Social Change Technology

In episode 13 of Social Change Technology Burcu Bakioglu (Postdoctoral Fellow in New Media at Lawrence University) returns to talks to Hector Postigo about his new book The Digital Rights Movement: The Role of Technology in Subverting Digital Copyright. Hector is Associate Professor in the Department of Broadcasting, Telecommunications, and Mass Media in the School of Communications and Theater at Temple University. In the podcast Burcu and Hector discuss the complex relationships between technology, law and emergent social movements such as what became known as the digital rights movement. To make sure you catch every episode, you can subscribe to Social Change Technology on iTunes or via our RSS feed. Hector Postigo phd Hector’s research focuses on new digital media and cultural production both large and small.  His endeavors  have centered on 2 areas of inquiry within cultural production.  The first interrogates notions of value, participation, and “free” labor on the internet. I have looked at a number of “sites” as case studies to ask: what kinds of value does the work of fan communities, volunteers and others add to commercial enterprises?  What are their (industry and user) norms, practices and values? And how do they engage with technologies/laws/policies that afford or frustrate participation?   He was one of the first researchers to study video game fan communities that make valuable modifications to popular PC games (modders), for example, and  has written on the history of AOL volunteer communities and their labor disputes.Hector’s second line of research focuses on technologically mediated activism.  He interrogates this topic generally by asking how technological resistance structures activism in social movements? He is concerned with how ICTs, hacks, workarounds and other circumvention and organization measures might impact the role of individuals and organizations bent on social change.  His own contributions in that vein have centered on the digital rights or free culture movement and their use of technological measures as a form of activism.  Source: temple.edu The movement against restrictive digital copyright protection arose largely in response to the excesses of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. In The Digital Rights Movement, Hector Postigo shows that what began as an assertion of consumer rights to digital content has become something broader: a movement concerned not just with consumers and gadgets but with cultural ownership. Increasingly stringent laws and technological measures are more than incoveniences; they lock up access to our “cultural commons.” Postigo describes the legislative history of the DMCA and how policy “blind spots” produced a law at odds with existing and emerging consumer practices. Yet the DMCA established a political and legal rationale brought to bear on digital media, the Internet, and other new technologies. Drawing on social movement theory and science and technology studies, Postigo presents case studies of resistance to increased control over digital media, describing a host of tactics that range from hacking to lobbying. Postigo discusses the movement’s new, user-centered conception of “fair use” that seeks to legitimize noncommercial personal and creative uses such as copying legitimately purchased content and remixing music and video tracks. He introduces the concept of technological resistance–when hackers and users design and deploy technologies that allows access to digital content despite technological protection mechanisms–as the flip side to the technological enforcement represented by digital copy protection and a crucial tactic for the movement.s. Source: Publisher Dr Burcu Bakioglu Burcu is a researcher examining the social, cultural, and economic variables that affect the production of cross-media experiences. Burcu’s research adopts a broader understanding of virtual spaces that includes not only 3D environments but also printed works and social media, as ultimately, these platforms generate virtual spaces in which users can produce and share various visual representations and experiences. As such, the collaborative storytelling initiatives that are taking place through these platforms facilitate the online performances of any given work, thereby enabling it to come alive, albeit within slightly different contexts. Burcu is Postdoctoral Fellow in New Media at Lawrence University. Show Links Hector Postigo Web: www.hectorpostigo.com Twitter: @HectorPostigo Reviews for Digital Rights Movement: Jeremy Mauger, Center for Information Policy Research, http://www4.uwm.edu/cipr/blog/book-review-the-digital-rights-movement.cfm Carlos A. Arrébola, University of Cambridge, http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2013/02/09/book-review-the-digital-rights-movement-the-role-of-technology-in-subverting-digital-copyright/ Culture Digitally Q&A http://culturedigitally.org/2013/04/world-copyright-day-hector-postigos-q-and-a-with-mit-press/ Further reading: Boyle, J. (2008). The Public Domain?: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind. New Haven: Yale UP. Boyle, J. (1997). A Politics of Intellectual Property: Environmentalism for the Net? Available from http://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/intprop.htm. Litman, J. (2001). Digital Copyright?: Protecting Intellectual Property on the Internet. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. Cohen, J. (2012). Configuring the Networked Self. New Haven & London: Yale UP. Also available from http://www.juliecohen.com/page5.php Postigo, H. (2003). Emerging Sources of Labor on the Internet: The Case of America Online Volunteers. International Review of Social History. 48 (suplemental), 205–224. Postigo, H. (2009). America Online Volunteers: Lessons from an Early Co-production Community. International Journal of Cultural Studies 12(5), 451–469. Dr Burcu Bakioglu << Episode #12 The Ethics of ARGs All Episodes Next episode coming soon Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

