simulations can be rich playgrounds for the practice of these ethical choices, as they offer the ability to iterate and reflect on multiple possibilities and consequences. As such, educators and researchers are beginning to consider the use of games in supporting ethical reasoning and character development. Moreover, games have been and continue to be the subject of conversations, controversies, and deliberations about ethics. Game developers, publishers, and the public often differ in opinion about the choices made in the creation and promotion of a game, bringing up larger questions about the role of entertainment, art, and business in our society. The potential for games to foster ethical thinking and discourse—and not whether games are inherently good or bad—will be the thrust of this timely book. Objective of the Book Ethics and Games Design will provide a diverse and comprehensive compendium of case studies, theoretical frameworks, and empirical research in the emerging field of ethics, values, games, and play. This book will take a cross-disciplinary approach, inviting research, critiques, and perspectives from computer science, education, philosophy, law, media studies, management, psychology, and art history. The publication has three main goals. First, it will seek to define this emerging and essential new field. Second, this book will serve as a collective source for students, educators, practitioners, and researchers who are interested in understanding the current state of the discipline. It will locate the field diachronically and thematically, while highlighting the work of both well-established and emerging researchers and practitioners. Finally, this publication will inspire and motivate further interdisciplinary dialogue and research on the topic of ethics and games. It will frame the major research questions, issues, methodologies and problems, which we can then use to both expand and refine the field. Such a rigorous foundation for the study of ethics will help to appropriately inform future games, policies, standards, curricula, products, and the like. Target Audience The target audience is very diverse, ranging from practitioners of game development to journalists, to philosophers and educators. Researchers and students studying game design, media and games will find this an essential text for understanding how to better design, teach, and study the current generation of learners. Educators will use this to further their understanding of the potentials and limits of games, and how to creatively incorporate emerging technology into their curricula, standards, and policies. Game developers and publishers can use this text to further their designs, to help refine their choices and practices, and to better think through the implications of their decisions. Journalists, cultural critics, and reviewers can use this publication to consider alternate ways to view games and the nature of their controversies. Finally, this text will attract members of diverse academic, development, and consumer communities to interact, share and discuss findings, frameworks and theories. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following: • Definition of the field of ethics and games • Historical and contemporary context of ethics and games • Limits and constraints in assessing ethics • Criteria for studying ethics and games • Case studies (from researchers, educators and practitioners) • Ethics and new media literacy • Teaching ethics skills • Educational opportunities and limits for teaching values through play • Schools and the ethics of gaming • Ethics and standards in game development • Ethics in the promotion of games • Communities of play and ethics • Cheating and games • Issues of race, sex, violence, and gender in games • Ethics and the games business • Future implications and the ethical citizen Submission Procedure Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before January 15, 2009, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by February 1, 2009 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by April 1, 2009. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the "Information Science Reference" (formerly Idea Group Reference) and "Medical Information Science Reference" imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com.

EMAF 2009

admin — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:12:58 +0000

The EMAF is one of the most influential forums of international Media Art. As an international meeting point for artists, curators, lenders, gallery owners and an audience of specialists, the festival has had a profound impact on the topic and aesthetics of Media Art for more than two decades. The festival offers its visitors a current overview of new experimental films, installations, performances, digital formats and hybrid forms, ranging from personal and political subjects to formal experiments and provocative statements. In 2009, the festival will explore the areas of long-term archival storage and the public options for use of Media Art. The exhibition entitled Image Battles refers to the connection between technological progress and the transformation of the images of war using current Media Art and historical exhibits. Cinema We include experimental short and feature films, music videos, new forms of narration and documentation as well as specials and retrospectives. At the festival an international jury will present the »EMAF Award« for trend-setting work in Media Art and the »Dialog Award« of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the promotion of intercultural exchange. Furthermore, the jury of the German Federal Association of Film Journalists will award the prize for the best German experimental film. Exhibition In collaboration with the Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche (Art Hall/Dominican Church), the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Centre and the Museum Industriekultur (Museum for Industrial Heritage), the EMAF will present the exhibition »Image Battles ? 2000 years of news from the war« from 22 April to 4 October 2009. You are warmly invited to submit installations or media-sculptural works related to the theme of the exhibition. Expanded Media Artistic projects of digital media, performances, music and sound projects, as well as the latest concepts from expanded media. International Student Forum This forum acts as a meeting point and market where trends and training concepts from the media universities, academies of art and design colleges of Europe are presented. Congress The pilot project mediaartbase.de, funded by the German Federal Cultura Foundation and Cultural Foundation of the German States, is in the process of developing a digital platform which can be used by institutions, universities and schools for research purposes. The project focuses on the question: »What is the significance of media archives for the public (art) sphere, in particular against the backdrop of the new digital distribution channels?« Furthermore, artistic positions from the various fields of the festival will be discussed. Concept and directors board: Hermann Noering, Alfred Rotert, Ralf Sausmikat // SPONSORS nordmedia - Die Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH Stadt Osnabrueck Auswaertiges Amt, Berlin Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Berlin EU Commission - MEDIA Programme as well as donations from further sponsors. Contact/Address/Postal: European Media Art Festival Lohstrasse 45 a, D-49074 Osnabrueck phone +49 (0) 5 41 - 2 16 58 fax +49 (0) 5 41 - 2 83 27 mail: info(at)emaf.de www.emaf.de

CALL for Papers: Agents for Games and Simulations

admin — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:46:06 +0000

Workshop@AAMAS 2009 URL: http://people.cs.uu.nl/dignum/AGS/ *************************************************************************** ------------------- Important dates: ------------------- Deadline for submissions: 30 January 2009 Notification of acceptance: 2 March 2009 Camera-ready copy of papers: 15 March 2009 Workshop: 11 or 12 May 2009 ------------------- Multi Agent System research offers a promising technology to implement cognitive intelligent Non Playing Characters. However the technologies used in game engines and multi agent platforms are not readily compatible due to some inherent differences of concerns. Where game engines focus on real-time aspects and thus propagate efficiency and central control, multi agent platforms assume autonomy of the agents. Increased autonomy and intelligence may offer benefits for a more compelling gameplay and may even be necessary for serious games. However, it raises problems when current game design techniques are used to incorporate state of the art Multi Agent System technology. A very similar argument can be given for agent based (social) simulations. In this workshop we want to bring people together that address the particular challenges of using agent technology for games and simulations. Submissions are invited for the following three main themes: 1.Technical a. Connecting agent platforms to games and simulation engines; who is in control? b. Are actions synchronous or asynchronous? c. How to monitor results of actions? d. Can agents communicate through the agent platform? e. How efficient should the agents be? 2. Conceptual a. What information is available for the agents from the game or simulation engine? b. How to balance reaction to events of the game or simulation with goal directed behavior c. Ontological differences between agents and game/simulation information. 3. Design a. How to design games/simulations containing intelligent agents b. How to design agents that are embedded in other systems Papers will undergo the normal review process and are selected on the basis of quality. However, when choices have to be made we will try to spread the accepted papers over the main themes of the workshop. Interesting ideas are more important in this respect than detailed results on fringe topics. We aim to publish a special issue of JAAMAS from a selection of the papers in the workshop. Depending on the number of submissions and the quality we can change this to an LNCS volume. ------------------- Formatting guidelines: ------------------- We encourage participants to submit a paper (15 pages max), describing their work on one or more of the topics mentioned above. All non-presenting participants will need to submit a one-page position statement which presents their view on agents for games and simulations relative to (one of) the workshop topics. All submissions must include the author's name(s), affiliation, complete mailing address, phone number, fax number and email address. Please use the LNCS format for formatting your paper. All accepted submissions and position statements will be published in the workshop proceedings. ------------------- Submission procedure: ------------------- Submissions should be submitted through the EasyChair system at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ags09 either in PostScript format or in PDF format. The deadline for receipt of submissions is January, 30, 2009. Papers received after this date will not be reviewed. ------------------- Organizing Committee ------------------- 1 Frank Dignum, Utrecht University e-mail: Dignum@cs.uu.nl 2 Jeff Bradshaw Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition e-mail: jbradshaw@ihmc.us 3 Barry Silverman University of Pennsylvania/Systems Engineering Dept. e-mail: BaSil@seas.upenn.edu 4 Willem van Doesburg TNO Defence, Security and Safety e-mail: Willem.vanDoesburg@TNO.nl ------------------- Program Committee: ------------------- 1. Elisabeth Andre (DFKI, Germany) 2. Ruth Aylett (Heriot-Watt University, UK) 3. Michael Buro (U of Alberta, Canada) 4. Andre Campos (UFRN, Brazil) 5. Bill Clancey (NASA, USA) 6. Rosaria Conte (ISTC-CNR, Italy) 7. Vincent Corruble (LIP6, France) 8. Virginia Dignum (Utrecht University, The Netherlands) 9. Alexis Drogoul (LIP6, France) 10. Bruce Edmonds (MMU, UK) 11. Corinna Elsenbroich (University of Surrey, UK) 12. Klaus Fischer (DFKI, Germany) 13. Hiromitsu Hattori (Kyoto University, Japan) 14. Koen Hindriks (Delft University, The Netherlands) 15. Wander Jager (Groningen University, The Netherlands) 16. Stefan Kopp (University of Bielefeld, Germany) 16. 17. Stacy Marsella (USC, USA) 18. Scott Moss (MMU, UK) 19. Emma Norling (MMU UK) 20. Anton Nijholt (UT, The Netherlands) 21. Ana Paiva (IST, Portugal) 22. Michal Pechoucek (CTU, Czechia) 23. Geber Ramalho (Brazil) 24. Gopal Ramchurn (University of Southampton, UK) 25. Avi Rosenfeld (JCT, Israel) 26. David Sarne (Bar Ilan University, Israel) 27. Pjotr van Schothorst (VSTEP, The Netherlands) 28. Maarten Sierhuis (NASA, USA) 29. Pieter Spronck (Tilburg University, The Netherlands) 30. Katia Sycara (CMU, USA) 31. Duane Szafron (U of Alberta, Canada) 32. Max Tsvetovat (George Mason University, USA) ********************************************************************** Frank Dignum * Utrecht University * Knowledge is only one point, The Netherlands * the ignorant have multiplied it e-mail: dignum@cs.uu.nl * URL: www.cs.uu.nl/people/dignum/ * (Baha'u'llah) telephone: +31-30-2539109 * ********************************************************************** ********************************************************************** Frank Dignum * Utrecht University * Knowledge is only one point, The Netherlands * the ignorant have multiplied it e-mail: dignum@cs.uu.nl * URL: www.cs.uu.nl/people/dignum/ * (Baha'u'llah) telephone: +31-30-2539109 * **********************************************************************

DiGRA 2009

admin — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:43:19 +0000

DiGRA 2009 - Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory Brunel University, West London, United Kingdom, Tuesday 1st September -- Friday 4th September 2009 The South of Britain Consortium are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the Digital Games Research Association 2009. DiGRA is an organisation that embraces all aspects of game studies, and the conference aims to provide a diverse platform for discussion, and a lively forum for debate. We therefore welcome papers from any discipline focused on any aspect of games, play, game culture and the games industry. The conference will be the fourth DiGRA conference, following Utrecht, Vancouver and Tokyo, and welcomes contributions from scholars working in any area of interest to the association. The official business of the Subject Association will also be conducted at the conference. PLEASE NOTE THE NEW DATES FOR SUBMISSION AND DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION FOR GUARANTEED ON-CAMPUS ACCOMODATION The Conference invites the following proposals for consideration ---------------------------------------------------------------- Individual or Collaborative Papers Panels Workshops Posters Initial selection will be through the peer review of both full papers and abstracts of 500-700 words in all categories. Selection of presentations will be proportionate to the submissions received, and no distinction will be made between papers selected from abstract or full paper review. Panel and Workshop proposals should include abstracts for the contributions of all participants. Individual or collaborative papers – addressing topics relevant to the wide remit of DiGRA (including therefore industry, education, political, social, theoretical concerns appropriate to the association). Presentations should be limited to 15-20 mins. Panel proposals – 3 – 4 papers which address a common theme, a common research method, a shared conceptual issue etc. Workshops – proposals are invited for 2 – 3 hour workshops that address a range of themes relevant to the aims of the association. Workshops that are particularly targeted at a wide audience are most welcome. Poster sessions – presentations of work in progress in the format are most welcome and will be showcased throughout the event. The conference committee are also interested in including featured symposia/colloquia to address particular ‘late-breaking’ research projects or issue-based topics (an example might be a colloquia based around Wii research or a symposium based around Women in Games. Please contact a member of the conference organising committee with any expressions of interest. Graduate student participation In order to support graduate students and early career researchers the conference will focus on graduate student issues on its opening day, 1st September 2009. The conference organizers seek appropriate mentors to work with those addressing common themes/topics/issues in graduate roundtables. Strands Please also indicate your preference for consideration in one of the following broad strands: Games Culture Games and Commerce Games Aesthetics Games Education Games Design Games and Theory Key Dates --------- Deadline for all submissions for presentation at the conference (includes full papers, abstracts and workshop/panel/symposia proposals): Friday 6 March 5pm GMT Deadline for full papers for inclusion in digital proceedings: Friday 26 June 2009 5pm GMT Notification of acceptance: June 1 2009 Deadline for booking on-campus accommodation June 30 2009 Conference Dates: 1-4th September 2009 Abstracts should be of 500-700 words and include an indicative bibliography. Full paper submissions may be of up to 6,000 words, not including bibliography. Full details of the submissions procedure, including the method of electronic submission, will be published here and on other forums as soon as possible. All contributions must be original, unpublished work. The conference language is English, and papers, abstracts and other proposals should be written in English. Delegates are also advised that individuals will be limited to one paper presentation and one other form of presentation to allow space and time for the largest number of participants. About the Conference Location Brunel University is located conveniently near Heathrow Airport and is on the London Tube system. A range of affordable accommodation is available on campus, including 1500 en suite rooms all on one campus, 400 standard bedrooms, 8 holiday flats (5-7 persons per flat), 51 specially adapted rooms for people with disabilities, plus hotel standard rooms in the Lancaster Suite. The Brunel Conference Centre boasts 22 theatres, 29 classrooms and 5 seminar rooms all presented to the highest standard. The following are also available: Free car parking (on application); Full office support for photocopying, faxing, internet and word processing (on application); Comprehensive range of audio visual and media services; Mini market; Pharmacy; Banking facilities; Reference library; Sports Facilities; Fitness Suite; Medical centre; 24 hour security; Self service cafeteria; Licensed bars and cafes. There are also a range of restaurants, cinemas and shopping in Uxbridge town. Local attractions Historic Windsor & Eton -Windsor Castle, Legoland and shopping are just 20 minutes drive away London - Central London and West End are easily accessed by bus or Underground. Historic Oxford is a 40 minute bus ride away. The Conference Organisers ------------------------- The conference is being hosted by a consortium consisting of Brunel University, University of the West of England, and the University of Wales, Newport.

Intetain 2009

admin — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:47:01 +0000

Third International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment

The Human Media Interaction (HMI) department of the University of Twente in the Netherlands and the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering (ICST) are pleased to announce the Third International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment to be held on June 22-24, 2009 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

INTETAIN 09 intends to stimulate interaction among academic researchers and commercial developers of interactive entertainment systems. We are seeking long (full) and short (poster) papers as well as proposals for interactive demos. In addition, the conference organisation aims at an interactive hands-on session along the lines of the Design Garage that was held at INTETAIN 2005. Individuals who want to organise special sessions during INTETAIN 09 may contact the General Chair, Anton Nijholt (anijholt@cs.utwente.nl).

The global theme of this third edition of the international conference is “Playful interaction, with others and with the environment”.

Contributions may, for example, contribute to this theme by focusing on the Supporting Device Technologies underlying interactive systems (mobile devices, home entertainment centers, haptic devices, wall screen displays, information kiosks, holographic displays, fog screens, distributed smart sensors, immersive screens and wearable devices), on the Intelligent Computational Technologies used to build the interactive systems, or by discussing the Interactive Applications for Entertainment themselves.

We seek novel, revolutionary, and exciting work in areas including but not limited to:

== Supporting Technology ==

* New hardware technology for interaction and entertainment

* Novel sensors and displays

* Haptic devices

* Wearable devices

== Intelligent Computational Technologies ==

* Animation and Virtual Characters

* Holographic Interfaces

* Adaptive Multimodal Presentations

* Creative language environments

* Affective User Interfaces

* Intelligent Speech Interfaces

* Tele-presence in Entertainment

* (Collaborative) User Models and Group Behavior

* Collaborative and virtual Environments

* Brain Computer Interaction

* Cross Domain User Models

* Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality

* Computer Graphics & Multimedia

* Pervasive Multimedia

* Robots

* Computational humor

== Interactive Applications for Entertainment ==

* Intelligent Interactive Games

* Emergent games

* Human Music Interaction

* Interactive Cinema

* Edutainment

* Urban Gaming

* Interactive Art

* Interactive Museum Guides

* Evaluation

* City and Tourism Explorers Assistants

* Shopping Assistants

* Interactive Real TV

* Interactive Social Networks

* Interactive Story Telling

* Personal Diaries, Websites and Blogs

* Comprehensive assisting environments for special populations

(handicapped, children, elderly)

* Exertion games

===========================

==== SUBMISSION FORMAT ====

===========================

INTETAIN 09 accepts long papers and short poster papers as well as demo proposals accompanied by a two page extended abstract. Accepted long and short papers will be published in the new Springer series LNICST: Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering. The organisation of INTETAIN 09 is currently working to secure a special edition of a journal, as happened previously for the 2005 edition of the Intetain conference.

Submissions should adhere to the LNICST instructions for authors, available from the INTETAIN 09 web site.

== Long papers ==

Submissions of a maximum of 12 pages that describe original research work not submitted or published elsewhere. Long papers will be orally presented at the conference.

== Short papers ==

Submissions of a maximum of 6 pages that describe original research work not submitted or published elsewhere. Short papers will be presented with a poster during the demo and poster session at the conference.

== Demos ==

Researchers are invited to submit proposals for demonstrations to be held during a special demo and poster session at the INTETAIN 09. For more information, see the Call for Demos below. Demo proposals may either be accompanied by a long or short paper submission, or by a two page extended abstract describing the demo. The extended abstracts will be published in a supplementary proceedings distributed during the conference.

=========================

==== IMPORTANT DATES ====

=========================

Submission deadline:

Monday, Februari 16, 2009

Notification:

Monday, March 16, 2009

Camera ready submission deadline:

Monday, March 30, 2009

Late demo submission deadline (extended abstract only!):

Monday, March 30, 2009

Conference:

June 22-24, 2009, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

===================

==== COMMITTEE ====

===================

General Program Chair:

Anton Nijholt, Human Media Interaction, University of Twente, the Netherlands

Local Chair:

Dennis Reidsma, Human Media Interaction, University of Twente, the Netherlands

Web Master and Publication Chair:

Hendri Hondorp, Human Media Interaction, University of Twente, the Netherlands

Steering Committee Chair:

Imrich Chlamtac, Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

========================

==== CALL FOR DEMOS ====

========================

We actively seek proposals from both industry and academia for interactive demos to be held during a dedicated session at the conference. Demos may accompany a long or short paper. Also, demos may be submitted at a later deadline instead, with a short, two page extended abstract explaining the demo and showing why the demo would be a worthwhile contribution the INTETAIN 09's demo session.

== Format ==

Demo submissions should be accompanied by the following additional information:

* A short description of the setup and demo (2 alineas)

* Requirements (hardware, power, network, space,

sound conditions, etc, time needed for setup)

* A sketch or photo of the setup

Videos showing the demonstration setup in action are very welcome.

== Review ==

Demo proposals will be reviewed by a review team that will take into account aspects such as novelty, relevance to the conference, coverage of topics and available resources.

== Topics ==

* Topics for demo submissions include, but are not limited to:

* New technology for interaction and entertainment

* (serious) gaming

* New entertainment applications

* BCI

* Human Music Interaction

* Music technology

* Edutainment

* Exertion interfaces

============================

==== PROGRAM COMMITTEE ====

============================

Stefan Agamanolis Distance Lab, Forres, UK Elisabeth Andre Augsburg University, Germany Lora Aroyo Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands Regina Bernhaupt University of Salzburg, Austria Kim Binsted University of Hawai, USA Andreas Butz University of Munich, Germany Yang Cai Visual Intelligence Studio, CYLAB, Carnegie Mellon, USA Antonio Camurri University of Genoa, Italy Marc Cavazza University of Teesside, UK Keith Cheverst University of Lancaster, UK Drew Davidson CMU, Pittsburgh, USA Barry Eggen University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands Arjan Egges University of Utrecht, the Netherlands Anton Eliens Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands Steven Feiner Columbia University, New York Alois Ferscha University of Linz, Austria Matthew Flagg Georgia Tech, USA Jaap van den Herik University of Tilburg, the Netherlands Dirk Heylen University of Twente, the Netherlands Frank Kresin Waag Society, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Antonio Krueger University of Muenster, Germany Tsvi Kuflik University of Haifa, Israel Markus Löckelt DFKI Saarbrücken, Germany Henry Lowood University of Stanford, USA Mark Maybury MITRE, Boston, USA Oscar Mayora Create-Net Research Consortium, Italy John-Jules Meijer University of Utrecht, the Netherlands Louis-Philippe Morency Institute for Creative Technologies, USC, USA Florian 'Floyd' Mueller University of Melbourne, Australia Patrick Olivier University of Newcastle, UK Paolo Petta Medical University of Vienna, Austria Fabio Pianesi ITC-irst, Trento, Italy Helmut Prendinger National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan Matthias Rauterberg University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands Isaac Rudomin Monterrey Institute of Technology, Mexico Pieter Spronck University of Tilburg, the Netherlands Oliviero Stock ITC-irst, Trento, Italy Carlo Strapparava ITC-irst, Trento, Italy Mariet Theune University of Twente, the Netherlands Thanos Vasilikos University of Western Macedonia, Greece Sean White Columbia University, USA Woontack Woo Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Korea Wijnand IJsselstein University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands Massimo Zancanaro ITC-irst, Trento, Italy

Games For Change 2009

admin — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 22:57:17 +0000

Games for Change is happy to announce the 2009 Sixth Annual Games for Change Festival to be held in New York City May 27 - 29! Our opening keynote is author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times. Other featured speakers include James Paul Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Chair in Literacy Studies at Arizona State University; Seth Scheisel, New York Times game critic; Tracy Fullerton, Director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab and author of Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Designing Innovative Games; <http://www.amazon.com/Game-Design-Workshop-Second-Playcentric/dp/0240809742/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210724335&sr=8-1> Eric Zimmerman, CEO of Gamelab and author of Rules of Play; Mary Flanagan, Director of the Tiltfactor Lab; Ian Bogost, CEO of Persuasive Games and author of Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism; Heather Chaplin, journalist (NPR, NYT) and author of Smart Bomb, and many others. Back by popular demand is the 101 Workshop on May 27 for those new to making social issue games. And this year we'll be featuring the first-ever Newsgame Award at the Expo Night on May 28th, sponsored by the Knight Foundation. And as always, we'll have expert panels, provocative lunch discussions, and ample networking opportunities. For more information, please see the festival web site: http://gamesforchange.org/fest2009 <http://gamesforchange.org/fest2009>

Third World Shooter

admin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:39:54 +0000

I've put together a website for my ongoing Third World Shooter project: http://www.lgrace.com/thirdworldshooter/ Third world shooter is a docugame in progress. The player is a Cape Verdean recruit in the 1970's era PAIGC, the organization that gained Colonial Independence for Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde in 1974. The player’s missions are centered on the tactics of the PAIGC 3rd World shooter seeks to create an educational game with an alternate historical perspective. The game's environment, characters, and content are informed by historical events and accounts, but the game's situation is centered on the experience of the people who did not necessarily write the history. The game is a series of episodics, in which player characters die, but their main goal is achieved by the violent and non-violent efforts of allied characters. The History: The powder keg moment for the conflict in the Portuguese colonies is often cited as the Pijiguiti Massacre, in which Portuguese soldiers opened fire on protesting workers in 1959. The PAIGC was formed shortly thereafter as a peaceful movement for the independence of Portuguese Guinea. The movement turned violent in 1962 in an attack by the PAIGC in Praia, Cape Verde. By 1967 more than a hundred attacks had been mounted in the name of independence. The primary military support for the PAIGC came from Russian, Cuba and China. By 1974, the expense of war became too much for a nearly bankrupt Portuguese government. After a 10 year struggle, nearly 6000 PAIGC soldiers and 2000 Portuguese soldiers were dead in the War of Independence. Less than 2 years before the war ended, PAIGC leader Amilcar Cabral was assassinated. The military tactics and political situation of the war has substantial analogy to “rebel” actions experienced by contemporary 1st world nations. The Game: The games situation and scenarios are its most important educational experience. It is designed to provide alternate player perspective. In response to the tradition of Tom Clancy styled games and narratives, 3rd world shooter endeavors to make the player the adversary of the 1st world nation, instead of its aide. The environment, situations, and objectives are designed to inform the player about this political history while employing traditionally popular game play mechanics.

3rd World Shooter is an FPS designed to explore concepts in propaganda, emotion and perspective.

The parallel to current “terrorist” campaigns is important. This is why the protagonists are people with whom the United States did not clearly ally, but in hindsight may have. Interestingly, China, Russia, and Cuba did, but the US remains one of Cape Verde’s largest supporters. There are plenty of analogies to be made, but one of the interesting claims asserted by people reporting about the War of Independence is that the Portuguese effectively lost to the PAIGC because the incumbent Portuguese party was going bankrupt. The game is further complicated by the difficult history the PAIGC created in the aftermath of the war.

Third International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:22:24 +0000

*********************************************************************

INTETAIN 2009, Amsterdam, 22-24th June 2009

Third International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for

Interactive Entertainment

http://intetain.org/

**********************************************************************

Second Call for Papers

==================

==== OVERVIEW ====

==================

The global theme of this third edition of the international conference is “Playful interaction, with others and with the environment”.

We seek novel, revolutionary, and exciting work in areas including but not limited to:

== Supporting Technology ==

* New hardware technology for interaction and entertainment
* Novel sensors and displays
* Haptic devices
* Wearable devices

== Intelligent Computational Technologies ==

* Animation and Virtual Characters
* Holographic Interfaces
* Adaptive Multimodal Presentations
* Creative language environments
* Affective User Interfaces
* Intelligent Speech Interfaces
* Tele-presence in Entertainment
* (Collaborative) User Models and Group Behavior
* Collaborative and virtual Environments
* Brain Computer Interaction
* Cross Domain User Models
* Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality
* Computer Graphics & Multimedia
* Pervasive Multimedia
* Robots
* Computational humor

== Interactive Applications for Entertainment ==

* Intelligent Interactive Games
* Emergent games
* Human Music Interaction
* Interactive Cinema
* Edutainment
* Urban Gaming
* Interactive Art
* Interactive Museum Guides
* Evaluation
* City and Tourism Explorers Assistants
* Shopping Assistants
* Interactive Real TV
* Interactive Social Networks
* Interactive Story Telling
* Personal Diaries, Websites and Blogs
* Comprehensive assisting environments for special populations
(handicapped, children, elderly)
* Exertion games

===========================

==== SUBMISSION FORMAT ====

===========================

Submissions should adhere to the LNICST instructions for authors, available from the INTETAIN 09 web site.

== Long papers ==

Submissions of a maximum of 12 pages that describe original research work not submitted or published elsewhere. Long papers will be orally presented at the conference.

== Short papers ==

== Demos ==

=========================

==== IMPORTANT DATES ====

=========================

Submission deadline:

Monday, February 16, 2009

Notification:

Monday, March 16, 2009

Camera ready submission deadline:

Monday, March 30, 2009

Late demo submission deadline (extended abstract only!):

Monday, March 30, 2009

Conference:

June 22-24, 2009, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

===================

==== COMMITTEE ====

===================

General Program Chair:

Anton Nijholt, Human Media Interaction, University of Twente, the Netherlands

Local Chair:

Dennis Reidsma, Human Media Interaction, University of Twente, the Netherlands

Web Master and Publication Chair:

Hendri Hondorp, Human Media Interaction, University of Twente, the Netherlands

Steering Committee Chair:

Imrich Chlamtac, Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

========================

==== CALL FOR DEMOS ====

========================

== Format ==

Demo submissions should be accompanied by the following additional information:

* A short description of the setup and demo (2 alineas)
* Requirements (hardware, power, network, space,
sound conditions, etc, time needed for setup)
* A sketch or photo of the setup

Videos showing the demonstration setup in action are very welcome.

== Review ==

Demo proposals will be reviewed by a review team that will take into account aspects such as novelty, relevance to the conference, coverage of topics and available resources.

== Topics ==

* Topics for demo submissions include, but are not limited to:

* New technology for interaction and entertainment
* (serious) gaming
* New entertainment applications
* BCI
* Human Music Interaction
* Music technology
* Edutainment
* Exertion interfaces

============================

====PROGRAM COMMITTEE ====

============================

Stefan Agamanolis Distance Lab, Forres, UK
Elisabeth Andre Augsburg University, Germany
Lora Aroyo Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Tilde Becker University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Regina Bernhaupt University of Salzburg, Austria
Mark Billinghurst HIT Lab, New Zealand
Kim Binsted University of Hawai, USA
Tony Brooks, Aalborg University Esbjerg, Denmark
Andreas Butz University of Munich, Germany
Yang Cai Visual Intelligence Studio, CYLAB, Carnegie Mellon, USA
Antonio Camurri University of Genoa, Italy
Marc Cavazza University of Teesside, UK
Tat-Jen Cham Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Keith Cheverst University of Lancaster, UK
Drew Davidson CMU, Pittsburgh, USA
Barry Eggen University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Arjan Egges University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
Anton Eliens Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Steven Feiner Columbia University, New York
Alois Ferscha University of Linz, Austria
Matthew Flagg Georgia Tech, USA
Jaap van den Herik University of Tilburg, the Netherlands
Dirk Heylen University of Twente, the Netherlands
Catholijn Jonker Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
Frank Kresin Waag Society, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Antonio Krueger University of Muenster, Germany
Tsvi Kuflik University of Haifa, Israel
Markus Löckelt DFKI Saarbrücken, Germany
Henry Lowood University of Stanford, USA
Mark Maybury MITRE, Boston, USA
Oscar Mayora Create-Net Research Consortium, Italy
John-Jules Meijer University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
Louis-Philippe Morency Institute for Creative Technologies, USC, USA
Florian 'Floyd' Mueller University of Melbourne, Australia
Patrick Olivier University of Newcastle, UK
Paolo Petta Medical University of Vienna, Austria
Fabio Pianesi ITC-irst, Trento, Italy
Helmut Prendinger National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan
Matthias Rauterberg University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Charles Rich Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA
Mark Riedl Institute for Creative Technologies, USC, USA
Isaac Rudomin Monterrey Institute of Technology, Mexico
Ulrike Spierling FH/University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Pieter Spronck University of Tilburg, the Netherlands
Oliviero Stock ITC-irst, Trento, Italy
Carlo Strapparava ITC-irst, Trento, Italy
Bill Swartout Institute for Creative Technologies, USC, USA
Mariet Theune University of Twente, the Netherlands
Thanos Vasilikos University of Western Macedonia, Greece
Sean White Columbia University, USA
Woontack Woo Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Korea
Wijnand IJsselstein University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Massimo Zancanaro ITC-irst, Trento, Italy

Chicago Game Jam

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:11:55 +0000

The Global Game Jam is Coming to Chicago: January 30- February 1st, 2009 Need a game for your portfolio? Need practice and recognition for your game art and design ideas? Try the Chicago Game Jam, a participant in the Global Game Jam. What: From the site: "A Game Jam is an event which brings together artists, programmers and designers to spend a weekend working together in intense game development and design. Why ? To work with people you might not otherwise meet, to show off your skills and creativity and to get respect for making great and innovative games under extreme time constraints! All participants in the Global Game Jam, including those in the DePaul Game Jam, will be constrained by the same rules and limitations, with each time zone having one distinct design constraint." When: Jan. 30 - Feb. 1 2009, 5:00 pm to Sunday 3:00 pm. Where: DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media 243 South Wabash Avenue Chicago, IL 60604-2300 How Much? $40 Registration is here . . .

