This is the research diary of researcher Lisbeth
Klastrup, since february 2001 sharing her thoughts on life, universe, persistent online
worlds, games, interactive stories and internet oddities with you on the www.
I am currently on leave from the IT University
of Copenhagen, and from aug. 2006 - aug. 2007 working as Associate Research Professor at the Center for Design Research Copenhagen, an independant center situated at the School of Architecture. During this year, I will be working on a book about the development of aesthetics, design and interaction on the WWW, together with colleague Ida Engholm.
My blog often reflects how busy I am in general, so posting may be pretty irregular, as well as my potential response to comments. But I read them!
My list of publications.
My official homepage at ITU.
Contact:
lisbethATklastrupDOTdk
February 2001 March 2001 April 2001 May 2001 June 2001 July 2001 August 2001 September 2001 October 2001 November 2001 December 2001 January 2002 February 2002 March 2002 April 2002 May 2002 June 2002 July 2002 August 2002 September 2002 October 2002 November 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007
Fellow research bloggers
-Denmark
Jesper Juul
Gonzalo Frasca
Martin Sønderlev Christensen
Jonas Heide Smith
Miguel Sicart
Mads Bødker
ITU blogs
-Norway
Jill Walker
Torill Mortensen
Hilde Corneliussen
Anders Fagerjord
-The World
Terra Nova (misc, joint)
GrandTextAuto (US, joint)
Mirjam Paalosari-Eladhari (SE)
Jane McGonigal (US)
Patrik Svensson (SE)
Elin Sjursen (NO)
Adrian Miles' Vog blog (AUSTR.)
Other Related Blogs
Mediehack
Hovedet på Bloggen
Bookish
Tempus Tommy
Flickwerk
Jacob Bøtter
Corporate Blogging
Fellow Researchers, non-blog
-Denmark
Susana Tosca
T.L. Taylor
Espen Aarseth
Soeren Pold
Ida Engholm
Troels Degn Johansson
-Norway
Ragnhild Tronstad
-Sweden
Anna Gunder
Jenny Sunden
Mikael Jacobsson
-Finland
Aki Jarvinen
Markku Eskelinen
Raine Koskimaa
©Lisbeth Klastrup 2001-2007
Baby's back
Approx. 20 litres of tea, several videos and one replaced motherboard later, and my spirits are somewhat higher than during my last post.
It appears that I have lost no data and since I have been ill, I haven't been able to do anything sensible anyway, so in that sense the timing of the crash of respectively my computer and my body was not that bad ;)
And the day began with the strangest experience which was, to say the least, an alternative wake-up call. I woke up very early imagining that I heard my mobile phone ring, somewhat muffled, but still the familiar tune with which it rings. And the muffled sound could be explained by the fact that I had forgotten it inside a bag in the corridor. Nevertheless, as I grew more and more awake, it puzzled me that it just kept ringing and ringing. Finally, I realised it wasnt the mobile phone, but a blackbird singing outside the window, a tune eerily close to the one of my mobile phone...I'll say no more about my potential mobile phone addiction, however a bird singing outside the window must mean that spring is near, wouldn't you say so?
Oh, and later the BF spotted "a ghost with a bicycle helmet" in the backyard. Then, on my way to pick up the computer, I saw two peanuts and a devil on the bus. It is the weekend of "fastelavn" coming up, the Danish version of Mardi Gras. Lots of dressed-up children and cream cakes ("fastelavnsboller"). I hope to taste a homemade version of the latter, when I soon leave to attend a family birthday.
It's a good day.
Approx. 20 litres of tea, several videos and one replaced motherboard later, and my spirits are somewhat higher than during my last post.
It appears that I have lost no data and since I have been ill, I haven't been able to do anything sensible anyway, so in that sense the timing of the crash of respectively my computer and my body was not that bad ;)
And the day began with the strangest experience which was, to say the least, an alternative wake-up call. I woke up very early imagining that I heard my mobile phone ring, somewhat muffled, but still the familiar tune with which it rings. And the muffled sound could be explained by the fact that I had forgotten it inside a bag in the corridor. Nevertheless, as I grew more and more awake, it puzzled me that it just kept ringing and ringing. Finally, I realised it wasnt the mobile phone, but a blackbird singing outside the window, a tune eerily close to the one of my mobile phone...I'll say no more about my potential mobile phone addiction, however a bird singing outside the window must mean that spring is near, wouldn't you say so?
