events – Page 19 – frans goes blog

Olli Sotamaa's PhD Defence

I don’t think this is yet in any official web page, but here is the key information:

MA Olli Sotamaa will publicly defend his PhD thesis titled “The Player’s Game: Towards Understanding Player Production Among Computer Game Cultures” in April 25th 2009 in University of Tampere, hall A1. The opponent will be Professor Aphra Kerr (National University of Ireland) and the custodian is Professor Mikko Lehtonen.

In Finnish:

FM Olli Sotamaan tiedotusopin alaan kuuluva väitöskirja “The Player’s Game: Towards Understanding Player Production Among Computer Game Cultures” tarkastetaan julkisesti lauantaina 25.4.2009 klo 12 yliopiston päärakennuksen A1-salissa (Kalevantie 4). Väitöstilaisuudessa toimii kustoksena professori Mikko Lehtonen. Vastaväittäjänä on professori Aphra Kerr (National University of Ireland).

Tiedon paikat seminar

Today’s seminar is titled “Tiedon paikat” (Places/Sites of Knowledge); it is organised by the Tampere Centre for Cultural Studies. More information here: http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/tacs/uutinen.php?item=32873
and here: http://tacs.wordpress.com/

Pictured are the seminar chair, professor Mikko Lehtonen, and the first speaker, Andrew Nestingen from the University of Washington.

Elina Ollila's dissertation

There is some more information available (in Finnish) concerning Elina Ollila’s PhD dissertation that I will be examinging together with Tony Manninen next Monday: http://www.tut.fi/public/index.cfm?MainSel=1&siteid=0&act=news&NewsID=57049&ID=57049

The full English title of the work is: Using Prototyping and Evaluation Methods in Iterative Design of Innovative Mobile Games. I cannot find the online version of dissertation at this time, but hopefully it will be made available later.

Edit: there will be also a streaming video & sound link to the event here: http://www.ollila.com/live

Speaking about online poker player experiences in Turku

I will tomorrow present some findings from our online poker player experience study in Turku (Päihdelääketieteen päivät, see programme here: http://www.terveysportti.fi/kotisivut/sivut.koti?p_sivusto=65). My presentation is also available as a PDF here: http://www.terveysportti.fi/kotisivut/docs/f585130802/mayra060309.pdf).

GameSpace seminar in Winter Assembly

Our two-year research project that looked into design and evaluation methodologies of casual, multiplayer and mobile games (also considering money gaming issues) has now finished; today the good folks at Winter Assembly event provided us the rooms to feature the results from research. Pictured is project manager Janne Paavilainen; other speakers included Annakaisa Kultima, Petri Ikonen, Jussi Holopainen and Jussi Laakkonen. The final research report will be published online (forthcoming during this spring). Links:

GameSpace project: http://gamelab.uta.fi/GameSpace
Winter Assembly: http://www.assembly.org/winter09/
Aakoo’s blog: http://gameslices.wordpress.com/

Edit: here are some camera-phone photos I took in the event: [link].

Games researcher meeting in Tampere

Today takes place (in Telakka restaurant, Tampere) the games researcher meeting organised by DiGRA Finland, Games as Services research project, Finnish Yearbook of Game Studies and Neogames centre. Pictured is Olli Sotamaa and some of the other, c. 30 participants. Much interesting talk and good company!

Didactics symposium keynote

Today I started my morning by delivering a keynote on Digital Games Literacy (in Finnish) in the national didactics symposium (a conference of Finnish learning researchers and teacher trainers). Pictured is professor Bernadette Baker, who spoke about multiple senses of ‘subject’ and how to reform the teacher – child – content relationships. The full programme is here: http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/okl/ad2009/ohjelma.html.

Spring lectures and visits

Looking at my calendar, I will again be talking in various contexts:

in 13/2 talking about games literacy and education in disciplinary didactics symposium (Ainedidaktiikan symposium) in Tampere;
in 6/3 talking about the profile of online gamer in drug medics day (Päihdelääketieteen päivät) in Turku;
in 16/3 acting as the examiner of Elina Ollila’s PhD thesis (about mobile game prototyping and evaluation) in Technical University of Tampere;
in 27/3 presenting a keynote about “good and bad in games” in the media education seminar, Tampere;
in 2-3/4 acting as the chair in the Playful Experiences seminar, Tampere;
in 23/4 presenting a lecture on ethics and good life in gaming in ITK conference in Hämeenlinna;
in 24/4 talking in a thematic seminar of games and education in ITK conference in Hämeenlinna.

See you in some of those — or elsewhere!

Last Christmas of the Hypermedia Lab

This will be the last Christmas for the Hypermedia Laboratory in the University of Tampere: our new media research unit is going to fuse together with another department at the end of this year. The new name will be Department of Information Studies and Interactive Media. We will be bigger, stronger, and able to open MA as well as PhD courses in new media and game studies. Otherwise, the location and most of the practical things will remain the same for a while — welcome to visit us in the old premises in Pinni B building of the Tampere Uni campus area. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book video tour

Another excellent example of the expanding field of old-media — new media synergy, and art of storytelling making use of the new opportunities of Internet video: Neil Gaiman putting online his reading of the entire new young readers’ novel (whoever and whatever age we, those readers, indeed are) The Graveyard Book. Go to: http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx

Edit: this appears to be the note number 600 of my blog, by the way. Cheers!