Day One
09:00am-10:00pm Introductions/Coffee
10:00am-12:00pm Morning Keynote Conversations: Pioneers of Play and Productivity in Online Worlds.
The morning keynotes provide historical context and contrasting perspectives.
• Pavel Curtis, Microsoft, Multi-User Domain pioneer and creator of LAMBDA MOO, one of the first experiments in user-created content. Curtis will discuss precedents for productive play in his earlier work, and provide insight into the motivational aspects of online play environments.
• Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer, creators of Lucasfilm Habitat, the first graphical virtual social space, created in 1985. Chip and Randy were the recipients of a "First Penguin" award by Game Developers Choice Awards in 2001. The "First Penguin" is an award that goes to pioneers based on the fact that when penguins want to fish under the ice, one penguin goes in and if they come out others follow. Chip and Randy will discuss their experiences in developing online social spaces and what they have learned about productive play.
• Bruce Damer, Digitalspace, One of the early proponents and innovators of 3D virtual worlds, Damer founded the Avatars Conference series in 1996 and produced the first cyber-conference hosted in a virtual world in 1998. He is the author of Avatars! Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the Internet, the first book dedicated to the subject of avatars and their worlds. His recent work includes creating virtual worlds for NASA mission simulation and the EvoGrid, part of Project Biota. Damer will highlight prior instances of the blurring of work and play and discuss how these were leveraged in the past to support edutainment and collaborative world and event building.
12:00pm-01:00pm Lunch at the Conference Center Dining Room (outdoors if available)
Open format; no agenda.
01:00pm-3:00pm Afternoon Keynote Conversations: Current Directions
• Melissa Cefkin and Thomas Malaby
• Jason Ellis and T.L. Taylor
• Bonnie Nardi and Celia Pearce
03:00pm-03:30pm Coffee Break
03:30pm-05:30pm Discussion
05:30pm-06:00pm Overview of Day 2 Break-Outs (Add topics as needed)
06:00pm-whenever Dinner/Play & Tell
Prior to the workshop, participants will be asked to recommend games to be featured in a hands on “Play & Tell” session. A selection of these will be chosen for a group gaming session in which participants will have the opportunity to pay a “live” visit to online games and virtual worlds. Participants will briefly discuss the reason they selected the game and what the think the game demonstrates. The main purpose of this session is to establish a shared knowledge of specific software applications in the networked play space, and also allow participants to receive “guided tours” of games and virtual worlds from more experienced players.
Day Two
10:00am-12:00pm Morning: Breakouts
• Methods & Outcomes - studying games in and out of the workplace
• How do we do research in virtual worlds? How do we adapt traditional qualitative and quantitative techniques to these new environments? What are the benefits and challenges of virtual worlds as a research environment
• What sorts of research results are most useful when we study virtual worlds?
• Practice - what can we take from games to the workplace? How do our research outcomes inform our practice?
• What practices and skills do we take from games to our work lives?
• How do practices change when we move real world work environments into a virtual world?
• Platforms - technology requirements for virtual worlds applications in the workplace
• What are the pros and cons of existing vs. custom-built worlds?
• What are the trade-offs between doing a build in a world with many existing communities vs. a self-contained world that you fully control?
• Additional breakout topics proposed by participants
12:00pm-01:00pm Lunch Break
01:00pm-03:00pm Afternoon: Wrap up
• Panels: Break out session reports
• Panel presentations - members of each break out group will form panels and report collectively on their results
• Panel discussions - at the conclusion of the presentations, we will open up discussion to the audience as well
03:00pm-03:30pm Coffee Break
03:30pm-05:30pm Discussion-Next Steps
• Discussion: Other issues
• Discussion of any additional issues that have come up through the course of the workshop
• Discussion: Publication
• Identify topics that are candidates to become articles for the special issue
• Discuss how we will coordinate work on the journal special issue as we go forward
Dinner on your own
Images by Jacquelyn Ford Morie