[Exi-bay-announce] Superstruct: How to invent the future by playing online games

[Amara Graps]

Hi there... this looks like an interesting talk for you Bay Area folks...

Amara


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

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

Speaker:  Jane McGonigal
           Institute for the Future


About the talk:

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


About the game:

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

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

    Q: Why should I play Superstruct?

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

    Q: What does ’Äúsuperstruct’Äù mean?

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

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

    Q: Who can play Superstruct?

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

    Q: How do I play Superstruct?

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

    Q: Who is making Superstruct?

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

    Q: When can I play Superstruct?

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

Slides:

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

About the speaker:

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

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


ABOUT THE COLLOQUIUM:

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

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Amara Graps, Ph.D.             |
Department of Space Studies    |  amara at boulder.swri.edu
Southwest Research Institute   |  tel: +1 (720) 240-0128
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Boulder, Colorado 80302 USA    |  www.amara.com
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I'M SIGNIFICANT!...screamed the dust speck. -- Calvin