In episode 12 of Social Change Technology Dr Burcu Bakioglu (Postdoctoral Fellow in New Media at Lawrence University) returns to talk to Andrea Phillips the award-winning transmedia writer, Alternate Reality Game designer and author. This podcast focuses on some of the fascinating ethical and legal issues brought about by ARGs (Alternate Reality Games).  What makes ARGs unique is that they are played out in the physical world but they inhabit a conceptual spaces that not only sits somewhere between fiction and reality but actively blurs the boundaries between the two. In the podcast Andrea draws on case studies of actual ARGs to ask  - can you sign a friend up for a game that might make them feel threatened? Should players every be asked to break real-world rules, if so, which ones? And, if you listen to your lawyers and add a legal disclaimer to every part of your game – is the fiction shattered, ruining the game for everyone? To make sure you catch every episode, you can subscribe to Social Change Technology on iTunes or via our RSS feed. Andrea Phillips Andrea Phillips is transmedia writer, game designer and author. Her work includes a variety of educational and commercial projects, including Floating City with Thomas Dolby, The Maester’s Path for HBO’s Game of Thrones with Campfire Media, The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour Quest with Stitch Media, America 2049 with human rights nonprofit Breakthrough, Routes Game for Channel 4 Education, the independent commercial ARG Perplex City, and The 2012 Experience for Sony Pictures. These projects have variously won the Prix Jeunesse Interactivity Prize, a Broadband Digital award, a BIMA, an IVCA Grand Prix award, the Origins Vanguard Innovation Award, and others. Two of her projects have been nominated for BAFTAs but not won. Andrea is a co-moderator for the first community of ARG players, the Cloudmakers. This 6,000-member group created many of the methods and social dynamics used by the ARG community to this day. She is also a Fellow of the Futures of Entertainment. Source: www.deusexmachinatio.com A Creator’s Guide To Transmedia Storytelling – is the first major, comprehensive resource to feature instruction on the principles of storytelling, platform selection, execution, big-picture strategy and structural considerations — plus case studies of milestone transmedia projects and interviews with more than a dozen leading transmedia creators. Source: Amazon.co.uk Shiva’s Mother and other stories – is a collection of moody, sometimes dark short stories about technology, magic, choice and sacrifice. Journey from cutting-edge nanotech to faery and back again, along the line where science fiction and fantasy blur together. Source: Amazon.co.uk Dr Burcu Bakioglu Burcu is a researcher examining the social, cultural, and economic variables that affect the production of cross-media experiences. Burcu’s research adopts a broader understanding of virtual spaces that includes not only 3D environments but also printed works and social media, as ultimately, these platforms generate virtual spaces in which users can produce and share various visual representations and experiences. As such, the collaborative storytelling initiatives that are taking place through these platforms facilitate the online performances of any given work, thereby enabling it to come alive, albeit within slightly different contexts. Burcu is Postdoctoral Fellow in New Media at Lawrence University. Show Links Andrea Phillips blog: Deus Ex Machinatio Twitter: @andrhia Transmedia works The Maesther’s Path The Floating City The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour Quest America 2049 Routes Game Perplex City Dr Burcu Bakioglu Background Toyota’s Your Other You Overview of Toyota’s Your Other You campaign The Car Connection’s coverage of the Toyota lawsuit The Game: The Seattle Times’ coverage of The Game Junko Junsui: http://junkojunsui.wikidot.com/ << Episode #11 Legal News Round up with Jas Purewal All Episodes Episode #13>> The Digital Rights Movement Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