Second Call: Thinking after Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:13:21 +0000

The research group Ludiciné from the University of Montreal, in collaboration with the Research Group on the Creation and Formation of Cinematographic and Theatrical Institutions (GRAFICS) from the University of Montreal and the NT2 Laboratory on Hypermedia Art and Literature from the University of Quebec in Montreal, solicits your proposals for the bilingual (French/English) international conference titled «Thinking after Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games». This conference will be held in Montreal from April 23 to 25, 2009. Call for papers As fear is the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind (Lovecraft), human beings have always taken a malicious pleasure in frightening themselves. If literature and cinema were and still represent good means for the expression of horror, nowadays, the experience of fear is as intense in video games. While academia has been studying horrific literature and films for a few decades, such an interest for the videoludic side of horror has not, until now, showed up. Yet, since the cinematic staging of fear in Alone in the Dark in 1992, the Survival Horror has become a prolific genre offering a wide selection of significant games such as the Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Fatal Frame series. Because it is at the crossroads of diverse cultural heritages and the latest technological developments, and because it exhibits the ins and outs of the matrix that governs all but a few games (spatial navigation and survival), horror video games require a deeper study. This international conference wishes to study horror video games (not necessarily labeled survival horror) from an eclectic range of critical and theoretical perspectives. It aims to fill a gap in game studies between general theory and analysis of particular genres and games. Possible Topics Here are some examples of relevant themes we wish to explore in this conference: Historical approach - Origins and history of horror video games - Impact of the technological evolution on horror video games Theoretical approach - Simulation of horror, fear, terror - Narratives and themes of horror video games Transmedial approach - Transmedial study of horror video games (Games/Films/Literature) - Remediation in films, literature and video games Socio-cultural approach - Transnational analysis of horror video games (United States/Japan) - Social and cultural meanings of horror video games - Horror video games and censorship Analytical approach - Aesthetics of horror video games (lighting, sound, editing, 1st/3rd person perspective) - Study of specific games or series (Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, Fatal Frame, etc.) The organizing committee remains open to proposals that respect the general spirit of this call for papers. Please submit your proposals no later than January 15, 2009 at the following e-mail address: . Acceptance and rejection notifications will be sent by the beginning of February. Your proposal must include: 1. The title of your paper and an abstract (no more that 500 words). 2. Your academic status, your institutional affiliation, your department and your contact information (mailing address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail address). 3. A short biography underlining your work related to the themes of the conference (no more than 250 words). A selection of papers will be published in a special issue of LoadingŠ, the journal of the Canadian Game Study Association. For further information, please visit our website: <http://conference2009.ludicine.ca>. Organizing committee Bernard Perron, Conference Head, Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Film Studies, University of Montreal Martin Picard, coordinator, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal Richard Bégin, Invited Professor in Film Studies, Literatures Department, Laval University. Carl Therrien, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal Dominic Arsenault, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal Guillaume Roux-Girard, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal

IGDA Scholarships Applications Due: Jan 15th

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:22:09 +0000

The deadline to enter the IGDA's Student Scholarship Program for GDC09 is next Thursday, January 15th. Twenty-five university students will be awarded complimentary "Main Conference" passes to the 2009 Game Developers Conference. Recipients will be announced mid February. Applicants are required to be full-time university students (or equivalent) and IGDA student members for consideration. Scholarship applications will be judged by a panel of professional game developers. In addition to the pass, each student will be paired with a mentor during GDC, and go on a "site visit" to a local game development studio. For complete details and for students to apply, jump online: http://www.igda.org/scholarships/

Games and Ethics CFP: Proposals are Due

admin — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:28:09 +0000

Reminder

CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS

Proposal Submission Deadline: January 15, 2009 Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play A book edited by Karen Schrier, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA, and Dr. David Gibson, University of Vermont, USA http://www.columbia.edu/~kls2108/callforchapters.htm Introduction Ethics is the practice of enacting moral judgment to achieve a better life—the process of making choices according to one’s own conception of how to be a good person. Games and simulations can be rich playgrounds for the practice of these ethical choices, as they offer the ability to iterate and reflect on multiple possibilities and consequences. As such, educators and researchers are beginning to consider the use of games in supporting ethical reasoning and character development. Moreover, games have been and continue to be the subject of conversations, controversies, and deliberations about ethics. Game developers, publishers, and the public often differ in opinion about the choices made in the creation and promotion of a game, bringing up larger questions about the role of entertainment, art, and business in our society. The potential for games to foster ethical thinking and discourse—and not whether games are inherently good or bad—will be the thrust of this timely book. Objective of the Book Ethics and Games Design will provide a diverse and comprehensive compendium of case studies, theoretical frameworks, and empirical research in the emerging field of ethics, values, games, and play. This book will take a cross-disciplinary approach, inviting research, critiques, and perspectives from computer science, education, philosophy, law, media studies, management, psychology, and art history. The publication has three main goals. First, it will seek to define this emerging and essential new field. Second, this book will serve as a collective source for students, educators, practitioners, and researchers who are interested in understanding the current state of the discipline. It will locate the field diachronically and thematically, while highlighting the work of both well-established and emerging researchers and practitioners. Finally, this publication will inspire and motivate further interdisciplinary dialogue and research on the topic of ethics and games. It will frame the major research questions, issues, methodologies and problems, which we can then use to both expand and refine the field. Such a rigorous foundation for the study of ethics will help to appropriately inform future games, policies, standards, curricula, products, and the like. Target Audience The target audience is very diverse, ranging from practitioners of game development to journalists, to philosophers and educators. Researchers and students studying game design, media and games will find this an essential text for understanding how to better design, teach, and study the current generation of learners. Educators will use this to further their understanding of the potentials and limits of games, and how to creatively incorporate emerging technology into their curricula, standards, and policies. Game developers and publishers can use this text to further their designs, to help refine their choices and practices, and to better think through the implications of their decisions. Journalists, cultural critics, and reviewers can use this publication to consider alternate ways to view games and the nature of their controversies. Finally, this text will attract members of diverse academic, development, and consumer communities to interact, share and discuss findings, frameworks and theories. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following: • Definition of the field of ethics and games • Historical and contemporary context of ethics and games • Limits and constraints in assessing ethics • Criteria for studying ethics and games • Case studies (from researchers, educators and practitioners) • Ethics and new media literacy • Teaching ethics skills • Educational opportunities and limits for teaching values through play • Schools and the ethics of gaming • Ethics and standards in game development • Ethics in the promotion of games • Communities of play and ethics • Cheating and games • Issues of race, sex, violence, and gender in games • Ethics and the games business • Future implications and the ethical citizen Submission Procedure Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before January 15, 2009, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by February 1, 2009 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by April 1, 2009. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference) and “Medical Information Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. Previosly posted at: http://blog.mindtoggle.com/2008/11/25/games-and-ethics-book/

FILE FESTIVAL 2009

admin — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:08:49 +0000

Electronic Language International Festival

JULY 27 2009/// SÃO PAULO/// BRAZIL///

27 JULHO 2009/// SÃO PAULO/// BRASIL///

FILE - Electronic Language International Festival – is opening

registrations for its tenth edition that will be held at Sesi Paulista's cultural space, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the period from July 27 to August 31, 2009. Subscriptions are open from January 1st to March 10th, 2009. Submissions are free and open to professionals, researchers and students of the electronic language. In the last nine years, FILE has shown what's been happening in the global networks related to digital and electronic arts, becoming a reference for studies and research on new media. It has exhibited web art, net art, artificial life, hypertext, computer animation, real time teleconference, virtual reality, soft art, games, interactive movies, e-videos, digital panoramas and electronic art installations and robotics, through interactive and immersive rooms. FILE SYMPOSIUM has become a meeting point in the city of Sao Paulo, proposing discussions and tackling the electronic-digital culture in its relations to art, science and technologies. FILE HIPERSONICA, the festival's sonorous branch, is on it's 7th edition and intends to elaborate connections between the world of images, the world of sonorities and the world of texts. Sound installations and real time performances will be presented by a number of groups and collectives, comprising both erudite and pop electronic music, but also electronic compositions, sound poetry, radio art, video music and sonic landscapes, as well as Djs and VJs presenting their sets through specific apparatus and installations with experimental and immersive projections. For more information visit: http://www.file.org.br/file2009/eng/index.php

The following is the same basic information in Portuguese. If you want to learn some Portuguese, you might want to try my Language Learning Game demo

Em Portuguese:

FILE FESTIVAL 2009

O FILE - Festival Internacional de Linguagem Eletrônica – está abrindo inscrições para a sua décima edição que acontecerá no espaço cultural do Sesi Paulista em São Paulo, Brasil, no período de 27 de julho a 31 de agosto de 2009. As inscrições estão abertas de 01 de janeiro a 10 de março de 2009. A inscrição é gratuita e aberta a profissionais, pesquisadores e estudantes de linguagem eletrônica de âmbito internacional. Nos últimos nove anos o FILE tem mostrado o que vem acontecendo nas redes mundiais no que tange às artes digitais e eletrônicas constituindo referência de estudo e pesquisa para as novas mídias. Foram expostos trabalhos de webart, netart, vida artificial, hipertexto, animação computadorizada, tele-conferência em tempo real, realidade virtual, soft art, além de games, filmes interativos, e-videos, panoramas digitais e instalações de arte eletrônica e robótica, através de salas interativas e imersivas. O FILE SYMPOSIUM se tornou um ponto de encontro na cidade de São Paulo, propondo discussões sobre a cultura-digital eletrônica em suas relações com a arte, as ciências e as tecnologias. O FILE HIPERSÔNICA, braço sonoro do festival, está em sua sétima edição e propõe elaborar conexões entre o mundo das imagens, o mundo das sonoridades e o mundo das textualidades. São instalações sonoras e performances em tempo real de vários grupos e coletivos tanto de música eletrônica erudita, como de música pop eletrônica, além de composição eletrônica, poesia sonora, radio arte, vídeo música e paisagem sonora. Djs e Vjs também se apresentam através de aparelhagens específicas e instalações com projeções imersivas e experimentais. Para mais informações visite: http://www.file.org.br/file2009/eng/index.php

2009 NMC Summer Conference

admin — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:42:54 +0000

The Call for Proposals is open for the 2009 NMC Summer Conference, to be held in Monterey, California! On behalf of the New Media Consortium and the conference hosts, California State University, Monterey Bay, you are cordially invited to submit proposals now through February 16, 2009. The 2009 NMC Summer Conference will feature outstanding keynote addresses by Kathy Sierra, founder of Javaranch.com and by Marco Torres, Apple Distinguished Educator, as well as a special session in recognition of Douglas Englebart, who will receive the illustrious NMC Fellow Award. Proposals are sought for preconference workshops, breakout sessions, posters and interactive sessions, and NMC’s fast-paced Five Minutes of Fame. New conference tracks join old favorites this year, and propsals are encouraged in the following four areas:

On the Horizon: Emerging technologies applied to teaching, learning, research, or creative expression, especially (but not only) those in the 2009 Horizon Report;
Social Media and Networking: This special focus track for the 2009 Summer Conference will set the stage for an in-depth exploration of social media, social networks and related tools, with a special spotlight on their applications to learning, to museum education, and to building communities;
Best Practices: Highlight your successful projects, practices, or responses to emerging challenges and issues;
Tools and Techniques: Tried-and-true methods for using technology in the service of education, including sneak peeks at new tools, demonstrations, and tips.

For more information, or to submit a proposal, see the full Call for Proposals. Travel and lodging information can be found at http://www.nmc.org/2009-summer-conference/travel Exhibition and Sponsorship information can be found at http://www.nmc.org/2009-summer-conference/exhibition-sponsorship For complete information on the 2009 NMC Summer Conference please see http://www.nmc.org/2009-summer-conference.

23rd Prix Ars Electronica - International Competition for CyberArts

admin — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:56:35 +0000

Prix Ars Electronica 2009 Online Submission Deadline: March 6, 2009 Contact: info@prixars.aec.at Total Prize Money: € 122.500,- Categories: Computer Animation / Film / VFX; Digital Musics; Interactive Art; Hybrid Art; Digital Communities; [the next idea] Grant; Media.Art.Research Award; u19 - freestyle computing More details about all categories and online submission are available only online at: <http://prixars.aec.at> INTERACTIVE ART The 'Interactive Art' category is dedicated to interactive works in all forms and formats, from installations to performances. At the top of the agenda is artistic quality in the development and design of the interaction as well as a harmonious dialog between the content level and the interaction level—that is, the inherent principles of interaction and the interfaces that implement them. Of particular interest is the sociopolitical relevance of the interaction as manifested by its innate potential to expand the scope of human action. Jurors are looking forward to encountering innovative technological concepts blended with superbly effective design (usability).

FILE 2009 (repost)

admin — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:57:27 +0000

FILE FESTIVAL 2009

FILE - Electronic Language International Festival – is opening registrations for its tenth edition that will be held at Sesi Paulista's cultural space, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the period from July 27 to August 31, 2009. Subscriptions are open from January 1st to March 10th, 2009. Submissions are free and open to professionals, researchers and students of the electronic language. In the last nine years, FILE has shown what's been happening in the global networks related to digital and electronic arts, becoming a reference for studies and research on new media. It has exhibited web art, net art, artificial life, hypertext, computer animation, real time teleconference, virtual reality, soft art, games, interactive movies, e-videos, digital panoramas and electronic art installations and robotics, through interactive and immersive rooms. FILE SYMPOSIUM has become a meeting point in the city of Sao Paulo, proposing discussions and tackling the electronic-digital culture in its relations to art, science and technologies. FILE HIPERSONICA, the festival's sonorous branch, is on it's 7th edition and intends to elaborate connections between the world of images, the world of sonorities and the world of texts. Sound installations and real time performances will be presented by a number of groups and collectives, comprising both erudite and pop electronic music, but also electronic compositions, sound poetry, radio art, video music and sonic landscapes, as well as Djs and VJs presenting their sets through specific apparatus and installations with experimental and immersive projections. For more information visit: http://www.file.org.br/file2009/eng/index.php

13th Media Art Biennale

admin — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:59:54 +0000

13th Media Art Biennale 20th Anniversary Special Edition Competition The WRO 09 Expanded City competition is open for submissions only for another month, until 15 Feb 2009. The entry form and competition regulations are available online at <http://wro09. wrocenter. pl/entry>http://wro09. wrocenter. pl/entry Expanded City Expanded cinema – Gene Youngblood's term from 1970 – was coined as a name for new forms of artistic experimentation with the language of film. But the term's underlying concept of synesthetic cinema combining esthetic sensitivity with technological innovation is also relevant to transformations in art arising from the infusion of new tools and the exploration of new views of perception. According to Youngblood, the new cinema medium – expanding beyond the limitations of the genre and foreshadowing the technological and esthetic diversification of contemporary art – became the most appropriate language for the post-industrial, post-literate, post-mass environment with its multi-dimensional simulsensory network of information sources. The Expanded city extends the concept of expanded media: The city becomes a metaphor for shared space for exchange and communication, expanding and diversifying through new technologies. What does new media art contribute to this shared communication space? Is it mere commentary or does it offer new solutions? How does it define that space by exploring its dimensions? How is the city shaped by the appearance of new programmed and programmable agoras? How does contemporary art influence the concept, the substance and the image of a city? Schedule: Deadline for submissions02:15:09 WRO 09 competition and main events: 5:10:09

Electroacoustic Audio-Visual Music

admin — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:01:11 +0000

CALL FOR WORKS * Electroacoustic Audio-visual Music* Submission Deadline: 20th February 2009 (postmark) This is a call for fixed media electroacoustic audio-visual music works exploring the interaction between sound and image. Works should be cohesive audio-visual entities and not just video/film with a soundtrack or music with a video/film track. The audio within these works should be electroacoustic in nature. Works are requested for a PhD research project investigating audience reception of differing styles of audio-visual composition and the role of composer intention in facilitating audience reception of electroacoustic audio-visual music works. This research builds upon the foundations laid by Leigh Landy and Rob Weale through the Intention/Reception Project (Weale 2006) (Landy 2006). Works will be presented to a series of audience groups who will then complete questionnaires and discuss their reception of each of the presented works. Results from these tests will then be analysed in order to discover any trends that exist between the different audience groups. It is hoped that this analysis will form a useful resource for composers of electroacoustic audio-visual music works providing key information on how audiences perceive and receive their works. The research will also provide fruitful information concerning the accessibility of these types of works. *KEY REQUIREMENTS* - In this phase of the project, submissions must be fixed media works (as opposed to 'live' performance based works). - Works must have stereo audio and be for single screen. - The duration of submitted works should be no longer than 8 minutes due to testing practicalities or, alternatively, a well-defined self-contained section of the work lasting no longer than 8 minutes can be identified within the entire work. - Composers must be willing to complete a 'Composer Intention Questionnaire' outlining dramaturgic information relating to each submitted work. - The composer should own all rights to the submitted works and provide the researcher with the right to include selected works as part of future scholarly publications of the research. - Multiple works may be submitted. NB: Works of high reputation may be rejected for testing due to issues of familiarity. *SUBMISSION GUIDELINES *All submissions must consist of the following: 1. DVD containing the work to be considered (PAL or NTSC format) and or QTM file. Works should have stereo audio and be for single screen. 2. Programme notes (please include duration, year of creation and a list of previous performances) . 3. Composer biography. 4. Contact information: email, postal address and telephone. All requested information must be provided in order for the work to be considered. *DEADLINE* Only submissions received by (or postmarked) Friday 20th February 2009 will be considered. Composers of selected compositions will be notified by 31st of March at the latest. A 'Composer Intention questionnaire' will be dispatched to the appropriate contact address for completion by the composers of selected works. Failure to complete a copy of the questionnaire for a selected work will prevent the work from being used in the study. Please send hard-copy materials to: Andrew Hill C/o Simon Smith Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre 0.19 Clephan Building De Montfort University Leicester LE1 9BH, UNITED KINGDOM Many thanks for your interest. *References* Weale, R. (2006) Discovering How Accessible Electroacoustic Music Can Be: the Intention/Reception Project. Organised Sound 11/2: 189-200. Landy, L. (2006) "The Intention/Reception Project" in Mary Simoni, ed. Analytical Methods of Electroacoustic Music. Routledge (New York) pp. 29-53 + appendix on DVD.

December 2008 Press

admin — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:11:01 +0000

December was a press-rich month for me: An interview on NPR (1 quote :) ) http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=31545 My game in Gamasutra / Game Career Guide: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21467 Make Me an Offer, reviwed in New City: http://art.newcity.com/2008/12/30/review-make-me-an-offergallery-350-illinois-institute-of-art/

Thinking About the Spaces of Virtual Worlds

admin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:01:10 +0000

Abstract

This brief essay examines the culture of virtual worlds from the perspective of cultural anthropology. It reviews the linguistic and ethnographic artifacts of virtual world participants as a means of identifying its cultural identity. This examination provides evidence of social responses to real life in several virtual worlds and expressed in the construction of an alter-culture within that space. In response to this research, the essay asks whether the culture within virtual worlds reflects independent culture or subculture.

Keywords: Virtual world anthropology, linguistics, ethnography, game communities, alternate reality games (ARG)

In modern social sciences to examine virtual worlds as anything but culture is to invalidate the social spheres in which groups meets. It is more challenging, and perhaps more productive to try to ask whether or not such environments incubate a subculture or a culture in themselves. If we take the standard anthropologic approach, there is an immediate dilemma. For cultural anthropologists, virtual worlds are an enigma. The material remains do not lend themselves well to traditional archeological investigation. However, anthropological study does find substantial opportunity in the assessment in the areas of linguistics and ethnography in virtual worlds.

Virtual worlds are linguistically defined by creoles of art and technology. Its members have routinely fabricated their own language which applies to the specific situations within the environment. Second Life participants, for example, have SLURS (Second Life URLS) and PRIMS (primitives). Such terms are borrowed, of course, from Computer Science uniform resource locators and digital art’s polygonal modeling systems.

The lexicon in World of War Craft is far more rich, defining a few hundred acronyms and a variety of adjectives that refer to game-specific situations. These include Powerleveling, Proc, Leet, Nerf’d, or Hume. Unsurprisingly most of these worlds share the common term, RL. RL contrasts the virtual world with real life.

These linguistic distinctions in themselves are not enough to define the culture. In linguistic terms, the language of virtual worlds is a dialect at best. It reflects a subset collection of terms and the social situation under which they are used.

Ethnographically the culture of virtual worlds is clearly not homogenous. Virtual world members span all the traditional demographics, sometimes even straddling them. The one homogenous aspect of the largest virtual worlds is there relationship to computer science. These worlds are built upon technology and that skeleton peeks through in the subsumed social norms of log ins and chat.

Where the culture diverges from Computer Science is in its overt effort to return to something human and social. Numerical ID’s are supplanted with call signs and nicknames. Object instances are represented by anthropomorphized self. There is a constant effort to emulate, and then to perfect. In this way these environments could be considered communal efforts of utopian construction. They endeavor to build an ideal, often defined by the members of that world, or at least evolved by the members. In the classic MMO model, there is a kind of democratic push-pull where designers respond to the needs of their constituents constructing scenarios that entertain and engage. In less game-like worlds, the social members engage themselves in their own world building, creating social microcosms that meet their needs. In Second Life, for example, participants create art societies, emulate physical cities and even create sexual groups. Are these ethnographic observations of a culture developing itself, or are they merely play emulation?

With such evidence, the virtual world may then be a kind of explorative cultural other. Where the terms of real life cultural participation is defined by a legacy of years, the terms of a virtual world are limited only by an individual’s capacity and efficacy in the world. Interestingly, this efficacy is often greater than what one experiences outside the virtual environment. In the virtual world, one enters with a fresh start. To some extent, they may enter the society as a 3 year old boy or 80 year old woman. They may declare and define themselves as a leader, follower, innovator, plebian, or king. The practical dilemmas of non-virtual worlds are discarded.

If the virtual world does not respond well to the way your avatar looks, you can change that avatars look, create a new one, or relocate to a place where your virtual character fits. These are retreat-based solutions to larger social issues, but they offer solutions not terribly practicable in an increasingly pervasive, far-reaching, and culturally normalizing real world. Beyond the idiosyncrasies of specific cultural bias, there are commonly criticized cross-cultural biases against people with disabilities for example. Yet, many of the disabilities that can be readily recognized in non-virtual worlds disappear behind the smoke and mirrors of avatar based systems. Such ability hints at the utopian potential to both eliminate discrimination and provide efficacy to individuals who may lack it. Others may argue it is merely play, lacking real address or solution.

Regardless, it is this ability to role-play that affords significant cultural relevance to virtual worlds. They serve not as counter-culture, or subculture, but as alter-culture. They are place of duplicity, where the non-virtual self supports the virtual self. They are a more complete version of the alter-cultural activities that many people already play. These include the bawdy explorations of participating in Mardi-Gras or the once-year role play in Halloween. The fundamental difference is that these alter-cultures are often open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This affords for a new place in the space of the every day, an always available alter-cultural space.

Yet, when we discard such affect, we often fill it with another discriminator. In game worlds, for example, rank, which sometimes can be purchased, defines a social hierarchy that prescribes one’s abilities, relationships, and potential. Where it might be argued that this is at least earned, instead of being inherited, it continues to be a purchasable advantage within the social structure. Likewise early adopters of Second Life find the financial advantage of early investment similarly witnessed in the social history of the United States.

Despite all of the potential to break with the traditional limitations of real life, the social relationships, the strata, even the anecdotal daily scenarios are familiar. Even in the least technical virtual worlds of alternate reality games, there are artifact-replicas of real life.

Are these affinities between real life and virtual life an artifact of the cross-cultural germination of the real and artificial? Or are they the result of a sub culture responding to the main stream culture? Is it safe to assume that the real leads the artificial? Are such artifacts waiting to be molted upon successive iterations?

-Lindsay Grace

(from some of my writing on games)

Global Game Jam!

admin — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:55:18 +0000

Have you visited your local Game Jam? If not, go now. Seriously it’s happening right now :) I visited our Chicago area Game Jam last night and it was great. Tons of energy, tons of collegiality, and a chance to meet Eugene Jarvis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Jarvis) and a bunch of other cool people. I’ll probably swing by tonight after I climb through this pile of work I have.

The folks at Depaul University are hosting the nice, friendly Chicago competition and they have a good showing of students and professionals. I watched the keynote, which was full of juicy gems for future Tower of Good or Crayon Physics designers. The outlined similar content to the How to Prototype a Game in 7 days post-mortem (http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml). On Friday night, it was clear the competition’s theme and adjectives (slipper, reduced?) are going to inspire some creative games. 1000 of them, actually.

Anyway, if you haven’t been, this is your chance. Here’s the info:

http://globalgamejam.org/

http://gamedev.depaul.edu/?page_id=59

Organised Sound: An International Journal of Music and Technology

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:29:49 +0000

Call for submissions Volume 15, Number 1 Issue thematic title: The Sonic Image Date of Publication: December 2009 Publishers: Cambridge University Press Issue co-ordinator: Simon Atkinson (satkinson@dmu. ac.uk) What is the Œimage of sound¹? How can the Œsonic image¹ be described and studied? This issue aims to explore the significance of the term for electroacoustic musics, as theoretical concept and phenomenon of experience.. Although ideas of musical and sonic imagery appear (explicitly or implicitly) with some frequency within some musicians¹ descriptions and discussions of their work, as well as within some music theoretical discourse, there has been little systematic elaboration of its nature or implications. In the context of long-standing more general debates regarding the nature of mental imagery, music, and more broadly, sound, have been significantly underrepresented. Questions of relevance include: € Can the Œsonic image¹ act as a focus for future interdisciplinary research that might build bridges between the cognitive and the cultural regarding our experience of sound? € Does the term suggest approaches that might usefully locate musical practice with technology within broader experience, including media contexts where sound is recorded and reproduced? € In what ways might Œsonic imagery¹ reveal more about mental and cultural processes involved in listening and the formation of sense and meaning in contemporary musics? € Although musicians freely talk of the Œmusical imagination¹, can this really exist independently of other modes? If not, what might this reveal to us regarding the fundamental nature of musical listening? Alternatively, some might argue that it is a Œwrong concept¹, something too dependent on thinking not concerned with the specifics of musical or aural experience, and tied up with excessive baggage of previous philosophical and cognitive discourse. This issue of Organised Sound is intended as a catalyst for discussion, founded on the premise that the practices of electroacoustic music over recent decades may suggest important questions in this direction, as well as that its elaboration will require fundamentally interdisciplinary approaches. Papers are sought that deal with specific musical practices, genres or listening situations (e.g. acousmatic), that are based upon analyses of specific works or approaches, or that consider existing theoretical studies through the lens of this concept/phenomenon. Within the broad terrain of electroacoustic music studies, arguments might draw upon the perspectives of fields such as Music Perception, Music Psychology, Music Cognition, Neuroscience, Semiotics, Semantics, Phenomenology, Ecologically- informed theory, Aesthetics, Media and Cultural Studies, or the examination of the ontological status of sound recording and reproduction within electroacoustic music practices. As always, submissions related to the theme are encouraged; however, those that fall outside the scope of this theme are always welcome. Deadline for submissions is 15 June 2009. Submissions may consist of papers, with optional supporting short compositions or excerpts, audio-visual documentation of performances and/or other aspects related to your submission that can be placed onto a DVD and the CUP website for ³Organised Sound². Supporting audio and audio-visual material will be presented as part of the journal's annual DVD-ROM which will appear with issue 15/3 as well on the journal¹s website. --- SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 June 2009 SUBMISSION FORMAT Notes for Contributors and further details can be obtained from the inside back cover of published issues of Organised Sound or at the following url: http://journals. cambridge. org/action/ displayMoreInfo? jid=OSO&type= ifc (and download the pdf) Properly formatted email submissions and general queries should be sent to: os@dmu.ac.uk (not to the guest editor) Hard copy of articles and images (only when requested) and other material (e.g., sound and audio-visual files, etc. normally max. 15¹ sound files or 8¹ movie files) should be submitted to: Prof. Leigh Landy Organised Sound Clephan Building De Montfort University Leicester LE1 9BH, UK. Editor: Leigh Landy Associate Editors: Ross Kirk and Richard Orton Regional Editors: Joel Chadabe, Kenneth Fields, Eduardo Miranda, Jøran Rudi, Barry Truax, Ian Whalley, David Worrall International Editorial Board: Marc Battier, Hannah Bosma, Alessandro Cipriani, Simon Emmerson, Rajmil Fischman, David Howard, Rosemary Mountain, Tony Myatt, Jean-Claude Risset, Francis Rumsey, Margaret Schedel, Mary Simoni

Rhizome 2010 Commissions Cycle

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:30:58 +0000

Rhizome is pleased to announce that the 2010 Commissions cycle is now open. Founded in 2001, the Rhizome Commissions Program is designed to support emerging artists with financial and institutional resources. In the seventh year of funding for the Program, Rhizome will award grants, with amounts ranging from $1000 to $5000, for the creation of significant works of new media art. Artists who receive a commission will also be invited to speak at Rhizome's affiliate, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and to archive their work in the ArtBase, a comprehensive online art collection. Applications for will be accepted until midnight April 2, 2009. To apply and for more information: http://www.rhizome.org/commissions In the 2010 cycle, Rhizome will award nine grants total. Seven of these will be selected by a jury and two will be determined by Rhizome's membership through an open vote. Reflective of Rhizome's commitment to openness and community, this unique process encourages dialogue among artists and participants and provides members with the opportunity to survey the current field of practice. Member voting will begin on April 6th. Information on Rhizome membership is here: http://rhizome.org/support/individual.php The Rhizome Commissions program is supported, in part, by funds from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and the Rockefeller Foundation's NYC Cultural Innovation Fund. Additional support is provided by generous individuals and Rhizome Members. About Rhizome: Rhizome is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology. Through open platforms for exchange and collaboration, our website serves to encourage and expand the communities around these practices. Our programs, many of which happen online, include commissions, exhibitions, events, discussion, archives and portfolios. We support artists working at the furthest reaches of technological experimentation as well as those responding to the broader aesthetic and political implications of new tools and media. http://rhizome.org

USC Internships for Summer Students

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:34:38 +0000

Each summer there is funding available for interns that want to come to

the University of Southern California to work on various projects at the Institute for Creative

Technologies. This is particularly interesting for people interested in VR-related projects

http://ict.usc.edu/internships

NSF-AAAS Poster

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:44:57 +0000

NSf Challenge Entries

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:45:49 +0000

NSF Entries

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:46:36 +0000

2009 NSF/AAAS Visualization Challenge

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:47:02 +0000

You See It All The elegance of the soaring structure, the beauty of the fine detail, the mystery of the hidden pattern, the insight of the novel perspective you see it all. In your work, in your mind’s eye, on the computer screen or the lab bench, through a camera’s lens or an artist’s imagination you see it all. Now show the rest of us and claim the recognition of the world. ENTRY DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2009 The 2009 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge is co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Awards categories include: Photographs/Pictures, Illustrations/Drawings, Informational/Explanatory Graphics, Interactive Media, and Non-Interactive Media. Winning entries will be published in a special section of the February 19, 2010 issue of the journal Science and Science Online and on NSF’s website. One winning entry will appear on the front cover of Science. For more information, see: http://www.nsf.gov/news/scivis National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Blvd. Room 1245 Arlington, VA 22230

IndieCade 2009

admin — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:59:54 +0000

Call for Submissions: Indiecade invites independent game artists and designers from around the world to submit interactive media of all types – from art to commercial, ARG to abstract, mind-bending to mobile, serious to shooter – for consideration. Work-in-progress is encouraged. A diverse jury of industry leaders will select entries for top prizes at the IndieCade 2009 Festival. All entries for the Festival will also receive consideration for presentation at the other 2009 IndieCade international exhibitions including E3, Siggraph, and More.... Submissions Deadline: April 30, 2009 at Midnight PST. http://www.indiecade.com/index.php?/blog/entries/indiecade-open-call-for-submissions/

Game Contests: Early Spring 2009

admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:17:46 +0000

Here are a few game contests upcoming game contests you may want to enter:

IndieCade 2009

Indiecade invites independent game artists and designers from around the world to submit interactive media of all types – from art to commercial, ARG to abstract, mind-bending to mobile, serious to shooter – for consideration. Work-in-progress is encouraged. A diverse jury of industry leaders will select entries for top prizes at the IndieCade 2009 Festival. All entries for the Festival will also receive consideration for presentation at the other 2009 IndieCade international exhibitions including E3, Siggraph, and More.... Submissions Deadline: April 30, 2009 at Midnight PST.

Game for Change: News Game Contest

Games for Change is pleased to announce the 2009 Knight News Game Award, which will be given to the best News Game(s) of the past several years, and presented at the 2009 Games for Change Festival at the Game Expo on the evening of May 28th. If you would like to submit your game for consideration, please use our Game Submission Form, which will also add your game to the News Game Channel on the G4C site. As G4C defines it, a news game is a digital game which is journalistic: it enhances people's ability to make decisions in a democracy

College Prep World and AI Washington

"AiW is proud to co-sponsor a Game Design Competition with College Prep World, an organization dedicated to helping students prepare for and succeed in college. The competition will run through July 1, 2009 and challenges you and a team of 3 or 4 members to design and build an online game that helps students learn to balance their academic, social, and community activities while still trying to maintain good grades! You must be an Art Institute student to participate and your team members can be from different Art Institutes. Each team member stands to win $500 for the grand prize, so get your team together and participate! Check out the full details of the competition at: http://dw318.aisites.com/CollegeLife/index.html Registration deadline is March 1, 2009

EuroIMSA 2009 (CFP)

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:21:04 +0000

Call for Papers: The Fifth IASTED International Conference on Internet and Multimedia Systems and Applications (EuroIMSA 2009) July 13 - 15, 2009 Cambridge, United Kingdom SPONSORS International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED) * Technical Committee on the Web, The Internet, and Multimedia World Modelling and Simulation Forum (WMSF) CONFERENCE CHAIR Prof. Madjid Merabti - Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom IMPORTANT DEADLINES Submissions due February 23, 2009 Notification of acceptance March 23, 2009 Final manuscript due May 8, 2009 Registration and full payment May 22, 2009 PURPOSE IASTED's International Conference on Internet and Multimedia Systems and Applications will be an opportunity for international research scientists, engineers, and practitioners to present their latest research, ideas, developments, and applications in these fields. EuroIMSA 2009 will include keynote addresses, contributed papers, and tutorials on a wide range of topics. All papers submitted to this conference will be evaluated by at least two reviewers. Acceptance will be based primarily on originality and contribution. EuroIMSA 2009 will be held in conjunction with the IASTED International Conference on: * Control and Applications (CA 2009) * Visualization, Imaging and Image Processing (VIIP 2009) * Technical, Medical and Scientific Publishing (TMSP 2009) LOCATION Cambridge is the home of the famous University, carols in King's College Chapel and punting on the river Cam. Cambridge is a compact cosmopolitan city with outstanding architecture old and new. The beauty of its ancient centre is preserved with its walkable medieval streets, college courts, gardens and bridges. Cambridge is a delight to visit in any season: relax in its many pubs, restaurants and cafes whilst exploring the independent shops around the historic market place. There are brand new shopping areas too, with all the high street favourites that you would expect. Be inspired by the museums and art galleries; spot the stars of the future at a student theatrical production, or see a show at the Arts Theatre. Film, live music of all kinds, poetry readings, public lectures - enter into the intellectual life of the students while you are here. SCOPE This conference covers all aspects of Internet and Multimedia Systems and Applications including, but not limited to: Web and Internet Systems and Tools Internet Architectures; Web and Internet Tools; Web Design; Internet Search Technologies; Optimization Techniques; Protection and Security; Privacy; Fault Tolerance; Internet Computing; Parallel and Distributed Processing; Java based Applications for Web; Software Agents; Expert Systems; Knowledge-based Systems; Computer Vision; Multimedia Information Systems Multimedia Tools and Architectures; Multimedia Broadcasting Systems on the Web; Operating System Support for Multimedia; Multimedia Communication Systems; Multimedia Networking; Distributed Multimedia Systems; Content-based Multimedia Retrieval; Multimedia Performance and Management; Mobile Multimedia; Video-on-Demand; Digital Video Broadcasting; IP based Networks; ATM Networks; Transport Protocols; Routing Protocols; Quality of Service; Scheduling; Resource Management; Networked Multiplayer Games; Multimedia Technologies and Games; Game Architecture and Development; Graphics and Virtual Worlds; Internet-based Multiplayer Games; Data Management Database Management Systems; Databases and the Web; Intelligent Databases; Multimedia Databases; Digital Libraries; Data Modelling; Data Warehousing; Data Mining; Database Ontology; Coding and Compression; Digital Watermarking; Video Storage Servers; Information Retrieval; Collaborative Systems and Distance Learning Distance Learning; Educational Multimedia; Distributed Learning; Collaborative Learning; Collaborative Systems and Applications; Virtual Reality; Video Conferencing; Computer Animation; Human-Computer Interfaces; Modelling and Simulation; Applications Electronic Commerce; Mobile Commerce; Internet Banking; Business; Medicine; Engineering; Education; Entertainment; Others INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE O. Abuelmaatti - Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom B. T. Abdellatif - France Telecom R&D, France H.W. Agius - Brunel University, United Kingdom M. Boulmalf, AlAkhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco T. Brooks - Aalborg University, Denmark W. Cellary - University of Economics at Poznan, Poland I.R. Chen - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA K. Cheng - Brunel University, United Kingdom N. Correia - New University of Lisbon, Portugal M. Crampes - Ales School of Mines, France D. Cunliffe - University of Glamorgan, United Kingdom M. D'Arienzo - University of Naples "Federico II", Italy J. Dittmann - University of Magdeburg, Germany A. El Kateeb - University of Michigan - Dearborn, USA A. El Rhalibi - Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom S. Emmanuel - Nanyang Technological University, Singapore S. Ferretti - University of Bologna, Italy W. Grosky - University of Michigan - Dearborn, USA V. Grout - University of Wales, United Kingdom S. Guan - Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University, PR China N. Guimaraes - University of Lisbon, Portugal W.A. Halang - Distance University of Hagen, Germany R. Hamzaoui - De Montfort University, United Kingdom H. Hellwagner - University of Klagenfurt, Austria M. Herczeg - University of Lübeck, Germany W.S. Hsieh - Shu Te University, Taiwan A. Inomata - NARA Institute of Science and Technology, Japan K. Jakobs - RWTH Aachen University, Germany J.F. Jensen - Aalborg University, Denmark M. Kampmann - Ericsson Research, Germany M.S. Kankanhalli - National University of Singapore, Singapore K. Benahmed - Béchar University, Algeria D. Kirovski - Microsoft Research, USA P.A. Kommers - University of Twente, Netherlands H. Kosch - University of Passau, Germany R. Lai - La Trobe University, Australia A. Lakas - UAE University, UAE B.H. Lee - KongJu National University, Korea J. Lee - Chinese University of Hong Kong, PR China S.Y. Lee - National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan D. Lowe - University of Technology Sydney, Australia J. Ma - Hosei University, Japan M. Merabti - Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom D. Millard - University of Southampton, United Kingdom S. Mirri - University of Bologna, Italy F. Nait-Abdesselam - University of Sciences and Technologies of Lille, France G. Neumann - Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria J.A. Onieva - Univ. of Malaga, Spain C.E. Palau Salvador - Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain C.E. Palazzi - University of Padua, Italy J.H. Park - Electronics & Telecommunications Research Institute, Korea E. Petersson - Aalborg University, Denmark A. Prodan - Iuliu Hatieganu University, Romania Y. Ryu - Myongji University, Korea H. Schauer - University of Zürich, Switzerland F. Seifert - Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany S.C. Shie - National Formosa University, Taiwan T.K. Shih - Tamkang University, Taiwan J.M. Spector - University of Georgia, USA D. Stotts - University of North Carolina, USA W.T. Sung - National Chin-Yi University of Technology , Taiwan M.R. Syed - Minnesota State University, USA F. Vexo - EPFL, Switzerland V. Wade - Trinity College, Ireland D. Wang - LaTrobe University, Australia B. White - Stanford University, USA L. Wong - National University of Singapore, Singapore H. Wu - Google, USA C. Xu - National Lab of Pattern Recognition, PR China S.N. Yang - Tsing Hua University, Taiwan S. Yoon - Soong Eui Women's College, Korea A. Zhang - State University of New York at Buffalo, USA J. Zhao - University of Ottawa, Canada Y.F. Zheng - Ohio State University, USA SUBMISSION OF PAPERS Initial Papers Submit your paper at: http://edas.info/newPaper.php?c=7292& All submissions should be in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. The IASTED Secretariat must receive your paper by February 23, 2009. Receipt of paper submission will be confirmed by email. Complete the online initial paper submission form designating an author who will attend the conference and providing four key words to indicate the subject area of your paper. One of the key words must be taken from the list of topics provided under Scope. Initial paper submissions should be approximately six pages. Formatting instructions are available at: http://www.iasted.org/formatting-initial.htm All papers submitted to this conference will be double blind reviewed by at least two reviewers. Acceptance will be based primarily on originality and contribution. All papers submitted to IASTED conferences must be previously unpublished and may not be considered for publication elsewhere at any time during IASTED's review period. Authors are limited to a maximum of three paper submissions. Authors are responsible for having their papers checked for style and grammar prior to submission to IASTED. Papers may be rejected if the language is not satisfactory. Notification of acceptance will be sent via email by March 23, 2009. Final manuscripts are due by May 8, 2009. Registration and final payment are due by May 22, 2009. Late registration fees or paper submissions will result in the papers being excluded from the conference proceedings. TUTORIALS Proposals for three-hour tutorials should be submitted online by February 23, 2009. Tutorials are to be submitted via the following website address: http://www.iasted.org/tutorialsubmit-671.html A tutorial proposal should clearly indicate the topic, background knowledge expected of the participants, objectives, time allocations for the major course topics, and the qualifications of the instructor(s). SPECIAL SESSIONS Persons wishing to organize a special session should submit a proposal via email to: calgary@iasted.org. Proposals should include a session title, a list of the topics covered, and the qualifications and brief biography of the session organizer(s). Papers submitted to the special session must be received by February 23, 2009, unless otherwise stipulated by the Special Session Organizer. A minimum of five papers must be registered and fully paid in order for this session to be included in the conference program. More information on special sessions is available at: http://www.iasted.org/conferences/SpecialSession-671.html JOURNALS Expanded and enhanced versions of papers published in the conference proceedings can also be considered for inclusion in one of the IASTED journals. Information on the submission of papers to journals is available at: http://www.actapress.com/SubmissionInfo.aspx Whole proceedings as well as single papers can now be purchased online. Please visit ACTA Press: http://www.actapress.com/ IMPORTANT DEADLINES Submissions due February 23, 2009 Notification of acceptance March 23, 2009 Final manuscript due May 8, 2009 Registration and full payment May 22, 2009 For more information, or to be placed on our mailing list, please contact: IASTED Secretariat - EuroIMSA 2009 Building B6, Suite 101, 2509 Dieppe Ave. SW Calgary, Alberta Canada T3E 7J9 Tel: 403-288-1195 Fax: 403-247-6851 E-mail: Website: http://www.iasted.org/

