A collaborative multiplayer simulation game, played by walking around the playground and trying to survive an epidemic - one out of five scenarios, I happened to play the Nice 2015 (Chikungunya fever, caused by tiger mosquito bites).
[Cité des Sciences, La Villette, Paris, 10/2008 - 01/2010]
The first time I played boomshine, a small and elegant casual game, I was fascinated by the idea that such an engaging and nice game could have the simplest possible interface: all the player has to do is a single mouseclick, and then watch the chain reaction evolve. In addition to the extreme compactness and soundness of the playing interface, I acknowledged a certain aesthetic quality of the experience.
It was therefore a small epiphany to recognize the visual impact of the game as a far echo of a work of art - Einige Kreise (Vassily Kandisky, 1926), currently exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
While political affiliation does not have a significant impact on online identity, it sure has it on identity altogether. Although, one could interpret the low turnout in the European general election as a symptom of an increasing sense of detachment.
In a comment to my previous post, Enrica asks whether I'm satisfied with the result. Honestly, not very much:
On the bright side, there are some signals of hope:
Ah yes, about my individual representation within the EU Parliament: according to the test, I must feel represented by the Luxemburgische Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei, who got one seat.
I'm not sure what to expect of this new contact. Feels ok, anyway, and perhaps I will feel more engaged in the forthcoming elections.
At least, it's a way to look at the posters we haven't been able to see in Italy (why?!?)
What is the opportunity space that lies ahead for a student in journalism? Facing an audience of such students at IULM, Luca De Biase is impressed by their lack of fear: and, reasonably enough, the current crisis surely provides them with a strong motivation to find new ways of creating value - for themselves, for their readers, for their customers - whatever this means.
Old models are challenged - revenue, distribution, corporate organization - even content creation itself - and the line between roles is blurring: we used to have two extremes, a totally passive reader on one side and - at the other - the journalist, who was generally immune to even the most basic forms of input/feedback from readers (paper letters are sent to the editor).
But now - social bookmarking users, voters on digg.com, commenters and bloggers are placed all over the spectrum between these two extremes - and even passive readers, by simply choosing which titles they click on a newspaper home page, play an influential role that was not even thinkable on paper. And the one line that will blur to the point of disappearing is probably the one that separates the author and the entrepreneur, giving a thousand new meanings to the notion of freelancer. As this happens, new value-creation mechanisms will be exposed - and new revenue sources too.
In a previous post, I tried to expose some of those value exchanges - both monetary and intangible - on a diagram.
Just a few days later, I had been surprised by a new initiative by The Guardian, adding new opportunities (i.e. arrows on the diagram): a strong and daring move.
Will a broken system and a struggling economy help us define new business models for the information industry?
Related stuff:
Through the BizSpark programme, Microsoft offers to support startups (those engaged in the development of software-based products or services) by making their platforms and business solutions available for 3 years - at a symbolic price.
To participate, startups need to qualify (criteria here) and to get the sponsorship of a Network Partner such as the European Business Angels Network (EBAN).
[via Don Dodge]
Luca De Biase has deployed a listening post on his blog, collecting voices from innovators in Italy.
I wonder what the basic question is, if we want the debate to become a starting point for something more. My two cents: the relation between the individual spark and the surrounding society. How can successful stories emerge in a far-from-ideal environment?
As long as it concerns the organizations, I really think it is amazing that the percentage is not 100%.
At the same time, about one every two employees said that:
Is there a tension here? I really do not think so, as people are - most probably - aware of what can be said and what is dangerous. Under this light, official guidelines (for blogging, social networking, writing on forums,...) would be more supportive than repressive. But the subject of control
[...] A mere 17 percent of executives surveyed say they have programs in place to monitor and mitigate the possible reputational risks related to the use of social networks.
brings another question to attention: what monitoring tools are we talking about?
This is indeed a twofold problem: should such monitoring tools aim at controlling what employees do online in general (in order to possibly prevent reputation damage), or at trying to be aware of any conversation about the brand/company/organization ...and possibly enabling employees (by providing them with actionable guidelines) to play an active, positive role?
As the EU Parliament election day draws closer, more and more political self-assessment tools are published. Besides an enjoyable toy, I found this one [EU Profiler] as a particularly meaningful one in both scope (as it maps one's answers on parties from all Europe) and depth, as answers are weighed against personal focus on different subjects.
As for myself, the most interesting outcome is that the first italian party ranks #30 in my pan-european match list. According to this tool, I'd be much better off in the Netherlands - or as a follower of a tiny party in Slovenia.
The graph shows how the best match maps to my choices in the questionnaire:
[via linnea.biz]
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