This episode of Social Change Technology is a games and tech legal news roundup with solicitor Jas Purewal from law firm Osborne Clark. Jas is better known on the internet as @GamerLaw on twitter and editor of the Gamer Law web site. In the show we look at three items of recent news: the Infinity Ward case, the state of free to play gaming and the UK courts ordering a number of ISPs to blocking the Pirate Bay website. The Infinity Ward case involves one of the highest grossing video game franchises of all time, Call of Duty (CoD), currently estimated to have generated revenues in the region of US$3 billion. The case involves an acrimonious split between the developers of CoD, Infinity Ward, and the publishers (in the West), Activation. Allegations also arose in relation to the publisher Electronic Arts and their alleged dealings with Infinity Ward. This, as Jas points out, was a fight between the aristocracy of the video game industry and marks a coming-of-age for the video games industry, as more established industries such as film and television saw similar sorts of dispute as they started to reach maturity. The question of free-to-play is one that has arisen through a number of news stories relating mainly, but not always, to children spending considerable sums of money on games that are initially free but involve a micropayment-charging mechanism. The question that these news headlines raise, at least with the political classes, is whether this aspect of the industry should come under closer scrutiny and perhaps regulation. Lastly, Jas talks about the historic court case in the UK where a number of ISPs were obliged to block the Pirate Bay website. While rights holders argue that this is a case of reasonable measure to protect intellectual property, others suggest that it amounts to state censorship of the internet and may open the door to political censorship of online content. To make sure you catch it, you can subscribe to Social Change Technology on iTunes or via our RSS feed. Jas Purewal Jas is a commercial and intellectual property lawyer focusing on the interactive entertainment and digital media sectors. He advises clients from large companies to start-ups on a range of matters- in particular contracts negotiation, regulatory compliance and disputes. He also advises on interactive entertainment, social media and general technology matters. Jas writes regularly regarding developments in interactive entertainment and technology (including on his well respected blog Gamer/Law – www.gamerlaw.co.uk) and is a regular speaker at interactive entertainment conferences. He is quoted in a range of publications. Jas qualified as a solicitor at CMS Cameron McKenna in 2005, following which he joined Olswang in 2007 as a disputes and media lawyer. He joined Osborne Clarke in 2011. Source: Osborne Clarke Show Links Jas Purewal Website: GamerLaw Twitter @GamerLaw Web page at Osborne Clark Background Infinity Ward Case Gamer Law coverage of Infinity Ward Website: Infinity Ward Website: Call of Duty Website: Activision Website: Electronic Arts Free to Play Gamer Law coverage of Free to Play Pirate Bay Website: The Pirate Bay (if you are in the UK it’s probably blocked – see podcast for details) << Episode #10 T.L. Taylor and the rise of eSports All Episodes Episode #12>> The Ethics of ARGs Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

In Episode 10 of Social Change Technology TL Taylor talks about her new book Raising The Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming. This work, like TL’s previous book Play Between Worlds, focuses on the interplay between people, technology and institutions. In the podcast, TL charts the rise of e-sport / professional computer gaming from early arcade competitions through the LAN-party scene to the rise of e-sports leagues in South Korea, the US, and Europe. The evolution of professionalisation fo computer games has brought with it a reconsideration of what computer games and sports are, what it is to be a competitor and spectator. The growth of professionalisation has not been without its conflicts such as the relatively recent debacle between Blizzard (makers of World of Warcraft, StarCraft etc) and the South Korean e-sports body KeSPA. TL explains how ownership of the electronic ’field of play’ has become contested as have player performances - a legal issue also recently seen in traditional sports. To make sure you catch it, you can subscribe to Social Change Technology on iTunes or via our RSS feed. Dr. T.L. Taylor T. Taylor is Associate Professor in the Center for Computer Games Research and a founding member of the Center for Network Culture at the IT University of Copenhagen. She has been working in the field of internet and multi-user studies for over fifteen years and has published on topics such as play and experience in online worlds, values in design, intellectual property, co-creative practices, avatars and digital embodiment, gender and gaming, and e-sports. Raising The Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming “In Raising the Stakes, T. L. Taylor explores the emerging scene of professional computer gaming and the accompanying efforts to make a sport out of this form of play. In the course of her explorations, Taylor travels to tournaments, including the World Cyber Games Grand Finals (which considers itself the computer gaming equivalent of the Olympics), and interviews participants from players to broadcasters. She examines pro-gaming, with its highly paid players, play-by-play broadcasts, and mass audience; discusses whether or not e-sports should even be considered sports; traces the player’s path from amateur to professional (and how a hobby becomes work); and describes the importance of leagues, teams, owners, organizers, referees, sponsors, and fans in shaping the structure and culture of pro-gaming. Taylor connects professional computer gaming to broader issues: our notions of play, work, and sport; the nature of spectatorship; the influence of money on sports. And she examines the ongoing struggle over the gendered construction of play through the lens of male-dominated pro-gaming. Ultimately, the evolution of professional computer gaming illuminates the contemporary struggle to convert playful passions into serious play.” Source: Publisher. Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture “In Play Between Worlds, T. L. Taylor examines multiplayer gaming life as it is lived on the borders, in the gaps–as players slip in and out of complex social networks that cross online and offline space. Taylor questions the common assumption that playing computer games is an isolating and alienating activity indulged in by solitary teenage boys. Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), in which thousands of players participate in a virtual game world in real time, are in fact actively designed for sociability. She considers “power gamers,” who play in ways that seem closer to work, and examines our underlying notions of what constitutes play–and why play sometimes feels like work and may even be painful, repetitive, and boring. She also looks at the women who play Everquest and finds they don’t fit the narrow stereotype of women gamers, which may cast into doubt our standardized and preconceived ideas of femininity. And she explores the questions of who owns game space–what happens when emergent player culture confronts the major corporation behind the game.” Source: Publisher Show Links TL Taylor Official Website IT University Copenhagen Center for Computer Games Research Background IMDb: King of Kong Official Site: Quakecon Wikipedia entry on: the 1997 Red Annihilation Quake competition YouTube of: final Red Annihilation match (Tom ‘Entropy’ Kizmey vs Dennis ‘Thresh’ Fong) KeSPA: Korean e-Sports Association Blizzard Entertainment WoW starcraft GamePolitics coverage of: the ‘resolution’ of the KeSPA / Blizzard negotiations Further Reading CyberAthlete Professional League << Episode #9 Federal Consortium For Virtual Worlds 2012 All Episodes Next episode coming soon Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

In Episode 9 of Social Change Technology Ren Reynolds talks to Paulette Robinson phd from the US National Defense University’s iCollege about this years’ Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds conference. It will be be held in Washington DC from 16th – 18th of May 2012, and over the internet via live streams and virtual world based meetings. The event is free to watch over the internet but it’s asked that you register. This year’s conference features speaker from a range of backgrounds including Jesse Schell who some may know from his 2012 DICE talk Design Outside the Box and his recent book The Art of Game Design. Other speakers include Randy Hinrichs from the University of Washington, Michelle Fox from the US Department of Energy and Charles Wankel from St John’s University New York. In the podcast, Ren and Paulette talk about the future of virtual worlds as enterprise tools in the context that most organisations are seeing a drastic reduction in travel budgets. One of the biggest challenges faced by large organisations such as the US Federal Government in the adoption of virtual worlds has been the security issues of accessing something on the internet with a proprietary application and protocol. The market has now changed so that there are a range of virtual world options that either sit ‘within the firewall’ or that use standard interfaces such as browsers. They also discuss the future of virtual words not as a thing apart from other applications or our lives but as things that we may slide in and out of. If you are interested in this podcast you may also like From Ghana to Second Life – public diplomacy in the digital age our interview with Bill May about the US State Departments’ use of Virtual Worlds and social media. To make sure you catch all the episodes of  Social Change Technology subscribe on iTunes or via our RSS feed. Paulette Robinson phd Paulette is Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning & Technology at the Nation Defense University, iCollege, Washington DC. Show Links Paulette Robinson Twitter: @pjrobinson Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds Background Jesse Schell’s 20120 DICE Talk Design Outside the Box Randy Hinicks Blog University of Washington Course CHarles Wankel St Johns University Bio Further Reading Dancing Ink Productions’ report on IBM’s adoption of Virtual Worlds into the enterprise – IBM: From the Fire Pit to the Forbidden City << Episode #8 What’s social about Social Games All Episodes Episode #9>> TL Taylor and the rise of e-sports Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