The Fourth Annual I/ITSEC Serious Games Showcase & Challenge

admin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:03:14 +0000

Call for Serious Games Entries http://www.iitsec.org/; http://www.sgschallenge.com November 30 - December 3, 2009, Orlando, Florida, USA Serious Game developers are invited to submit their original PC-based serious game to the Fourth Annual I/ITSEC Serious Games Showcase & Challenge. The goal of the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge is to promote innovative game-based solutions to training problems. Finalists in the Serious Game Showcase & Challenge will be selected by a panel of serious games leaders in the military, industry, and academic fields, and will be invited to showcase their serious game at I/ITSEC 2009, where over 17,000 attendees will view and vote on each of the finalists. The Challenge is open to a wide range of contestants; categories include student, government, and business. Prizes will be awarded to top contestants in those categories. Entered games can include modifications to existing games and virtual worlds as well as original development. All entries will be judged in four primary areas: Use of Gaming Characteristics, Solution to a Stated Problem; Technical Quality; and Playability/Usability. For the purpose of the Challenge, entries will be considered a serious game if they have gaming attributes, involve an assigned challenge, and employ some form of positive and/or negative reward system. Check www.sgschallenge.com for important details. ACT NOW! Sponsorships are available for the 2009 event

E-Learn 2009

admin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:03:45 +0000

World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education October 26-30, 2009 * Vancouver, BC Canada (Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre) CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ** Submission Deadline: April 29, 2009 ** Organized by: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) (http://www.aace.org ) Co-sponsored by: International Journal on E-Learning ( http://www.aace.org/pubs/ijel) ______________________________________________________________ ** What are your colleagues saying about E-Learn conferences? ** http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/testimonials.htm COLOR POSTER--E-Learn 2009 CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Available to Print & Distribute (PDF to print; 200kb) http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/EL09poster.pdf >> CONTENTS & LINKS (details below) << 1. Submission Information, Deadline April 29th: Call for Presentations: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/call.htm Submission Guide: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/submitguide.htm Presenter Guide: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/PresenterLounge 2. Major Topics: www.aace.org/conf/elearn/topics.htm 3. Presentation Categories: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/categories.htm 4. Products/Services Showcases & Presentations: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/corporate.htm 5. Proceedings & Paper Awards: http://www.aace.org/pubs 6. For Budgeting Purposes: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/rates.htm 7. Vancouver, Canada: http://www.aace.org/conf/cities/vancouver/ 8. Deadlines: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/deadlines.htm INVITATION: E-Learn 2009 -- World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education is an international, annual conference which serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the exchange of information on research, development, and applications of all topics related to e-Learning in these four sectors. E-Learn Is Unique: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/unique.htm E-Learn is an innovative collaboration between the top public and private academic researchers, developers, education and business professionals, and end users from the Corporate, Healthcare, Government, and Higher Education sectors. All presentation proposals are reviewed and selected by a respected, international Executive Advisory Board (http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/exec.htm) and Program Committee, based on merit and the perceived value for attendees. E-Learn, the premiere international, non-commercial conference in the field, spans all disciplines and levels of education and attracts more than 1,000 attendees from over 60 countries. We invite you to attend E-Learn and submit proposals for presentations. All presentation proposals are peer reviewed and selected by three reviewers on the respected international Program Committee for inclusion in the conference program, proceedings book, and CD-ROM proceedings. PROGRAM ACTIVITIES: * Keynote Speakers * Invited Panels/Speakers * Papers * Best Practice Sessions * Roundtables * Demonstrations/Posters * Research/Technical Showcases * Products/Services Showcases * Tutorials/Workshops SUBMISSION INFORMATION: For Call for Presentations, connect to: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/call.htm All authors MUST follow the submission guidelines and complete the Web form at: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/submitguide.htm For Presentation and AV Guidelines, see: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/PresenterLounge TOPICS: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/topics.htm PRESENTATION CATEGORIES: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/categories.htm The Technical Program includes a wide range of interesting and useful activities designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information. PRODUCTS/SERVICES SHOWCASES & PRESENTATIONS: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/corporate.htm Organizations have the opportunity to demonstrate and discuss their e-learning related products and services in through Products/Services Showcases & Presentations. PROCEEDINGS & PAPER AWARDS: http://www.aace.org/pubs Accepted papers will be published by AACE in the Proceedings Book and on CD-ROM. Proceedings in this series serve as major resources in the multimedia/ hypermedia/telecommunications community, reflecting the current state of the art in the discipline. In addition, the Proceedings also are internationally distributed through and archived in EdITLib-- Education and Information Library, http://www.EdITLib.org/ Selected papers may be invited for publication in may be invited for publication in AACE's respected journals especially in the - International Journal on E-Learning (IJEJ), - Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia (JEMH), or - Journal of Interactive Learning Research (JILR). All presented papers will be considered for Outstanding Paper Awards within several categories. Award winning papers may be invited for publication in the AACE journals. FOR BUDGETING PURPOSES: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/rates.htm The conference registration fee for all presenters and participants will be approximately $395 U.S. (AACE members), $465 U.S. (non-members). Registration includes proceedings on CD, receptions, and all sessions except tutorials. The conference dinner (if offered) will be an extra fee. All conference sessions will be held at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre ( http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/hotel.htm) located in the heart of Vancouver shopping, dining, and attractions. Special discount hotel have been obtained for E-Learn participants at $146 (single/double). VANCOUVER, CANADA: Experience the Shows, Dining, Shopping, Attractions, & Tours! http://www.aace.org/conf/cities/Vancouver/ DEADLINES: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/deadlines.htm Submissions Due: April 29, 2009 Authors Notified: May 29, 2009 Proceedings File Due: Sept. 25, 2009 Early Registration: Sept. 25, 2009 Conference: Oct. 26-30, 2009 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To be added to the mailing list for this conference, link to http://www.aace.org/info.htm AACE Blog: http://blogs.aace.org/aace E-Learn Blog: http://blogs.aace.org/elean If you have a question about E-Learn, please send an e-mail to AACE Conference Services, conf@aace.org Contact: AACE--Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education P.O. Box 1545 Chesapeake, Virginia 23327 USA Phone: 757-366-5606 * Fax: 703-997-8760 E-mail: conf@aace.org * http://www.AACE.org

IEEE Edutainment

admin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:08:52 +0000

Here is a simply little article on educational gaming with mention of a few academic items on the topic. http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/site/tionline/menuitem.be4d708ccca114d8fb2275875bac26c8/index.jsp?&pName=print_only&TheCat=2201&article=tionline/legacy/inst2009/mar09/featuretechnology.xml&

Game Art

admin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:10:22 +0000

Some resources I provided my students about game aesthetics: In case you haven’t been reminding yourself that you are an artist, with artistic decisions to make, I thought I’d share an article I really enjoyed. This was later placed in Gamasustra, but I think one of the really interesting observations occurs about the article (instead of in it). “No-one has fantasies about being a cell-shaded street racer, or a cubist special forces soldier, and so typically those styles aren't considered in the original conception; it's just assumed that if you're making a game about soldiers, that they'll look like soldiers. [...] This is why I consider photorealism in games to be an absence of a defined art style: because when abstract styles are employed that's a conscious decision, yet when photorealism is used, chances are the designer just wanted to make a game about driving cars, rather than a game about driving photorealistic cars.” I really thought that was an important observation, either way I’d suggest reading the article. Perhaps it will be fodder for an interesting discussion with someone during an interview, or perhaps (ideally) it will inform your future art design decisions (hint, hint for those of you taking Programming for the Artist next quarter). Enjoy: http://modetwo.net/users/nachimir/vga/ While you are at it, you might want to read:

Art in the Age of Video Games: http://www.gamescenes.org/
Trigger Happy: a FREE .pdf book about the aesthetics of video games: http://stevenpoole.net/blog/trigger-happier/

Critical Gameplay Exhibit

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:23:01 +0000

A little preview of my MFA thesis: CriticalGameplay.com Critical Gameplay is a collection of strategically designed video games. Each game asks the question, what do common game mechanics teach us? The four games in the collection are designed to help reevaluate our perspective on gameplay experiences. Like Critical Cartography, critical gameplay seeks to offer alternate perspective on the way we play. This is a game from the Critical Gameplay Project Exhibit. It is an MFA thesis where I created 1 game a week for a month. Each game sought to thwart a common game mechanic under evaluation. Wait, a game where the player is encouraged to refrain from acting on the world. As the player moves the world disappears, but when the player waits, the world becomes more rich. Players are awarded points when they allow the little things in life to reveal themselves. Shown here is the first draft. The exhibition version will have more polish.

GDC Europe Call for Submissions

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:33:23 +0000

The call for submissions to present lectures, panels and roundtables at the 2009 Game Developers Conference® Europe (GDC Europe) is now open through Thursday, April 30. GDC Europe, the premier professional conference for creators of videogames and interactive entertainment, will take place in Cologne, Germany on August 17-19 at the Cologne Congress Center East. The topics solicited range from game design and business to programming, production, mobile and serious game development. http://gdceurope.com/c4p/index.html

IndieCade Call for Submissions: April 30th, 2009

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:36:09 +0000

IndieCade invites independent game artists and designers from around the world to submit interactive media of all types – from art to commercial, ARG to abstract, mind-bending to mobile, serious to shooter, as well as academic and student projects – for consideration. Work-in-progress is encouraged. A diverse jury of creative and academic leaders will select entries for top prizes at the IndieCade 2009 Festival. All entries for the Festival will also receive consideration for presentation at all 2009 IndieCade international exhibitions including: IndieCade 2009 Events: IndieCade @ E3, Los Angeles (June 2-5) IndieCade Asia TBA IndieCade @ SIGGRAPH, New Orleans (Aug 5-7) IndieCade 2009 (Oct 1-10) IndieCade Europe, GameCity, UK (Oct 26-29) Submissions Deadline: April 30, 2009 at Midnight PST. For more information and to enter: indiecade.com

New Media Caucus, CAA 2010

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:15:58 +0000

"At the 2009 New Media Caucus Business Meeting, members confirmed the election of Paul Catanese, faculty of Interdisciplinary Arts at Columbia College Chicago to the position of President of the New Media Caucus for a three-year term, 2009 – 2012. We are grateful for all the hard work of Gwyan Rhabyt, President of the New Media Caucus from 2006 – 2009. Thanks, Gwyan for all your energy and enthusiasm over the past three years, nurturing and shaping the NMC into an ever stronger, robust and growing organization... To read the rest of the 2009 Annual Report, visit the NMC Website at: http://www.newmediacaucus.org/annual_report.php (2) Call for Panel Proposals for CAA Conference (Chicago 2010) The New Media Caucus invites panel proposals for a 1.5 hour affiliated panel open session at the College Art Association annual conference; the deadline for proposals is May 1st 2009. At this time, we are accepting proposals for the 2010 CAA Conference in Chicago. Please note that multiple proposals are acceptable. For more information about how to propose a panel read the detailed call outlined on the NMC Website at: http://www.newmediacaucus.org/calls.php (3) Exhibition Committee for CAA 2010 in Chicago Leslie Raymond, Vice President of Exhibitions announces: We were able to pull of an amazing feat in Los Angeles, considering the scarcity of our local connections there. Chicago 2010 is another story, and one that I am super-excited to write about! Our new NMC president, Paul Catanese, is based at Columbia College, making our ground-base a solid foundation for the planning and execution of the next New Media Caucus Exhibition. We are already working on developing our 2010 programs, so get in touch right away if you want to get onboard for the ride. I'm looking for people with ideas and energy to make them happen. A sense of humor goes a long way, too! ;) Contact Leslie Raymond, Vice President of Exhibitions <leslie.raymond@utsa.edu>. (4) Exhibition Committee for CAA 2011 in New York City In addition to the 2010 exhibitions committee, the NMC is seeking members who live in or near the greater NYC metro area who can assist with developing the 2011 NMC Exhibition to coincide with the 2011 CAA Conference. Interested members should contact Leslie Raymond, Vice President, Exhibitions <leslie.raymond@utsa.edu>. (5) New Media Caucus Roundtables at CAA 2010 Each year at the CAA Conference, the NMC sponsors additional events within and concurrent to the conference itself. At this point, the NMC is seeking member interest in organizing roundtables for professional networking. Currently, two roundtables are being planned: (1) New Media Syllabis, (2) New Media and the Tenure Track. If you are interested in assisting with the organization of these roundtables, please contact the Roundtable Organizing Committee Co-Chairs Mike Salmond <msalmond@niu.edu> and Vagner Whitehead <whitehea@oakland.edu>. (6) NMC Website Taskforce The New Media Caucus is in the process of updating its website in terms of its overall visual design, branding and content. At this point in time, the executive team is forming a taskforce of interested members to assist with the update of the website, both in terms of design as well as research assistance for the discovery process. If you are interested in assisting with the NMC Website Taskforce, please contact James Khazar, Chief Information Officer <james@khazar.com>. (7) NMC Symposium Taskforce A discussion at the annual NMC Business meeting at CAA2009 in Los Angeles revealed interest in developing a NMC Symposium that would exist in addition to, but separate from the events and programming that occurs annually at CAA. This represents a significant expansion of activity for the NMC and requires an in-depth discovery and discussion process. In preparation for potentially moving forward with this expansion, a Symposium Taskforce is being assembled whose initial purpose will be to build a preliminary report to the Caucus outlining a NMC Symposium proposal. If this project is of interest to you, please contact Paul Catanese <pcatanese@colum.edu>. (8) New Media Related Panels seeking Papers for Chicago 2010 Conference CAA has officially published the Call for Papers for the Chicago 2010 conference. Among others, you may be interested in submitting papers to the following new-media related panels: • New Media Art in China: Understanding the Emergence of the Dragon • 3D Animation Pedagogy and Industry Complicity in New-Media Education • Studio Art Open Session: New Media, The Culture of Dispersion • Hypotechnology: Artists Remix the Anachronistic and Obsolete w/the Present • Art and the Televisual • Lifeloggers: Chronicling the Everyday • An Audience of One: Assessing the Arts of Privacy • Public Art Dialogue Site Variations: The Shifting Grounds of Public Art • Studio Art Open Session Multiples and Multiplicity: Beyond Benjamin. • Resurrecting the Disappeared: The Problem of Re-Presentation and Exhibition of Time-based Twentieth-Century Art in the Twenty-first Century • Delineations of Media in Art Theory and Pedagogy For a PDF containing a full list of panels, descriptions and information regarding deadlines and how to apply, visit the CAA website: http://conference.collegeart.org/2010/ If you have any suggestions, questions, or issues that you think the Caucus should get involved in, don't hesitate to email Paul Catanese." Paul Catanese New Media Caucus, President

Siggraph Asia 2009

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:47:26 +0000

SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Opens For Submissions

Are you eager to present your ideas and share your knowledge with thousands of attendees?

Are you an artist, educator, engineer, filmmaker, innovator, producer, researcher, or scientist? Do you have innovative new ideas that will inspire our attendees and propel our industry forward? Then you should become part of SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 now!

SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 welcomes contributors and volunteers to participate in the 2nd edition of the annual SIGGRAPH Asia Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Yokohama, Japan. To read more about the "How?" and "When?" to submit your proposal, see our Calls for Participation for:

No matter how you are involved in computer graphics and interactive techniques, SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 is an excellent opportunity to present your work and advance your career.

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Important Submission Deadlines

12 May 2009	Technical Papers
13 May 2009	Courses
5 June 2009	Art Gallery
5 June 2009	Emerging Technologies
9 June 2009	Educators Program
26 June 2009	Computer Animation Festival
30 June 2009	Internship Program
17 August 2009	Sketches & Posters

The submission deadline for all programs is 23:59 GMT.

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Art Gallery & Emerging Technologies

The Art Gallery and Emerging Technologies share an overall theme: Adaptation.

The Emerging Technologies program at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 will showcase technological innovations that will change the way we work, live, and play. Accepted works will be presented as ongoing demonstrations throughout the conference. Let your work be experienced by thousands of SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 attendees.

The SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Art Gallery will feature a diverse, international body of art and design, ranging from pieces driven by technology to works that critically comment on our technological society. The works will be selected based on four criteria: the depth of the concept of the work, aesthetics, craftsmanship, and relevance to the theme of the show. Are you ready for this challenge?

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Computer Animation Festival

The Computer Animation Festival presents a comprehensive and compelling distillation of the best work in the world that advances animation, visualization, real-time rendering, and entertainment via computer animation. We invite you to submit your work to become part of the festival. The juried program of the festival will include Electronic Theater screenings and a number of Animation Theater rooms where the full breadth of your work in computer animation can be enjoyed at length.

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Courses

Hundreds of practitioners, developers, researchers, artists, and students will attend the SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Courses to broaden and deepen their knowledge of the field, and to learn the secrets of new fields. The insights they gain will shape hardware and software products, computer-animated films, and future research directions. Share your knowledge with them and influence the future by presenting a course at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009!

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Educators Program

The Educators Program is a place where people from all levels and disciplines, from academia and industry, can share their research, methods, and opinions about the teaching and integration of computer graphics and interactive techniques in all areas of learning. The program includes three main components: Education Papers, Panels and Invited Workshops. Find out more and submit your proposal.

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Internship Program

This year new for SIGGRAPH Asia the Student Volunteer Program has been restructured to an Internship Program. Join us and be one of the first to benefit from this change.

Imagine yourself working behind the scenes of the world's most prestigious conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques. This priceless experience awaits you in Yokohama. You will be given the opportunity to meet and learn directly from industry professionals, artists, and teachers while assisting conference attendees and supporting conference programs and events.

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Sketches & Posters

If you are looking for a dynamic forum to present new and thought-provoking ideas, techniques, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques you should consider submitting your work to Sketches & Posters. These programs cover a broad spectrum of topics including digital art, design, science, engineering, and many more. They encompass ideas ranging from academic research to industrial development, from practical tools to behind-the-scenes explanations of commercial and artistic work.

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Technical Papers

The SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Technical Papers program will continue the tradition of excellence in computer graphics and interactive techniques that SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia are known for. We invite submission of high-quality papers that will set the standard in the field and stimulate future trends. Accepted papers will be presented at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 and published as a special issue of ACM Transactions on Graphics.

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Wait: A Critical Gameplay Game

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:26:20 +0000

Wait, a simple game where the player is encouraged to refrain from acting on the world. As the player moves the world disappears, but when the player waits, the world becomes more interesting. The majesty is found in the slow, controlled effort. Players are awarded points when the little things in life reveal themselves.

Treatment: The intention in wait is to return the game experience to a central theme in some artistic practices: the reward of stopping to smell the flowers. The game begins with a fade from white and a fairly empty virtual field with blowing grass and the sounds of nature. If the player does not move, elements of the world are heard and faded into view. When these items are fully in view and physically close to the player the player is rewarded points. Points accrued are expressed by a single modulated tone every few seconds. As time progresses the world begins to fade away. The player must respond by moving to another space in the world. If they do not move by the time the world completely fades away, then the game will end. A score is displayed. The score will, in true game fashion, be compared to the past performance of other players. Play can continue indefinitely if the player moves and waits appropriately.

This game is part of the Critical Gameplay Project, an exhibition for partial completion of the MFA in Electronic Visualization at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

2nd International Congress on Image and Signal Processing

admin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 22:13:53 +0000

The 2nd International Congress on Image and Signal Processing (CISP 2009) and the 2nd International Conference on BioMedical Engineering and Informatics (BMEI 2009) will be jointly held in Tianjin, China, from 17 to 19 October 2009. We cordially invite you to submit a paper and/or an exhibition. Selected best papers will appear in SCI-indexed journal(s). The papers published in the proceedings will be included in the IEEE Xplore and submitted to Ei Compendex for indexing (CISP 2009 IEEE Catalog Number: CFP0994D; BMEI 2009 IEEE Catalog Number: CFP0993D). CISP’09- BMEI’09 is technically co-sponsored by the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Tianjin is one of the four municipalities in China. It is a financial and commercial center in North China and is known for its numerous travel resources and rich history, such as the Huangyaguan Great Wall, Dule Temple, Panshan Mountain and Food Street. It takes only 30 minutes to travel between Tianjin and Beijing by high-speed train. The registration fee of US$420 includes lunches, dinners, and banquet. The previous CISP'09-BMEI'09 attracted over 2600 submissions from more than 30 countries. CISP'09-BMEI'09 aims to provide a high-level international forum for scientists and researchers to present the state of the art of multimedia, signal processing, biomedical engineering, and biomedical informatics. For more information, visit the conference web page: http://www.tjut.edu.cn/cisp-bmei2009 If you have any questions after visiting the conference web page, please email the secretariat at cisp2009@tjut.edu.cn Join us at this major event in historic Tianjin !!! With best regards, CISP'09-BMEI'09 Organizing Committee

Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:46:21 +0000

I have two chapters in the following book, to be released May 2009:

The Philosophies of Software,Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics, IGI Global Press "Abstract: Software is philosophical. Software is designed by people who have been influenced by a specific understanding of the way objects, people and systems work. These concepts are then transferred to the user, who manipulates that software within the rules set forth by the software developer. The use of these rules by the designer reinforces an understanding of the world that is emphasized by the software they use. The designer then produces works that mimic these same philosophies instead of departing from them. The three axis of these philosophies are analogy, reductivism, and transferred agency. . ." The Challenge of Enculturation in the Arts,Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics, IGI Global Press "Abstract: Enculturation is the act of passing cultural ideologies from one person to the other... in the tradition of anthropological and sociological study of existing culture, this chapter seeks to illuminate the distinguishing characteristics of contemporary art production and offer perspective on the critical creative process. It takes new media art as its case study because it serves as a cross-cultural intersection of scientific invention and artistic innovation."

Introducing the latest release from IGI Global:

Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics

ISBN: 978-1-60566-352-4; 500 pp; May 2009

Published under the imprint Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference)

http://www.igi-global.com/reference/details.asp?id=33433

Edited by: James Braman, Towson University , USA ; Giovanni Vincenti, Towson University , USA ; and Goran Trajkovski, Laureate Education Inc., USA

DESCRIPTION

As technology becomes further meshed into our culture and everyday lives, new mediums and outlets for creative expression and innovation are necessary.

The Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics covers a comprehensive range of topics regarding the interaction of the sciences and the arts. Exploring new uses of technology and investigating creative insights into concepts of art and expression, this cutting-edge Handbook of Research offers a valuable resource to academicians, researchers, and field practitioners.

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"Technology is here to stay. It has shaped events in the past and will clearly continue to shape the future. Through this handbook we are addressing novel concepts from creation, interaction, communication, to the interpretation and emergence of art through various technological means and media."

- James Braman, Towson University , USA

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TOPICS COVERED

Computational arts

Conceptual blending theory

Convergence of complex systems science and art practice

Digital art’s creative process

Holography re-defined

Information visualization

Intersection of software and art

Memory association machine

Philosophies of software

Visual analytics

For more information about Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics, you can view the title information sheet at http://www.igi-global.com/downloads/pdf/33433.pdf. To view the Table of Contents and a complete list of contributors online go to http://www.igi-global.com/reference/details.asp?ID=33433&v=tableOfContents. You can also view the first chapter of the publication at http://www.igi-global.com/downloads/excerpts/33433.pdf.

ABOUT THE EDITORS James Braman is a Lecturer for the Computer and Information Sciences Department at Towson University ( Towson , MD ). He holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from Towson University and is currently a doctoral candidate in Applied Information Technology. He has been teaching courses dealing with computers and art for the past several semesters. His current research focus includes art and technology, intelligent agents, simulated emotions and education in virtual and immersive environments.

Giovanni Vincenti is in charge of Research and Development at Gruppo Vincenti, a family-owned company with interests across several fields. His main areas of research include Fuzzy Mediation, Information Fusion, Emotionally-Aware Agent Frameworks and Robotics. He held several positions at Towson University , including a Lecturership with the Department of Computer and Information Sciences. He also taught courses for the Center of Applied Information Technology , also at Towson University . He is the author of many publications, and the father of the concept of Fuzzy Mediation, as applied to the field of Information Fusion.

Goran Trajkovski is the Director of Product Strategy and Design for IT/Engineering at Laureate Higher Education Group, Baltimore , MD. He was the chair of the Department of Information Technologies of South University and associate professor of IT at its Savannah , GA campus. He was previously the founding director of the Cognitive Agency and Robotics Laboratory (CARoL) at Towson University , Towson , MD , USA . The virtual version of CARoL now exists in Second Life. He also taught at Towson University, West Virginia University, Parkersburg, WV, USA, and the University "Ss Cyril and Methodius," Skopje, Macedonia. His research focuses on cognitive and developmental robotics, and interaction and emergent phenomena in agent societies. He is an affiliate of the Institute for Interactivist Studies at Lehigh University , and a member of the organizing committee of the biannual Interactivist Summer Institutes. He has authored over 200 publications, including ten books and edited volumes. He has chaired two symposia for the Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. Trajkovski is the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Agent Technologies and Systems, published by IGI Global. His work has been funded by the NSF, the National Academies of the Sciences, and OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project). Trajkovski hold a BSc in applied informatics, MSc in mathematical and computer sciences, and PhD in computer sciences from the University "Ss Cyril and Methodius," Skopje , Macedonia .

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To view the full contents of this publication, check for Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics Trends in your institution’s library. If you library does not currently own this title, please recommend it to your librarian.

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Critical Gameplay Exhibit

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:46:41 +0000

Critical Gameplay is a collection of strategically designed video games. Each game asks the question, what do common game mechanics teach us? The four games in the collection are designed to help reevaluate our perspective on gameplay experiences. Like Critical Cartography changes the way we perceive the world, critical gameplay seeks to offer alternate perspectives on the way we play. The Exhibition: Four video games will be displayed for visitors to play on multiple stations. Each game takes a specific gameplay standard and actively works against it. The hope is the initiation of an intellectual dialogue about the opportunities in unexplored gameplay mechanics. The exhibition will also include other video games and interactive works created by Lindsay Grace. The exhibition is open to the public and will be held on April 17th. * Location: 1100 West Cermac (enter at 2268 S. Carpenter) * Time: 6:30pm - 10:00pm * Cost: Free (Open to the public) * Contact: info@criticalgameplay.com Refreshments will be served (beer, wine et al) http://www.CriticalGameplay.com

IE2009: The 6th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment

admin — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:57:06 +0000

14-16 December 2009, Sydney, Australia http://ieconference.org/ie2009/ *** Important Dates *** Paper Submission: 21 Aug 2009 Short Papers/Demo Submission: 1 Sep 2009 Author Notification: 1 Oct 2009 Camera Ready Papers: 1 Nov 2009 Conference: 14-16 Dec 2009 The Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment, in its sixth year, is a cross-disciplinary conference that brings together researchers from artificial intelligence, audio, cognitive science, cultural studies, drama, HCI, interactive media, media studies, psychology, computer graphics, as well as researchers from other disciplines working on new interactive entertainment specific technologies or providing critical analysis of games and interactive environments. Previous keynotes at Interactive Entertainment have included the following people: Kurt Busch, Krome Studios Adrian David Cheok, Mixed Reality Lab, Singapore Chris Crawford, http://www.erasmatazz.com/ Kenneth D. Forbus, Northwestern University. Tracy Fullerton, University of Southern California Ross Gibson, University of Sydney Robin Hunicke, Electronic Arts Elina M.I. Koivisto, Nokia Research Center Mark Stephen Meadows / pighed, http://www.boar.com/ Madjid Merabti, Liverpool John Moores University Scot Osterweil, MIT Education Arcade John Passfield, Pandemic Studios Mark Pesce, co-creator of the VRML Caryl Shaw, Electronic Arts Stacey Spiegel, I-mmersion R. Michael Young, North Carolina State University === IE2009 will accept three kinds of submissions; all accepted submissions will be included in the conference proceedings. Regular Papers - Maximum 10 pages. Regular papers represents mature work where the work has been rigorously evaluated. All regular papers will be peer reviewed for technical merit, significance, clarity and relevance to interactive entertainment. Short Papers - Maximum 3 pages. Short papers represent novel work in progress that may not be yet as mature as regular submissions, but still represents a significant controbution to the field. All short papers will be peer reviewed for technical merit, significance, clarity and relevance to interactive entertainment. Demo Submissions - Maximum 1 page. Technical demonstrations showing innovative and original approaches to interactive entertainment. Demo papers will be reviewed by the conference chair and the program chair for significance and relevance. All demo presenters are responsible are responsible for bringing the necessary equipment to the conference and setting up their demo at the conference. === Topics include but are not limited to: * Art, Design, New Media, Social games - games as art forms, novel approaches to game design, mobile games and games that leverage from social networking tools, convergence and cross-platform media, cultural and media studies on games, policy and legislative responses to games * Artificial Intelligence: path-planning, camera-control, terrain analysis, user-modeling, machine learning, interactive storytelling, NPC modelling, planning and general AI architectures. * Games and Education: integrating games into traditional computer science classes as well as novel ways of teaching games, curriucula development at university, high-school or middle-school levels, special games based programs for attracting disadvantaged or underepresented groups. * Game Design and Production - papers examining the game production process from conception to design to prototyping to bringing games to market * Graphics, Animation and Interfaces - advances in graphics techniques with applications to games, new animation techniques, novel interfaces for games, mixed-reality. augmented-reality applications, mobile games, * Games Backend - papers that show advances in technical fields that make games work, such as databases, networking, cryptography, security, programming languages, IE2009 will not accept any paper that, at the time of submission, is under review for or has already been published or accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. This restriction does not apply to submissions for workshops and other venues with a limited audience. Accepted papers will be published in the IE2009 conference proceedings and also published in the ACM Digital Library. Please see http://ieconference.org/ for papers from previous years. === For the best student paper, IE2009 will waive the registration fee and provide a scholarship of up to $500 towards travel adn accomodation expenses. There are also limited spots for student volunteers, please contact ie2009[at]ieconference.org if interested. Student volunteers will get a discount on the registration General inquiries should be forwarded to ie2009[at]ieconference.org IE2009 Conference Chair: Malcolm Ryan, UNSW IE2009 Program Committee Chair: Yusuf Pisan, UTS

GDC Austin CFP Extended

admin — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:59:12 +0000

The call for submissions to present lectures, roundtables and full day tutorials at the Game Developers Conference® (GDC) Austin 2009 will be open until May 13th. We are seeking submissions for the Game Writers Summit, Game Audio Summit and the six tracks of the online focused GDC Austin. The 2009 program will include two new tracks: Programming and Production! Please see our submission guidelines, tracks and topics for full details. Each proposal will be evaluated by the advisory board before final decisions are made on specific sessions. Submit your proposal by Wednesday, May 13th! For more information, please visit GDCAustin.com or contact Jen Steele. Game Developers Conference Austin Sept. 15-18, 2009 Austin Convention Center Austin, Texas

Some Good Game Sites

admin — Sun, 17 May 2009 20:12:06 +0000

[game_edu] Daily/Weekly Website A list of some good games sites for weekly visits via the IGDA ed blog: Teaching Game Design http://teachingdesign.blogspot.com/ Applied Game Design http://bbrathwaite.wordpress.com/ On Games & Code http://www.onlinewebpage.com/gamecodeblog/ Casual Game Design http://www.casualgamedesign.com/ Raph Koster's Blog http://www.raphkoster.com/ Ian Bogost's Blog http://www.bogost.com/ Tracy Fullerton's Blog http://interactive.usc.edu/members/tfullerton/ Jane McGonigal's Blog http://blog.avantgame.com/ The Escapist http://www.escapistmagazine.com/ Clint Hocking's Blog http://clicknothing.typepad.com/click_nothing/ Kevin Kelly's Blog http://www.kk.org/

GDC:Austin Summits Call for Submissions

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:54:50 +0000

The call for submissions to present lectures at the new iPhone and Independent Games Summits at GDC Austin are now open.

Submit your proposal by Wednesday, June 3rd!

Each proposal will be evaluated by the advisory board before final decisions are made on specific sessions.

Independent Games Summit

The first ever Independent Games Summit at GDC Austin will feature lectures and postmortems from some of the most notable independent game creators in the heart of one of the most indie-minded towns--Austin! See the Independent Games Summit submission guidelines and topics for full details.

iPhone Games Summit

The inaugural iPhone Games Summit at GDC Austin will bring together top game developers from around the world to share ideas, best practices and discuss the future of this revolutionary platform. A full two-day program will highlight the best of iPhone game development from both a business and technical perspective. See the iPhone Games Summit submission guidelines and topics for full details.

iPhone Games Summit

Independent Games Summit

September 15-16, 2009

Game Developers Conference Austin

Austin Convention Center

Austin, Texas

Jen Steele

Content Manager

Music Box

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:59:31 +0000

A little sample of my Music Box emergent behavior project: http://www.evil.eu/evilartgallery/cybermusic.html

CLIHC/LA-Web 2009

admin — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:59:12 +0000

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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

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Saul Greenberg is a Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary. While he is a computer scientist by training, the work by Saul and his talented students typifies the cross-discipline aspects of Human Computer Interaction, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, and Ubiquitous Computing.

Ricardo Baeza-Yates is VP of Research for Europe and Latin America, leading the Yahoo! Research labs at Barcelona, Spain and Santiago, Chile, and also supervising the lab in Haifa, Israel. His research interests includes algorithms and data structures, information retrieval, web mining, text and multimedia databases, software and database visualization, and user interfaces.

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A NEW TYPE OF PRESENTATION CATEGORY: Posters in second life

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See the updated call for papers below.++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You are cordially invited to participate in CLIHC/LA-WEB 2009, the Joint Conference encompassing the 4th. Latin American Conference on Human-computer Interaction (CLIHC) and the 7th Latin American Web Congress, which will be held November 9-11, 2009, in Mérida, Yucatán.