Oh, and later the BF spotted "a ghost with a bicycle helmet" in the backyard. Then, on my way to pick up the computer, I saw two peanuts and a devil on the bus. It is the weekend of "fastelavn" coming up, the Danish version of Mardi Gras. Lots of dressed-up children and cream cakes ("fastelavnsboller"). I hope to taste a homemade version of the latter, when I soon leave to attend a family birthday.
It's a good day.
Life of a crash test dummy
I cried today. - Well, at least I shed a tear, upon realising that:
a) my laptop, my one and only computer, on which I store everything, had crashed. Black screen, no connection whatsoever to the cd-rom drive. No chance of back-ups.
b) the hotline for the computer compagny couldnt help me, when I finally got through to them.
c) the local systemadministration couldnt help me either because fidgeting with the harddisk to save my data would mean I lost my warranty and would have to pay for likely expensive repair myself.
d) that I hadnt backupped my files for more than one week because of a corrupt network profile which I never got around to deal with last week, because I was on my way to Sweden.
e) I probably wont be able to afford travelling to any conferences anytime soon because Im in between jobs and as soon as I am in job I cant get any external funding so time spent preparing conference paper(s) might be wasted.
f) Im coming down with a flu when I really need to be awake and alert...
On the upside, I should mention though, that I handed in the laptop in a store nearby and that they told me that since it is produced in Denmark and the repair service is really quick, I should have it in back in maximum a week, if they dont need to get spare gadgets...However, it says on my warranty license that the repair service reserve the rights to erase all software and install the original software, which was Windows XP home edition. This most likely means that chances are big they will erase all data and I will have to reinstall Windows XP Pro with all new drivers etc in order to be able to connect to the ITU network and print from it....etc etc ad infinitum.
It's the third computer to crash on me in three years. But clearly, this is the worst possible timing.
Im taking a break...
I cried today. - Well, at least I shed a tear, upon realising that:
a) my laptop, my one and only computer, on which I store everything, had crashed. Black screen, no connection whatsoever to the cd-rom drive. No chance of back-ups.
b) the hotline for the computer compagny couldnt help me, when I finally got through to them.
c) the local systemadministration couldnt help me either because fidgeting with the harddisk to save my data would mean I lost my warranty and would have to pay for likely expensive repair myself.
d) that I hadnt backupped my files for more than one week because of a corrupt network profile which I never got around to deal with last week, because I was on my way to Sweden.
e) I probably wont be able to afford travelling to any conferences anytime soon because Im in between jobs and as soon as I am in job I cant get any external funding so time spent preparing conference paper(s) might be wasted.
f) Im coming down with a flu when I really need to be awake and alert...
On the upside, I should mention though, that I handed in the laptop in a store nearby and that they told me that since it is produced in Denmark and the repair service is really quick, I should have it in back in maximum a week, if they dont need to get spare gadgets...However, it says on my warranty license that the repair service reserve the rights to erase all software and install the original software, which was Windows XP home edition. This most likely means that chances are big they will erase all data and I will have to reinstall Windows XP Pro with all new drivers etc in order to be able to connect to the ITU network and print from it....etc etc ad infinitum.
It's the third computer to crash on me in three years. But clearly, this is the worst possible timing.
Im taking a break...
One of the few (older) papers I have come across, discussing the use of a graphical virtual world for educational purposes. In this case, the world was inspired by the Habitat world, which I have earlier referred to: Shared Virtual Worlds for Education.
Oh, and the original paper by Morningstar and Farmer on Habitat "The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat " can be found here. It is also available in print form, with full figures etc, in Benedikt (ed): Cyberspace - First Steps.
Oh, and the original paper by Morningstar and Farmer on Habitat "The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat " can be found here. It is also available in print form, with full figures etc, in Benedikt (ed): Cyberspace - First Steps.
Barry Wellman, Professor of Sociology in Toronto, is noticable as one of those researchers of online social life, who meticously puts up every article he has written (and which is not copyrighted???), on his webpage, both in html, pdf and as abstract. Wish more researchers would do that!
He looks at virtual communities, not from a pure "community" perspective, but primarily as "social networks". He has co-authored some interesting articles on it, including this:
Computer Networks as Social Networks: Virtual Community, Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Telework
and this
Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Community as Community
He looks at virtual communities, not from a pure "community" perspective, but primarily as "social networks". He has co-authored some interesting articles on it, including this:
Computer Networks as Social Networks: Virtual Community, Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Telework
and this
Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Community as Community
Yet Another MassMOG
(Massive Multiplayer Online Game)
Via Anja Rau, a link to Greg Costikyan's gameblog in which he writes about a new MassMOG, A tale in the Desert(ATITD), which have done away with the hack'n slash paradigme and seem to focus on skill development instead. First month of use is free, you can download directly from the game site.
