I have shared my Finncon lecture about the science and fiction (fiction mostly) of houses and living in Slideshare (in Finnish only):
Mayra Tulevaisuuden Talo
PS. You can follow the Finncon photo stream in Flickr from here.
Category: events
seminars, conferences, other events
Suomi Areena panel
The panel talk in Pori was fine, I guess, even while other high-profile events taking place around same time in Pori took their toll in the audience figures. Anyways, thanks to RAY for organising the event. It was also very nice to meet and talk with Jaakko Suominen, Mika Pantzar, Sonja Kangas and others. With Laura and Luka we did little summer excursion afterwards and visited the white sands of Yyteri beaches.
Speaking in Pori & in Finncon
Just a note: even while still being in holidays, I will also be doing a couple of talks — the first will be tomorrow, in “Suomi Areena” which is part of the Pori Jazz festival. I will be participating in a panel on the future of gambling / money gaming. Next week I will be in the annual science fiction & fantasy researcher meeting, and giving a talk on the fantasy and research of future homes — both of these in the Finncon 2008 event in Tampere. More: http://www.suomiareena.fi/ & http://2008.finncon.org/
Game Studies summer school
GameSpace workshop on extended game experience
Today in Helsinki (Radisson SAS Hotel), participating in a workshop of GameSpace research project; this day is dedicated to game experience from the “extended” or holistic perspective, meaning paying attention also to the way one gets information about games, how one is able to access the game, and how game invites repeated gameplay sessions (or not). Interesting presentations from GameSpace team (Janne Paavilainen, Annakaisa Kultima), and Aki Järvinen (Veikkaus), Nokia (Jussi Holopainen, Hannu Korhonen), Olli Sotamaa (Univ. of Tampere, Games as Services project). This is the last workshop in the project, but the project itself will finish (with final reporting) next fall. Fascinating work, both this part, and the entire project.
3G iPhone
One of the big turn-offs for us Europeans in Apple’s iPhone has been its lack of 3G support. Rumors have been strong for some time now, and now Apple WWDC keynote has made 3G iPhone official. GPS positioning is also included, good battery life. Comparison to other smart phones promises better browsing experiences. It should arrive to stores in July 11. (Thanks Gizmodo for a nice live coverage and the pics.)
[player] conference program online
You might have noticed this already, but a reminder: [player] conference has now its program online:
Virtual world economy seminar
Today I will be participating in “Seminar on quantitative research in virtual economies” taking place in HIIT, Espoo. Vili Lehdonvirta here is opening the seminar. Link to the program: http://www.virtual-economy.org/blog/seminar_on_quantitative_resear
Futures seminar
(Pictured Marja Tiura, and the neck of Jyrki J.J. Kasvi.)
Today I am participating in a seminar organised by the Futures Committee of Finnish Parliament, focusing on the challenges of urbanisation, globalisation and civilization (Sivistys ja metropolit). I want to remind the participants about the need for comprehensive understanding (deep in thinking about the past, as well as the present and the future), also creating intergenerational and interdisciplinary dialogue that facilitates flexibility and innovation in small as well as in larger scale. Fantasy is one measurement: how much imagination we are willing to accept in our everyday? Arts and crafts is another: do we allow ‘everyman’ (everywoman, everychild) to be creative? Questions for our future…
Participating in Digital Archiving seminar
Today I am taking part in the ‘Digiaika talteen’ seminar in the Finnish National Library in Helsinki. At the beginning of this year, a new law came into operation, concerning archiving digital cultural heritage. New kinds of ‘cultural materials’ have existed since the development of first computers, and exponentially when the Internet started connecting people using these digital technologies. We have actually lived sort of ‘digital dark Middle-Ages’ in terms of archiving, since so much of the early history of digital texts, images, games, web pages and other forms of digital expression have already been lost. Now there is at least a law that dictates how everyone, who publishes something in Finnish that is made available to public, is obliged to collaborate with the archivists to provide permanent copies into the National Audiovisual Archive (the old SEA, the movie archive). The job is huge; one estimate is that 50 million pages with c. 2–3 terabytes of data will be gathered in two automatic annual searches.
frans goes blog 
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