(November 9-11, 2009) in Merida, Yucatan http://www.clihc.org/2009

Held in conjunction with LA-Web

Welcome to the Latin- American perspective on HCI

The diversity of Latin America is evident in its people, culture, geography, history and perspectives. This conference aims at capturing this richness within the context of those researchers and practitioners from and in Latin American working in the area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The conference will serve as a venue for the inter-change of ideas, methods, approaches and techniques of those aiming at designing interactive experiences for the people of Latin America. It has its origin in two previous editions of the Latin American Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (CLIHC): In 2003 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and in 2005 in Cuernavaca, Mexico and in 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Following the spirit of these previous editions, we acknowledge that in the HCI field, not only should we reach for technology that can be used and appreciated by the widest range of people, but also for means to promote inter-cultural exchange and cross-fertilization among people with diverse backgrounds and needs. The workshop is open to all topics and disciplines related to HCI.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

· user interface design and evaluation methods

· universal accessibility

· cross-cultural and internationalization issues

· multi-modal interfaces, theoretical & multidisciplinary aspects

· social and cultural issues in HCI

· intelligent user interfaces

· personalization and adaptive interfaces

· end-user programming, multimedia

· virtual reality and games

· online communities and pervasive computing.

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==== TYPE OF SUBMISSIONS ====

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CLIHC will accept submissions in the following categories:

1 Full papers (up to 8 pages submissions) - Full papers are submissions describing results and original research work not submitted or published elsewhere. Full papers should properly place the work within the field, cite related work, and clearly indicate the innovative aspects of the work and its contribution to the field

2 Short papers (up to 4 pages submissions) - Authors are invited to submit work in progress whose preliminary results are already interesting to CLIHC audience. This track will give CLIHC attendees a way to learn about ongoing research initiatives and will provide presenters with an excellent opportunity to receive invaluable direct feedback from experts.

3 Posters - For the first time in the CLIHC conference series, the poster session in CLIHC 2009 will be held simultaneously in real life at the conference and online in Second Life. Authors will present their work and interact with conference attendees and people who could not attend the conference.

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==== IMPORTANT DATES ====

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EXTENDED Submission deadline: Sunday, June 14, 2009

All papers categories submissions: May 30th, 2009

Notification of acceptance: July 10th, 2009

Camera-ready manuscripts due: August 1st, 2009

Conference dates: November 9-11, 2009

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==== SUBMISSION and PUBLICATION ====

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The format of submitted papers must follow the IEEE conference format , including no page numbers. Submitted papers must be in PDF or Word format for Windows. Papers should be submitted through the easychair submission management system: submit the paper (in either PDF or Word (97 - 2007) format). Papers written in english and accepted will be published in the conference proceedings edited by IEEE -both full and short papers. Papers written in Spanish and Portuguese and accepted will be included in the conference proceedings edited by (ISBN book from Universidad Autonoma de Baja California ). Selected papers will also be invited to submit an extended version to a special issue of an international journal to be announced.

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==== COMMITTEE ====

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Conference chair:

Monica Tentori (mtentori@uabc.mx) | (mtentori@gmail.com)

Local chair:

Edgar Cambranes, UADY, Mexico

Program chairs:

Elizabeth S. Furtado (elizabet@unifor.br) and Alberto L. Moran (alberto_moran@uabc.mx) | (amoran2k@gmail.com)

Steering committee:

Alfredo Sanchez, UDLA, Mexico, Oscar Mayora, CreateNet, Italy , Victor M. Gonzalez, University of Manchester, UK, Christian Sturm, Hewlett Packard, España , Manuel Perez-Quiñones, Virginia Tech, Cristina Baranauskas , PUC-RIO

Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology Conference

admin — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:00:46 +0000

Call for Papers & Creative Showcases ======================================================================= ACE 2009: 5th Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology Conference incorporating DIMEA 2009 (4th Digital Interactive Media Entertainment and Arts Conference) Athens, Greece, October 28-30, 2009 http://www.ace-conf.org/ace2009/ ======================================================================= ACE has become the leading academic forum for dissemination of novel research results in the area of entertainment computing. This year for the first time it incorporates DIMEA which has established itself over the last three years as a strong conference on interactive entertainment arts. Together the conference forms an exciting new step blending deeply the latest research in art and technology. The focus of ACE 2009 is to gather researchers from academia and industry -researchers who are working in multi-disciplinary areas within the arts, psychology, computer science, and design- to discuss, present, and demonstrate their new contributions. The goal of ACE is to stimulate discussion in the development and advancement of interactive art and entertainment applications. It, thus, strides to balance several interdisciplinary areas and seeks representation in all these areas, including, but not limited to: Accessibility, Aesthetics, Affective Computing, Ambient Intelligence, Animation Techniques, Attention, Augmented / Mixed Reality, Avatars and Virtual Community, Community, Cultural Computing, Digital Entertainment and Sports, Digital Broadcasting/Podcasting, Digital Cinema, Elderly Entertainment, Empathy, Entertainment Design Theory, Human-Robots Interaction, Robotic Love and Affection, Experience Design, Funology, Graphics Techniques, Interaction Design, Interactive Computer Graphics, Internet Networking Media, Learning and Children, Location-Based Entertainment, Metaverse, Mixed Media, Mobile Entertainment, Multimodal Interaction, Narratives / Digital Storytelling, New Gaming Audiences, Novel interfaces, Pervasive and Online Games, Physical Computing, Simplicity, Situativity, Smart Gadgets and Toys, Social Impact, Social Networking, Sound and Music, Synesthetic Entertainment, Tangible Interfaces, User Interfaces, Visual Effects, Virtual Reality To encourage presentation of such multi-disciplinary work, we invite submissions that fall into the following tracks: [Papers Track] - Full Papers: Original unpublished technical, design, and theory/social impact. Submissions to this track should not exceed 8 pages in ACM format. - Short Papers: Original unpublished technical, design, and theory/social impact. Submissions to this track should not exceed 4 pages in ACM format. The program committee may also suggest submitted long papers be resubmitted as short papers. - Posters: Breakthroughs in technical research, content design, industry applications, and entertainment theories/social impact researches are invited. Submissions to this track should not exceed 2 pages in ACM format. Format instructions are posted on the website. All accepted submissions will be published in conference proceedings. [Creative Showcases] (show cased within three types of spaces: exhibition space, art gallery and gaming exhibit) - Technical demos: prototype demos of advanced entertainment technology - Games, including, but not limited to, experimental games, independent games, games for change, video games, commercial games, casual games, mobile games - Interactive narrative, interactive drama, alternate reality games, and interactive fiction - interactive art installations - web-based computer entertainment - digital audio, visual and other sensory art - Design showcase One page abstracts of all accepted submissions will be published in conference proceedings. Important Dates: Deadline for Full and Short Papers: June 19, 2009 Deadline for Posters and Creative Showcases: June 19, 2009 Notifications of Acceptance: August 21, 2009 Camera Ready Copy: September 18, 2009 Submissions of papers will be online on our conference website using Easy Chair, and should follow the ACM Submission Format. Selected papers will be asked to extend their papers for a Journal Publication: Special Issue of ACM Computers in Entertainment and International Journal on Arts and Technology (IJART) Awards: Best papers and creative showcases will be selected based on a jury of well respected pioneers in the field attending the conference. We honour the authors of these publications by presenting awards including: Paper award categories: Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Creative showcase award categories: Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Organization Committee: Honorary General Chair Ryohei Nakatsu General Co-Chairs Hirokazu Kato, Michael Haller, Thanos Vasilakos Program Co-chairs Bruce Thomas, Yoshifumi Kitamura, Magy Seif El-Nasr (Local) Organizing Co-chairs John N. Karigiannis, Konstantinos Giannakis, Adrian David Cheok Financial Co-Chairs Ivan Boo WWW Administrator Miyuru Dayarathna Demo Co-Chair Maki Sugimoto Art Exhibition Chair Philippe Pasquier Publication Chair Henry Duh Publicity Chair Owen Noel Newton Fernando, Shoichi Hasegawa, Anton Nijholt, Teresa Romao

The Philosophies of Software

admin — Wed, 27 May 2009 02:18:22 +0000

The Philosophies of Software,Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics, IGI Global Press [PDF Excerpt] "Abstract: Software is philosophical. Software is designed by people who have been influenced by a specific understanding of the way objects, people and systems work. These concepts are then transferred to the user, who manipulates that software within the rules set forth by the software developer. The use of these rules by the designer reinforces an understanding of the world that is emphasized by the software they use. The designer then produces works that mimic these same philosophies instead of departing from them. The three axis of these philosophies are analogy, reductivism, and transferred agency. . ." http://www.lgrace.com/documents/Software_Philosophy_Chapter_19_page1.pdf

The Challenge of Enculturation in the Arts

admin — Wed, 27 May 2009 02:18:49 +0000

The Challenge of Enculturation in the Arts,Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics, IGI Global Press [PDf Excerpt] "Abstract: Enculturation is the act of passing cultural ideologies from one person to the other... in the tradition of anthropological and sociological study of existing culture, this chapter seeks to illuminate the distinguishing characteristics of contemporary art production and offer perspective on the critical creative process. It takes new media art as its case study because it serves as a cross-cultural intersection of scientific invention and artistic innovation." http://www.lgrace.com/documents/Enculturation_Chapter_Page_1.pdf

Gotland Game Awards 2009

admin — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:53:52 +0000

The University of Gotland in Sweden is sponsoring the Gotland Game Awards 2009, a student design competition to be held between June 2nd and 3rd, 2009. The event puts 400 local university students in competition to develop the best game in one of several categories. Over 30 games spanning a variety of genres will participate in the contest. Award categories include Best Serious Game, Best Big Game Project and Best In Show. One of this year's competing students, Hakan Mattsson, plans to release his team's entry on Xbox Live this fall. "GGA is the highlight of the year for us students," said Mattsson. "We get the opportunity to meet our future employers and at the same time receiving valuable feedback from some of the best in the business." Finalists will be judged by a jury of representatives from game studios such as GRIN, Starbreeze, Massive Entertainment, and Avalanche. Over 40,000 Euro worth of prizes will be awarded during the event, including an expenses-paid trip to a major German game show, during which the winning team will present its game to attending industry figures.

Academic MindTrek 2009

admin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:06:32 +0000

CALL FOR PAPERS, TUTORIALS, AND WORKSHOPS Academic MindTrek 2009: Everyday Life in the Ubiquitous Era Ambient Media *** Social Media *** Games September 30th – 2nd October, 2009, Tampere, Finland confirmed keynote speakers (more are to come): - Ignacio Correas, CEO, eBox Technologies - Peter Cheng, Open Source Camp, Hihoo.org; - Jani Penttinen, CTO, XIHA - Francesca Rosella, Co-Founder, Cute Circuit EXTENDED Submission Deadlines: - EXTENDED TILL 7th JUNE 2009: submission of tutorial and workshop proposals - EXTENDED TILL 7th JUNE 2009: submissions of long papers (6-8 pages) - 15th June 2009: submission of short papers (3-4 pages) - 30th June 2009: submission of poster presentations (1 page) - 15th June 2009: submissions of workshop papers for accepted papers September 30th is the main Academic day, featuring the following three tracks: * Social Media Social media and Web 2.0 technologies are applied in ever diverse practices both in private and public communities. Traditional communication and expression modalities are challenged and totally new practices are constructed in the collaborative, interactive media space; * Ambient and Ubiquitous Media “The medium is the message!” – This conference track focuses on the definition of ambient and ubiquitous media with a cross-disciplinary viewpoint: ambient media between technology, art, and content. The focus of this track is on applications, theory, art-works, mixed reality concepts, the Web 3.0, and user experiences that make ubiquitous and ambient media tick; * Digital Games Digital play and games are currently undergoing many transformations: gaming devices are becoming truly connected, players are finding more possibilities for collaboration, and simultaneously games are being applied into novel uses and mobile use contexts. In addition, special academic sessions (e.g. tutorials, workshops, and multidisciplinary sessions) will be held on Oct 1st & 2nd, parallel to the MindTrek business conference. Academic speakers and authors are warmly welcome to attend the business conference tracks as part of the academic conference fee during these days as well. The MindTrek Association hosts MindTrek as a yearly conference, where the Academic MindTrek conference has been a part of this unique set of events comprising competitions, world famous keynote speakers, plenary sessions, media festivals, and workshops since 1997. It is a meeting place where experts and thinkers present results from their latest work regarding the development of Internet, interactive media, and the information society. MindTrek brings together researchers and practitioners from diverse disciplines that are involved in the development of media in various fields, ranging from sociology and the economy, to technology. The organizing committee invites you to submit original high quality full papers, long or short, addressing the special theme and the topics, for presentation at the conference and inclusion in the proceedings. We are interested in contributions in the topic areas social media, ambient/ubiquitous media, and games such as: - case-studies (successful, and especially unsuccessful ones) - oral presentation of fresh and innovative ideas - artistic installations and running system prototypes - user-experience studies and evaluations - technological novelties, evaluations, and solutions - scientific, business, or media oriented contributions - proposals for own workshops. Paper Proposals All submissions will be peer-reviewed double blinded, therefore please remove any information that could give an indication of the authorship. The scientific part of the conference is organized in cooperation with ACM SIGMM, and ‘ACM SIGCHI. Conference proceedings will be published in the ACM Digital Library. Selected high quality papers will be published in international journals, as book chapters, edited books, or via open access journals. There will also be a reward for the overall best paper from the academic conference. Workshop Proposals Feel free to suggest workshops which are co-organized with MindTrek 2009. Workshop proposals should include the organizing committee, a 1 page description of the theme of the workshop, a short CV of organizers, duration, the proceedings publisher, and the schedule. Workshop organizers also have the possibility to add publications to the main conference proceedings. Tutorial Proposals Tutorial proposals should include a 2-page description of the tutorial, intended audience, a short CV, timetable, required equipment, references, and a track record of previous tutorials. The target length of tutorials is 2 hours. Submission Deadlines - 15th May 2009: submission of tutorial and workshop proposals - 31st May 2009: submissions of long papers (6-8 pages) - 15th June 2009: submission of short papers (3-4 pages) - 30th June 2009: submission of poster presentations (1 page) - 15th July 2009: submission of workshop papers for accepted workshops Key-Dates - 25th May 2009: notification of acceptance/rejection of workshop and tutorial proposals - 15th July 2009: notification of acceptance/rejection for long and short papers - 10th August 2009: camera ready papers, copyright forms, and conference registration - 30th September – 2nd October 2009 MindTrek academic conference Conference Themes 1. Social Media - business models, service models, and policies - questions related to identity, motivation and values - blogs, wikis, collaboration and social platform designs in practice - user-created content and social networks - mashups - enterprise 2.0 and social computing in work organizations - evaluation and research methods of social media - ‘old’ and ‘new’ social media - social media and community design 2. Ambient and Ubiquitous Media - between Technology, Services, and Art - applications and services utilizing ubiquitous and pervasive technology - ubicom in eLearning, leisure, storytelling, art works, advertising, and mixed reality contexts - next generation user interfaces, ergonomics, multimodality, and human-computer interaction - art works for smart public or indoor spaces, mobile phones, museums, or cultural applications - context awareness, sensor perception, context sensitive internet, and smart daily objects - personalization, multimodal interaction, smart user interfaces, and ergonomics - ambient human computer interaction, experience design, usability, and audience research - software, hardware, middleware, and technologies for pervasive and ubiquitous - theoretical methods and algorithms in ubiquitous and ambient systems - business models, service models, media economics, regulations, x-commerce, and policies 3. Digital Games - theoretical and analytical studies of games and play - game design research - playful experiences in and around games: social play and funware - non-entertainment uses for games: serious games, persuasive games - games as services: new business models, service models - games and user-created content - pervasive and ubiquitous gaming - online, mobile, casual and cross-media gaming Paper Submission - Please follow the style guidelines on http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates for formatting your position paper and final paper. - Note that since the papers will be published by ACM, all authors need to sign an ACM copyright form. (For further guidelines see: http://www.acm.org/pubs/copyright_form.html) Submit papers here www.mindtrek.org/cfp Organizing Committee Artur Lugmayr (General Chair) Heljä Franssila, Olli Sotamaa, Jukka Vanhala (Conference Co-chairs) Pertti Näränen (Workshop and Tutorial Chair) Karen Thorburn (Local Arrangements Chair) Programme Committee Pradeep K.Atrey, The University of Winnipeg, CANADA Staffan Björk, Chalmers University of Technology, SWEDEN Irek Defee, Tampere University of Technology (TUT), FINLAND Nicole Ellison, Michigan State University, USA Jussi Holopainen, Nokia, FINLAND Abdelmagid Salem Hammuda, Qatar University, QATAR Sal Humphreys, Queensland University of Technology, (QUT), AUSTRALIA Aki Järvinen, IT University of Copenhagen, DENMARK Juha Kaario, NOKIA, FINLAND Jan Kallenbach, Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), FINLAND Jonas Kronlund, ELISA, FINLAND Kai Kuikkaniemi, HIIT - Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, FINLAND Cai Melakoski, TAMK University of Applied Sciences, FINLAND Frans Mäyrä, University of Tampere (UTA), FINLAND Marko Nieminen, Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), FINLAND Marianna Obrist, ICT & S Centre, University of Salzburg, AUSTRIA Hannu Paunonen, Metso Automation, FINLAND Matthias Rauterberg, Eindhoven University of Technology, NETHERLANDS Calin Rusu, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA Antti Salovaara, Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT), FINLAND Kirsi Silius, Tampere University of Technology (TUT), FINLAND Manfred Tscheligi, ICT & S Centre, University of Salzburg, AUSTRIA Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, Tampere University of Technology (TUT), Finland Annika Waern, Swedish Institute of Computer Science, SWEDEN Karsten D.Wolf, University of Bremen, GERMANY Zhiwen Yu, Kyoto University, JAPAN Contact Questions concerning academic content, papers, tutorials, workshops, scientific contributions: Email: academic.chairs (at) mindtrek.org General questions concerning payments, administration, copyright forms, local arrangements, and the venue: Email: academic.info (at) mindtrek.org Submit papers here www.mindtrek.org/cfp

Virtual Worlds Workshop

admin — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:47:24 +0000

The Virtual Worlds Workshop is an intensive, hands-on week of learning and applying the principles of virtual world construction for business, the classroom and research. Limited to an exclusive 24 spots, attendees from academia, government, business, and the non-profit sectors will collaborate on the creation of proposals tailored to fast-track virtual world technology in their home organizations, to enhance internal and external communications, engage participants, support organizational learning and culture, and create dynamic environments for research in all industries. http://vw2.indiana.edu/

Interesting Read?

admin — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:49:32 +0000

A forthcoming book about using games to change the way people think: http://www.amazon.com/Games-Work-Virtual-Changing-Businesses/dp/142214657X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233342623&sr=8-1 About the book: Can the workplace be more productive by including avatars, three-dimensional environments, and participant-driven outcomes? This grounded and thought-provoking book by Byron Reeves and Leighton Read proves that it is not only possible, it is inevitable. Implementing components of multiplayer computer games in the workplace will address a host of age-old problems. Games can not only stem boredom and decrease turnover, but also enhance collaboration and encourage creative leadership. Games require extraordinary teamwork, elaborate data analysis and strategy, recruitment and retention of top players, and quick decision making. Recreating some elements of games - such as positioning tasks within stories, creating internal economies, and implementing participant-driven communication systems - can not only boost employee engagement but overall productivity. Of course, the strong psychological power of games can have both positive and negative consequences for the workplace. That's why it's important to put them into practice correctly from the beginning and Reeves and Read explain how by showing which good design principles are a powerful antidote to the addictive and stress-inducing potential of games. Supported by specific case studies and years of research, "Games at Work" will completely change the way you view both work and play.

Game Course Resources: IGDA

admin — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:47:13 +0000

A link to the courses section of IGDA ed sig's wiki. I had almost forgotten about this, but it is handy for people evaluating their current courses, assessing program outcomes, or doing a general survey of game related courses. Very cool: http://www.igda.org/wiki/Category:Courses

Toon Boom Studios Event

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:40:31 +0000

Toon Boom CEO Joan Vogelesang and CTO Francisco Del Cueto will be presenting “More for Less”. As the animation software global leader, Toon Boom is well placed within the animation network.

Come and learn about the current state of the worldwide animation industry and find out directly how you can access our global corporate network. The best animation talent lies right here in North America ! Let us examine together how we can maximise your potential through Animate.

Francisco will demonstrate why Animate is quickly being recognized as the tool of choice by animators and studios around the world.

Exclusive $399.99 Animate vouchers for attendees. Appetizers and drinks will be served.

Attendance prize: one copy of Toon Boom Animate.

JUNE 17th- Chicago , IL

Location: Chicago Mart Plaza , The LaSalle Room – 15th Floor

Address: 350 North Orleans Street , Chicago , IL , 60654

Time: 6:30-900 pm

Pre-register at: http://toonboom.makeswebsites.com/

(click on RSVP)

Illinois Institute of Art Student Work

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:32:02 +0000

I posted some updates to my Illinois Institute of Art student website and added a few student portfolios in my former student collection. The quality of some of the work is increasing. I was also very happy with the quarter’s student games from my programming for the artist class:

http://aii.lgrace.com/GADGAMES/

Gallery of Student Work

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:33:14 +0000

Illinois Institute of Art Gallery of Student Work: Students of Lindsay Grace
Video Game Design: A gallery of work created by my students in video game prototyping (GAD420 and GAD440) Students develop games from concept to implementation in 22 weeks, teams of 8-16 Sample Paper Prototypes
Video Game Design and Programming: A gallery of work created by my students in Game Programming (GAD415) Students develop a game from concept to implementation in 8 weeks, teams of 3. Course Sites: Spring 2009 Student Games \| Course Site Fall 2008 Summer 2008 Spring 2008 Winter 2008 Fall 2007 Summer 2007 Spring 2007 Winter 2007

Graphic Design and Web Design: A gallery of work created between 2003 and 2006 in my Web Scripting (IMD215) and Advanced Web Scripting (IMD300) courses. Students design, develop and publish functional websites in 5 weeks (Dreamweaver, PhP, CSS, Javascript) The course sites: Fall 2007: Web Scripting (IMD215) Summer 2007: Web Scripting (IMD215) Spring 2007 :Web Scripting (IMD215) Winter 2007: Advanced Web Scripting (IMD330) Fall 2006: Web Scripting (IMD215) Summer 2006: Web Scripting (IMD215) Summer 2006: Advanced Web Scripting (IMD330) Spring 2006: Web Scripting (IMD215) Winter 2006: Advanced Web Scripting (IMD330) Summer 2005: Advanced Web Scripting (IMD330) Winter 2005: Advanced Web Scripting (IMD330) Fall 2004: Advanced Web Scripting (IMD330) Summer 2004: Advanced Web Scripting (IMD330) Spring 2004: Advanced Web Scripting (IMD330) Winter 2004: Advanced Web Scripting (IMD330) Fall 2003: Advanced Web Scripting (IMD330)


Student and Alumni Samples: Portfolios
	The following portfolios were created by current and former students of mine. These students demonstrate the highest quality of interactive design and art skills. Although I may have had these students in a few courses, the success of these portfolios and their careers is the product of the student's innate skill, motivation and hard work. In teaching these students, I have simply had the honor of offering them my professional advice and guidance. Although I have between 40-85 students per quarter, these students demonstrate an affinity to the design values I teach or they deserve accolades for their hard work in school and in the industry. An asterisk () denotes students I helped mentor through the portfolio design process. I apologize if some of the links do not work, these are direct links to the student's own site.*
	Portfolio Web Sites
		M. Childs::. Interactive Design 2009 .:: http://www.mikejchilds.com/
		A. Staley::. Game Art and Design 2009 .:: http://enderstaleyart.com/

		J. Domanus::. Interactive Design 2006 .:: http://www.domanusdesign.com/gamma/
		Anne Farichai::. Interactive Design 2006 .:: http://www.gibbon-design.com/
		Flori Hung* ::. Interactive Design 2005 .:: http://www.florihung.com/
		Robert Jones* ::. Interactive Design 2005 .:: http://www.dravion.com/
		Sean Sands ::. Interactive Design 2005 .:: http://www.instruktlab.com/
		Hye Sun Lee* ::.Interactive Design 2004 .:: http://www.helziny.com/
		Reid Paxson* ::. Intearactive Design 2004 .:: http://www.planetpaxson.com/
		Miriam Swain ::. Interactive Design 2004 .:: http://www.byrdaffect.com/

		M. Hoefener ::. Game Art and Design .:: (http://www.raingate.net/)

	Demo Reels
	The following student demonstration reels are representative of the standard for Game Art and Design work created by our students in the program. Each student seeks to demonstrate their primary skills in a 1-2 demo reel.
		S. Boguslavskyi::. Game Art and Design 2008 .:: (download 44mb .mov demo reel)
		K. Delos Angeles::. Game Art and Design 2008 .:: (view hosted demo reel)
		Z.Ozturk ::. Game Art and Design 2008 .:: (view You Tube demo reel)
		M. Skirucha:::. Game Art and Design 2008 .:: (download 44mb .mov demo reel)
	The following samples were created by students in my courses. These are examples of 1 - 3 week assignments provided by students to satisfy course requirements. All such work is hosted on the Illinois Institute of Art's servers.

Sample Work from Classroom Assignments
	The following links are provided as evidence of small projects completed by my students in less than a 5 weeks.
		Web Sites and Interactive Media (2003-2005): Interactive versions of a few websites my students completed as midterm projects in IMD215 and IMD330/350/380.
		Art Work (2004): Sketches completed by students in my scriptwriting for games course or Survey of Design and Media Arts course (1 week assignments).
		Animation (2003-2005): Animations completed by one of my favorite assignments from my Survey of Design and Media Arts course. After I lecture on the history and techniques of traditional and digital animation I ask the students to create an animation in teams of 4. They have 1 week to animation, and most have never animated before the assignment.

Interesting Read: Creating Games

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:37:01 +0000

There is a book extract available on one of the CMP sites on design docs and related content: " The design document describes the development team's shared vision for all aspects of the game and the development process. It is considered a working document because it is continually revised, based on feedback and experience. The team begins writing the design document before the game, but the document is not finished until the game itself is finished . . ."

Cooler Read

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:41:43 +0000

Here's a read from Johnny Wilson, another faculty member at the Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago. His history with the game industry is wonderful, it's great to be teaching "near" him.

Programming Gems CFP

admin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:32:32 +0000

Charles River Media, an imprint of Cengage Learning, is currently accepting papers for Game Programming Gems 8. The sections in this edition include: Graphics, General Programming, Math, Physics, Animation, AI, Audio, and Networking. We are accepting papers now through the end of July. You can submit your articles/ideas at www.gameprogramminggems.com. We are looking forward to another fantastic addition to the popular Gems series!

E-Learn 2009

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:46:11 +0000

E-Learn 2009 World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education October 26-30, 2009 * Vancouver, BC Canada (Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre) FINAL CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ** Submission Deadline: September 8, 2009 ** Organized by: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) (http://www.aace.org) Co-sponsored by: International Journal on E-Learning (http://www.aace.org/pubs/IJEL) ______________________________________________________________ "The International Forum for Researchers, Developers, and Practitioners to Learn about the Best Practices/Technology in Education, Government, Healthcare, and Business" ** What are your colleagues saying about E-Learn conferences? ** http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/testimonials.htm COLOR POSTER--E-Learn 2008 CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Available to Print & Distribute (PDF to print; 200kb) http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/EL09poster.pdf >> CONTENTS & LINKS (details below) << 1. Submission Information, Deadline Sept. 8: Call for Presentations: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/call.htm Submission Guide: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/submitguide.htm Presenter Guide: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/PresenterLounge 2. Major Topics: www.aace.org/conf/elearn/topics.htm 3. Presentation Categories: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/categories.htm 4. Products/Services Showcases & Presentations: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/corporate.htm 5. Proceedings & Paper Awards: http://www.aace.org/pubs 6. For Budgeting Purposes: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/rates.htm 7. Vancouver. Canada: http://www.aace.org/conf/cities/vancouver.htm 8. Deadlines: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/deadlines.htm INTRODUCTION More info: http://www.aace.org/conf/eLearn/Intro.htm E-Learn, the premiere international, non-commercial conference in the field, spans all disciplines and levels of education and attracts more than 1,000 attendees from over 60 countries. We invite you to attend E-Learn and submit proposals for presentations. INVITATION: This Final Call for Participation is offered for those who were: - unable to meet the first deadline for submissions in April, or - were not ready to present a finished paper or project, or - have a work-in-progress topic to present, and - do not yet have a proposal accepted for presentation. All presentation proposals are reviewed by three of the respected, international Executive Advisory Board (http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/exec.htm) and Program Committee, based on merit and the perceived value for attendees. Accepted presentations are included in the conference program, Proceedings (book and CD-ROM formats) and the digital library, EdITLib--Education and Information Library, http://www.EdITLib.org/ We invite you to attend the E-Learn Conference and submit proposals for these presentation categories: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/categories.htm E-LEARN IS UNIQUE AND A MUST TO ATTEND: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/unique.htm http://www.aace.org/conf/eLearn/MustAttend.htm E-Learn is an innovative collaboration between the top public and private academic researchers, developers, education and business professionals, and end users from the Corporate, Healthcare, Government, and Higher Education sectors offering a unique international forum to discuss the latest issues, strategies, applications, development, and research, to explore new technologies, and to identify solutions for today's challenges related to online learning. E-Learn is THE essential resource to make international connections for collaboration with others who may share similar problems as well as those offering solutions. E-LEARN KEY FEATURES More info: http://www.aace.org/conf/eLearn/KeyFeatures.htm The E-Learn Conference offers attendees a complete educational experience, with opportunities for collaboration and networking among leaders and peers working to make effective e-learning a reality. E-Learn offers varied sessions designed to produce effective results for all types of learning styles. From pre-conference tutorials to paper presentations to informal discussions, and more than 600 concurrent sessions, you are given the content you need by knowledgeable presenters and peers--all in one conference! PROGRAM ACTIVITIES: * Keynote Speakers * Invited Panels/Speakers * Papers * Best Practice Sessions * Roundtables * Demonstrations/Posters * Research/Technical Showcases * Products/Services Showcases * Tutorials/Workshops SUBMISSION INFORMATION: - For Call for Presentations: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/call.htm - Submission guidelines and Web form: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/submitguide.htm - For Presentation and AV Guidelines: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/PresenterLounge TOPICS: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/topics.htm The scope of the conference includes, but is not limited to, the following topics as they relate to the e-Learning and the technologies supporting e-Learning. 1. Sectors or Application Domains: General & Cross-Domain Corporate Government Health Care Higher Education Informal Learning (Museums, Communities, Homes) K-12 Military Training Professional Associations & Non-Profits 2. Major Topics relating to or technologically supporting E-Learning: Content Development Evaluation Implementation Examples and Issues Instructional Design Policy Issues Research Social and Cultural Issues Standards and Interoperability Tools and Systems PRESENTATION CATEGORIES: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/categories.htm The Technical Program includes a wide range of interesting and useful activities designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information. PRODUCTS/SERVICES SHOWCASES & PRESENTATIONS: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/corporate.htm Organizations have the opportunity to demonstrate and discuss their e-learning related products and services in through Products/Services Showcases & Presentations. PROCEEDINGS & PAPER AWARDS: http://www.aace.org/pubs Accepted papers will be published by AACE in the Proceedings Book and on CD-ROM. Proceedings in this series serve as major resources in the multimedia/ hypermedia/telecommunications community, reflecting the current state of the art in the discipline. In addition, the Proceedings also are internationally distributed through and archived in EdITLib-- Education and Information Library, http://www.EdITLib.org/ Selected papers may be invited for publication in may be invited for publication in AACE's respected journals especially in the - International Journal on E-Learning (IJEJ), - Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia (JEMH), or - Journal of Interactive Learning Research (JILR). All presented papers will be considered for Outstanding Paper Awards within several categories. Award winning papers may be invited for publication in the AACE journals. FOR BUDGETING PURPOSES: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/rates.htm The conference registration fee for all presenters and participants will be approximately $395 U.S. (AACE members), $465 U.S. (non-members). Registration includes proceedings on CD, receptions, and all sessions except tutorials. The conference dinner (if offered) will be an extra fee. All conference sessions will be held at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre ( http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/hotel.htm) located in the heart of Vancouver shopping, dining, and attractions. Special discount hotel have been obtained for E-Learn participants at $146 (single/double). VANCOUVER, CANADA: Experience the Shows, Dining, Shopping, Attractions, & Tours! http://www.aace.org/conf/cities/Vancouver/ DEADLINES: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/deadlines.htm Submissions Due: April 29, 2009 Authors Notified: May 29, 2009 Proceedings File Due: Sept. 25, 2009 Early Registration: Sept. 25, 2009 Conference: Oct. 26-30, 2009 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To be added to the mailing list for this conference, link to http://www.aace.org/info.htm AACE Blog: http://blogs.aace.org/aace E-Learn Blog: http://blogs.aace.org/elearn If you have a question about E-Learn, please send an e-mail to AACE Conference Services, conf@aace.org Contact: AACE--Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education P.O. Box 1545 Chesapeake, Virginia 23327 USA Phone: 757-366-5606 * Fax: 703-997-8760 E-mail: conf@aace.org * http://www.AACE.org

IGDA Chicago Game Demo Night!

admin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:07:39 +0000

Tuesday, June 30^th for our first ever IGDA Chicago Demo night! Demo night provides local game developers with an opportunity to present work-in-progress or recently completed projects to an audience of their peers.

We have already lined up some great things to show you, like Robomodo’s Tony Hawk: The Ride and Vogster’s Robocalypse: Beaver Defense…. and are looking for more entries!

Demo nights have been hugely successful at other IGDA chapters and if feedback is positive we can potentially have this as an ongoing event. If you think you might have something to show, please contact us as soon as possible since space is limited.

Thank you to Flashpoint Academy (www.flashpointacademy.com) for graciously offering to host this event.

MEETING DETAILS: When: Tuesday, June 30th, Doors open at 6:30 PM, Presentation starts at 7 PM. Where: Flashpoint Academy, 28 N. Clark, Chicago, IL 60602. Flashpoint Academy is near the intersection of Clark & Washington and is very close to all major el lines in Chicago. The closest parking facility is near the intersection of Washington & Wells. Cost: $5 non-members, $0 IGDA members and Flashpoint Academy Students. Light snacks and refreshments provided

RSVP: Space is limited to the first 150 guests. Please RSVP to igdachicago@gmail.com.

Here’s how it works – each presenter will have 5-10 minutes (depending on the number of entries) to show whatever it is they are working on. This can be a finished project, or any game project past alpha. It would be great to see games across all types of genres, i.e. casual, iphone/mobile, console – all are welcome.

Computer Game Education Review

admin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:44:18 +0000

CALL FOR PAPERS The Computer Game Education Review (CGER) CGER will be a peer-reviewed academic publication addressing issues that concern the teaching of game design and development including, but not limited to, curriculum organization, teaching techniques (e.g., conceptual vs. exemplary), game typology, societal impact, economic and commercial issues, legal aspects, and student evaluation that are of interest to faculty and institutions involved in the education and training of future game developers. CGER will: • publish original research, • summarize the research of the past year in survey articles, • provide analyses from noted experts, and • include complete bibliographies drawn from the key journals and conference proceedings of the field. The goal is to create a tool that will facilitate scrupulous computer game education research and provide a research compass to the community at large. Our plan is to publish the first issue for release at the Game Developers Conference in 2010. We are accepting submissions to CGER. Submissions for the first issue will close on December 1st, 2009. Authors will be notified of their submission status by January 1, 2010 with revisions (if any) due by February 1, 2010. While our initial plan for CGER is as an annual publication, we are considering a more frequent publication schedule depending on the level and quality of submissions. Submissions Submit your paper electronically at http://journaltool.akpeters.com.