Wish I had time to study it more closely; the "new wave" of alternative MassMOGs or MassMOEWs (Massive Multiplayer Online Entertainment Worlds, my own acronym), like Sims Online, Project Entropia and There.com signals that developers are trying to target a new audience of (I surmise) women, singles, peaceful hardcore gamers, gamers which are not into RP etc. Will they succeed? Project manager at Anarchy Online estimates that all in all in 70 MassMOGs (including MassMOEWs?) are in the making. It will be interesting to see how many have launched and how many are still in existence come february 2004..
(Massive Multiplayer Online Game)
Via Anja Rau, a link to Greg Costikyan's gameblog in which he writes about a new MassMOG, A tale in the Desert(ATITD), which have done away with the hack'n slash paradigme and seem to focus on skill development instead. First month of use is free, you can download directly from the game site.
Wish I had time to study it more closely; the "new wave" of alternative MassMOGs or MassMOEWs (Massive Multiplayer Online Entertainment Worlds, my own acronym), like Sims Online, Project Entropia and There.com signals that developers are trying to target a new audience of (I surmise) women, singles, peaceful hardcore gamers, gamers which are not into RP etc. Will they succeed? Project manager at Anarchy Online estimates that all in all in 70 MassMOGs (including MassMOEWs?) are in the making. It will be interesting to see how many have launched and how many are still in existence come february 2004..
POST-UMEÅ
Lectureslides (approx 8MB because of the amount of screenshots. Sorry!)
I'm back after my visit to the Swedish "HumLab" in Umeå. It was an inspiring experience to see the working environment of the Humlab Studio; a big open space with many round tables with computers on them, comfy chairs, plants and glasscases with new books and journals on display - this space was also where I lectured. Their technical "gear" was awesome, giant screens, fast computers, webcast cam, microport which worked unproblematically etc. I wish we could be able to offer the ITU students the same kind of physical space and equipment, once we move to Ørestaden...
As for the lecture itself, you can take a look at the archived webcast to see how it went. I wasn't quite sure if the poor Swedish students actually understood my Danish in details - not to speak of some of the more theoretical content of the talk, which I had to gloss over rather quickly. But I had fun and got good questions afterwards!
Patrik Svensson, the leader of HumLab, is an open and enthusiastic personality and we had some interesting discussions on how to strengthen the network of researchers working within Digital Culture, Aesthetics and Art in Scandinavia. It should be possible to get some NORFA funding for this kind of thing!!!
- I also had a nice talk with (soon to be) ph.d.student Stefan Blomberg who is studying online games from an etnographic perspective. And I met Jonas Carlquist, whose article on "How to read a computer game" (Att läsa et dataspel), I have recently come across on the web (small world!).
Preparing the Umeå presentation and writing a paper for the DAC conference in Melbourne in May has really helped a lot of thoughts come together in their final form. I look forward to putting them to paper, actually!
Lectureslides (approx 8MB because of the amount of screenshots. Sorry!)
I'm back after my visit to the Swedish "HumLab" in Umeå. It was an inspiring experience to see the working environment of the Humlab Studio; a big open space with many round tables with computers on them, comfy chairs, plants and glasscases with new books and journals on display - this space was also where I lectured. Their technical "gear" was awesome, giant screens, fast computers, webcast cam, microport which worked unproblematically etc. I wish we could be able to offer the ITU students the same kind of physical space and equipment, once we move to Ørestaden...
As for the lecture itself, you can take a look at the archived webcast to see how it went. I wasn't quite sure if the poor Swedish students actually understood my Danish in details - not to speak of some of the more theoretical content of the talk, which I had to gloss over rather quickly. But I had fun and got good questions afterwards!
Patrik Svensson, the leader of HumLab, is an open and enthusiastic personality and we had some interesting discussions on how to strengthen the network of researchers working within Digital Culture, Aesthetics and Art in Scandinavia. It should be possible to get some NORFA funding for this kind of thing!!!
- I also had a nice talk with (soon to be) ph.d.student Stefan Blomberg who is studying online games from an etnographic perspective. And I met Jonas Carlquist, whose article on "How to read a computer game" (Att läsa et dataspel), I have recently come across on the web (small world!).