Episode 8 of Social Change Technology explores the social aspects of so-called social games with Dr Mia Consalvo of Concordia University and Ron Miners of Electronic Arts. In the episode Ren, Mia, and Ron talk about what we mean by ’social games’ and the social conventions and norms that are emerging from them. For example the common practice of gift giving has been adopted by main games as a key part of the play mechanic. However, in some social games this voluntary action has morphed into a social obligation on our socially-networked co-players; a process which in turn has been automated to such a degree that it has almost lost touch with the notion of gift giving that inspired it. The podcast also covers the relationship between our social / family identity, as expressed in Facebook, and our our gamer identity. Do our social relations constrain our game actions? Do our game actions re-construct our social world? For example, in games that have ‘relationship’ options, are people prepared to have an in-game partner who is not an out-of-game partner, are people prepared to play a different gender or sexuality – all to achieve game play goals? Make sure you catch every episode of  Social Change Technology by subscribing on iTunes or via our RSS feed. Featuring: Dr Mia Consalvo Mia is Canada  Research Chair in Games Studies and Design at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. She was a Visiting Associate Professor in the Comparative Media Studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and before that an Associate Professor at Ohio University in the School of Media Arts and Studies. She is the author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames, and is currently writing a book about Japan’s influence on the videogame industry and game culture. She has published in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Games & Culture, Game Studies, and Convergence, and she was previously the President of the Association of Internet Researchers. Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames “In Cheating, Mia Consalvo investigates how players choose to play games, and what happens when they can’t always play the way they’d like. She explores a broad range of player behavior, including cheating (alone and in groups), examines the varying ways that players and industry define cheating, describes how the game industry itself has helped systematize cheating, and studies online cheating in context in an online ethnography of Final Fantasy XI. She develops the concept of “gaming capital” as a key way to understand individuals’ interaction with games, information about games, the game industry, and other players.Consalvo provides a cultural history of cheating in videogames, looking at how the packaging and selling of such cheat-enablers as cheat books, GameSharks, and mod chips created a cheat industry.“ Featuring: Ron Meiners Ron is Director of Community at Electronic Arts for The Sims. He has been in community management and building for over fifteen years working on everything from Myst to Burning Man. Ron is a specialist in understanding how cultural dynamics influence the online social experience, how memes propagate, and how to create exciting and positive communities. Ron also runs the blog Virtual Cultures with academic Celia Pearce. Show Links Mia Consalvo Academia.edu profile Twitter: @MiaC Ron Meiners Linked-in Profile Blog: Virtual Cultures Twitter: @ronchanel Background Electronic Arts The Sims Further Reading Nicole Lazzaro –  XEODesign Zinga CastleVille Tripple Town TL Taylor (with Mikael Jakobsson): The Sopranos Meets EverQuest: Socialization Processes in Massively Multiuser Games Listen to TL talk about e-Sports on Episode 10 of Social Change Technology Ray Mazza’s 2012 GDC (Game Developers Conference) Sims Social talk Gamasutra’s preview Game.com’s coverage Nick Yee’s data on ‘gender bending’ in MMOs Wikipedia entry on the Blizzard / World of Warcraft RealID controversy << Episode #7 Rita J. King and the Robots All Episodes Episode #9 >> Federal Consortium For Virtual Worlds 2012 Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

In episode 7 of Social Change Technology we speak to Rita J. King of Science House, New York. Rita is EVP of Business Development and head of Science House Creative. In the episode Ren Reynolds talks to Rita King about the work that Science House does to bring ‘hard science’ together with business. They touch on the range of Science House’s work from being a start-up incubator based in New York to outreach programmes bringing science education to children around the world. One area covered in greater detail in the podcast is that of the actual and perceived future of robotics. Rita raises the issue of robots as a new source of possible technogenic disaster in the minds of media and the public alike. That is, the idea that robots may bring about some catastrophic global event – think the Terminator’s Skynet or the robot takeover in the Matrix or AI for popular science fiction interpretations of such a catastrophe. Such notions have recently been taken up from various angles by academics such as Sherry Turkle, who has written about the ethics of the emotional bonds that humans may form with robots. At the other end of the spectrum a research team at Georgia Tech has been looking at military robots with the capacity to deceive. All this has given rise to conferences such as the inaugural We Robot conference on legal and policy issues relating to robotics, held in Miami in April of 2012. It should be noted that academic communities such as those researching ethics of technology (See: ELTHICOMP and CEPE), law of emerging technology (see Gikii), and specialised research areas such as the ethics of tele-care have been researching this for some years. In future episodes we hope to have more on the social, legal and policy implications of