3rd European Conference on Ambient Intelligence

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:43:13 +0000

With the release of Project Natal in the near future, this conference seems very timely: 3rd European Conference on Ambient Intelligence AmI-09: Roots for the Future of Ambient Intelligence November 18th-21st, Salzburg, Austria http://www.ami-09.org 4th Call for Contributions AmI-09 will bring keynotes, technical papers, workshops, industrial case studies, posters & demos and panels. As new categories this year we feature landscapes and ambient visions to review the current status and to look into the next decade of Ambient Intelligence. Prof. Emile Aarts (Philips Research) has agreed to be one of the AmI-09 keynote speakers. AmI-09 will feature a 10 years anniversary since the term Ambient Intelligence started to fly around. We explicitly intend to look back what has been achieved, review existing solutions and identify what will come. The conference should provide a forum to establish new roads for the future of Ambient Intelligence. We are working on special issues in dedicated ambient intelligence related journals for selected papers from the conference which will be invited to be published in an extended version after the conference. Please visit the website for updated information on this. Important Dates: Papers: June 22nd, 2009 (extended) Short Papers: June 30th , 2009 (extended) Posters & Demos: June 30th , 2009 (extended) Landscapes: June 30th, 2009 (extended) Industrial Case Studies: Oct 5th, 2009 Visions: Oct 5th, 2009 Please visit the conference website for more details on each submission category and potential conference topics: http://www.ami-09.org. Conference Committee: Manfred Tscheligi, Boris de Ruyter (Conference Co-Chairs & Paper Co-Chairs) Panos Markopoulos, Reiner Wichert (Short Paper Co-Chairs) John Soldatos, Alexander Meschtscherjakov (Poster & Demo Co-Chairs) Emile Aarts, Albrecht Schmidt (Visions Co-Chairs) Cristina Buiza, Wolfgang Reitberger (Workshops Co-Chairs) Maddy Janse, Marianna Obrist (Industrial Case Study Co-Chairs) Norbert Streitz (Landscapes Chair) The conference is hosted and organized at the University of Salzburg, HCI & Usability Unit, ICT&S Center. For up to date information and further details please visit: http://www.ami-09.org We are looking forward to your contributions! Manfred Tscheligi Boris de Ruyter

International Conference on Computer Games

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:31:00 +0000

The International Conference on Computer Games: AI, Animation, Mobile, Interactive Multimedia, Educational & Serious Games organised by The University of Wolverhampton, England, is one of the leading research conferences devoted to the advancement of the theory and practice of games development. It brings together an international community of experts to discuss the state of the art, new research results, perspectives of future developments and innovative applications relevant to games development and related areas. We are proud to announce that this years conference is sponsored by the University of Wolverhampton. The most recent conference, CGAMES09 was held at the Galt House Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. More information about other conferences can be found at CGAMES Main Website We are delighted to announce that the 15th Conference will take place in the University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain. Alicante is the capital of the province of Alicante, in the southern part of the Valencian Community. Amongst the most notable features of the city are the Castle of Santa Bárbara, which sits high above the city, and the port of Alicante The conference is sponsored by the Society for Computer Simulation (SCS), the Institute Electrical Engineers (IEE), the British Computer Society (BCS), the Digital Games Research Association (DIGRA) and The International Journal of Intelligent Games and Simulation. On behalf of our conference sponsors and the conference organising committee, we hope that you will plan to join us in Alicante in November 2009.

Contacts

General Conference Chair: Qasim Mehdi (University of Wolverhampton) q.h.mehdi@wlv.ac.uk Local Organisation Chair: Francisco Gallego Durán (University of Alicante) fgallego@dccia.ua.es Local Organisation Chair: Faraón LLorens Largo (University of Alicante) faraon.llorens@ua.es

Educational Games Conferences

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:46:15 +0000

A few Educational Games Conferences from 2009:

Games for Health:

http://www.gamesforhealth.org/

TEACHING AND LEARNING WITH TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE http://www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/conference/

IEEE Consumer Electronics Society's Games Innovation Conference

http://ice-gic.ieee-cesoc.org/cfp.html

LA Games Conference:

http://www.lagamesconference.com/sponsors09.shtml

Second Workshop on Story-Telling and Educational Games

http://www.prolearn-academy.org/Events/steg09

Game Conferences Part II

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:10:57 +0000

A great calendar of Game related conferences: http://www.digra.org/events And one I wish I didn't miss: We hereby invite scholars in any field who take a professional interest in the phenomenon of computer games to submit papers to the international conference “The Philosophy of Computer Games 2009″, to be held in Oslo, Norway, on August 13-15, 2009. Accepted papers will have a clear focus on philosophy and philosophical issues in relation to computer games. They will also attempt to use specific examples rather than merely invoke “computer games” in general terms. We invite submissions focusing on, but not limited to, the following three headings:

Fictionality and Interaction
Defining Computer Games
Ethical and Political Issues

http://gamephilosophy.org/

ACHI - Conferences on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions

admin — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:49:49 +0000

CALL FOR PAPERS, TUTORIALS, PANELS ACHI 2010: The Third International Conferences on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions February 10-15, 2010 - St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles General page: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2010/ACHI10.html Call for Papers: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2010/CfPACHI10.html Submission deadline: September 10, 2009 Sponsored by IARIA, www.iaria.org Extended versions of selected papers will be published in IARIA Journals: http://www.iariajournals.org Please note the Poster Forum and Work in Progress options. The topics suggested by the conference can be discussed in term of concepts, state of the art, research, standards, implementations, running experiments, applications, and industrial case studies. Authors are invited to submit complete unpublished papers, which are not under review in any other conference or journal in the following, but not limited to, topic areas. All tracks are open to both research and industry contributions, in terms of Regular papers, Posters, Work in progress, Technical/marketing/business presentations, Demos, Tutorials, and Panels. Before submission, please check and conform with the Editorial rules: http://www.iaria.org/editorialrules.html ACHI 2010 Tracks (tracks' topics and submission details: see CfP on the site) INTER: Interfaces Graphical user interfaces; Intelligent user interfaces; Adaptive user interfaces; Multi-modal user interfaces; Context-based interfaces; Virtual reality and 3D interfaces; Speech and natural language interfaces; Interfaces for collaborative systems; Interfaces for restricted environments; Internationalization and reflections of culture on interface design; Interfaces for disadvantaged users; Interface specification and design; Interface prototyping; Interface testing; Interface evaluation; Interface generators and other tools for developing interfaces; Data visualization; Visualization techniques; Interactive visualization OUI: Organic user interfaces Interface-oriented materials and devices; Physical and digital representation; Sensing and display technologies; Rollable and foldable displays with tactile properties; Skin-based input; Analog input interaction design; Flexible display technologies; Functional-based display forms; Flexible-computing and curve computer interactions; 3D continuous display interfaces HAPTIC: Haptic interfaces Fundamental of haptic interactions; Tangible user interfaces; Bidirectional information flow ; Haptography; Haptic feedback and control; Bodyware (embedded sensors; flexible structures, associative memories, actuation and power systems); Magnetic levitation haptic interfaces; Kinetic motion-based interaction; Kinetic motion and haptic design; Mindware (learning, adaptation, head-hand coordination, bimanual coordination; discovering affordance, interaction and imitation); Language of motion / Gesture annotation; Interfaces with kinetic properties; Sensor actuator design, development and evaluation; Linear haptic display; Fingertip haptic display; Pen based force display; High bandwidth force display; Quality of experience model for haptic interactions; Haptics rendering; SYSTEMS: Interactive systems Highly interactive systems; Intelligent agents and systems; Adaptive systems; Context-aware systems; Multi-user multi-interface systems; Collaborative systems; Computer-supported cooperative work; Distributed information spaces; Communicators and advisory systems; Interaction through wireless communication networks DEVICES: Interaction devices General input and output devices; Virtual reality input and output devices; Interaction devices for immersive environments; Shareable devices and services; Mobile devices and services; Pervasive devices and services; Small displays; Very large displays; Tangible user interfaces; Wearable computing; Interaction devices for disadvantaged users; Interaction devices for computer games DESIGN & EVAL: Interaction & interface design & evaluation Interface metaphors; Interaction styles; Interaction paradigms; Requirements specification methods and tools; Analysis methods and tools; Design methods and tools; Evaluation paradigms; Evaluation methods and tools; Evaluation frameworks; Scenarios; Task analysis; Conceptual design; Physical design; Information architecture; Information design for websites; Guidelines and heuristics; Experience design; Environmental design; Ethnography; Contextual design; Service design; MODELS: Principles, theories, and models Cognitive models; Conceptual models; Mental models; Frameworks for cognition; Model-based design of interactive systems; Formal methods in human-computer interaction USER: User modeling and user focus Usability and user experience goals; User testing; User modeling; User profiling; Predictive models (e.g., for user delay prediction); Human perceptible thresholds; User support systems; Psychological foundations for designing interactive system; Human information processing; Digital human modeling; Engineering psychology; Ergonomics; Hearing and haptics; Affective computing PARADIGMS: Traditional and emerging paradigms Interaction paradigms; Mobile computing; Wearable computing; Location-aware computing; Context-aware computing; Ubiquitous computing; Pervasive computing; Transparent computing; Attentive environments; Virtual reality; Augmented reality and tangible bits; Immersive environments; Human-based computation; Visual languages and environments; End-user programming; Hypermedia advances and applications; New visions of human-computer interaction ACCESS: Usability and universal accessibility Interaction and interface design for people with disabilities; Interaction and interface design for the young and the elderly; Universal access and usability; Usability engineering; Usability testing and evaluation; Usability and internationalization HUM-ROBOTS: Human-robot interaction Fundamentals of human-robot cooperation; Cognitive models of human-robot interaction; Adaptable autonomy and knowledge exchange; Autonomy and trust; Awareness and monitoring of humans; Task allocation and coordination; Human guided robot learning; User evaluations of robot performance; Metrics for human-robot interaction; Long-term interaction robotics; Health and personal care robotics; Social Robotics; Multi-modal human-robot communication; Robot intermediaries; Experiments and applications HUM- AGENTS: Agents and human interaction Principles of agent-to-human interaction; Models for human-agent interaction; Social persuasion in human-agent interaction; Designing for human-agent interaction; Socially intelligent agents and the human in the loop; Agents for human-human interaction; Agent-based human-computer-interaction; Human cooperation and agent-based interaction; Human interaction with autonomous agents Agent-based human-robot interaction; Human and artificial agents emotional interaction SOCIAL: Social aspects of human-computer interaction Societal implications of human-computer interactions; Social computing and software Online communities Weblogs and other community building tools Online support for discovery and creativity; Tool support for discovery and innovation Expressive and attentive interfaces and environments Affective aspects of human-computer interaction Emotional design GAMES: Computer games and gaming Computer game technology; Computer game engineering; Foundations of computer game design and development; Development processes and supporting tools; Management aspects of computer game development; Architectures and frameworks for computer games; Game-based training and simulation; Serious games; Multi-user games; Online games; Online gaming; Game theories; Audio, video and text in digital games; New computer games and case studies; Performance improvements in computer games; Social impact of games and gaming EDUCATION: Human-computer interaction in education and training Interactive systems for education and training; Online and communications support for education and training; Interfaces, interactions and systems for distance education; Software tools for courseware development and delivery; Collaborative systems for teaching, studying and learning; Handheld mobile devices for education and training; Advisory and recommendation systems Techniques and tools for information localization, retrieval & storage; Web annotation systems; Case studies and applications MED APPS: Applications in medicine Interactive systems for medical applications; Interactive systems for telemedicine; Interactive systems for telehealth; Interactive systems for telepathology; Interactive systems for telecardiology; Interactive systems for telesurgery; Interactive personal medical devices; Digital imagery and visualization frameworks; Role of colors and color imaging in medicine; Multidimensional projections with application to medicine; Data mining and image retrieval techniques for medical applications; Imaging interfaces and navigation; Internet imaging localization, retrieval and archiving; Video techniques for medical images; Internet support for remote medicine; Computer-controlled communications for medical applications; Medical informatics; Software and devices for patient monitoring; Interactive software for therapy and recovery TELECONF: Teleconferencing Fundamentals for teleconferencing; Platforms for teleconferencing; Devices for teleconferencing; Videoconferencing, Web Conferencing; Performance in teleconference applications; Real-time aspects in teleconferencing; Privacy and security in teleconference applications; QoS/SLA for teleconferencing applications; Teleconferencing services; Business models for teleconferencing APPLICATIONS: Other domain applications Interactive interfaces and systems for scientific applications; Interactive interfaces and systems for engineering applications; Interactive interfaces and systems for business applications; Interactive interfaces and systems for activities in arts & humanities; Interactive interfaces and systems for scientific research; Other applications of interactive interfaces and systems

Mindtrek Ubimedia Call

admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:02:43 +0000

The purpose of the competition is to encourage makers of digital media to generate ideas and develop new and innovative ubimedia products & services. The entries are expected to take a stand on the following questions, for example: * How does ubiquitous computing affect media environments? * What are intelligent media environments like? * What will the location- and context-aware media services of the future be like? A few other examples are: * Pervasive and ubiquitous games * Ambient installations * Artistic works related to ubiquitous media and computation * Business models * Ambient and ubiquitous media technology * Ubiquitous and ambient media services, devices, and environments * Context aware, sensing, and interfaces for ubiquitous computation * Ergonomics, human-computer interaction designs, and product prototypes * Software, hardware and middleware framework demonstrations * Ambient television * etc. The total award sum for the Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Award is 7 000€. The sum can be awarded to one entry, divided between several entries or not awarded at all if the award criteria set by the jury are not fulfilled. All ubimedia, ubiquitous, pervasive, or ambient products or product and service concepts which have been finalized during the previous year after 1st January 2008 are eligible to take part in the competition. Competition deadline is August 7th How to participate? Please check out the website http://mindtrek.org/ubimedia for entry forms and actual information. In case of questions, please contact: ubiaward (AT) mindtrek.org Rules of the Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards 1. Organizers The Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Award is a category of the 2009 MindTrek competition. The category is organized collaboratively by MindTrek, Tampere Region Centre of Expertise in Ubiquitous Computing, New Ambient Multimedia Group (NAMU)/Tampere University of Technology, the TAMK University of Applied Sciences, and Nokia. The award is funded by Nokia and the Tampere Region Centre of Expertise in Ubiquitous Computing. 2. Products qualifying for participation All Ubimedia products or product and service concepts which have been finalized during the previous year after 1st January 2008 are eligible to take part in the competition. An example of a suitable competition entry is a finished product, product pilot or demo. No drafts or mere ideas without relevant documentation will be accepted. The competition rules do not place limitations on the technology used in the products. The jury has the right to reject the participation of an entry if it does not fulfil the participation criteria. All jury decisions are final. 3. Entry Submissions For completing a successful submission, the following information is required from your side: * filled application form; * video documenting the submission (approx. 3-5 minutes, also longer will be accepted); * documentation of the concept; A demonstration, production, pilot, or demo is eligible to be submitted to the competition. Each entry should be in form of a video documenting the submission (approx. 3-5 minutes, however also longer videos will be accepted). The video should clearly indicate how the demonstration, production pilot, or demonstration works and relates to ubiquitous media. In addition to the video, a short English-language based description of the concept should be attached to the competition entry in form of e.g. sketches, images, power points, word documents, or implementations. The description should present the key characteristics and benefits of the product or service in a concise and marketing-oriented manner. In addition, also other materials supporting the jury in their decision (e.g. sketches, images, power points, word documents, implementations) can be attached to the competition entry. However, the jury decision will primarily be based on the video submissions, and additional materials will be used in case of further questions. We welcome also links to project homepages, but the jury decision can only base the decision on submitted materials. 4. Participation Registration for the competition ends on 7th August 2009 at 15:00 (+2 GMT). If the competition entry is delivered to MindTrek via mail, it must arrive at the MindTrek Association’s office in three (3) copies no later than 7.8.2009 at 15:00 (+2 GMT). If the competition entry is implemented on the internet, its web address must be submitted to MindTrek when registering within the deadline. Late entries will not be accepted. In addition to submitting the competition entry, participation requires registration using the registration form at the MindTrek website. All submissions must be in English. Originals sent to the competition will not be returned, so you should keep a copy for your own use. Post and packaging costs are the responsibility of the entrant. 5. Award The total award sum for the Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek competition category is EUR 7,000. The sum can be awarded to one entry, divided between several entries or not awarded at all if the award criteria set by the jury are not fulfilled. 6. Immaterial property rights The immaterial property rights related to the competition works remain the property of the competitors. The entrants are responsible for ensuring that they have full copyrights to their competition entries and the right to use the works and their elements when participating in the competition. The material submitted to the award programme remains the property of the author and may not be modified, changed in any way or used in whole or in part for the production of any other work. 7. Evaluation of the entries and the jury The participating works will be evaluated in the following areas: * Innovativeness * Commercial potential * Entertainment value and/or usefulness and/or artistic merit and creative implementation * The usability of interactive and context-aware functions and functions utilizing ubiquitous computing in some other manner * Feasibility (in terms of technology and production) * Visual implementation and technical functionality Nokia, Tampere Region Centre of Expertise in Ubiquitous Computing and MindTrek will jointly assemble the jury for this competition category. The jury will comprise at least one member from Nokia, one member from MindTrek and one member from Tampere Region Centre of Expertise in Ubiquitous Computing, and have a minimum of four members in all. In addition to the actual jury, MindTrek’s preliminary jury will take part in the evaluation if required, by carrying out a preliminary elimination. 8. Reference rights MindTrek has the right to use the competition entries and a mention of the entrants as references in its marketing communications. MindTrek, Nokia and Tampere Region Centre of Expertise in Ubiquitous Computing have the right to disseminate information about the competition arrangements, competition entries, the awarding of the winners and other details related to the competition in their marketing and advertising, e.g. on the web and in brochures and newsletters. The submitted works may be used by MindTrek without any restrictions or written permission in all presentations, TV broadcasting, CD/DVD productions, CD/DVD compilations and advertisements (internet, CD-ROM, TV, print). MindTrek has the unlimited right to use the submitted material for distribution on DVDs and other media, especially the right to distribute the video material to labels and broadcasting companies. 9. Announcement of the results and presentation of the awards The results of the competition category will be announced and the awards presented at the MindTrek Awards Ceremony. The winners will be announced at Hotel Rosendahl on 1.10.2009 at the MindTrek Awards Ceremony. Later there will be the Awards Party to honor the winners of the competitions. Award nominees will be notified in advance. The presence of the nominees at the MindTrek event in October is strongly recommended. All nominees are invited to give a half day workshop around the ideas of their nominated project with the students and tutors at Demola, www.demola.fi 10. Compensation of the finalists’ travel and other expenses MindTrek will pay travel and accommodation costs up to the sum of EUR 800 per team for a maximum of three invited finalists/teams flying from abroad in economy class. Any Finnish entrants among the finalists will not receive compensation for their travel costs. However, MindTrek will pay for one conference ticket (includes entrance to the MindTrek Awards Party) and one entrance ticket to the MindTrek Awards Party for all finalist teams. MindTrek will not pay compensation for any other possible costs incurred by the entrants due to their participation in the competition. Further Information Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards Competition ubiaward (AT) mindtrek.org Or in urgent matters the competition chairs: Artur Lugmayr, artur.lugmayr (AT) tut.fi, Tel.: +358 40 821 0558 Cai Melakoski, cai.melakoski (AT) tamk.fi, Tel.: +358 50 555 6581 Kirsi Lindfors, kirsi.lindfors (AT) hermia.fi, Tel.: +358 40 820 4608 Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards Jury 2009 Head Of Jury: • Bjoern Stockleben, RBB , DE Competition Chairs: • Artur Lugmayr, NAMU group, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FI • Cai Melakoski, TAMK University of Applied Sciences, FI • Kirsi Lindfors, Hermia, FI Jury Members (to be completed): • Petros Belimpasakis, Nokia, FI • Jonas Forth, Abo Academy, FI • Glen Gebhard, LMU, US • Michael Hausenblas, Johanneum Research, AT • Andreas Holzinger, MBCS Head Research Unit HCI4MED, Medical University Graz (MUG), AT • Juha Kaario, Nokia, FI • Mirette Kangas, YLE New Media, FI • Katri Lietsala Gemilo OY, FI • Timo Ojala, Universit of Oulu, FI • Daniel Salber, mackey.nl, NL • Susanne Sperring, Abo Academy, FI • Joelle Stemp, Yu Centrik, CA • Riku Suomela, Nokia, FI • Teija Vainio, TUT, FI • Robert Wierzbicki, wierzbicki.org, DE • Roger Zimmermann, National University of Singapore, SG • Demola students About the MindTrek Conference Conference Venue MindTrek takes place at Hotel Scandic Rosendahl, in Tampere, Finland. The organizer of the conference has booked quota for the conference delegates from this hotel. Please, look for more information on accommodation and registration later from our website. Please note that the accommodation is not included in the participation fee. There is also other accommodation available in Tampere, ranging from modern first-class hotels to smaller traditional hotels and dormitories. If you select one of these options, you should make the reservations by yourself with that specific hotel. MindTrek Conference in General Jukka Matikainen, +358 (0)40 5336 379, jukka.matikainen (AT) mindtrek.org www.mindtrek.org Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Award 2009 MindTrek.org/ubimedia

CAA Sessions Call

admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:11:12 +0000

Beginning June 26, individual CAA members may submit a session proposal for the centennial Annual Conference, taking place February 9–12, 2011, in New York. Proposals should cover the breadth of current thought and research in art, art and architectural history, theory and criticism, pedagogical issues, museum and curatorial practice, conservation, and developments in technology.

The Annual Conference Committee welcomes session proposals that include the work of established artists and scholars, along with that of younger scholars, emerging and midcareer artists, and graduate students. Particularly welcome are those sessions that highlight interdisciplinary work. Artists are especially encouraged to propose sessions appropriate to dialogue and information exchange relevant to artists.

Session proposals are only taken online; paper forms and postal mailings are not accepted. To set up an account, please email Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs, who will register your email address and provide you with a password. For full details on the process, please visit Chair a Conference Session. Deadline: September 1, 2009; no late applications are accepted.

Vida 12.0 Call for Art

admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:11:13 +0000

VIDA 12.0 rewards works of art developed with artificial life technologies and related disciplines: robotics, artificial intelligence, etc. It is looking for works of art with emerging behaviours, which evolve over time, react with their environment and seem to have a life of their own. VIDA 12.0 is searching projects that relate technology with biology and that research synthetic characteristics of modern life. In previous editions, prizes have been awarded to artistic projects created with robots, avatars, recursive chaotic algorithms, knowbots, cellular automata, computer viruses, virtual ecologies that evolve with user interaction, interactive architectures, augmented reality pieces and works that explore the social aspects of A-life. A total of €40,000 will be awarded to the three projects selected by the jury: First prize: €18,000(*), Second prize: €14,000(*), Third prize: €8,000(*). The winning pieces may be exhibited at Fundación Telefónica Virtual Gallery and in the exhibitions related to art and new technologies it organises or takes part in. Works of art submitted must not be more than two years old. This enables the Competition to keep updated and aware of the last technological trends in the field of artificial life. More info here . . .

Call for Entries: Digital Art

admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:36:25 +0000

Award New Media Foundation Liedts-Meesen: Call For Entries At the occasion of the Update III exhibition that is organised as a Biennial event at the Zebrastraat Gent, the Liedts-Meesen Foundation will award for the second time, a work by a living artist distinguishing himself or herself in the field of digital art. This award will consist of a cash purse and a showcase in the Update IV to be held in 2012. Entry forms and guidelines available at http://www.zebrastraat.be http://www.zebrastraat.be/kunst_3_91.html Deadline November 1 2009- Final Deadline The upcoming exhibition, Update III (in 2010), will be held in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in Paris, under the artistic direction of the exhibition's commissioner Christine Van Assche. At the same time, the 10 works selected for the Liedts-Meesen Foundation award will be exhibited and integrated into the publication accompanying the exhibition. Update's mission Update's mission is to expand the scope of contemporary artistic creations and traditional media with works dedicated to employing contemporary and new technologies in an original and intelligent way: treatment of sounds and light, use of new media, application of innovative evolutions in communications, telecommunications and broadcasting, centred on the world of information, communication, and computers and interaction. These descriptions are in no way restrictive and should be interpreted in a broader meaning General guidelines for entry in the competition The aim of the competition is to present works in accordance with Update's objectives. The submitted work can have been previously exhibited, but the jury reserves the right to choose creations that are proven to be practically realisable within the possibilities of the Liedts-Meesen Foundation, keeping in mind that the works will be displayed during the exhibition. Calendar and conditions of the competition The choice of the 10 projects selected by the jury will be rendered public at the occasion of the Lineart Art Salon (Ghent) from the 4th to the 8th December, 2009. Those projects that have been retained will then be installed in order to be exhibited alongside of the Update III exhibition from March to June 2010 and published in the exhibition catalog. The basic equipment is available to be used by the selected artists; specific and special equipment must be provided for, and lent by the artists for the duration of the exhibition. During the Update exhibition, one of the nominees will be chosen for the prize award given by the Liedts-Meesen Foundation. A people's choice award is also foreseen. Eligibility and submission details This international competition is open to all age groups and to all nationalities. English is the working language. Deliverables: A general portfolio of the artist including a CV and a detailed description of the work submitted, accompanied by visual material is demanded. The material must be provided either in an uploadable format or must be easy to reproduce as the jury's decision will be primarily based on the visual documentation. Submissions are to be sent to Foundation Liedts-Meesen, Concours Nouveaux Médias, Zebrastraat 32/001, 9000 Gent, Belgium. The Jury The jury will be composed of ten members: o Peter Werbel (Director of ZKM Karlsruhe) o Jean-Marie Dallet (Professor and Commissioner of Update I) o Philippe Van Cauteren (Director of SMAK Gent) o Françoise Meesen (Fondation Liedts-Meesen) o Dirk De Wit (Director of IBK-IAK) o Stef Van Bellingen (Consultant for Zebrastraat-artistic leader VZW Warp) o Christine Van Assche (Curator New Medias Nouveaux Medias Centre Pompidou-Paris) o Art Yan (Organiser of the exhibition E-Arts Festival, Shangai) o Nick Ervinck (artist), winner of the Update II public award 2008 o Julien Maire (artist), winner of the Update II jury's award 2008 Prize For 2010, a 5000 euro cash award is foreseen by the Liedts-Meesen Foundation. This indivisible cash award will be allocated to a work and to its creator. Moreover, the jury reserves the right to award an honourable mention to an artist. The Liedts-Meesen Foundation and the jury reserve the right to not award a prize and to transfer it to the next exhibition.

Netgames Conference

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:28:23 +0000

The 8th International Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games November 23 and 24, 2009 Paris, France http://netgames2009.lip6.fr/ In co-operation with ACM SIGCOMM/SIGMM Technically sponsored by IEEE Communications Society OVERVIEW ======== The 8th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games (NetGames 2009) will be held in Paris, France, on November 23-24, 2009. The NetGames workshop brings together researchers and developers from academia and industry to present new research in understanding networked games of today and in enabling the next generation of future networked games. Submissions are sought in any area related to networked games. In particular, topics of interest include (but are not limited to): - Network measurement and traffic modeling - System benchmarking, performance evaluation, and provisioning - Latency issues and lag compensation techniques - Operating system enhancements, service platforms, and middleware - Impact of online game growth on network infrastructure - P2P & Scalable system architectures - Network protocol design - Mobile and resource-constrained systems - Augmented physical systems - Networks of sensors and actuators - Input devices, haptics and accessibility - User and usability studies, group dynamics - Quality of service and content adaptation - User-generated content management - Content authoring and sharing - Artificial intelligence - Security, authentication, accounting and digital rights management - Cheat detection and prevention - Messaging and conferencing in games - Results that reproduce (or refute) previous published results SUBMISSIONS =========== NetGames 2009 welcomes submissions of full papers, as well as extended abstracts reporting work-in-progress. Full papers must be no longer than 6 pages (inclusive of all figures, references and appendices). Extended abstracts must be no longer than 2 pages, and will be presented as Posters in an interactive setting. In addition to papers, technical demonstrations showing original research prototypes are also solicited. Demonstration papers must be no more than 2 pages in length, and should provide a short description of the system and the features that are to be demonstrated. Authors must submit their papers in PDF and use single-spaced, double column ACM conference format. Detailed paper submission guidelines are available at http://netgames2009.lip6.fr/SUBMIT.html. Reviews will be single-blind, authors must include their names and affiliations on the first page. Papers will be judged on their relevance, technical content and correctness, and the clarity of presentation of the research. Papers should not be under review at another venue nor previously published elsewhere. Accepted papers will be archived in the ACM Digital Library and IEEE Xplore, and published in the workshop proceedings. Submission of a paper for review will be considered your agreement that at least one author will register and attend if your paper is accepted. Authors of selected, top quality papers from NetGames 2009 will be invited to submit an extended version of their papers to a special issue of the International Journal of Advanced Media and Communication (IJAMC). COMMITTEE ========= WORKSHOP CHAIR: Maha Abdallah (University of Paris 6, France) PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Maha Abdallah (University of Paris 6, France) Grenville Armitage (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia) Bharat Bhargava (Purdue University, USA) Khaled Boussetta (University of Paris 13, France) Mark Claypool (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA) Kuan-Ta Chen (Academia Sinica, Taiwan) Christophe Diot (Thomson, France) Wu-chang Feng (Portland State University, USA) Wu-Chi Feng (Portland State University, USA) Carsten Griwodz (University of Oslo, Norway) Pål Halvorsen (University of Oslo, Norway) Tristan Henderson (University of St Andrews,UK) Jehn-Ruey Jiang (National Central University, Taiwan) Yoshihiro Kawahara (University of Tokyo, Japan) JongWon Kim (GIST, Korea) Ben Leong (National University of Singapore) John Miller (Microsoft Research, UK) Madjid Merabti (Liverpool John Moores University, UK) Wei Tsang Ooi (National University of Singapore) Marius Preda (Institut TELECOM, France) Farzad Safaei (University of Wollongong, Australia) Shervin Shirmohammadi (University of Ottawa, Canada) Joel Wein (Polytechnic Institute of NYU, USA) Lars Wolf (TU Braunschweig, Germany) Roger Zimmermann (National University of Singapore) Important DATES =============== Paper registration: July 24, 2009 Paper submission: July 31, 2009 Author notification: September 27, 2009 Camera ready manuscript: October 25, 2009 Workshop Dates: November 23-24, 2009

Japan Media Arts Festival

admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:25:02 +0000

Please visit and entry through the official website as follows; http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/english/festival/2009/entry/guideline.php Last year the record-setting 2,146 applications came from 44 countries and regions worldwide. We seek and await dynamic creative works that are opening up a new era from all over the world. This year, the application period is from today to 25th September 2009 in each division; [Art Division] Interactive Art, Installation, Visual Image, Still Image (including Digital Photograph), Web Work, etc. [Entertainment Division] Game, Play Equipment, Visual Image (VFX, CM, MV,etc.), Character, Web Work, etc. [Animation Division] Long Animation (Movie, TV, Original Video Animation), Short Animation, etc. [Manga Division] Story Manga, Frame Manga, Web Manga, Independent Manga, etc. 《The 13th Japan Media Arts Festival》 Application period；16th July ? 25th September 2009 Divisions；Art/Entertainment/Animation/Manga Award-winning Works Exhibition；3rd-14th February 2010 at The National Art Center, Tokyo. We look forward to your participation in the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival again.

New Year, New Students

admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:43:59 +0000

The student resource site for my Miami University students is now located at http://Miami.LGrace.com. For the fall, this site contains information about my Game Design and Interaction Design courses.

Call for Papers: Computer Game Education Review

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:52:33 +0000

Call for Papers: Computer Game Education Review http://www.akpeters.com/previews/cger.pdf CGER is a peer-reviewed academic publication addressing issues that concern the teaching of game design and development including, but not limited to, curriculum organization, teaching techniques (e.g., conceptual vs. exemplary), methodology, assessment, tools for facilitating game design education, game typology, societal impact, economic and commercial issues, legal aspects, and student evaluation that are of interest to faculty and institutions involved in the education and training of future game developers. CGER will publish original research, summarize the research of the past year in survey articles, provide analyses from noted experts, and include complete bibliographies drawn from the key journals and conference proceedings of the field. The goal is to create a tool that will facilitate computer game education research and provide a research compass to the community at large. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Stephen Jacobs EDITORIAL BOARD Bryan Alexander, Jessica Bayliss, Marinka Copier, Drew Davidson, Ann DeMarle, Christopher Egert, Stéphane Natkin Ian Parberry, James Parker, Ruben R. Puentedura, Karen Schrier, Magy Seif El-Nasr SUBMISSIONS - Deadline December 1, 2009 Submissions for the first issue will close on December 1st, 2009. Authors will be notified of their submission status by January 1, 2010 with revisions (if any) due by February 1, 2010. While our initial plan for CGER is as an annual publicati on, we are considering a more frequent publicati on schedule depending on the level and quality of submissions. Submit your paper electronically at http://journaltool.akpeters.com QUESTIONS? cger@akpeters.com

Technarte 2010

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:53:18 +0000

Technarte 2010 invites you to send your paper and be part of a unique Conference in its creative and innovative character.

If your career turns around the fusion between art and technology, if the merge between this two disciplines is one of your passions, don't think about it anymore and send your paper before 13 November. Technarte will bring together in Bilbao, Spain, artists, experts of Centres of Technological Research and professionals of the art world in all its forms (researchers and developers of art centres, professionals of galleries and museums, universities, etc.), with which you can share your experiences and who will show you the most innovative artistic disciplines.

Technarte gives you the opportunity to present your artistic-technological in a warm and relaxed Conference, where other proposals related to areas like augmented reality, bio-art, robotics and nanoart, among others, will be shown.

If the combination between art and technology is essential in your life, Technarte is your Conference. Send your paper before 13 November and be part of this fantastic event, that will be held in Bilbao, Spain, on 15 and 16 April 2010.