Preparing the Umeå presentation and writing a paper for the DAC conference in Melbourne in May has really helped a lot of thoughts come together in their final form. I look forward to putting them to paper, actually!
Tomorrow I am doing a lecture at HUMLAB at Umeå University in Sweden. It is a part of a lecture series called Humlabseminariet. Last year, Jill spoke there, along with a pretty impressive list of visitors. They have made a really nice blurp & poster for my talk.
The lecture will be streamed or at least recorded, so you can see it later in real player and people from the outside can participate via chat.
I will be lecturing in Danish, for once. Since there is sometimes a huge difference between Danish and Swedish words for something, I am currently consulting an online Danish-Swedish-Danish Dictionary in order to make my power-point slides a little more "Swedish-friendly".
The lecture will be streamed or at least recorded, so you can see it later in real player and people from the outside can participate via chat.
I will be lecturing in Danish, for once. Since there is sometimes a huge difference between Danish and Swedish words for something, I am currently consulting an online Danish-Swedish-Danish Dictionary in order to make my power-point slides a little more "Swedish-friendly".
Coming of age
I just realised that this weekend, I have been blogging (with breaks..) for exactly two years. Scary.
I just realised that this weekend, I have been blogging (with breaks..) for exactly two years. Scary.
Another world building community (generic ideas, not system implements): Fargoth.com
And they have a link to a fantasy name generator, which can help me solve an ethical and aesthetic problem related to my research: sometimes I want to anonymise the names of the characters, I quote, but want to keep the "fantasy" feel of the interaction intact. This tool can help me do that.
And they have a link to a fantasy name generator, which can help me solve an ethical and aesthetic problem related to my research: sometimes I want to anonymise the names of the characters, I quote, but want to keep the "fantasy" feel of the interaction intact. This tool can help me do that.
Broken English
Yesterday, I bought my first pair of Flamenco shoes. They came in a very white nice box, with a photo print of a dancing woman on top and on the back, a lot of print text, the first part in Spanish, the other part, a translation in English of the first part. Here goes, directly of the box, the English text:
Tradition, comfort and quality are the basic ingredients of our sucess.
Artesian hand constatly work and perfect the shoes for that you never leave to dance. Ours moulds are just premeditated for your feet.
The elaboration of these products had realice with naturals materials of best quality.
...If I'm out of work when I have handed in the thesis, I think I will offer my services as translator to them...
Yesterday, I bought my first pair of Flamenco shoes. They came in a very white nice box, with a photo print of a dancing woman on top and on the back, a lot of print text, the first part in Spanish, the other part, a translation in English of the first part. Here goes, directly of the box, the English text:
Tradition, comfort and quality are the basic ingredients of our sucess.
Artesian hand constatly work and perfect the shoes for that you never leave to dance. Ours moulds are just premeditated for your feet.
The elaboration of these products had realice with naturals materials of best quality.
...If I'm out of work when I have handed in the thesis, I think I will offer my services as translator to them...
Says Gibson in his new blog on Jan 25th:
Among the many things I find charming about the Danes is that, uniquely among all the peoples of the world, they seem to have viewed JOHNNY MNEMONIC as having been made with a certain sense of broad irony. Which it was, though Sony's final cut did everything it could to cancel that.
- He passed Copenhagen on his new tour promoting Pattern Recognition. For same strange reason, Denmark was the first country it was published in! At the book presentation, after a formal interview session with a rather inane journalist, it was time for questions. I waved my hand like a maniac, but the guy who picked out people from the audience consciously (Im sure!) ignored me. And so Gibson got to answer (probably for the umpteenth time) idiot questions like: "Do you still use your typewriter?" and never got to tell me how he felt about blogging...:(. But it is nice he is doing it though, blogging that is.
Among the many things I find charming about the Danes is that, uniquely among all the peoples of the world, they seem to have viewed JOHNNY MNEMONIC as having been made with a certain sense of broad irony. Which it was, though Sony's final cut did everything it could to cancel that.
- He passed Copenhagen on his new tour promoting Pattern Recognition. For same strange reason, Denmark was the first country it was published in! At the book presentation, after a formal interview session with a rather inane journalist, it was time for questions. I waved my hand like a maniac, but the guy who picked out people from the audience consciously (Im sure!) ignored me. And so Gibson got to answer (probably for the umpteenth time) idiot questions like: "Do you still use your typewriter?" and never got to tell me how he felt about blogging...:(. But it is nice he is doing it though, blogging that is.