robotics. To make sure you catch it, you can subscribe to Social Change Technology on iTunes or via our RSS feed. Featuring: Rita J. King Rita is Executive Vice President of Business Development and head of Science House Creative. In addition to her work at Science House Rita is Resident Futurist at the National Institute for Aerospace (NASA Langley’s Think Tank). She is Founder / Creative Director of Dancing Ink Productions. Rita has served as Innovator-in-Residence at IBM’s Analytics Virtual Center, a former Senior Fellow at The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and a current Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress in Washington DC. Show Links Rita J. King Science House Dancing Ink Productions IMAGINATION: Creating the future of education and work NASA Langley Research Center Background Technogenic Disasters Technogenic Disasters: A Deadly New Normal for the Media (Rita J. King – Scientific American Blog, July 2011) Deceptive Robots Acting Deceptively: Providing Robots with the Capacity for Deception.” International Journal of Social Robotics Alan R. Wagner (Georgia Tech) Ronald C. Arkin (Georgie Tech) Further Reading Ethics of Robot Care Sherry Turkle (MIT) Conferences We Robot ETHICOMP Gikii << Episode #6 The co-creators: audience, artists & the future of music All Episodes Episode 7>> What’s social about social games? Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

In Episode 6 of Virtually Policy, Burcu Bakioglu (Postdoctoral Fellow in New Media at Lawrence University) talks to Michael Andersen, senior editor of the Alternate Realty Gaming Network (argn.com), about transmedia fiction and games. In the show, they explore how transmedia storytelling and multiple authorships are challenging the ‘romantic’ notion of author as solitary creator and how emerging issues are casting legal shadows on the inclusion and acknowledgement of fan content in developing creative forms. << Episode #5 The co-creators: audience, artists & the future of music All Episodes Next episode coming soon Featuring Michael Anderson Dr Burcu Bakioglu Show Links Featured people Michael Andersen of argn.com The rise of the producer-novelist: shifting perceptions of authorship in transmedia publishing (.pdf) – Journal of Law, Technology & the Internet Vol. 2:2. Dr. Burcu Bakioglu Featured content Skeleton Creek By Scholastic The Fantastic Flying Book of Morris Lessmore – Oscar Emmys’ Interactive Meida Category Cathy’s Book Mc Farlane v. Gaiman Spawn Todd McFarlane Neil Gaiman (twitter: @neilhimself) Mazda Canada’s 33 keys Schlasic’s 39 clues Rick Riordan Lance Weiler (twitter: @LanceWeiler) and the Workbook Project Scott Walker’s (twitter: @scott_walker) Brain Candy

Episode 5 is an extended interview with Robert Thomas, Chief Creative Officer of RjDj, and Jim Purbrick & Max Williams, who together are 100 Robots (the group which provide the theme music for the Virtually Policy podcast). RjDj is a reactive music application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch that creates a unique sonic experience each time you listen to a ’scene’. 100 Robots combines analog music creation with live control of electronically generated sounds using drum interfaces and iPhones/iPads/iPod Touches. Both RjDj and 100 Robots have experimented with enabling their audiences to be co-creators of the live performance experience. They discuss how advances in technology are bringing music back to its participatory roots. In this episode, we discuss how technology has changed our relationship with music from the pre-industrial age, where music was often a communally created and consumed experience, through the twentieth century that emphasised passive consumption of a recordings by ’star’ artists, to the present, where technologies such as karaoke, SingStar and Rock Band have enabled people to re-connect with music making. << Episode #4 Bitcoin All Episodes Episode #6 >> Transmedia story telling and the crisis of authorship Guests External Links RjDj 100 Robots 100 Robots vs The Audience Personal Web sites / works: Jim Purbrick Robert Thomas Robert Thomas aka Dizzy Banjo’s YouTube Channel Background Brian Eno Icarus (band) Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

This episode of Virtually Policy is the second half of atwo-part interview with virtual currency expert Jon Matonis. Jon is editor of The Monetary Future, an economics blog. In this second part of the interview we look at Bitcoin: what it is, how it works, why government don’t like it and how it might revolutionise the online gaming industry, and how it relates to human rights. << Episode #3 Virtual Currencies & Roach Motels All Episodes Episode #5 >> The co-creators: audience, artists & the future of music Guests External Links Jon Matonis The Monetary Future blog Forbes Piece: Virtual Currencies & Roach Motels Virtual Currencies mentioned in the podcast: Avination C Dollars (C$) Bitcoin Facebook Credits Linden Lab’s Second Life and the Linden Dollar (L$) Open Metaverse Currency (OMC) Edward Castronova’s Terranova blog post on Bitcoin See also Ren Reynolds’s Terranova blog post on Bitcoin Other Virtual Currencies Hub Culture’s Ven (eco currency) The Terra: Trade Reference Currency (TRC) Local Currencies Bay Bucks Brixton Pound Cascadia Hour Exchange Time Banks Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.