Digital Fringe

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:57:19 +0000

Get your entries in by 14th September to be included in thefestival DVD. Check www.digitalfringe.com.au for submission info ++++++++ Digital Fringe is an open access public arts festival that places contemporary screen based media in public locations. It provides artists with access to an extensive network of hundreds of public screens and non-traditional audiences throughout Australia and the world. Screening venues receive a playlist curated from the diverse visual works of animation, abstract, video art, short film, machinima, motion graphics, photography and stills submitted to the Digital Fringe festival via our website - digitalfringe.com.au. Login and upload your works. In keeping with the Fringe Festival charter, Digital Fringe is open access and accessible to emerging and established artists, particularly those working in screen based and new media. Submissions are received from all around the world: from professional artists to bedroom doodlers and everybody in between. Artists maintain control of their own copyright. Screening venues range from busy bars and cafes, bustling shopping centres, walls of TV’s in electrical stores, State and regional libraries, art galleries, and cultural institutions, suburban shop fronts and on massive urban screens in public plazas like Melbourne's Federation Square. Digital Fringe screens are also appearing in outback Australia, and across the Americas's, Africa, the UK and Europe. All submissions also play on the Digital Fringe website. Produced by Horse Bazaar with assistance from Film Victoria and Melbourne Fringe, Digital Fringe 09 will create a web of screen art in public space across Melbourne, Regional Australia and the world! If you know of other screens that can play Digital Fringe and be part of our network email us - screens@digitalfringe.com.au

A Few Game Articles

admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:25:12 +0000

Independent Game Making: For years the industry has focused on the increasing size of development teams . It is both a blessing and a hassle. Teams grow; the quality of games increase. Teams grow; the complexity and investment in each game increases too. But the industry didn't start this way. . . Upping your Game's Usability: A common gripe I hear from developers is that a game has a really great concept or aesthetic, but that the user interface (UI) is lousy. Games that are hard to control or that mystify users by not providing useful or sufficient feedback are pretty damn frustrating to play. This can translate into worse sales, so it's worthwhile for game developers to really spend a lot of time thinking about a game's UI. All I really Needed To Know: Robert Fulghum's essay All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten has inspired people since the late '80s. With compliments to him, here is, in expanded title --

Awkard Call for Submissions

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:15:12 +0000

Are you...awkward? As humans we are faced with awkward moments everyday and until now they have been a common point of shame. - causing inconvenience; "they arrived at an awkward time" - lacking grace or skill in manner or movement or performance; "an awkward dancer"; - difﬁcult to handle or manage especially because of shape; "an awkward bundle to carry"; "a load of bunglesome paraphernalia"; "clumsy wooden shoes"; "the cello, a rather ungainly instrument for a girl" - not elegant or graceful in expression; "an awkward prose style"; "a clumsy apology"; "his cumbersome writing style"; "if the rumor is true, can anything be more inept than to repeat it now?" - hard to deal with; especially causing pain or embarrassment; "awkward (or embarrassing or difﬁcult) moments in the discussion"; "an awkward pause followed his remark"; "a sticky question"; "in the unenviable position of resorting to an act he had planned to save for the climax of the campaign" - socially uncomfortable; unsure and constrained in manner; "awkward and reserved at parties"; "ill at ease among eddies of people he didn't know"; "was always uneasy with strangers" This is a call to submit screen-based media (interactive, video, photo, etc) exploring the deﬁnition of "awkward". This could include failed works. The show will take place in the AVA's Media Center. The show will later be featured as an online exhibition. We will accept works in the following format: Screen-based work that runs on Apple OS X 10.5 as: - a standalone Flash executable - a standalone Max/MSP executable - Safari 4.* or Firefox 3.5.*, with Flash/Shockwave, Quicktime or Javascript or Java (including browser-based Processing) - Still images will also be considered if they are presented on your site with a clear and consistent interface. Microcontroller-based work that does not require connection to a computer will also be considered. Please send a proposal and pictures/diagrams. To SUBMIT WORK, please send: Name, Title, 150 word or less description, 150 word or less bio and/or CV, all as text within the email. All work, with information listed above, should be submitted as a link to your web site where we can view the work or download a ﬁle, by email to: awkward@atrowbri.com Please do not attach ﬁles. Works too large to put on your website should be sent as a rapidshare or other ﬁle hosting service link. Email the address above if you would like to send a work via Pando. No other service requiring the download of a client will be considered. Curators: Neely Hyde, Director of Exhibits & Digital Media, Association for Visual Arts (AVA), Chattanooga, Tennessee, www.avarts.org Adam Trowbridge, artist and Adjunct Professor, History of Time-Based Media, The University of Tennessee Chattanooga, www.atrowbri.com This show was conceived by and will be co-curated by the students of History of ART 420 History of Time-Based Media at The University of Tennessee Chattanooga: Sarah Kyle, Austin Reed, Beth Joseph, Erin Hora, Laura H. Winn, Robert Warren Parker, and others

SB Games 2009

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:54:00 +0000

SB Games starts next week, check it out. They have an Art Exhibition for which I am a fan. http://wwwusers.rdc.puc-rio.br/sbgames/09/

5th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

admin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:31:49 +0000

========== FDG 2010: CALL FOR PAPERS ========== FDG 2010: The 5th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games 19-21 June 2010, at Asilomar Conference Grounds, Monterey, California. http://fdg2010.org/ *** Important Dates *** Workshop Proposals: 18 Sep 2009 (past) Paper and Poster Submission: 5 Feb 2010 Doctoral Consortium Submission: 12 Feb 2010 Author Notification: 29 Mar 2010 Demo Submission: 2 Apr 2010 Registration for Authors: 9 Apr 2010 Camera Ready Papers: 23 Apr 2010 Conference: 19-21 Jun 2010 LATEST NEWS =========== * Invited Speaker: James Gee James Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at the Arizona State University and the author of "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy", "Good Video Games and Good Learning: Collected Essays" as well as other influential books and research papers is the first Invited Speaker for FDG 2010. * Advertisement in the November issue of Communications of the ACM The November issue of CACM features a full page ad for FDG 2010. You can download a copy of the ad from http://fdg2010.org/downloads/FDG2010-acm-ad-small.pdf to distribute to your colleagues and students. If you would like some color flyers to distribute at the next conference you are attending, please contact Yusuf Pisan yusuf.pisan@uts.edu.au and we will get some flyers out to you. * Workshops at FDG 2010 There will be 3-4 workshops held in conjunction with FDG 2010. See web page for details of the workshops and on submitting papers to workshops. Please note that selection and publication of the papers for the workshops is the responsibility of specific workshop organizers and is not conducted by the FDG Program Committee. * Panels at FDG 2010 In addition to invited speakers from industry and academy leaders, peer-reviewed papers and tutorials, FDG 2010 will have panels on topics related to games. If you have any burning suggestions for panel topics or people you would like to see on the panel, please email Ian Bogost ian.bogost@lcc.gatech.edu OVERVIEW ======== FDG 2010, the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, is a focal point for academic efforts in all areas of research and education involving games, game technologies, gameplay and game design. The goal of the conference is the advancement of the study of digital games, including new game technologies, capabilities, designs, applications, educational uses, and modes of play. FDG 2010 will include presentations of peer-reviewed papers, invited talks by high-profile industry and academic leaders, hands-on tutorials and topical panels on a range of subjects related to games research and education. We invite researchers and educators to share insights and cutting-edge results relating to game technologies and their use. PAPER and POSTER SUBMISSIONS ============================ FDG 2010 will accept both full paper and poster submissions. Authors may choose to submit their papers and posters to the general conference or to a specific theme area. The seven theme areas for FDG 2010 are described below. 1) Artificial Intelligence Track Chair: Magy Seif El-Nasr, Simon Fraser University We solicit papers on artificial intelligence research that provides novel solutions to traditional game AI problems (e.g., path planning, camera control, terrain analysis, user modeling, tactical/strategic and decision making), supports novel game concepts or gameplay elements (e.g. interactive drama, narrative/character development and NPC belief/attitude/emotion modeling), provides automated or semi-automated solutions to game production challenges (e.g., game design, content creation, testing and procedural animation), or describes the integration of AI technologies (e.g., machine learning, logical inference and planning) into game AI architectures. 2) Computer Science and Games Education Track Chair: Andrew Phelps, Rochester Institute of Technology The Computer Science and Games Education Theme Area invites researchers and educators to submit papers illustrating the latest advances and innovation in curricula for games and computer science, in both formal and informal educational contexts. All papers must show rigorous and compelling evaluation. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: game design and development curricula, effective practices and infrastructure for the use of games and game technologies in Computer Science courses and programs, Web-based (adaptive) educational games and interdisciplinary collaboration among computer scientists and others to create games in educational contexts. 3) Game Design Track Chair: Tracy Fullerton, University of Southern California The Game Design theme seeks detailed reports of creative practice and methods, as well as the exploration and development of innovative gameplay forms and mechanics. Design postmortems that rigorously analyze the intent and effect of particular solutions, mechanics, structures or gaming situations are very welcome. Also, research on new models for player involvement, design for learning, participatory design, iterative player-centered process, and investigations into the relationship between hardware and software platforms and design are strongly encouraged. Submissions may discuss theoretical designs or implemented ones, but should provide evaluative evidence and rigorous analysis of outcomes. 4) Game Studies Track Chair: Mia Consalvo, MIT Game Studies as a field is broadly interdisciplinary, welcoming a variety of theoretical, methodological and computational approaches to the study of games and play. This year, we particularly seek submissions that investigate areas such as player experience, game ontology, the social and cultural aspects of gameplay, cross-cultural or global analyses, networked play (including consoles), game aesthetics and criticism, casual and serious gaming and analysis of new and emerging phenomena. All submissions must provide rigorous analysis and present evaluative evidence. 5) Graphics and Interfaces Track Chair: Steven Feiner, Columbia University The Graphics and Interfaces theme seeks papers on all aspects of computer graphics and user interfaces that are specifically related to digital games, including but not limited to: animation, modeling, rendering, 2D and 3D user interfaces, collaborative user interfaces, mobile user interfaces, tangible user interfaces, design of (interfaces for) Web 2.0 game focused web applications, integration of web-based and computer/console based game worlds, augmented reality and virtual reality, and novel interaction devices and displays. 6) Infrastructure (Databases, Networks, Security) Track Chair: Mark Claypool, WPI The Infrastructure track invites submissions that focus on the many aspects of improving systems support for digital games. Suitable papers should describe novel networks, operating systems or database systems that are especially designed for games, or make novel use of existing systems to support games. Topics of interest include: networked game architectures, network protocol design for games, latency compensation and synchronization methods, mobile and/or resource-constrained game platforms, software and middleware support for networked games, content delivery and adaptation, services for supporting networked games, cheat detection and prevention, networking and security for Web-based games and game portals, database engines and database optimization for games, distributed database techniques and consistency models for networked games, and data management for games that cross physical and virtual worlds. 7) Learning in Games Track Chair: Elisabeth Hayes, Arizona State University Learning in Games invites papers that investigate how games contribute to intellectual, creative, social, and embodied forms of learning in and outside the classroom, for learners of all ages. Studies focused on educational games as well as the learning potential of COTS games are welcome. Research on the design of games for learning, the outcomes of game-based learning, and learning that occurs in the social contexts and interactions around games (such as within fan communities) should be submitted to this track. Papers on the professional training of game developers should be submitted to the Computer Science and Games Education track. All paper and poster submissions will be rigorously peer reviewed for their technical merit (where applicable), significance, clarity and relevance to the advancement of the study of games. All full papers must describe a completed unit of work and show rigorous and compelling evaluation of the ideas they present. Poster submissions should describe novel work in progress that is not at the same level of research maturity as a full submission. Full papers must not exceed eight pages, but can be shorter. We will review for quality not length! Poster submissions must not exceed two pages. All submissions must be submiteed via https://easychair.org/login.cgi?conf=fdg2010 and must comply with the official ACM proceedings format using one of the templates provided at http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html All accepted paper and poster submissions will be published in the conference proceedings. For a paper or poster to appear in the proceedings, at least one author must register for the conference by the deadline for camera-ready copy submission. Papers from FDG 2009 and its predecessor (GDCSE 2008) are included in the ACM Digital Library and we anticipate that all paper, poster, and doctoral consortium publications from this year's conference will appear there as well. Submissions must not have been published previously. In addition, a submission identical or substantially similar (or even a subset or superset) in content to one submitted to FDG should not be simultaneously under consideration at another conference or journal during the entire FDG review process (i.e., from the submission deadline until the notifications of decisions are emailed to authors). WORKSHOP PROPOSALS ================== The workshops portion of the conference provides an informal setting for new developments to be discussed and demonstrated. We invite proposals for full-day and half-day workshops focused on specific topics related to the broader themes around games. We are particularly interested in topics that will bridge different communities. Proposals should include: A 2-page extended abstract, the objectives and expected outcome of the workshop, the planned activities, the background of the organizer(s), the anticipated number of participants, and the means for soliciting and selecting participants. Proposal should be emailed directly to the Michael Mateas, Workshop Chair, at michaelm@cs.ucsc.edu. DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM =================== The FDG Doctoral Consortium provides an opportunity for a limited group of Ph.D. students to discuss and explore their research interests and career objectives with a panel of established games researchers and industry professionals. The consortium has the following objectives: (1) to provide a setting for mutual feedback on participants' current research and guidance on future research directions; (2) develop a supportive community of scholars and a spirit of collaborative research; (3) support a new generation of researchers with information and advice on academic, research, industrial, and nontraditional career paths; and (4) contribute to the conference goals through interaction with other researchers and participation in conference events. Students whose submissions to the Doctoral Consortium are accepted for presentation will receive complimentary conference registration and some support for their travel/housing expenses. FDG 2010 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE ============================= Conference Chair Ian Horswill, Northwestern University Program Chair Yusuf Pisan, University of Technology, Sydney Doctoral Consortium Chair Zoran Popovic, University of Washington Workshops Chair Michael Mateas, University of California, Santa Cruz Panels Chair Ian Bogost, Georgia Institute of Technology Tutorials Chair Robin Hunicke, That Game Company Local Arrangements Chair Marilyn Walker, University of California, Santa Cruz Webmaster Karl Cheng-Heng Fua, Northwestern University ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ====================== Please see http://fdg2010.org/ for this year's conference and http://foundationsofdigitalgames.org/ for past years, including: Table of Contents for FDG 2009: http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=1536513 Table of Contents for GDCSE 2008: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1463673 Proceedings for GDCSE 2007: http://www.eng.unt.edu/ian/Cruise2007/madgdcse2007.pdf To get the latest news on FDG, subscribe to the FDG-announce mailing list. Send an email to listserv@listserv.it.northwestern.edu with no subject line and a body saying:

Global Game Jam: Sign Up Now

admin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:36:33 +0000

Signup for the 2nd Global Game Jam has begun. The Global Game Jam is an international computer game making festival, where people all over the world race to make an original game in a single weekend. In 2009, the first Global Game Jam involved 1600 people, from 23 countries. From Caracas to Tokyo they made 370 games in one weekend. As the organizers put it, “lives were changed, jobs found, ideas sold, collaborations and opportunities abound.” Miami University is a site location for the second Global Game Jam ever. We will be hosting participants for the 2010 Global Game, on January 29-31, 2010. For independent game makers, students, and game enthusiasts this is a one-of-kind experience. The event, organized by the International Game Developer’s Association, is the only event of its type in the world. The Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media studies will be partnering with the Computer Science and Software Engineering department at Miami University to make our school one of the best locations in the Global Game Jam community. Participation is not limited to those areas nor is it limited to members of the Miami community. We strongly encourage everyone with a passion for game making and interactive media to participate. Teams include artists, sound designers, interaction designers, programmers, and anyone with passion for game making. Everyone from high school students to industry professionals may participate. Participants may even receive international press for their game designs. Registration is now available. I was a guest designer at the Chicago location for the Global Game in 2009 and the energy was fantastic. People fall into a rhythm and really have fun at the event. Spending one intense weekend developing a game is a nice way to add to your portfolio, finally get started on that game you’ve been meaning to make, experience game design, or simply bond with other people who share your passion. From the 2010 Global Game Jam press release: “Game Jams foster innovation and experimentation. If you have ever wanted to make a game, be a part of a team, or go outside of your usual working method, then a game jam is for you. It’s all about making games and in the GGJ you’re part of a global experiment in creativity. A game jam is not for the faint of heart though. It’s two days of hard work, experimentation, little sleep, collaboration, new friends, great ideas, laughs, technical issues and the time of your life. Everyone is given similar constraints and rules to make their games, it is amazing how different and culturally diverse the games will be. The Nordic Game Jam has honored GGJ with being the flagship Game Jam. The goal is to provide a vehicle for professional developers, students and hobbyist to come together and have an incredible experience in collaboration and inventiveness. The GGJ works perfectly into the mission of the International Game Developers Association, ‘Connecting members with their peers & promoting professional development.’ A Game Jam is not a competition, it is unique ‘idea space’ where sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t. “ If you are interested in creating a team, you should being to organize yourselves now. The strongest teams balance designers, artists, and developers. The Global Game Jam will be accepting participants soon, so get ready for this exceptional opportunity! You can learn more about the Miami University Global Game jam at http://aims.muohio.edu/gamejam.

Future Play @ Vancouver Digital Week 2010

admin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:00:38 +0000

Future Play @ Vancouver Digital Week 2010: The International Academic Conference on the Future of Game Design and Technology May 6-7 2010, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Center Call for Papers Overview Future Play 2010 will be held alongside Game Developers Conference® (GDC) Canada during Vancouver Digital Week 2010. Vancouver Digital Week includes a series of events for top creative minds and business leaders working in Digital Media. We are pleased to present Future Play at the Vancouver Convention Center, in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada, May 6-7 2010. Since 2002, Algoma University has been hosting Future Play, an international conference to advance game design and technology. Future Play features cutting-edge peer¬-reviewed academic research and discussion on creative and experimental game design and development. Future Play brings together researchers, developers, and government partners for formal and informal engagement and examination of emergent features of computer game development for entertainment, for learning/teaching, for serious purposes and to impact society. Future Play also provides an important forum for future game development talent to gain perspective on the knowledge, skills and attitude required to succeed in the game development world. Beginning with Future Play 2007 Algoma University has teamed up with the Ontario University Institute of Technology to give Future Play attendees the chance to interact with some of the most talented people in the games world today. GDC® Canada is a forum for Canadian developers to share best practices for fostering ingenuity and quality games within their region and distributed globally. This event emphasizes studying the challenges and opportunities of creating games with long production cycles, large development teams, and multi-platform releases. Scope of the Conference Future Play addresses issues in Game Design, Art, and Technology by enabling thought ¬provoking presentations from leaders in academia and industry, peer ¬reviewed research presentations, workshops (including design, technology, and career workshops), and exhibitions of posters, games, and the latest game technologies and systems available from industry ¬leading vendors. Topics of interest to Future Play include, but are not restricted to, the following: Design and Human Factors: Social and ethical issues for games Interdisciplinary issues Gender issues Narrative Design Innovations in Technology: Software engineering for games Artificial intelligence for games Innovative rendering algorithms Game engine design Networking and multiplayer support Innovations in Art and Production: Animation and motion capture Modeling & Rigging Methodologies Sound and music Design/Production Education and Serious Games: Games for Education Games for Health Game-based Learning Game-based Curriculum Bridging the academia-¬industry gap Paper submissions must present original, unpublished research. Papers under review elsewhere must not be submitted to Future Play. The following categories of papers will be accepted: Full papers (8 pages): Should present original reports of substantive new work - eight page maximum. Accepted full papers will be presented in the form of a 20 minute presentation at the conference. Individual presentations will be grouped by topic into sessions by conference organizers. Short papers (4 pages): Should present interesting recent results or novel thought-provoking ideas that are not quite ready for a regular full-length paper. Four page maximum. Accepted short papers will be presented in the form of either a poster or 20 minute presentation at the conference. Extended Abstracts (2 pages): Late-¬breaking advances and work ¬in ¬progress reports from ongoing research are encouraged to be submitted as extended abstracts – two pages maximum. These will be presented in the form of a poster presentation throughout the conference. Papers must adhere to ACM formatting -- Portable Document Format (PDF) formatted in two-column conference style. LaTeX and Microsoft Word templates will be made available from the Future Play website (http://futureplay.org ). Further details regarding ACM formatting are available via the following ACM URL: http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates All submissions will be peer reviewed and evaluated based on originality, technical and/or research content/depth, correctness, relevance to the conference, contributions, and readability. All accepted papers (full, short, and poster) will be included in the distributed conference proceedings and the online ACM digital library. Since 2007 proceedings of the Future Play conference have been included in the Association for Computing Machines (ACM) digital library. The Program Committee is currently working with ACM to ensure "in-cooperation" status for Future Play 2010 and we are confident this will be granted this year again. Pending ACM approval, accepted submissions will be included in the ACM Digital Library. Please submit your paper via the EasyChair conference system available via the following URL: https://www.easychair.org/login.cgi?conf=futureplaygdccanada2010 Conference Chairs Bill Kapralos, University of Ontario Institute of Technology Andrew Hogue, University of Ontario Institute of Technology Simon Xu, Algoma University Jay Rajnovich, Algoma University (Chair Emeritus) Important Dates (TENTATIVE) Submission deadline: March 5, 2010 Notification: April 9, 2010 Final paper submission: April 23, 2010 The City of Vancouver Bordered by the Coast Mountain Range and the Pacific Ocean, Vancouver is recognized as one of the world's most livable cities. Archaeological evidence shows that the Coast Salish people had settled the Vancouver area by 500 BC. In the 1870s, Vancouver was founded as a sawmill settlement called Granville. And in 1886, the city was incorporated and renamed Vancouver after Captain George Vancouver, a British naval captain who explored the area in 1792. Vancouver is the eighth largest city in Canada with a population of 578,000 (2006 census) and has one of the mildest climates in Canada with temperatures averaging around 3 degrees Celsius in January and 18 degrees Celsius in July. It covers 114.7 sq km (44.3 sq miles), and is part of Metro Vancouver, the third largest metropolitan area in Canada, with a population of 2.1 million (2006 census). The City of Vancouver is renowned for its innovative programs in the areas of sustainability, accessibility and inclusivity. In 2010, Vancouver will host the world at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Vancouver has more than 200 diverse parks, but Vancouver's most famous park is Stanley Park. One of the largest urban parks in the world, with 150 year old forest, 8.85 km of seawall, and many popular attractions. The Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre Built on the original Pier B-C on Vancouver's Waterfront, the Vancouver Convention Centre first served as the Canada Pavilion for the World's Fair Expo in 1986. Since then, it has grown to become recognized as one of the leading convention centres in the world. It has been designated a Power Smart Convention Centre by BC Hydro, awarded the "GO GREEN" certificate from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) for industry-approved, environmental best practices in building management, and contains a living roof, seawater heating and cooling, on-site water treatment and fish habitat built into the foundation of the West Building making it one of the "greenest" convention centres in the world. The Convention Centre is located at 1055 Canada Place, Vancouver, BC, V6C 0C3, Canada. (http://www.vancouverconventioncentre.com/) For Further Information For further Information, updates, and to register please consult the official Future Play 2010 website at http://www.futureplay. General inquiries about Future Play 2010 can be directed to futureplay@algomau.ca.

Creating and Evaluating Experiences of Role-Playing Games

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:57:53 +0000

Creating and Evaluating Experiences of Role-Playing Games

The Electronic Edition of the Book for Solmukohta 2008. Edited by Markus Montola & Jaakko Stenros.

ISBN 978-952-92-3579-7 (paperback) ISBN 978-952-92-3580-3 (pdf)

Download the Electronic Edition of Playground Worlds as a pdf

Playground Worlds is a collection of articles on role-playing games by leading researchers, artists and other experts. The book documents the theory and practice of the Nordic role-playing scene – one of the most vibrant in the world -– and presents numerous methods and techniques that are directly applicable to larp design and production. It also offers a peek into some Anglo-American role-playing cultures.

The book is divided into three sections. Community and Journalism includes articles on role-player communities written particularly with an eye for approachability. Art and Design covers role-play as the product of a creative process, exposing philosophies and intentions behind specific role-playing works while providing advice and guidance for prospective designers. The Research and Theory section focuses on recent advances in analytic and academic thought on role-play.

GDC Scholarship for Students

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:02:07 +0000

The IGDA will be awarding 25 scholarships for this years Game Developers Conference. GDC is where game development professionals gather to share ideas and build the skills that the industry needs. Located in San Francisco , California , this years GDC will be held March 9-13 2010.

Qualifications & Scholarship Details

Scholarship applications must be submitted on or before Thursday, January 15th, 2010.
Only full-time university (or similar) students are eligible, and must be 18 years of age or older as of March 9, 2010
Applicant must be an IGDA Student Member in good standing. If you are not currently a Student Member, you must join the IGDA before applying for the scholarship. All applications will be verified.
Past scholarship recipients are not eligible.
Recipients will be awarded one Main Conference Pass, with access to all sessions, round-tables, and keynotes. Breakfast and lunch included.
Students are responsible for all travel arrangements and related costs.
Scholarship applications will be judged by a panel of professional game developers.
Each scholarship recipient will be paired with an industry mentor.
Scholarship recipients will participate in a local studio visit and orientation session.
Recipients will be announced before February 4th, 2010 (the early rate pricing deadline).

Digital Prototype Introduction

admin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:41:44 +0000

A good digital prototype convinces us of its reality and compels us to make it real. It is an imaginative piece of visual fiction that excites our interest and sates our needs. It does not exist, but we want to it to exist. It has not been made, but we are eager for its production. If you have succeeded at proposing an engaging idea, we want to check our accounts to find a way to afford it, our maps to figure out a way to visit it, or an encyclopedia for its nearest substitute.

A good digital prototype is a proof of concept so convincing that we want t it to be real. As project stakeholders, we are willing to invest money and resources into it. We are so excited by its potential reality that we are willing to takes risks to make it work. It is not merely an illustration; it is a perfect fiction to which we excitedly subscribe. Much like the digital prototype in engineering, it is plausible, not merely possible. It is proof of a possibility, illustrative of the probable wonder in a previously unpresented solution.

More information . . . .

Spain in Space Game

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:45:59 +0000

One of the games created at Global Game Jam at Miami University.

Global Game Jam at Miami University

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:47:07 +0000

Some great games at Global Game Jam @ Miami University. 25 People worked all weekend to make a game. Participants range from 14-30, and included student artists, experienced programmers, high school students and lots of game-loving creative minds. See more at http://aims.muohio.edu.gamejam.

Meaningful Play

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:07:02 +0000

Meaningful Play 2010 October 7 - 9, 2009 East Lansing, MI, USA http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu Call for Submissions After the great success of Meaningful Play 2008, we are happy to send out of the call for submissions for the upcoming International Academic Conference on Meaningful Play 2010, taking place October 7-9, 2010 in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Whether designed to entertain or to achieve more "serious" purposes, games have the potential to impact players' beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, emotions, cognitive abilities, physical and mental health, and behavior. Meaningful Play 2010 is a conference about theory, research, and game design innovations, principles and practices. Meaningful Play brings scholars and industry professionals together to understand and improve upon games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways. The conference will include thought-provoking keynotes from leaders in academia and industry, peer-reviewed paper presentations, panel sessions (including academic and industry discussions), innovative workshops, roundtable discussions, and exhibitions of games and prototypes. Paper, Panel, Poster, Roundtable, Workshop, and Game Submissions are sought from both researchers and practitioners in academia and industry. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students are also encouraged to submit either jointly with an academic/member of industry or alone. Details on the conference, including the call for submissions, is available at: http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu

CFP: International Journal of People-Oriented Programming (IJPOP)

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:09:37 +0000

********************* CALL FOR PAPERS ********************* ***INAUGURAL ISSUE*** SUBMISSION DUE DATE: 1st May 2010 International Journal of People-Oriented Programming (IJPOP) Official publication of the Information Resources Management Association www.igi-global.com/IJPOP Co-Editors-in-Chief: Steve Goschnick & Sandrine Balbo Published: Semi-annual (both in Print and Electronic form) Mission of IJPOP: The International Journal of People-Oriented Programming (IJPOP) is cross-discipline in range yet singularly focused on empowering individuals to conceptualise, design, program, configure and orchestrate Internet-powered mashups, game mods (modifications), aggregate and structure personal media and build standalone cloud-based and client-side applications (on smartphones, netbooks, laptops, desktops, home network and novel appliances) into self-fashioned tools and products that ultimately suit the user's own unique needs and aspirations. Other individuals may well take up such apps, mods and mashups for themselves, further customising, enhancing and embellishing them, or they may in part be used in a social or family context (to the benefit of the collective aspirations of those Social Worlds of which the individual is a part) nonetheless, the focus of composition, development and customisation is on a product for oneself, upon theory, concepts, techniques, methodologies and ultimately tools that service a market of one. Our mission is to be the first journal that comes to mind to academics and practitioners alike and remain the best with regard to all aspects of People-Oriented Programming. Our papers and reviews will be insightful and compelling to both educators and researchers, and often to a wider audience too the people for whom this paradigm of software development has come about. International Editorial Review Board: * Prof. David Benyon, School of Computing, Edinburgh Napier University, UK * Prof. Birgit Bomsdorf, Applied Computer Science, Fulda University, Germany * Dr. Lawrence Cavedon, Senior Researcher, National ICT Australia (NICTA) * Ass. Prof. Erik Champion, Auckland School of Design, Massey University, NZ * Prof. Karin Coninx, EDM, Hasselt University, Belgium * Prof. Larry Constantine, University of Madeira, Portugal * Ass. Prof. Virginia Dignum, Policy & Management, Delft University of Technology, NL * Dr. Anke Dittmar, University of Rostock, Germany * Prof. Alan Dix, InfoLab21, Lancaster University, UK * Dr. Rod Farmer, Experience Strategy, Vodafone Hutchison Australia * Prof. Geraldine Fitzpatrick, Vienna University of Technology, Austria * Prof. Peter Forbrig, Rostock University, Germany * Dr. Martin Gibbs, DIS, University of Melbourne, Australia * Prof. Patrick Girard, LISI, Ensma, France * Dr. Judith Good, Director, IDEAs Lab, The University of Sussex, UK * Prof. Michael N. Huhns, University of South Carolina, USA * Prof. Christophe Kolski, LAMIH, University of Valenciennes, France * Prof. Ryszard Kowalczyk, CS3, Swinburne University, Australia * Prof. Jiming Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University * Prof. Kris Luyten, Expertise Centre for Digital Media, Hasselt University, Belgium * Prof. Philippe Palanque, IRIT, University Paul Sabatier, France * Dr. Fabio Paterno, CNR, Italy * Ass. Prof. Philippe Pasquier, SIAT, Simon Fraser University, Canada * Dr. John Rooksby, Computer Science, University of St Andrews, UK * Dr. Mark Rouncefield, Computing Department, Lancaster University, UK * Dr. Dominique Scapin, INRIA, France * Prof. Graeme Shanks, DIS, University of Melbourne, Australia * Prof. Ian Sommerville, University of St Andrews, UK * Prof. Ulrike Spierling, University of Applied Sciences, Erfurt, Germany * Prof. Constantine Stephanidis, ICS, Greece * Prof. Leon Sterling, Faculty of ICT, Swinburne University, Australia * Prof. Christian Stary, Kepler University, Linz, Austria * Peter J. Wild, Independent Researcher, Cambridge, UK * Prof. Gerrit van der Veer, School of Computer Science, Open University, NL Associate Editors * Dr. Connor Graham, Independent Researcher, Singapore * Ass. Professor Yusuf Pisan, University of Technology Sydney, Australia * Ass. Professor Aaron Quigley, HITLab, University of Tasmania, Australia * Dr. Christine Sun, www.taiwan.com.au, Australia * Dr. Daniel Sinnig, Concordia University, Canada SCOPE: People-Oriented Programming requires high-level tools to empower both the technical and non-technical user, which in turn calls upon research into meta-models that inform design and construction, that aid comparisons of these tools, and facilitates the interchange of content between them. The meta-models of most interest to POP initially, are drawn from two disparate disciplines the Task Analysis (TA) and Agent-Oriented (AO) paradigms both of which often have models with representations of entities matching the needs of POP, e.g. goal, task, object, agent, individual, role, intention and communication. Several AO architectures and methodologies have called upon branches of Psychology to formulate AO meta-models that incorporate mentalistic notions such as perception, motivation and intention, but which are most often aimed at constructing artificial humans and the like. In POP we too call upon those same Psychologies and similarly enhance and formulate meta-models and methodologies influenced by them, but with the intention of augmenting and empowering the individual human, in areas where they themselves desire aid or have identified a gap in their own abilities or resources, which they want to enhance. From Sociology, POP draws upon ethnography with a focus on self-ethnography using tools such as cultural probes, life blogs and life logs to capture aspects of the individual's own life, themselves (or through a life coach), from which they draw the desire and/or frame the need for new technological artefacts to be used in their own lives. Interactivity, with respect to facilitating and streamlining a regular user's intention to build their own artefacts, and situatedness in terms of the individual's current location and activities, are two other facets of HCI (human computer interaction) that POP encompasses. Video gaming is the first application area where large numbers of everyday users have been able to envisage and then developed their own innovations within existing games. So-called game mods are working examples of POP where players have appropriated userfriendly tools, usually built into the game engines by the vendors (e.g. The Sims, World of Warcraft, etc.). Video games have joined other media (e.g. movie, novel, comic) in the new genre of transmedia storytelling (e.g. franchises such as Tomb Raider, The Matrix, Harry Potter), allowing the player to enter the story 'so far', extending it in the 'now', constructing their own individualised narratives and increasingly, with the capability to enhance and extend the realm of the game itself. These individual constructed game mods allow players to extend virtual realms and narratives in real-time, in directions often unforeseen by the game engine makers. Such activities are increasingly a part of an individual's entertainment and education. Game modding as described, and the engines and tools that enable it, are within the scope of POP. Internet-based mashup tools (e.g. Google Wave) have opened up a second application front beyond game mods, where POP is likely to gain mass adoption and occasionally produce radical user innovation. The selection and orchestration of disparate distributed services (e.g. web services; information feeds; the Cloud) by an individual within a user-friendly toolkit or framework, is also in the scope of POP. While the formal protocols and the technical enactment of such specific services are of little interest here, the quality, access, usage, aggregation and orchestration of them by the individual themselves, into a personalised synergy of capability made available through some enacting technology, are of acute interest to POP. Modeling techniques and people-friendly notations that bridge and coordinate distributed services together with local resources within POP tools ones that the layperson can understand and use in conceptualising their designs - encompasses another cross-discipline facet of POP. RECOMMENDED TOPICS: Topics to be discussed in this journal include (but are not limited to) the following: * Activity theory and modeling * Agent meta-models, mental models * Alert filter and notification software, automated task assistance * Augmented reality, augmented interaction * Automating personal ontologies, personalised content generation * Client-side conceptual modeling * Computational models from psychology * Context-aware systems, location-aware computing, ubiquitous computing * Cultural probes, self-ethnography * End-user composition, end-user multi-agent systems * Game development support tools * Game mods, game engines, open game engines * Home network applications * Human-centred software development * Interface generators, XML-based UI notation generators * Interface metaphors * Life logs, life blogs, feed aggregators * Mashups, mashup tools, cloud mashups * Model-driven design, didactic models, model-based design and implementation * New generation visual programming * Personal interaction styles, touch and gestures * People-Oriented Programming (POP) * People-Oriented Programming case studies * Personal ontologies and taxonomies * Personalisation, individualisation, market of one * Personas and actors * Real-time narrative generation engines * Role-based modeling * Service science for individuals * Situated computation, social proximity applications * Smart-phone mashups, home network mashups, home media mashups * Software analysis & design, software process modeling * Software component selection * Speech and natural language interfaces * Storyboarding, scenarios, picture scenarios * Task flow diagrams, Task-based design * Task models, task analysis, cognitive task models, concurrent task modeling * Use case models, user interface XML notations * User-centered design, usage-centered design * User interface tools, XML-based UI notations * User modelling, end user programming, end user development * Wearable computing, bodyware * Web-service orchestration, web-service co-ordination SUBMITTING TO IJPOP: Prospective authors should note that only original and previously unpublished articles will be considered. INTERESTED AUTHORS MUST CONSULT THE JOURNALS GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS at http://www.igi-global.com/development/author_info/guidelines submission.pdf PRIOR TO SUBMISSION. All article submissions will be forwarded to at least 3 members of the Editorial Review Board of the journal for double-blind, peer review. Final decision regarding acceptance/revision/rejection will be based on the reviews received from the reviewers. All submissions must be forwarded electronically to stevenbg@unimelb.edu.au. PUBLISHER: The International Journal of People-Oriented Programming (IJPOP) is published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference), Medical Information Science Reference, Business Science Reference, and Engineering Science Reference imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. All inquiries and submissions should be should be directed to the attention of: Steve Goschnick Co-Editor-in-Chief International Journal of People-Oriented Programming E-mail: stevenbg@unimelb.edu.au www.igi-global.com/IJPOP _______________________________________________

Digital Gameplay as Socio-technical Practice

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:13:42 +0000

************************************************************************************************************* EASST Conference 2010, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology 'Practicing Science and Technology, Performing the Social,' University of Trento, Italy, 2-4 September 2010. Abstract submission deadline: 15 March 2010. http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010 ************************************************************************************************************** TRACK: DIGITAL GAME PLAY AS SOCIOTECHNICAL PRACTICE The Digital Game industry has become one of the fastest growing, innovative and globalised industries in advanced Western economies and Digital Games have become a key cultural artefact and leisure practice in contemporary societies. Developing out of the American military industrial and academic complex in the 1970s the study of Digital Games design and play is the study of a range of sociotechnical practices and the negotiations between a range of human and non-human actors operating within systems of rules. The complexity of these relationships brings forth a series of questions that can be investigated using Science and Technology Studies approaches. However, to date games studies, with few exceptions, have failed to adopt STS approaches and the STS community has largely ignored this area of study. This track seeks to develop the relationship between the game studies community and the STS community. Several research questions can be used to guide this: What STS theories can be used to understand Digital Games as sociotechnical phenomenon? Is the concept of practice and the practice-based approach useful to investigate Digital Games? Is there a relationship between power as inscribed and imposed by artefacts and the technical dimensions of Digital Games? What rules are inscribed into Digital Games technologies and what social worlds do these rules describe? What contribution can the study of Digital Games make to the STS discipline at large? And what contribution can an STS approach make to game studies? Can we foresee an after-method approach for Digital Games? We invite papers that tackle the sociotechnical dimensions of Digital Games and address some of the questions outlined above. Contributions might include (but are not restricted to): • Digital Games as material semiotic artefacts • Digital Games as sociotechnical assemblages • The mess of digital games • Innovation in game design as actor-networking and social shaping • Digital Game design and/or play as performance and practice • Disruptive sociotechnical users’ practices (e.g. hacking, modding) • The scripting of gendered gaming practices • Governance and regulation of gaming practices Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent by email (following website instructions: http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010/abstract-submission) by 2010 March 15th. Please include also a preliminary references list (up to 4). Contact for inquiries: stefano.depaoli [at] nuim.ie Convenors Aphra Kerr is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Her research focuses on the regulation, production and consumption of digital media and in particular of digital games; she established and runs the industry and community website. (www.gamedevelopers.ie) Helen W. Kennedy is Deputy Head in the Department of Culture, Media and Drama at the University of the West of England (UWE) in the UK. She has been researching and writing about games since 1993 and co-founded and chaired (from 2004 – 2009) the Play Research Group at UWE. Jennifer Jenson is Associate Professor of Pedagogy and Technology in the Faculty of Education at York University. Her research interests include gender and gameplay and the design and development of digital games for education. Stefano De Paoli is postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Stefano has worked in STS since 2004 and recently his research interest has embraced Massive Multiplayer Online Games (http://www.nuim.ie/nirsa/people/postdocs/stefano_de_paoli.shtml) **************************************************** ** To send and receive IFIP-EC-NEWS, go to ** http://listserver.tue.nl/mailman/listinfo/icec ** and subscribe directly **************************************************** ** News archives: ** http://listserver.tue.nl/mailman/private/icec/ **************************************************** ** To join the IFIP ENTERTAINMENT COMPUTING Group ** contact: g.w.m.rauterberg@tue.nl ****************************************************

Future Play 2010

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:14:43 +0000

ACM Future Play 2010: The International Academic Conference on the Future of Game Design and Technology May 6-7 2010, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Center Call for Papers Overview Future Play 2010 will be held alongside Game Developers Conference® (GDC) Canada during Vancouver Digital Week 2010. Vancouver Digital Week includes a series of events for top creative minds and business leaders working in Digital Media. We are pleased to present Future Play at the Vancouver Convention Center, in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada, May 6-7 2010. Since 2002, Algoma University has been hosting Future Play, an international conference to advance game design and technology. Future Play features cutting-edge peer¬-reviewed academic research and discussion on creative and experimental game design and development. Future Play brings together researchers, developers, and government partners for formal and informal engagement and examination of emergent features of computer game development for entertainment, for learning/teaching, for serious purposes and to impact society. Future Play also provides an important forum for future game development talent to gain perspective on the knowledge, skills and attitude required to succeed in the game development world. Beginning with Future Play 2007 Algoma University has teamed up with the Ontario University Institute of Technology to give Future Play attendees the chance to interact with some of the most talented people in the games world today. GDC® Canada is a forum for Canadian developers to share best practices for fostering ingenuity and quality games within their region and distributed globally. This event emphasizes studying the challenges and opportunities of creating games with long production cycles, large development teams, and multi-platform releases. Scope of the Conference Future Play addresses issues in Game Design, Art, and Technology by enabling thought ¬provoking presentations from leaders in academia and industry, peer ¬reviewed research presentations, workshops (including design, technology, and career workshops), and exhibitions of posters, games, and the latest game technologies and systems available from industry ¬leading vendors. Topics of interest to Future Play include, but are not restricted to, the following: Design and Human Factors: Social and ethical issues for games Interdisciplinary issues Gender issues Narrative Design Innovations in Technology: Software engineering for games Artificial intelligence for games Innovative rendering algorithms Game engine design Networking and multiplayer support Innovations in Art and Production: Animation and motion capture Modeling & Rigging Methodologies Sound and music Design/Production Education and Serious Games: Games for Education Games for Health Game-based Learning Game-based Curriculum Bridging the academia-¬industry gap Paper submissions must present original, unpublished research. Papers under review elsewhere must not be submitted to Future Play. The following categories of papers will be accepted: Full papers (8 pages): Should present original reports of substantive new work - eight page maximum. Accepted full papers will be presented in the form of a 20 minute presentation at the conference. Individual presentations will be grouped by topic into sessions by conference organizers. Short papers (4 pages): Should present interesting recent results or novel thought-provoking ideas that are not quite ready for a regular full-length paper. Four page maximum. Accepted short papers will be presented in the form of either a poster or 20 minute presentation at the conference. Extended Abstracts (2 pages): Late-¬breaking advances and work ¬in ¬progress reports from ongoing research are encouraged to be submitted as extended abstracts - two pages maximum. These will be presented in the form of a poster presentation throughout the conference. Papers must adhere to ACM formatting -- Portable Document Format (PDF) formatted in two-column conference style. LaTeX and Microsoft Word templates will be made available from the Future Play website (http://futureplay.org ). Further details regarding ACM formatting are available via the following ACM URL: http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates All submissions will be peer reviewed and evaluated based on originality, technical and/or research content/depth, correctness, relevance to the conference, contributions, and readability. All accepted papers (full, short, and poster) will be included in the distributed conference proceedings and the online ACM digital library. Since 2007 proceedings of the Future Play conference have been included in the Association for Computing Machines (ACM) digital library. The Program Committee is currently working with ACM to ensure "in-cooperation" status for Future Play 2010 and we are confident this will be granted this year again. Pending ACM approval, accepted submissions will be included in the ACM Digital Library. Please submit your paper via the EasyChair conference system available via the following URL: https://www.easychair.org/login.cgi?conf=futureplaygdccanada2010 Conference Chairs Bill Kapralos, University of Ontario Institute of Technology Andrew Hogue, University of Ontario Institute of Technology Simon Xu, Algoma University Jay Rajnovich, Algoma University (Chair Emeritus) Important Dates (TENTATIVE) Submission deadline: March 5, 2010 Notification: April 9, 2010 Final paper submission: April 23, 2010 For Further Information For further Information, updates, and to register please consult the official Future Play 2010 website athttp://www.futureplay. General inquiries about Future Play 2010 can be directed to futureplay@algomau.ca.