By way of Jesper Juul (who is currently a visiting scholar at M.I.T), link to a dissertation by a graduate from the U.S. Navy!:AN AGENT-BASED ARCHITECTURE FOR GENERATING
INTERACTIVE STORIES - it is related to the development of the "America’s Army: Soldiers" game project.
INTERACTIVE STORIES - it is related to the development of the "America’s Army: Soldiers" game project.
Then, on this side of the sea, Politiken has TWO articles on virtual world games today.Virtuelle verdener i vækst ("Virtual worlds in growth", according to Funcom guy, 70 new online game worlds are in the making) and Venskab Online (Friendship online) which is actually as much about being an EverQuest addict (that at least, was the headline which made the frontpage column of the print version of Politiken today!).
Talmagde Wright at BBC:Gaming 'is good for you':
"There's a cultural motif that underlies the critiques that go on around this," he said, "the idea of mindless activity is given short shrift in culture where productivity is given the highest praise."
"There's a cultural motif that underlies the critiques that go on around this," he said, "the idea of mindless activity is given short shrift in culture where productivity is given the highest praise."
QUAKE-ing in my boots: Examining Clan: Community: Construction in An Online Gamer Population by Mary-Anne Breeze, Australia.
- I list it, because though there is a lot of talk about it, I have in fact not been able to find very many academic papers devoted to the topic of community formation in online games. (Sue Morris has done a little, though and I know Gitte Stald have been thinking about it...)
- I list it, because though there is a lot of talk about it, I have in fact not been able to find very many academic papers devoted to the topic of community formation in online games. (Sue Morris has done a little, though and I know Gitte Stald have been thinking about it...)
Body protests
I haven't been able to work for three, almost four days, because of alternating migraines and severe back-pains. At the moment, I can hardly sit down and work because of the back pain, standing up suits me best, but wears my legs down, when I stand too long...Pains in arm and back give rise to tension headaches, which have a tendency to turn into migraines when I'm too stressed or tired or hormones are mixed up and so forth. In short, I think my body is trying to tell me that it really wants me to finish that thesis NOW. But it is kinda difficult when it wont co-operate... Still, I hope to make the March 1st deadline. Wish me luck!
I haven't been able to work for three, almost four days, because of alternating migraines and severe back-pains. At the moment, I can hardly sit down and work because of the back pain, standing up suits me best, but wears my legs down, when I stand too long...Pains in arm and back give rise to tension headaches, which have a tendency to turn into migraines when I'm too stressed or tired or hormones are mixed up and so forth. In short, I think my body is trying to tell me that it really wants me to finish that thesis NOW. But it is kinda difficult when it wont co-operate... Still, I hope to make the March 1st deadline. Wish me luck!
Pity, I didnt find it before: IGDA (the Internation Game Developers Association) presented anOnline Games Whitepaper last year at their conference. You can download the full version, if you are a site-member.
Raph Koster on why there will only be one char per server in Star Wars Galaxies -caused a lot of discussion on the MUD-Dev list.
There is a lot of stories about one of the first commercial virtual worlds Habitat and the successors, it spawned. Here are some of them:
Oracle Layza's Tales from Fujitsu Habitat
Habitat Anecdotes
A short-lived sequel to Habitat was Club Caribe. This page is in memory of it and also holds a nice little pictoral story of The Descent of Avatars
Oracle Layza's Tales from Fujitsu Habitat
Habitat Anecdotes
A short-lived sequel to Habitat was Club Caribe. This page is in memory of it and also holds a nice little pictoral story of The Descent of Avatars
Building Stories, Telling Games - another Skotos column. Damn, I should have played Castle Marrach after all...
Added another reference to a DIAC list project which I currently maintain: Mobility (Gaming) Links and Studies - it is part of the DIAC Game Groups research.
Hitman goes to the movies too - I sense a trend coming up (last month it was Alone in the Dark, which they even consider making into a tv-series!)
Death Stories project
Walgblog (DK)
DK forskerblogs (DK)
klast at del.icio.us
Site feed Link (Atom)
Klastrup family?
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Buy our book
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Conferences
ACE 2007
Mobile Media 2007
MobileCHI 07
Perth DAC 2007
DIGRA 2007
AOIR 8.0/2007
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My Ph.D. thesis website:
Towards a Poetics of Virtual Worlds
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Misc
I also used to host & work in a world called StoryMOO.