9th International Conference on Entertainment Computing

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:15:42 +0000

Final Call for Submissions to ICEC 2010

=============================

ICEC 2010: 9th International Conference on Entertainment Computing

“ Creative and Innovative Entertainment Theory, Science, Art and Contents in 21C”

Supported by IFIP=ACM+ACS+BCS+CIE+GI+IEEE+IPSJ+KIISE+SEE+many other organizations

September 8-11, 2010 * Venue: COEX Seoul Korea * Website: www.icec2010.or.kr

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Important Dates:

March 15, 2010 Deadline for Full and Short Paper Submissions

April 15, 2010 Notification of Acceptance for Full and Short Paper Submissions

April 30, 2010 Deadline for Poster and Demo Submissions

May 15, 2010 Notification of Acceptance for Poster and Demo Submissions

June 10, 2010 Camera Ready Copy

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Papers should be submitted through the EasyChair system:

http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icec2010

(either in PostScript format or in PDF format)

Please use the LNCS format for formatting your paper:

http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-7-72376-0

All paper submissions must include the author's name(s), affiliation, complete

mailing address, phone number, fax number and email address.

A special issue with the “top ten” long papers will be published in the

international journal of Entertainment Computing (Elsevier):

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/717010/description#description

All other accepted submissions will be published in the Proceedings (LNCS, Springer):

See e.g. http://www.springer.com/computer/hci/book/978-3-642-04051-1

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ICEC2010 will cover not only technical but also artistic, empirical and theoretical issues

regarding entertainment practices; we invite submissions of

- Full Papers: not exceeding 12 pages

- Short Papers: not exceeding 6 pages

- Posters, Demos: not exceeding 3 pages

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Topics include (but are not limited to):

Artificial Intelligence for Games//

CG & Visual Effects//

Computer, Video, Console and Internet Games//

Creative Entertainment Theory and Design//

Digital Broadcasting and Digital Cinema//

Digital Entertainment and Sports//

Edutainment//

Entertainment Robots//

Entertainment Technology, Applications, Interfaces and Architecture//

Human Factors of Entertainment Technology//

Human-Robot Interaction & Performance//

Impact of Entertainment Technology on Users and Society//

Integration of Interaction and Multimedia in Entertainment Systems//

Interactive Graphic Design; Interactive Sound Design//

Interactive Television and Broadcasting//

Methodologies, Paradigms, Tools for Entertainment Applications//

Narratives / Digital Storytelling//

New Genres of Entertainment Technology//

Simulation/Gaming Methodologies//

Smart Gadgets and Toys//

Social Impact, Social Networking, Sound and Music//

TransMedia, Art and Entertainment//

Ubiquitous/Pervasive Entertainment//

VR/AR/MR Entertainment Contents//

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feel free to broadcast this information and to encourage people

to submit papers to ICEC 2010.

Best Regards.

Organizing Committee

Matthias Rauterberg (TUE), Fumio Kishino (OU), Young Jik Lee (ETRI)

General Chairs

Hyun Seung YANG (KAIST), Ryohei Nakatsu (NUS), Don Marinelli (CMU)

IEEE Virtual Reality 2010

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:16:10 +0000

IEEE Virtual Reality 2010 March 20 - 26, 2010 The Westin Waltham Waltham, Massachusetts, USA You will find the brightest minds, the most innovative research, the leading companies, and the most stimulating discussions in the fields of virtual environments, augmented reality, 3D user interfaces, and haptics, all gathered March 20-26, 2010 in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA (just west of Boston). We invite you to join us for a fascinating week of presentations, exhibits, workshops, and special events. The greater Boston area is home to over 50 video-game companies. At this year's conference, we will promote the cross-fertilization of gaming and VR through several efforts. IEEE Virtual Reality 2010 Keynote Speaker announced: Keynote Title: Breaking Down the Walls: The Future of Second Life Speaker Info: Howard Look, Senior Vice President of Customer Applications, Linden Lab http://conferences.computer.org/vr/2010/program/keynote.html NVIDIA to Sponsor Best Paper and Best Student Paper Awards! Prizes for each include a Quadro FX 5800 card or Tegra development kit. The Advance Program has now been posted: http://conferences.computer.org/vr/2010/program/week.html Also, we are pleased to co-locate with the IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (March 20-21) and the Haptics Symposium (March 25-26). For complete conference information, please visit: http://conferences.computer.org/vr/2010/ http://conferences.computer.org/3dui/3dui2010/ http://www.hapticssymposium.org/next_conference.htm To register for the conference, you may click on the link below: http://conferences.computer.org/vr/2010/misc/registration.html If you are interested in exhibiting or sponsorship of the conference, please view the Supporter Prospectus: http://conferences.computer.org/vr/2010/misc/IEEE_VR_2010_ExhibitsSupporterProspectus.pdf VR 2010 is sponsored by the Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee of the IEEE Computer Society.

3rd International Congress on Image and Signal Processing

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:21:42 +0000

The 3^rd International Congress on Image and Signal Processing (CISP 2010) and the 3^rd International Conference on BioMedical Engineering and Informatics (BMEI 2010) will be jointly held in Yantai, China. Yantai was listed as one of the world's most inhabitable places by the United Nations and was recognized as the "most charming city of China" by China Central Television. Undulating hills rise above the area's many rivers and are framed by beaches and neighboring islands. During summer, the breeze wafts from the sea, and the hills become ornamented with a sea of wildflowers. Famous tourist attractions include the Tashan Mountain, Kongdong Island, and Penglai Pavilion Scenic Area. Seafood and fruits are plentiful in Yantai.

CISP’10-BMEI’10 is a premier international forum for scientists and researchers to present the state of the art of multimedia, signal processing, biomedical engineering and informatics. The previous CISP’09-BMEI’09 attracted over 3000 submissions from around the world. The registration fee of US$390 includes proceedings, lunches, dinners, banquet, coffee breaks, and all technical sessions. CISP’10-BMEI’10 is technically co-sponsored by the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

Selected best papers will appear in SCI-indexed journal(s). All papers in conference proceedings will be indexed by both EI Compendex and ISTP, as well as the IEEE Xplore (CISP 2010 IEEE Catalog Number: CFP1094D-PRT, ISBN: 978-1-4244-6514-9; BMEI 2010 IEEE Catalog Number: CFP1093D-PRT, ISBN: 978-1-4244-6496-8).

For more information, visit the conference web page:

http://cisp-bmei2010.ytu.edu.cn

If you have any questions after visiting the conference web page, please email the secretariat at cisp_bmei@ytu.edu.cn

Join us at this major event in beautiful Yantai !!!

Organizing Committee

cisp_bmei@ytu.edu.cn

The 5th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 01:26:17 +0000

FDG 2010: The 5th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games 19-21 June 2010, at Asilomar Conference Grounds, Monterey, California. http://fdg2010.org/ FDG 2010 is held in-cooperation with ACM, ACM SIGART and ACM SIGCSE Come and join us in June at Asilomar for FDG 2010, a focal point for academic efforts in all areas of research and education involving games, game technologies, gameplay and game design. The goal of the conference is the advancement of the study of digital games, including new game technologies, capabilities, designs, applications, educational uses, and modes of play. * You can still submit and give a demo of your work at FDG. See http://fdg2010.org/Submissions.html for details. Deadline April 9th * Register at http://fdg2010.org/Registration.html You should plan to arrive on Jun 17th if attending workshops and on June 18th if attending only the main conference. Conference will finis after lunch on June 21st 4 Invited Speakers ================== James Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies Arizona State University Jane McGonigal, Director of Game Research & Development Institute for the Future Markus Gross, Director of Disney Research Zurich, and Full Professor of Computer Science ETH Zurich Randy Pagulayan, User Research team, Microsoft Game Studios 4 Tutorials =========== Applied Game Design - Part 1: The MDA of Bartok. Robin Hunicke, thatgamecompany and Ben Smith, Senior Software Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment Applied Game Design - Part 2: The Bartok Variant Playoffs!!! Robin Hunicke, thatgamecompany and Ben Smith, Senior Software Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment Kodu Tutorial. Matthew MacLaurin, Microsoft Update on XNA. Mitch Walker, Microsoft 5 Panels ======== Facebook Games Ethics Game Preservation Game Festivals/Exhibition (name to be confirmed) 3 Workshops (held on June 18th, the day before the conference) =========== Intelligent Narrative Technologies III Procedural Content Generation in Games Teaching Aesthetics in Game Design 35 Papers from Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science and Games Education, Game Design, Game Studies, Graphics and Interfaces, Infrastructure (Databases, Networks, Security), Learning in Games and other areas. ====================================================================== * Full Papers Aswin Thomas Abraham and Kevin McGee. Team-mate AI in Games: A Survey & Critique Erik Andersen, Yun-En Liu, Ethan Apter, FranÁois Boucher-Genesse and Zoran Popovic'. Gameplay Analysis through State Projection Robin Angotti, Cinnamon Hillyard, Michael Panitz, Kelvin Sung and Keri Marino. Game-Themed Instructional Modules: A Video Case Study Dmitri Botvich, Jimmy McGibney, Georgy Ostapenko, Stefano de Paoli, Aphra Kerr and Max Keatinge. Integrating Players, Reputation and Ranking to Manage Cheating in MMOGs Acey Boyce and Tiffany Barnes. BeadLoom Game: Using Game Elements to Increase Motivation and Learning Amanda Chaffin and Tiffany Barnes. Lessons from a course on serious games research and prototyping Seth Cooper, Adrien Treuille, Janos Barbero, Andrew Leaver-Fay, Kathleen Tuite, Firas Khatib, Alex Cho Snyder, Michael Beenen, David Salesin, David Baker and Zoran Popovic. The challenge of designing scientific discovery games Thomas Debeauvais and Bonnie Nardi. A qualitative study of Ragnarok Online private servers: In-game sociological issues Betsy DiSalvo and Amy Bruckman. Race and Gender in Play Practices: Young African American males Anthony Estey, Jeremy Long, Bruce Gooch and Amy Gooch. Investigating studio-based learning in a course on game design Garnet Hertz. OutRun: Perversive Games and Designing the De-Simulation of Eight-Bit Driving Kenneth Hullett and Jim Whitehead. Design Patterns in FPS Levels Jesper Juul. At What Cost Failure? When Games Punish Players Foaad Khosmood and Marilyn Walker. Grapevine: A gossip generation system Chris Lewis and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. Mining Game Statistics from Web Services: A World of Warcraft Armory case study Chris Lewis, Jim Whitehead and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. What Went Wrong: A Taxonomy of Video Game Bugs Jeremy Long, Anthony Estey, David Bartle, Sven Olsen and Amy Gooch. Catalyst: Seeing Through the Eyes of a Cat Tim McLaughlin, Dennie Smith and Irving Brown. A Framework for Evidence Based Visual Style Development for Serious Games David Milam and Magy Seif El-Nasr. Analysis of Level Design 'Push & Pull' within 21 games Tony Morelli, John Foley, Luis Columna, Lauren Lieberman and Eelke Folmer. VI-Tennis: a Vibrotactile/Audio Exergame for Players who are Visually Impaired Juliet Norton, Chadwick Wingrave and Joseph LaViola Jr.. Exploring Strategies and Guidelines for Developing Full Body Video Game Interfaces Samuel Rossoff, George Tzanetakis and Bruce Gooch. Adapting Personal Music for Synesthetic Game Play Jonathan Rowe, Lucy Shores, Bradford Mott and James Lester. Individual Differences in Gameplay and Learning: A Narrative-Centered Learning Perspective Serdar Sali, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Steven Dow, Sri Kurniawan, Aaron Reed, Michael Mateas and Ronald Liu. Playing with Words: From intuition to evaluation of game dialogue interfaces Jonas Schild, Robert Walter and Maic Masuch. ABC-Sprints: Adapting Scrum to Academic Game Development Courses Josh Sheldon, Jennifer Ong and Louisa Rosenheck. Weatherlings: A New Approach to Student Learning Using Web-Based Mobile Games Gillian Smith, Jim Whitehead and Michael Mateas. Tanagra: A Mixed-Initiative Level Design Tool T.L. Taylor and Emma Witkowski. This Is How We Play It: What a Mega-LAN Can Teach Us About Games James M. Thomas and Melissa E. DeRosier. Toward Effective Game-Based Social Skills Tutoring for Children: An Evaluation of a Social Adventure Game Mike Treanor, Michael Mateas and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. Kaboom! is a Many-Splendored Thing: An interpretation and design methodology for message-driven games using graphical logics Kathleen Tuite, Noah Snavely, Dun-Yu Hsiao, Adam Smith and Zoran Popovic. Reconstructing the World in 3D: Bringing Games with a Purpose Outdoors Daniel Wong, Darren Earl, Fred Zyda, Ryan Zink, Sven Koenig, Allen Pan, Selby Shlosberg and Jaspreet Singh. Implementing Games on Pinball Machines * Short Papers Dylan Arena and Daniel Schwartz. Stats Invaders! Learning about statistics by playing a classic video game Katelyn Doran, Acey Boyce, Samantha Finkelstein and Tiffany Barnes. Reaching out with Game Design Lisa Tolentino, Philippos Savvides and David Birchfield. Applying game design principles to social skills learning for students in special education * Accepted Doctoral Consortium Proposals Coming soon ... FDG 2010 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE ============================= Conference Chair Ian Horswill, Northwestern University Program Chair Yusuf Pisan, University of Technology, Sydney Doctoral Consortium Chair Zoran Popovic, University of Washington Workshops Chair Michael Mateas, University of California, Santa Cruz Panels Chair Ian Bogost, Georgia Institute of Technology Tutorials Chair Robin Hunicke, That Game Company Industrial Relations Chair Hiroko Osaka, Northwestern University Local Arrangements Chair Marilyn Walker, University of California, Santa Cruz Webmaster Karl Cheng-Heng Fua, Northwestern University BACKGROUND ========== The Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) conference series seeks to promote the exchange of information concerning the scientific foundations of digital games, technology used to develop digital games, and the study of digital games and their design, broadly construed. The conference is held yearly in late Spring or early Summer, and attracts an international audience of ~250 attendees. The focus of the conference is the presentation of papers describing novel research results. FDG is typically held in-cooperation with one or more special interest groups of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the proceedings of the conference from 2008 onward are archived in the ACM Digital Library. The conference series was originally created at Microsoft in 2006, and was known as the Academic Days on Game Development in Computer Science Education (GDCSE). The research focus of GDCSE was education using (and about) computer game technology. In 2009, the conference changed its name to the Foundations of Digital Games, and expanded its scope to become a "big tent" computer games research conference, covering a spectrum of computer game research topics while retaining a strong interest in educational uses of games. In the run-up to the 2009 conference, Microsoft transferred ownership and organization of the conference to the Society for the Advancement of the Study of Digital Games (SASDG), a nonprofit corporation with an academic board of directors. This year we received 94 full papers and 12 short-paper submissions. Each submission was reviewed by at least three reviewers and most submissions were reviewed by four reviewers. In cases where there were differences of opinion among reviewers, the reviewers were invited to look through the reviews and revise their reviews if they felt necessary. For borderline papers, an additional reviewer was asked to provide feedback. All the reviews themselves were then reviewed by the respective track chairs and discussed during a conference call. Finally, borderline papers were examined once again by the program chair before a final decision was made. For FDG 2010, of the 94 full papers submitted 32 were accepted (32/94 = 34%), and of the 12 short papers submitted 3 were accepted (3/12 = 25%). Both full papers and short papers will be presented during the conference and will appear in the proceedings. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ====================== Please see http://fdg2010.org/ for this year's conference and http://foundationsofdigitalgames.org/ for past years, including: Table of Contents for FDG 2009: http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=1536513 Table of Contents for GDCSE 2008: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1463673 Proceedings for GDCSE 2007: http://www.eng.unt.edu/ian/Cruise2007/madgdcse2007.pdf To get the latest news on FDG, subscribe to the FDG-announce mailing list. Send an email to listserv@listserv.it.northwestern.edu with no subject line and a body saying: SUBSCRIBE fdg-announce firstname lastname Yusuf

Meaningful Play Call for Submissions

admin — Sat, 29 May 2010 16:41:29 +0000

Call for Submissions to Meaningful Play 2010 Deadline is June 28, 2010. Paper, Panel, Poster, Roundtable, Workshop, and Game Submissions are sought from both researchers and practitioners in academia and industry for Meaningful Play 2010. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students are also encouraged to submit either jointly with an academic/member of industry or alone. The deadline for submissions is June 28, 2010. The International Academic Conference on Meaningful Play brings scholars and industry professionals together to understand and improve upon games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways. The conference will include thought-provoking keynotes from leaders in academia and industry, peer-reviewed paper presentations, panel sessions (including academic and industry discussions), innovative workshops, roundtable discussions, and exhibitions of games and prototypes. Details on the conference, including the call for submissions, is available at: http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu

“Video Game Worlds” panel

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:41:59 +0000

"Video Game Worlds" panel Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference New Orleans, LA March 10-13, 2011 Submissions are still welcome for a panel on the subject of video game worlds, so be held at the 2011 SMCS conference in New Orleans, LA. Please submit your proposal as soon as possible. This panel invites submissions addressing the history, analysis, and theory of video game worlds. Where do these worlds fit into the array of virtual and imaginary worlds presented by other media, other fictions, and other kinds of play? How can we characterize video game worlds as sites of spatiotemporal experience? What modes of critical analysis can we bring to bear on video game worlds, and what new theoretical concepts do these worlds motivate? Some suggested topics: * Depiction of space and time in game worlds * Learning in game worlds * The fictionality of game worlds * Game worlds as types of virtual or imaginary spaces * Play within game spaces * Interaction and interactivity in game worlds * Aesthetics of game worlds * Game worlds as expressive spaces * Rhetoric of game worlds Submission of any other topic related to video game worlds, broadly conceived, is welcome. Please submit a proposal of around 200 words by August 10, 2010, to Dan Reynolds: dreynolds@umail.ucsb.edu

GAMEON-ARABIA’2010

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:42:44 +0000

GAMEON-ARABIA'2010 1st International Middle Eastern Conference on Simulation and AI in Computer Games

December 1 - 3, 2010 FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS

Alexandria, Egypt

Organized by The European Technology Institute

Sponsored by: EUROSIS de Montfort University IEEE UKRI-Spc The Arab Science and Technology Foundation

Conference website CONFERENCE AIM The aim of the first annual Pan-Arabic GAMEON-ARABIA Conference (GAMEON-ARABIA'2010) on Simulation and AI in Computer Games, is to bring game developers from the Middle East in contact with local and international researchers and games people in order to exchange ideas on programming and programming techniques related to game development. Secondly it aims to steer young people from the Middle East into this industry by providing how-to tutorials and giving them the opportunity to show their ideas and demos to the gaming industry and to research facilities from outside the Middle East. Last but not least the conference aims to become the premier meeting point in the Middle East for those active in the field. Just as its other counterparts in the rest of the world GAMEON-ARABIA will concentrate mostly on the programming and designing of games, with special emphasis on simulation, AI and fuzzy sets, and physics related computer graphics. Next to that, all of this will be fused in the topic of computer game design in stand-alone and networked games. Software providers will be able to show their latest packages and give hand-on tutorials for the participants. Companies will also have the opportunity to seek new talent at this unique Middle Eastern event. GAMEON-ARABIA'2010 consists of three core tracks, which cover, Gaming Methodology, Artificial Intelligence and Simulation, while the other tracks cover peripheral technologies closely linked to games design, like 3-D scalability, facial and skeletal animation, 3D in-game animation etc, Mobile Gaming and Gaming Applications... CONFERENCE THEMES

Core Tracks

Game Development Methodology

Game Development Methodology, Game Design and Research Methods, Production Roles, Techniques and Process Management, Social and Technical Interactions in Art and Engineering, Participatory Media and Heterogeneous Development Approaches, Sociotechnical MOG Development, Communities and Sustainability, Business and Requirements Modeling for Game Projects, Software Architecture and Modeling in Games, Interaction Design and Usability in Game Contexts, Play Testing, Gameplay Experience Evaluation

Artificial Intelligence

Designing (Extensible) AI Engines with Built-in Machine Learning Technologies, Using Adaptive Markov Models, Using Decision Trees, Production Rules and Learning, Using Fuzzy Logic for membership functions and inference procedures, Using Rule Based AI or a Finite State Machine (FSM), Using Fuzzy State Machines (FuSM) or Cascaded FuSMs ,Using Artificial Life and layered AI Techniques, Level-of-Detail AI, Using scripting languages to govern NPC Bots, synthetic characters, or believable agents, Controlling simulated characters (Group Behaviour control) using f.ex. flocking algorithms based on extensible scripting systems, Cognitive Modeling: (combining geometric models and inverse kinematics to simplify key-framing. physical models for animating particles. Bio-mechanical modeling, behavioral modeling), Domain knowledge specification and character instruction, Creating AI Networks using supervised learning and genetic algorithms, and pathfinding, Using Databases using the winnowing algorithm, Using Multi-user Data Management.

Physics and Simulation

Collision detection, contact resolution and manifold generation (methods Lin-Canny, OBB Trees, I-Collide and Ray Tracing); Calculation optimization between objects; The closest point algorithm by Gilbert Johnson and Keerthi (GJK) between convex and union-of convex objects; Contact equation formulation (point-plane, edge-edge and sphere-plane); LCP (Linear Complementary problems) Based contact resolution; Iterative constraints and penalty methods for contact resolution, Micro-Collisions, Software Object Interaction.

Peripheral Tracks

3-D Scalability

MRM (Multi-Resolution Mesh) Technology and the Messiah and Lith Tech Engines; Scalable level of detail-oriented rendering ; Methods for scaling animation quality; Scaling animation quality, new animation steps, on interpolated key-frame animation or key-frame morphing; Bump mapping: emboss-dot product and environment mapped bump map (EMBM).

Facial Animation

Facial animation for Real-Time, Model Behaviour of 3D Modeling; Modelling the bone structure of faces, facial hair etc...

Skeletal Animation and Fully-Scaled Rendering

Physical Simulation, 3D Character Animation and physical controllers; Simulation performance; Rigid body physical animation and rigid body dynamics; Polygon Character Design and level of Detail under Technical Constraints; Particle systems, full polygonal models or sprites; Smooth rendered skins, soft skinning, head animations and full body animation (Skin, extrude and boolean, Design, composition and anatomy); Skeletal, skinning, single skin meshes; Creating Character Animation Assets; Real-Time motion Synthesis, Kinematics and Dynamics, Animating the real-time run cycle; T-Buffers and motion blur; Motion Capture Techniques.

3-D In-Game Animation

Creating and scaling special effects in Real-Time 3D: environmental weapon effects and general pyrotechnics, software used to produce single frame and animated textures, booth looping and linear, and the pivotal role of alpha channels. Modeling an animation of the geometry needed and the system used to encode additional engine-specific timing and trigger data into the files. The use of the engine particle system and scripting capabilities, Weighted vertices, Streaming SIMD Extension Overview (floating point instruction) ;Pre-rendered cinematics ; Scaling of special effects and texture tricks: particle systems for generating smoke and fire, texture tricks, for volumes, lens flares and onscreen pyrotechnics, Animation Blending.

Modelling of virtual worlds

Due to their complexity and size, virtual worlds used in next-gen games will have to be automatically generated, to a large extent, whether based on real data or fully imaginary. Representing objects and their relations in these worlds needs to take into account more data than simply their geometry or appearance. In addition, most objects in such worlds will typically require a high degree of adaptivity, in order to avoid most current rigid behaviours, as well as to cope with the need for really adaptive game-play in both entertainment and serious games. This theme focuses on tools and methods for achieving such goals.

AI and Simulation Tools

Silicon Graphics (MAYA, as a game prototyping environment), 3D Programming for Rage Programmable Shaders (Renderman), 3D Studio Max, Scratch, XNA, Delta 3D and other Open Source Games Software.

Design

Game Engine Design and game environment creation; Using rapid prototyping (NEMO-DEV) and generic technology (generic world building engine), portable code; Using Math for Game programming by solving simultaneous Equations; Using Modularity and isolation abstraction, data hiding, functional independence, cohesion and coupling; Using Java as an embedded Game scripting engine ; Procedural content placement, level design, enemy and entity placement; Using Databases in online Games; Programming in Linux, C++ and Visual Basic ; Programming Web Games in Java Scalable 3D games; Creating large 3D worlds; Creating Multiplayer online Games; Techniques for scaling game content, and approaches to scaling game content; C++ optimization Strategies and Techniques; 3D Engine optimization; Optimizing games for the MIPS RISC Architecture; Game design: User set set according to hard limits, pre-runtime profiling and runtime profiling History of Game Design.

Rendering

Rendering Equations and architectures; Image Based Rendering (polygon counts (throughput) and overdraw (filtrate); Photorealistic rendering using Open GL and Direct 3D ; Multi texture tricks like gloss mapping, dynamic environment mapping, detail texturing and bump mapping Spatial aliasing and Anti-aliasing and accumulation buffers; Setup, Rendering and Transforms ; Full floating point setup ; Perspective-corrected texture mapping, multiple filtering modes, sophisticated texture blending for special effects and effective looking transparency ; Classical local illumination equations and colour theory; Creating Reflections and shadows with stencil buffers and Z-Buffers; Light maps and changing texture coordinates, shadow maps, projected shadow maps; Methods for scaling lighting and shadows, lighting calculations ; Equation on a per pixel basis, pixel path and voxel animation; Procedural Texture Methods and Theory and Real-Time; Procedural Texture Implementation; Parametric Surfaces, Deforming surfaces, Curved surfaces and tri-linear flip-flopping Using NURBS (non-uniform rational B-splines) and other parametric surfaces for representing 3D Geometry; Matrix Manipulations; Methods for scaling geometry using parametric curves and surfaces in relation to polygonal models; Progressive meshes and subdivision surfaces.

On-line Gaming and and online-gaming security

As online gaming becomes more and more popular security issues now come into the forefront of secure game play using public key cryptography, symmetric key cryptography, digital signatures, authentication and available cryptographic toolkits. If you are designing or working on these issues you can,

Web Based Games

Creating and delivering web based games using HTML5, Flash etc..without the need for platform based software.

Voice Interaction

Using Intelligent Speech Synthesis Algorithms, Speech Processing, Voice Interaction, Speech Synthesizer; Interaction with AI-NPC's, Voice-Over Net Technology (one to one, and one to many).

Cognitive Psychology

applied to games, based on player to game interactions and biometric data analysis.

Affective Computing

affective gaming affective user modeling player emotion recognition

Artistic Input

Artistic input to game and character design.

Storytelling

Storytelling and Natural Language Processing.

Applications

Wargaming methodology and techniques applied to strategic game design using Campaign managers, character generators, terrain generators. Multiplayer wargaming and Web Wargaming
Serious Games applications
Aerospace Simulations, Board Games etc...
Games for training
Games Console Design
Gaming with Robots

Handheld Gaming Devices - Mobile Gaming

Gaming with I-Toy, WII and other handheld devices such as phones, Virtual Sat-Nav Gaming. Focusing on the man-machine interaction part. CONFERENCE SITE The conference will be held in Alexandria, Egypt from December 1-3. CONFERENCE KEYNOTE The keynote for the GAMEON-ARABIA'2010 will be announced later INVITED TALKS Proposals for invited talks can be sent in by SEPTEMBER 1st and emailed to philippe.geril@eurosis.org TUTORIALS Tutorials can be proposed in the following three categories: T1- Introductory tutorials T2- State of the Art Tutorials T3- Software and Modelware Tutorials Tutorial proposals should be emailed to Philippe.Geril@eurosis.org by SEPTEMBER 1st POSTER SESSION The poster session only features work in progress. Next to the actual poster presentation, these submissions also feature as short papers in the Proceedings. STUDENTS SESSION This session is for students who want to present their work in progress or part of their doctoral thesis as a paper. Student papers are denoted by the fact that only the name of the student appears on the paper as an author. They are published as short papers in the Proceedings. DIVERSE ACTIVITIES For demonstrations or video sessions, please contact Philippe Geril. Special session will be set up for vendor presentations in co-ordination with the scientific program. User Group meetings for simulation languages and tools can be organised during the conference. If you would like to arrange a meeting, please contact the Conference Chairs. We will be happy to provide a meeting room and other necessary equipment.Partners for projects session(s) will be organised by EUROSIS to give potential project teams or individuals the opportunity to present their research in order to link up with fellow researchers for future research projects. Those wishing to participate in this session need to send a proposal to Philippe Geril. EXHIBITION A special software exhibition will be held during the conference focused on simulation tools. For more information please contact EUROSIS for further details. Email: Philippe.Geril@eurosis.org DEADLINES AND REQUIREMENTS Send all submissions in an ELECTRONIC FORM ONLY in Microsoft Word format, PDF or Postscript format indicating the designated track and type of submission (full paper or an extended abstract) to EUROSIS (Philippe.Geril@eurosis.org). Please provide your name, affiliation, full mailing address, telephone / fax number and Email address on all submissions as well. For submissions please put in the subject of your Email the following indications: GAMEON-ARABIA'2010 and designated track or USE THE ABSTRACT SUBMISSION SITE or the ONLINE FORMOnly original papers, which have not been published elsewhere, will be accepted for publication. All GAMEON proceedings are INSPEC and ISI-Thomson referenced. DEADLINES Early Bird Submission: AUGUST 30th, 2010 Abstract Submission deadline: SEPTEMBER 20th, 2010 Late Submission: OCTOBER 5th, 2010 Notification: OCTOBER 20th, 2010 Full Paper Submission Deadline: NOVEMBER 15th, 2010 Conference Dates DECEMBER 1-3, 2010 CONFERENCE PRICES

Registration Fees	Author	EUROSIS members	Other Participants
Pre-registration before November 5, 2010	€ 495	€ 495	€ 535
Registration after November 5, 2010	Pre-registration required	€ 535	€ 555

Registration Fees Middle Eastern Participants *	Author	EUROSIS members	Other Participants
Pre-registration before November 5, 2010	€ 150	€ 150	€ 200
Registration after November 5, 2010	Pre-registration required	€ 200	€ 250

* Are denoted as Middle Eastern Participants, those who are living and working in the countries of the Middle East. Furthermore ALL authors should be in a Middle Eastern University. If some authors are based outside the Middle East the other conference fees apply. (prices include Proceedings, lunches, conference dinner, get-together party and coffee breaks) PAPER SUBMISSION TYPES FULL PAPER (including abstract, conclusions, diagrams, references 5 to 8 pages) During review, the submitted full papers can be accepted as a regular 5 page paper. If excellent,full papers can be accepted by the program committee as an extended (8-page) paper. Each submission will be reviewed by at least three members of the International Program Committee. EXTENDED ABSTRACT(at least five pages) Participants may also submit a 5 page extended abstract for a regular (5 pages) or short (3 pages) paper or poster, which will be reviewed by the International Program Committee. All accepted papers will be published in the GAMEON-ARABIA'2010 Conference Proceedings. SHORT ABSTRACT (at least three pages) Participants may also submit a 3 page abstract for a short paper or poster, which will be reviewed by the International Program Committee. All accepted papers will be published in the GAMEON-ARABIA'2010 Conference Proceedings. ONE PAGE ABSTRACTS ARE NOT ACCEPTED. OUTSTANDING PAPER AWARD The 2010 GAMEON-ARABIA Conference Committee will select the Outstanding Paper of the Conference. The author of this paper will be awarded a free registration for a EUROSIS conference. Only papers SUBMITTED AS FULL papers will be eligible for the Outstanding Paper Award. LANGUAGE The official conference language for all papers and presentations is English. SOCIAL PROGRAMME A post conference tour is envisaged either to Cairo or to El-Alamein REPLY CARD: First Name: Surname: Occupation and/or Title: Affiliation: Mailing Address Zip code: City: Country. Telephone: Fax: E-Mail: [ ] Presenting a paper, by submitting a full paper [ ] Presenting a short paper (by submitting an extended abstract) [ ] Participating in the industrial program [ ] Organizing a vendor session [ ] Proposing a panel discussion (please mention names of panelists) [ ] Contributing to the exhibition [ ] Without presenting a paper Other colleague(s) interested in the topics of the conference is/are: Name: Address: Name: Address: Yes, I intend to attend the [] GAMEON-ARABIA'2010 The provisional title of my paper / exhibited software package is: With the following highlights: The paper belongs in: TICK THE CATEGORY [] Games Development Methodology [] Artificial Intelligence [] Learning and Adaptation [] Intelligent/Knowledgeable Agents [] Collaboration & Multi-agent Systems [] Opponent Modelling [] Physics and Simulation/Graphical Simulation [] 3D Scalability [] Facial, Avatar, NPC, 3D in Game Animation [] AI and Simulation Tools for games design [] Game Design [] Rendering Techniques [] Voice Interaction [] Artistic input to game and character design [] Affective Computing [] Storytelling and Natural Language Processing [] Online Gaming - Security Issues in Online Gaming [] Web-Based Games [] MMOG's [] Serious gaming [] Wargaming Aerospace Simulations, Board Games etc.... [] Games for training [] Games Applications in education, Government, health, Corporate... [] Games Consoles [] Games Console Design [] Mobile Gaming [] Perceptual User Interfaces for Games [] Poster Session [] Student Session [] Tutorials [] Exhibition

Circuit Bending, Breaking and Mending

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:43:16 +0000

CAADRIA 2011 Call for Papers - Abstract Due September 7, 2010 Circuit Bending, Breaking and Mending The 16th International Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia Dates: April 27-29, 2011 Host: School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Australia Submission guidelines and other information: http://www.caadria2011.org/ Contemporary advances in design are shaped by computational design methods, strategies and technologies, regardless of whether these advances are manifested in the design and construction of a building, in related theory and analysis, or in the ways in which future designers and scholars are educated. Architectural computation in the post-digital era calls for new ideas that will transcend conventional boundaries and support creative insights through design and into design. "Circuit Bending, Breaking and Mending" provides an interdisciplinary context for challenging traditional paradigms and invites researchers and practitioners alike to (re)consider and (re)address design and computation with a particular focus on three themes: Innovative design conceptualisation and support through computational theories and technologies. Enhanced knowledge of architecture and design through computational analysis. Improved approaches to design education through computational thinking and applications. CAADRIA 2011 invites submissions of original research papers, posters and exhibitions on topics related to computer-aided design, including but not limited to: -Design intelligence and automation -Generative and parametric design -Simulation and visualisation -Virtual and interactive environments -Human-computer interaction -Ubiquitous computing -Computer-supported design collaboration -Design cognition -Digital art and new media -Computational research in design education -Computational research in design practice -Interdisciplinary computational design research -Theory, philosophy and methodology of computational design research Young researchers currently involved in postgraduate studies are invited to submit their work-in-progress research papers to the CAADRIA 2011 Postgraduate Student Consortium. Important Dates Abstract submission: September 7, 2010 Full paper submission: December 1, 2010 Poster and Exhibition Submission: February 1, 2011 Postgraduate Student Consortium Submission: February 1, 2011 Young CAADRIA Award Application: February 1, 2011 Sasada Award Application: November 30, 2011 CAADRIA 2011 Organising Committee Dr. Ning Gu (Chair), Josephine Vaughan (Co-chair) Professor Michael Ostwald, Associate Professor Anthony Williams University of Newcastle, Australia Contact: ning.gu@newcastle.edu.au, josephine.vaughan@newcastle.edu.au CAADRIA 2011 Paper Selection Committee Dr. Christiane M Herr (Chair), National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan Dr. Ning Gu, University of Newcastle, Australia Dr. Stanislav Roudavski, University of Melbourne, Australia Associate Professor Marc Aurel Schnabel, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Contact: psc@caadria-review.org

The 2nd International Conference on Society and Information Technologies

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:44:17 +0000

The 2nd International Conference on Society and Information Technologies: ICSIT 2011 (www.2011iiisconferences.org/ICSIT) and/or to The 2nd International Conference on Education, Training, and Informatics: ICETI 2011 (www.2011iiisconferences.org/ICETI) (March 27th - 30th, 2011 - Orlando, Florida, USA) Below are the deadlines for ICSIT/ICETI 2011: Papers/Abstracts Submission and Invited Session Proposals: September 8th, 2010 Authors Notifications: November 15th, 2010 Camera-ready, full papers: December 6th, 2010 Technical keynote speakers will be selected from early submissions because this selection requires an additional evaluation according to the quality of the paper, assessed by its reviewers, the authors' CV and the paper's topic. All Submitted papers/abstracts will go through three reviewing processes: (1) double-blind (at least three reviewers), (2) non-blind, and (3) participative peer reviews. These three kinds of review will support the selection process of those papers/abstracts that will be accepted for their presentation at the conference, as well as those to be selected for their publication in JSCI Journal. Pre-Conference and Post-conference Virtual sessions (via electronic forums) will be held for each session included in the conference program, so that sessions papers can be read before the conference, and authors presenting at the same session can interact during one week before and after the conference. Authors can also participate in peer-to-peer reviewing in virtual sessions. Submissions for Face-to-Face or for Virtual Participation are both accepted. Both kinds of submissions will have the same reviewing process and the accepted papers will be included in the same proceedings. Authors of accepted papers who registered in the conference can have access to the evaluations and possible feedback provided by the reviewers who recommended the acceptance of their papers/abstracts, so they can accordingly improve the final version of their papers. Non-registered authors will not have access to the reviews of their respective submissions. Registration fees of an effective invited session organizer will be waived according to the policy described in the web page (click on 'Invited Session', then on 'Benefits for the Organizers of Invited Sessions'), where you can get information about the ten benefits for an invited session organizer. For Invited Sessions Proposals, please visit the conference web site, or directly to http://www.2011iiisconferences.org/icsit/organizer.asp Authors of the best 10%-20% of the papers presented at the conference (included those virtually presented) will be invited to adapt their papers for their publication in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics.

Leisure Experiences CFP

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:45:41 +0000

Chapters exploring the use and impact of new technologies on leisure experiences are sought for a book project with Jason Rutter and Mariek Vanden Abeele. Abstracts are requested by 15th October 2010. This collection will focus on people’s interaction with new technologies to manage, negotiate and facilitate their leisure. It will emphasize user practice, attitudes and experience and their changing place within developing social, technical and economic frameworks. It will look at how users have adopted, integrated and innovated with new technologies to facilitate both routine and extraordinary leisure. The full call for papers can be viewed at http://madebyjase.com/cfp-new-technologies/ and http://www.scribd.com/doc/35717502/CfP-New-Technologies-and-the-Changing-Landscapes-of-Leisure.

Book CFP: Digital Game Studies Book Series - FPS

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:47:18 +0000

Continuum Approaches to Digital Game Studies Book Series (Edited Collection on Digital Role-playing Games and Edited Collection on First Person Shooters) These two collections will be the first two titles in a larger series of edited volumes, Approaches to Digital Game Studies, published by Continuum. Each book in the series will be organized around a thematic or functional genre of game. Although digital game genres and the criteria for defining such genres are contested and dynamic categories, exploring the promises and pitfalls of genre is precisely one of the goals the series hopes to accomplish. Additionally, the series will bring the insights of a variety of scholarly disciplines to bear on the analysis of digital games in order to better understand the nature of this medium, its role in reshaping civic life and its impact on the production, circulation and contestation of global and local cultures. Potential chapter contributions will be vetted by the series Review Board and invited manuscripts will be reviewed by the series Editors and approved by the Review Board. Series Review Board: Mia Conslavo, University of Ohio James Paul Gee, Arizona State University Helen Kennedy, University of the West of England* Frans Mayra, University of Tampere Toby Miller, University of California, Riverside* Torril Elvira Mortensen, University of Utrech* Lisa Nakamura, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Gareth Schott, University of Waikato Mark JP Wolf, Concordia University Wisconsin (* indicates commitment still subject to final contract) Series Editors: Gerald Voorhees, High Point University Joshua Call, Grand View University Katie Whitlock, California State University, Chico Edited Collection on Digital Role-playing Games: “Dungeons, Dragons and Digital Denizens: Digital Role-playing Games” One of the most popular and culturally significant game genres, digital role-playing games (RPGs) generate a rich tapestry of technologies, players, communities, cultures and commercial forces. This edited collection, provisionally titled, “Dungeons, Dragons and Digital Denizens: Digital Role-playing Games,” is designed for a broad academic audience and will feature essays that either examine specific games or consider the genre as a whole. We invite scholars and critics to contribute to this edited collection of essays exploring the theory and criticism of digital RPGs. The collection will publish essays on digital RPGs that engage the theory and criticism of console, computer and/or massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). However, contributions not focused on MMORPGs are especially encouraged. Contributions from all academic disciplines and geographic regions are invited. The collection and series aim to advance theory and criticism by bringing different voices and perspectives into conversation. However, critical inquiry is preferred. All contributions must be the original work of the author and cannot be published elsewhere, unless author retains copyrights. For co-authored essays, all authors must agree to submission of work. For consideration, please send an abstract to gamestudies.books@gmail.com by September 15, 2011. Abstracts should be 500 words and must outline a theoretically grounded approach to a specific game or set of games. Completed essays must be 7000 words (including notes and references) and Continuum uses Chicago Manual of Style for references. Reprints will be considered on a case by case basis. Provisional Timeline: Abstracts will be accepted until September 15, 2010 Abstracts will be evaluated and requests for manuscripts will be issued by October 15, 2010 Completed manuscript will be required by January 15, 2010 Revisions must be completed by March 1, 2011 Edited Collection on First Person Shooters: “Guns, Grenades and Grunts: First Person Shooter Games” Known for their graphical extravagance and social recognition, first-person shooters have long held a highly visible position among digital games. This edited collection, provisionally titled, “Guns, Grenades, and Grunts: First-Person Shooter Games” is designed for a broad academic audience and will feature essays that either examine specific games or consider the genre as a whole. We invite scholars and critics to contribute to this edited collection of essays exploring the theory and criticism of FPS games. The collection will publish essays on FPS games that engage the theory and criticism of console, computer and hand-held FPS games. Contributions from all academic disciplines and geographic regions are invited. The collection and series aim to advance theory and criticism by bringing different voices and perspectives into conversation. However, critical inquiry is preferred. All contributions must be the original work of the author and cannot be published elsewhere, unless author retains copyrights. For co-authored essays, all authors must agree to submission of work. For consideration, please send an abstract to gamestudies.books@gmail.com by November 15, 2011. Abstracts should be 500 words and must outline a theoretically grounded approach to a specific game or set of games. Completed essays must be 7000 words (including notes and references) and Continuum uses Chicago Manual of Style for references. Reprints will be considered on a case by case basis. Provisional Timeline: Abstracts will be accepted until November 15, 2010 Abstracts will be evaluated and requests for manuscripts will be issued by January 1, 2011 Completed manuscript will be required by April 1, 2011 Revisions must be completed by July 15, 2011 Queries and questions may also be sent to gamestudies.books@gmail.com.

5th International Conference on Digital Media and Digital Content Management

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:48:31 +0000

5th International Conference on Digital Media and Digital Content Management (DMDCM’2010, originally called DMAMH) =========== Sponsored by: VR Committee, China Society of Image and Graphics DEARC, Zhejiang University, China Co-Sponsored by:

Natural Science Foundation in China

The International Journal of Virtual Reality

Hosted by:

Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing, China General Information:

The 5th International Conference on Digital Media and Digital Content Management (DMDCM’2010, originally called DMAMH) will be organized by the VR Committee, China Society of Image and Graphics. The goal of the conference is to provide a forum for researchers in digital media, digital content, museum, multimedia community to describe recent advances, to exchange up-to-date technical knowledge and experiences, and to debate their views on future research and developments. Keynote speeches will be delivered by world-renowned experts in the field. Conference proceedings will be published by IEEE publisher (EI index). Selected best papers will be recommended to be published in Springer LNCS Transactions on Edutainment (EI index), The International Journal of Virtual Reality (published in USA) and International journal of arts and technology (IJART).

Topics include but are not limited to:

Digital Media and processing Digital Content management Digital Media Transmissions Digital Right Management Digital Museum

Geometry Modeling

Image Based Rendering

Real Time Rendering

Computer Animation

3D Reconstruction

Geographic Information System (GIS) Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality Web-based Demonstration Papers Submission:

Authors are requested to submit full papers (in English) of no more than eight (8) pages (including text, figures and references) describing the original results of their research work. Submissions should be in IEEE format on A4 or 8 1/2" x 11" paper using a single column and 10 to 12 point Times font. Each copy of the paper should have a cover page containing the title of the paper, the names and addresses (including fax and E-mail) of the authors, and an abstract of no more than 200 words. The submission should be directed to:

All papers will be reviewed by at least two referees. The selection criteria will include the accuracy and originality of ideas, the clarity and significance of results, and the quality of the presentation.

Conference Organization:

Honorary Co-chairs

Quanli Liu (Chongqing University of Technology, China)

Takeo Ojika ( Gifu University, Japan)

Conference Co-chairs

Zhigeng Pan (Zhejiang University, China)

A Elrhalibi (Liverpool John Moores University, UK)

Thanos Vasilakos (Univ. of Western Macedonia, Greece)

Program Co-chairs

Alexei Souuri (NTU, Singapore)

Mengjun Zhang (National Defense S&T University, China)

Xubo Yang (Shanghai Jiaotong University, China)

Publicity co-chairs:

Dacheng TAO (NTU, Singapore)

Jiejie Zhu (University of Central Florida, USA)

Feng Tian (Bournemouth University, UK)

Publication chair:

Yong Liu (Zhejiang University, China)

Organizing Co-Chairs

Yue Wang (Chongqing University of Technology, China)

Zhuang Chen( Chongqing University of Technology, China)

Xiang Zhang (Dalian University, China)

General Secretary

Yong Wang (Chongqing University of Technology, China)

For further information, please contact:

General Secretary

Email: dmamh2010@cqut.edu.cn

http://dmamh.cqit.edu.cN

VR Continuum and Its Applications in Industry CFP

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:49:02 +0000

Call for Paper The 9th International Conference on VRCAI (VR Continuum and Its Applications in Industry) VRCAI 2010 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ▪ Dates: Dec. 12-13, 2010 ▪ Venue: COEX Seoul Korea ▪ Website: www.vrcai2010.org Sponsor: ACM SIGGRAPH (In process) Supporting Organizations: VRSJ (VR Society of Japan) NICT (National Institute of Information and Communciations Technology), Japan URCF (Ultra Realistic Communication Forum), Japan ADADA (Asia Digital Art and Design Association) KIISE (Korean Institute of Information & Scientists and Engineers) HCI Korea KMMS (Korea Multimedia Society) KMCC (KAIST-MSR Collaboration Center) INTRODUCTION The 9th International Conference on VR Continuum and Its Applications in Industry (VRCAI2010) will be held on Dec. 12-13, 2010 in Seoul and will take place just before SIGGRAPH Asia 2010 (Dec. 15-18) in COEX Seoul. VRCAI 2009 will focus on the following main themes: Fundamentals(Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality,etc.), VR Related Technology in Computer Graphics, VR Systems, Interactions, and Industry and Applications. PAPER SUBMISSION Workshop and Special Session Proposals Full Papers (not exceeding 8 pages) Short Papers (not exceeding 4 pages) Posters (not exceeding 2 pages) All Workshop and Special Session proposals must include the organizer/lecturer’s name, affiliation, mailing address, phone number, fax number and email address together with title, objective, contents, number of speakers, and expected number of participants. Workshop and Special Session proposals must be submitted to hsyang@kaist.edu All Paper & poster submissions must include the author's name(s), affiliation, complete mailing address, phone number,fax number and email address. Papers & posters should be submitted through the automated EasyChair system at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=vrcai2010 either in PostScript or PDF format Feel free to broadcast this information and to encourage people to submit papers, posters, workshop & special sessionl proposals to VRCAI 2010. You can submit, check and update your data at the following URL: https://www.easychair.org/login.cgi?conf=vrcai2010 ■ IMPORTANT DATES Deadline for Workshop & Special Session Proposal Submission: March 31, 2010 Deadline for Full and Short Paper Submissions: June 30, 2010 Notification of Acceptance for Full and Short Paper Submissions: July 30, 2010 Deadline for Poster Submissions: August 20, 2010 Notification of Acceptance for Poster Submissions: Sept. 20, 2010 Camera Ready Copy: Oct. 15, 2010 PUBLICATIONS All accepted peer-reviewed papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings and available at the conference and will be included in ACM digital library. Please use the ACM format for your paper. SPECIAL ISSUE IN JOURNALS A special issue with the top 6-8 long papers will be published in the special issue of International Journal of Visual Computing (SCI indexed Journal). CONFERENCE COMMITTEE General Chairs: Hyun Seung Yang: Dean of Research KAIST; Director of KAIST-Microsoft Research Collaboration Center (KMCC), Korea Katsumasa Enami: Director General, Keihanna Research Laboratories NICT Former Director General, NHK S&T Research Laboratories, Japan Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann: Professor and Director, MIRALab, University of Geneva, Switzerland Jim Chen: Professor and Director, Computer Graphics Laboratory George Mason University, USA Organizing Chairs: Masayuki Nakajima: Professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Enhua Wu: Professor of University of Macau & Academia Sinica, China Yiyu Cai: Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Program Director, Strategic Research Program of VR and Soft Computing Program Chairs: Seiki Inoue: Senior Research Engineer, NHK S&T Research Laboratories, Japan Zhigeng Pan: Chairman, VR Committee, China Society of Image and Graphics Professor, State Key Lab of CAD&CG, Zhejiang University, China Jong-IL Park: Professor, Hanyang University, Korea

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ACE 2010: 7th Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology Conference incorporating DIMEA 2010 (5th Digital Interactive Media Entertainment and Arts Conference) and in conjunction with NetGames 2010 (9th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games)

In cooperation with ACM and ACM SIGCHI

Taipei, Taiwan on 17-19 November, 2010 http://www.ace2010.org

IMPORTANT DATES (Extended Deadlines)

Workshop Proposal Submission Due: 30 June 2010 Full and Short Papers Submission Due: 16 July 2010 Poster Submission Due: 16 July 2010 Creative Show Case Submission Due: 16 July 2010 Tutorial & Panel Submission Due: 30 August 2010 Mobile Game Competition Submission Due: 30 August 2010

ACE has become the leading academic forum for dissemination of novel research results in the area of entertainment computing. Interactive entertainment is one of the most vibrant areas of interest in modern society and ACE is its premier forum. The goal of ACE 2010 is to bring together researchers and practitioners from industry and academia to present and discuss their work in a stimulating and challenging environment. This year ACE is incorporating with DIMEA 2010 (5th Digital Interactive Media Entertainment and Arts Conference) and NetGames 2010 (9th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games). ACE is naturally a multi-disciplinary conference expected to attract people across a wide spectrum of interests and disciplines including, but not limited to, arts, sociology, anthropology, psychology, marketing, computer science and design. The goal of ACE is to stimulate discussion in the development and advancement of interactive art and entertainment applications. It, thus, strides to balance several interdisciplinary areas and seeks representation in all these areas, including, but not limited to: - Affective Computing - Animation Techniques - Audio Design - Augmented & Mixed Reality - Digital Cinema - Digital Entertainment - Elderly Entertainment - Experience Design - Game Production - Game Programming - Game Techniques - Human-Robots Interaction - Mobile & Ubiquitous Entertainment - Museum Applications - Novel Gaming Interfaces (Tabletop Interfaces, Tangible Interfaces) - Smart Gadgets & Toys - Special Effects - Usability & Playability - User-Centered Design - Visual Arts To encourage presentation of such multi-disciplinary work, we invite submissions that fall into the following tracks: - Full Papers: Original unpublished technical, design, and theory/social impact. Submissions to this track should not exceed 8pages in ACM format. - Short Papers: Original unpublished technical, design, and theory/social impact. Submissions to this track should not exceed 4 pages in ACM format. - Posters: Breakthroughs in technical research, content design, industry applications, and entertainment theories/social impact researches are invited. Submissions to this track should not exceed 2 pages in ACM format. - Creative Showcase: The Creative Showcase is open to a large variety of submissions including, but not limited to: * Technical demonstrations of prototype technologies of advanced entertainment technology * All varieties of video and computer games * Interactive art, drama, fiction and other narrative forms * Web and mobile-based computer entertainment * Audio, visual and other sensory forms of digital interaction Submissions to this track should be accompanied of a one page abstract in ACM format. All accepted submissions will be published in conference proceedings. - Workshop Proposal Conference workshops typically provide valuable in-depth discussions of specific topics in computer entertainment technology. If you are working in an emerging area in entertainment computing, please consider organizing a workshop. They are an opportunity to move a new field forward and build community. These workshops may consist of both invited and contributed papers that will highlight exciting new developments and currents trends of research.

- Panel & Tutorial Proposal

Tutorial proposals will be considered for half-day and full-day tutorials. Topics should have a direct relevance to the interest of ACE2010. Any other topic expected to be of special interest and relevance at the time of ACE2010 is also encouraged.

Panels should focus on emerging technologies, controversial issues, or unsolved problems in the Computer Entertainment Technology community to stimulate lively, thoughtful, and thought-provoking debate. We expect the panelists to actively engage the audience and help them gain a deeper understanding of the issues. The goal of a panel is to debate and thus panels should always reflect more than one point of view.

- Mobile Game Competition

The ACE2010 game contest is a worldwide competition for students. It emphasizes on the engineering aspects of game development, not limited to programming. To take part in the competition, teams must register and follow the contest rules as outlined below. Teams submit full software products, covering the whole software development process. After a careful evaluation carried out by the Program Committee, several finalist teams will be invited to ACE 2010 in Taipei to present and demonstrate their projects and receive their awards in the conference

Submissions of papers will be online on our conference website:

https://precisionconference.com/~ace10/

Paper accepted at ACE 2010 will be archived in ACM Digital Library, where it will remain accessible to thousands of researchers and practitioners worldwide.

- Full Paper will be published in a special issue of Computers in Entertainment (ACM)

- Short Paper will be published in a special issue of Entertainment Computing (Elsevier).

- Creative Showcase will be published in a special issue of International Journal of Arts and Technology (Inderscience).

Awards: Best papers and creative showcases will be selected based on a jury of well respected pioneers in the field attending the conference. We honor the authors of these publications by presenting awards including: * Paper award categories: Gold, Silver, and Bronze. * Creative showcase award categories: Gold, Silver, and Bronze

9th International Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games CFP

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:49:24 +0000

The 9th International Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games November 16 and 17, 2010, Taipei, Taiwan In co-operation with ACM SIGCOMM http://netgames2010.ntpu.edu.tw/ OVERVIEW ======== The 9th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games (NetGames 2010) will be held in Taipei, Taiwan, on November 16-17, 2010. The NetGames workshop brings together researchers and developers from academia and industry to present new research in understanding networked games of today and in enabling the next generation of future networked games. Submissions are sought in any area related to networked games. In particular, topics of interest include (but are not limited to): - Artificial intelligence - Augmented physical systems - Cheat detection and prevention - Experiences on large-scale gaming system design and implementation - Impact of online game growth on network infrastructure - Input devices, haptics and accessibility - Latency issues and lag compensation techniques - Messaging and conferencing in games - Mobile and resource-constrained systems - Network measurement and traffic modeling - Network protocol design - Networks of sensors and actuators - Operating system enhancements, service platforms, and middleware - P2P & scalable system architectures - Quality of service and content adaptation - Security, authentication, accounting and digital rights management - System benchmarking, performance evaluation, and provisioning - User and usability studies - User behavior and social network in games - User-generated content authoring and management - Virtualization technology applied to games - Results that reproduce (or refute) previous published results SUBMISSIONS =========== NetGames 2010 welcomes submissions of full papers, as well as extended abstracts reporting work-in-progress. Full papers must be no longer than 6 pages (inclusive of all figures, references and appendices). Extended abstracts must be no longer than 2 pages, and will be presented as Posters in an interactive setting. Authors must submit their papers in PDF and use single-spaced, double column IEEE conference format. Full papers must not exceed SIX pages (including all figures, references and appendices). Short papers and demonstrations must not exceed TWO pages. Reviews will be single-blind, authors must include their names and affiliations on the first page. Papers will be judged on their relevance, technical content and correctness, and the clarity of presentation of the research. Papers should not be under review at another venue nor previously published elsewhere. All accepted papers will be archived in the ACM Digital Library and published in the workshop proceedings. Submission of a paper for review will be considered your agreement that at least one author will register and attend if your paper is accepted. COMMITTEE ========= Steering Committee: Maha Abdallah (University of Paris 6, France) Grenville Armitage (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia) Adrian Cheok (National University of Singapore) Mark Claypool (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA) Wu-chang Feng (Portland State University, USA) Tristan Henderson (University of St Andrews, UK) Sugih Jamin (University of Michigan, USA) Anees Shaikh (IBM Watson Research, USA) Lars Wolf (Technische Universitat Braunschweig, Germany) Honorary General Chair: Chung-Weun Hou (President of National Taipei University, Taiwan) General Chairs: Adrian Cheok (Keio University, Japan & National University of Singapore, Singapore) Jiung-Yao Huang (National Taipei University, Taiwan) Yutaka Ishibashi (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan) Program Chairs: Kuan-Ta Chen (Academia Sinica, Taiwan) Henry Been-Lirn Duh (National University of Singapore, Singapore) Jehn-Ruey Jiang (National Central University, Taiwan) Local Organizing Chair: Shu-Shen Wai (National Taipei University, Taiwan) Publication Chairs: Maha Abdallah (University of Paris 6, France) Shun-Yun Hu (Academia Sinica, Taiwan) Publicity Chair: Tainchi Lu (National Chiayi University, Taiwan) Technical Program Committee: Maha Abdallah (University of Paris 6, France) Sharad Agarwal (Microsoft Research, USA) Grenville Armitage (Swinburne University, Australia) Mark Claypool (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA) Varvello Matteo (Alcatel-Lucent, USA) Wu-chang Feng (Portland State University, USA) Wu-chi Feng (Portland State University, USA) Stefano Ferretti (University di Bologna, Italy) Tobias Fritsch (Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany) Carsten Griwodz (University of Oslo, Norway) Pal Halvorsen (University of Oslo, Norway) Tristan Henderson (University of St Andrews, UK) Shun-Yun Hu (Academia Sinica, Taiwan) Polly Huang (National Taiwan University, Taiwan) John Miller (Microsoft Research, UK) Wei Tsang Ooi (National University of Singapore) Marius Preda (Institute TELECOM, France) Farzad Safaei (University of Wollongong, Australia) Travis Schluessler (Intel Corporation, USA) Shervin Shirmohammadi (University of Ottawa, Canada) Ruck Thawonmas (Ritsumeikan University, Japan) Lars Wolf (Technische University Braunschweig, Germany) Roger Zimmermann (National University of Singapore, Singapore) JongWon Kim (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Korea) Tatsuhiro Yonekura (Ibaraki University, Japan) Keiichi Yasumoto (Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan) Shusuke Okamoto (Seikei University, Japan) Dai Hanawa (Seikei University, Japan) Hiroshi Fujinoki (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, USA) Important DATES =============== Paper registration: July 19, 2010 Paper submission: July 26, 2010 Author notification: September 24, 2010 Camera ready submission: October 15, 2010 Workshop Dates: November 16-17, 2010

TANGIBLE, EMBEDDED AND EMBODIED INTERACTION (TEI) 2011

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:49:57 +0000

TANGIBLE, EMBEDDED AND EMBODIED INTERACTION (TEI) 2011 23rd-26th January 2011, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal http://tei-conf.org IMPORTANT DATES 1st August 2010, 23:59 BST (UTC+1) 2010: Papers, Studio and Workshop Proposals 17th October 2010, 23:59 BST (UTC+1) 2010: Explorations (GSC, Arts, Design) 31st October 2010, 23:59 BST (UTC+1) 2010: Workshop Papers 10th December 2010, 23:59 BST (UTC+1) 2010: Early registration deadline 23rd-26th January 2011: TEI Conference in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal TEI is the premier venue for cutting edge research on interaction with tangible artefacts and systems. We invite submissions of prototypes and daring ideas, tools and technologies, methods and models, as well as interactive art, interaction design, and user experience that contribute new understandings to the broad area of tangible computing, embodied interaction, interactive surfaces and embedded interactive systems. The 5th edition of the highly successful Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI) Conference series will be held between 23rd and 26th January 2011 in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. Papers will be published in the ACM digital library. In recent years, computing has progressively moved beyond the desktop into new physical and social contexts. As physical artifacts gain new computational behaviors, they become reprogrammable, customizable, repurposable, and interoperable in rich ecologies and diverse contexts. They also become more complex, and require intense design effort in order to be functional, usable, and enjoyable. Designing such systems demands interdisciplinary thinking. Their creation must encompass software, electronics, and mechanics, but also the system's physical form and behavior, its social and physical milieu, and beyond. Research on tangible and embedded interaction has gained substantial visibility and activity over the past decade and it has worn many names, including tangible interfaces, graspable interfaces, physical computing, tangible interaction, IT product design, appliance design, interactive spaces. It has also been associated with larger research areas, including mixed, virtual, and augmented reality and ubiquitous and pervasive computing. TEI brings together this emerging field, providing a meeting ground for the diverse communities of research and practice - from computing, hardware, and sensor technology, to HCI, interaction design, and CSCW, to product and industrial design and interactive arts. We invite submissions from all these perspectives, be they theoretical, conceptual, technical, applied, or artistic. The conference is designed to provide appropriate presentation forms for different types of contributions including talks, interactive exhibits, demos or performances, and posters. Accepted submissions of all types will be included in the Proceedings as papers and will be integrated within the single-track conference. Interdisciplinary submissions are particularly welcome. TOPICS for SUBMISSION Authors are invited to submit high-quality work detailing original research that contributes to advancing the field. Appropriate topics include but are not limited to: - Case studies and evaluations of working deployments - Analysis of key challenges, proposals of research agenda - Relation of tangible embodied and embedded interaction to other paradigms - Programming paradigms and tools, toolkits, software architectures - Novel interactive uses of sensors+actuators, electronics+mechatronics - Design guidelines, methods, and processes - Novel application areas, innovative solutions/systems and industrial applications - Theoretical foundations, frameworks, and concepts - Philosophical, ethical & social implications - Interfaces specific in form and context to particular cultures - Usability and enjoyment - Advantages, weakness, affordances of tangible, embedded and embodied interaction - Learning from the role of physicality in everyday environments - Tangible interfaces for children and learning - Embodied interaction, movement, and choreography of interaction - Role of physicality for human perception, cognition and experience - Teaching experiences, lessons learned, and best practices - Standardization, production, and business applications - Tangible interaction for artistic, expressive and musical systems - Tabletop, surface, and multi-touch interaction PAPERS Papers must present original material and will be reviewed rigorously by at least three reviewers in a double-blind process. Papers in all areas will be assessed on their contribution to the field. Papers are due 1st August 2010. Papers may be 8, 4, or 2 pages long in ACM SIGCHI 2-column format. All papers will undergo the same review process and be published in the same way. Length must match the contribution, and the same general criteria hold for all papers. Regardless of length, a paper may be presented as a talk, poster, exhibit or demo. For example, a novel design might be presented as an interactive exhibit and published as an 8 page paper, while a novel sensor technique might be presented as a talk and published as a 2 page paper - or vice versa. On submission authors may propose the presentation format(s) that they feel best suits their contribution (talk, demo or poster). TEI 2011 remains committed to the principle followed in previous TEI conferences - that TEI values all submissions equally. One author of each accepted submission must register for the conference before the early registration deadline in order for the final paper version to appear in the conference proceedings. Please contact the Program Chairs Ellen Yi-Luen Do, Stephen Brewster and Ian Oakley on tei-2011-papers@googlegroups.com with questions about Paper submissions. PROPOSALS for STUDIOS TEI 2011 invites proposals for one-day or half-day studios to be held in multiple tracks on Sunday, 23rd January 2011. Studios are hands-on events that offer novel practical experiences to conference attendees with diverse skills and technical backgrounds. Studio proposals can range from the exploration of new development toolkits, to prototype design techniques, and the creative application of emerging or traditional materials. Emphasis is on making, building, creating and hacking. Each studio should aim to host between 10 and 15 participants. Arrangements will be made to present the results on subsequent single-track days of the conference. Studio proposals are due 1st August 2010. Please contact the Workshops and Studios Co-Chairs, Pedro Branco and Jos van Leeuwen on tei-2011-w-s@googlegroups.com, with questions about Studios. PROPOSALS for WORKSHOPS TEI 2011 invites proposals for half- or full-day workshops to be held in multiple tracks on Sunday, 23rd January 2011. Workshops are traditional mini-symposia on specialized topics that complement the main program. These might address basic or applied research issues, tackle a particular interdisciplinary topic, consider a new methodology or examine an emerging application area. While they may involve a practical component, the emphasis is on the collation, curation and dissemination of workshop papers. Organisers are encouraged to arrange for later publication of extended versions of these submissions in a journal special issue. Workshop proposals are due 1st August 2010. Please contact the Workshops and Studios Co-Chairs, Pedro Branco and Jos van Leeuwen on tei-2011-w-s@googlegroups.com, with questions about Studios. EXPLORATIONS The TEI 2011 Explorations comprise several submission formats intended to embrace and nurture contributions from a wide range of communities - such as artists, designers and graduate students - as well as support the publication of cutting edge research. TEI Explorations include the Graduate Student Consortium and Art tracks (both successfully inaugurated at TEI'10) as well as a new Tangible Interaction Design Challenge. The submission deadline for these tracks is 17th October 2010; full details will be confirmed in subsequent CfPs. * * * * * VENUE INFORMATION TEI 2011 will take place in Funchal, the capital of the Madeira archipelago, an autonomous region of Portugal. A popular and easily accessible tourist destination, Madeira offers a compelling combination of breath-taking scenery, great food, a relaxed lifestyle and rich local colour. TEI 2011 in Funchal promises to be a memorable experience, and Madeira has much to offer those who stay a few extra days. * * * * * CONFERENCE CHAIRS Mark D. Gross (Carnegie Mellon University, USA and Modular Robotics, USA) Nuno Nunes (University of Madeira, Portugal) PROGRAM CHAIRS Ellen Yi-Luen Do (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) Stephen Brewster (University of Glasgow, UK) Ian Oakley (University of Madeira, Portugal) STUDIO and WORKSHOP CHAIRS Pedro Branco (University of Minho, Portugal) Jos van Leeuwen (University of Madeira, Portugal) DESIGN CHALLENGE CHAIR Leah Buechley, (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA) GSC CHAIRS Jussi Ã„ngeslevÃ¤ (ART+COM and University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany) Ali Mazalek (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) DEMO CHAIRS Floyd Mueller (University of Melbourne, Australia and Stanford University, USA) Vassilis Kostakos (University of Madeira, Portugal) ART EXPLORATIONS CHAIRS Valentina Nisi (University of Madeira, Portugal) Ivan Poupyrev (Disney Research, USA) PUBLICITY CHAIRS Enrico Costanza (University of Southhampton,UK) Carson Reynolds (University of Tokyo, Japan) Daniela Rosner (University of California, Berkeley) Amanda Williams (Concordia University, Canada) SPONSORSHIP CHAIR Nuno Correia (New University of Lisbon, Portugal) WEB CHAIR Ray Yun (Carnegie Mellon University, USA) * * * TEI STEERING COMMITTEE Mike Fraser (University of Bristol, UK) Hans Gellersen (University of Lancaster, UK) Eva Hornecker (University of Strathclyde, UK) Elise van den Hoven (TU/e, Netherlands) Caroline Hummels (TU/e, Netherlands) Hiroshi Ishii (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA) Shahram Izadi (Microsoft Research, UK) Rob Jacob (Tufts University, USA) Ali Mazalek (Georgia Tech, USA) Albrecht Schmidt (University Duisburg-Essen, Germany) Brygg Ullmer (Louisiana State University, USA) Nicolas Villar (Microsoft Research, UK)

Meaningful Play Conference

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:22:46 +0000

One of the best game conferences in the Midwest USA is fast approaching. Whether designed to entertain or to achieve more "serious" purposes, games have the potential to impact players' beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, emotions, cognitive abilities, physical and mental health, and behavior. Meaningful Play 2010 is a conference about theory, research, and game design innovations, principles and practices. Meaningful Play brings scholars and industry professionals together to understand and improve upon games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways. The conference will include thought-provoking keynotes from leaders in academia and industry, peer-reviewed paper presentations, panel sessions (including academic and industry discussions), innovative workshops, roundtable discussions, and exhibitions of games and prototypes. go to http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu