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
Too good to be true...
Sometimes even academics get lucky. Recognise that state of your work when you find yourself in need of the perfect quote to support and illustrate your theory? In my case, what I especially have been pining for, are statements from people actually working with online world design, confirming some of my hypotheses and observations. And voila presto, here they are, published no earlier than last week, just in time to make it into the final chapters of the thesis:
Online Worlds Roundtable on Storytelling in Persistent Worlds (at Rpgvault)
Perhaps there is a higher meaning with everything, after all?
update: the quote below is from this very roundtable. Not _that_ relevant to my main thesis, but it is rather funny and quite to the point (fellow EverQuest players should get the drift...):
You can't honestly expect intelligent players to really care roleplay-wise when the nostalgic, mystical and transcending elves of Tolkien's Middle-earth shrink 30% in height and 90% in majesty while wearing neon green trousers. (Story in MMOGs can so far almost seem like Frodo and Gollum grouping and camping Elrond at his spawn point in Rivendell. Fun gameplay, but dreadful story.)
– (Gaute Godager, Game Director, Anarchy Online (
Sometimes even academics get lucky. Recognise that state of your work when you find yourself in need of the perfect quote to support and illustrate your theory? In my case, what I especially have been pining for, are statements from people actually working with online world design, confirming some of my hypotheses and observations. And voila presto, here they are, published no earlier than last week, just in time to make it into the final chapters of the thesis:
Online Worlds Roundtable on Storytelling in Persistent Worlds (at Rpgvault)
Perhaps there is a higher meaning with everything, after all?
update: the quote below is from this very roundtable. Not _that_ relevant to my main thesis, but it is rather funny and quite to the point (fellow EverQuest players should get the drift...):
You can't honestly expect intelligent players to really care roleplay-wise when the nostalgic, mystical and transcending elves of Tolkien's Middle-earth shrink 30% in height and 90% in majesty while wearing neon green trousers. (Story in MMOGs can so far almost seem like Frodo and Gollum grouping and camping Elrond at his spawn point in Rivendell. Fun gameplay, but dreadful story.)
– (Gaute Godager, Game Director, Anarchy Online (
Via The Association of Internet Researchers mailinglist. A link to blog,owner of which has kind of proved (??) that the Lt.smash blog is a fraud... A war fraud blog
Esther Dyson in interview on There.com
(any prejudices, Ms?)
"It's geared for people who want to spend time wanting to interact with other people beyond their family," she said. "They are the same sort of people who go and hang out in the afternoon in various places or get together after work."
On the Internet, Ms. Dyson noted, the social interaction in chat rooms often disintegrates into "trivial, useless, sex-oriented" babble. And game-based virtual worlds are usually filled with people who want to play games or talk about them.
(any prejudices, Ms?)
"It's geared for people who want to spend time wanting to interact with other people beyond their family," she said. "They are the same sort of people who go and hang out in the afternoon in various places or get together after work."
On the Internet, Ms. Dyson noted, the social interaction in chat rooms often disintegrates into "trivial, useless, sex-oriented" babble. And game-based virtual worlds are usually filled with people who want to play games or talk about them.
Another Game Blog
Got Game? new blog on games and gaming culture by Andrew Phelps of Rochester University, NY. Via Fragment.nl. The latest entry incidentily turned out to be about (yet) another cheat in EverQuest: an entire guild has be working on the Stormhammer server to amass treasure and then gone off (all of them!) to sell it on E-bay.
Got Game? new blog on games and gaming culture by Andrew Phelps of Rochester University, NY. Via Fragment.nl. The latest entry incidentily turned out to be about (yet) another cheat in EverQuest: an entire guild has be working on the Stormhammer server to amass treasure and then gone off (all of them!) to sell it on E-bay.
Cyberculture on TV
Kærlighed ved første klik (Love at first click). Danish public service tv channel DR2, which distinguishes itself by scheduling entire theme nights on just one subject every saturday, focuses on netdating in all its aspects tonight. Looks pretty interesting, so the videorecorder is working while Im writing...
Kærlighed ved første klik (Love at first click). Danish public service tv channel DR2, which distinguishes itself by scheduling entire theme nights on just one subject every saturday, focuses on netdating in all its aspects tonight. Looks pretty interesting, so the videorecorder is working while Im writing...
The Cyber-Anthropology Project is an initiative of Dutch students and scholars of the Department of Cultural Anthropology of the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam.And they have an interesting list ofLinks to (online) articles and researchers dealing with this subject.
Saarinen, L. Imagined community and death - want to write about death in virtual worlds, looking for literature on the subject...
In Der Spiegel online, an interesting article (in German) about Warblogging as the "truest" form of war news, from what I can judge with my out-dated German reading skills...
BUSY
Ok, so I have decided to hand in the thesis, come the end of next week, if I have completed all chapters. Which I aim at having done by the end of this week. I could probably do a lot more revising, my decision is made on the grounds of more pragmatic reasons: I need a job really, really soon and it looks like I will have one as soon as the thesis is delivered. I have already been judged qualified for an university position by external reviewers on the grounds of an earlier version of the thesis.
Of course, I want to hand in something which I can answer for and which is good enough to pass the eyes of the evaluation commitee. But I will have the possibility of adding some final touches to the work (like thorough proof-reading, if needed) after the defense and before the thesis goes into print for a larger public (printing of a limited amount of copies of the thesis kindly funded by the IT University).
Wish me luck and no crashing computers!
Ok, so I have decided to hand in the thesis, come the end of next week, if I have completed all chapters. Which I aim at having done by the end of this week. I could probably do a lot more revising, my decision is made on the grounds of more pragmatic reasons: I need a job really, really soon and it looks like I will have one as soon as the thesis is delivered. I have already been judged qualified for an university position by external reviewers on the grounds of an earlier version of the thesis.
Of course, I want to hand in something which I can answer for and which is good enough to pass the eyes of the evaluation commitee. But I will have the possibility of adding some final touches to the work (like thorough proof-reading, if needed) after the defense and before the thesis goes into print for a larger public (printing of a limited amount of copies of the thesis kindly funded by the IT University).
Wish me luck and no crashing computers!
Happy Nerd
All good things come to those who wait. Telmore.dk, my mobile phone service provider has just opened a High Speed Data service (see Tillægsydelser), which means that I can now use my nifty little Ericsson T39m to check mail on my laptop without having to put up with download times of the last century. while I wait for GRPS as the next big thing to be offered to me. He, he. All I really need to figure out now is when I actually need this service....
Less than a year ago, when I called Telmore to ask whether it was a service they would be providing, the service assistant vehemently denied that HSD would ever be a Telmore service. Sometimes it is nice when those guys don't tell you the truth ;)
All good things come to those who wait. Telmore.dk, my mobile phone service provider has just opened a High Speed Data service (see Tillægsydelser), which means that I can now use my nifty little Ericsson T39m to check mail on my laptop without having to put up with download times of the last century. while I wait for GRPS as the next big thing to be offered to me. He, he. All I really need to figure out now is when I actually need this service....
Less than a year ago, when I called Telmore to ask whether it was a service they would be providing, the service assistant vehemently denied that HSD would ever be a Telmore service. Sometimes it is nice when those guys don't tell you the truth ;)
Virtual Tours of virtual worlds in AWEdu - a guide to some of the worlds in the Active Worlds Educational Universe. You need special browser to view them, but you can download it for free.
The Daily Outrage, not exactly an american anti-war blog, but an american blog with a refreshingly sarcistic view on political development in the US, inside and outside the country.
It is difficult not to, and somehow more real than the tv-coverage, to peak at the Baghdad blog Where is Raed ?. It appears real, but is it? But if it is a hoax, who would find it the nerve to uphold it, at this moment in time? Update: see Jill's post of March 21st.
Protesting
Jill/txt today. Yes, we are rallying all over Denmark too. Already this morning I saw anti-war protesters on Nørrebro on Danish tv.
Anti-krigsdemonstrationer i over 30 danske byer
Jill/txt today. Yes, we are rallying all over Denmark too. Already this morning I saw anti-war protesters on Nørrebro on Danish tv.
Anti-krigsdemonstrationer i over 30 danske byer
Inequality in Death
No, this post is not about death in war (though it is sadly current). It is about "everyday death" in the peaceful country of little Denmark. You see, for a month or two, I have been subscribing to a daily newspaper (Politiken), and being child of old parents who had old friends, I have made a habit of leafing through the death adds and the obituaries, in order to keep "up to date" in a somewhat morbid way. As many women as men dies, media cant really change that, so the actual death adds represent an equal amount of deaths of men and women. However, the obituaries....I am starting to feel really annoyed by the gender bias in the obituaries. I surmise that at least 85% of the obituaries or more are about men. Men. Perhaps it is due to the fact that since most people dying are, naturally, elderly people, the old women dying these years are of a generation where many of them still did not have an active working life. However, that does not mean they did not have a life. But it seems, that all that deserves merit, once you have "passed on" are board memberships and public life activities. Public notice in life earns you the right to public notice in death. So I read a lot about the merits of Mr. this and that, how he was member of this, or secretary of that, or served his political party in this and that regard etc etc. I have yet to see an obituary with a content like:
"Mrs. X was an admirable woman. She almost single-handedly raised four children, because her husband was constantly away, attending board meetings." But I wish someone would write it - and the newspaper accept it for once.
You may think, I am bit weird making a fuss of this. But I think this imbalance is a clear marker of the fact that inequality between men and women, apparent through the imbalanced attention to respectively men and women in public life and media coverage (beyond that of celebrities), still exists. And if we don't pay attention to it, or in our own way try to change the values by which a life is judged, the "equal rights" to worthy attention of our merits as women, be they of a public or more private nature, will continously be violated. Even in death.
If you are one of those, who can't help glancing at the obituaries and death adds, think about it. Is the same bias apparent in your country?
No, this post is not about death in war (though it is sadly current). It is about "everyday death" in the peaceful country of little Denmark. You see, for a month or two, I have been subscribing to a daily newspaper (Politiken), and being child of old parents who had old friends, I have made a habit of leafing through the death adds and the obituaries, in order to keep "up to date" in a somewhat morbid way. As many women as men dies, media cant really change that, so the actual death adds represent an equal amount of deaths of men and women. However, the obituaries....I am starting to feel really annoyed by the gender bias in the obituaries. I surmise that at least 85% of the obituaries or more are about men. Men. Perhaps it is due to the fact that since most people dying are, naturally, elderly people, the old women dying these years are of a generation where many of them still did not have an active working life. However, that does not mean they did not have a life. But it seems, that all that deserves merit, once you have "passed on" are board memberships and public life activities. Public notice in life earns you the right to public notice in death. So I read a lot about the merits of Mr. this and that, how he was member of this, or secretary of that, or served his political party in this and that regard etc etc. I have yet to see an obituary with a content like:
"Mrs. X was an admirable woman. She almost single-handedly raised four children, because her husband was constantly away, attending board meetings." But I wish someone would write it - and the newspaper accept it for once.
You may think, I am bit weird making a fuss of this. But I think this imbalance is a clear marker of the fact that inequality between men and women, apparent through the imbalanced attention to respectively men and women in public life and media coverage (beyond that of celebrities), still exists. And if we don't pay attention to it, or in our own way try to change the values by which a life is judged, the "equal rights" to worthy attention of our merits as women, be they of a public or more private nature, will continously be violated. Even in death.
If you are one of those, who can't help glancing at the obituaries and death adds, think about it. Is the same bias apparent in your country?
I wish I was a Swede
It is rare that a Dane openly admits to wanting to be in a Swede's shoes (long history of ironic relation to neighbouring country). But currently I must admit that Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh's attitude to the current development of affairs regarding the US' attack on Iraq is much more appealing to me than that of our own foreign minister.And I wish Denmark, like fellow EU member Sweden, would just admit to provide humanitarian aid in what might follow of civil tragedy, rather than supporting the attack actively, albeit on a small scale, as we do. :(
It is rare that a Dane openly admits to wanting to be in a Swede's shoes (long history of ironic relation to neighbouring country). But currently I must admit that Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh's attitude to the current development of affairs regarding the US' attack on Iraq is much more appealing to me than that of our own foreign minister.And I wish Denmark, like fellow EU member Sweden, would just admit to provide humanitarian aid in what might follow of civil tragedy, rather than supporting the attack actively, albeit on a small scale, as we do. :(
IGDA, the International Game Developers Association has just released the 2nd Edition of theirOnline Games Whitepaper. You need to be a registered site-member to download it, but sign-up is free.
Last paper included a list of all the major players in the commercial online game industry. Good source.
Last paper included a list of all the major players in the commercial online game industry. Good source.
Movable Type Invasion
Argh!! These days, all the blogs I know or visit, seem to be taken over by the faded grey style of the Moveable Type. It feels like a giant body snatcher is moving through the world of bloggers. I know Movable Type can do a lot of cool, nerdy stuff, but whatever happened to all the colours?.I miss them!
Argh!! These days, all the blogs I know or visit, seem to be taken over by the faded grey style of the Moveable Type. It feels like a giant body snatcher is moving through the world of bloggers. I know Movable Type can do a lot of cool, nerdy stuff, but whatever happened to all the colours?.I miss them!
Blog Trolls
A "troll"-collective referring to themselves amongst other names as "Cassandra" is apparently haunting certain blog clusters these days, including colleague Jill/txt. The blog Mentalspace has finally decided to silence it: Mentalspace: Blacklist.
"Trolling" is, I guess, an inevitable side-effect of the now widespread "comment"-option in many blogs. You find trolls in virtual communities, in listservs and forums; they are, it sadly appears, as natural a part of online life, as obnoxious people are a part of off-line life. "Gagging" or blacklisting them are often used means to deal with them in virtual communities. Yet, as Dibbell's oft quoted story on A Rape in Cyberspace shows, it is also often the "trolls", the disturbers of the peace, who challenge and strengthen a particular virtual community and make the community take actions, which also help, in one way or other, establish the sense of a more traditional community of insiders and outsiders; and which also encourage the development of new tools to deal with the offenders.
As is, I think, each blogger has her or his individual right to make the offenders "shut up", especially entities like Cassandra which appears to be plain evil with no sense of humour (I've seen C's comments and they are vicious). Just because you host a blog at something which can be considered a "public space", it doesn't mean you have to accept someone verbally abusing you, just as you have the right to take measures against verbal abuse targeted at you in any form of public space in the non-digital world. Hopefully, in a digital space, there are in fact more ways of dealing with offenders than in non-digital life.
From a cybersociological point of view, it will, however, be interesting to see how trolls will affect the emergence of blog clusters/communities and how they will effect the further development of blog managing tools.
A "troll"-collective referring to themselves amongst other names as "Cassandra" is apparently haunting certain blog clusters these days, including colleague Jill/txt. The blog Mentalspace has finally decided to silence it: Mentalspace: Blacklist.
"Trolling" is, I guess, an inevitable side-effect of the now widespread "comment"-option in many blogs. You find trolls in virtual communities, in listservs and forums; they are, it sadly appears, as natural a part of online life, as obnoxious people are a part of off-line life. "Gagging" or blacklisting them are often used means to deal with them in virtual communities. Yet, as Dibbell's oft quoted story on A Rape in Cyberspace shows, it is also often the "trolls", the disturbers of the peace, who challenge and strengthen a particular virtual community and make the community take actions, which also help, in one way or other, establish the sense of a more traditional community of insiders and outsiders; and which also encourage the development of new tools to deal with the offenders.
As is, I think, each blogger has her or his individual right to make the offenders "shut up", especially entities like Cassandra which appears to be plain evil with no sense of humour (I've seen C's comments and they are vicious). Just because you host a blog at something which can be considered a "public space", it doesn't mean you have to accept someone verbally abusing you, just as you have the right to take measures against verbal abuse targeted at you in any form of public space in the non-digital world. Hopefully, in a digital space, there are in fact more ways of dealing with offenders than in non-digital life.
From a cybersociological point of view, it will, however, be interesting to see how trolls will affect the emergence of blog clusters/communities and how they will effect the further development of blog managing tools.
Moving from MOOs to Multi-User Applications.
- Admittedly, they do actually do some interesting stuff at Microsoft Research ;).
- Admittedly, they do actually do some interesting stuff at Microsoft Research ;).
The History of Virtual Worlds, some sites
The MUD Timeline (Laurel Burka)
Raph Koster's Online World Timeline
Gamespy's three part feature on the History of MUDs, published january 2001
Jessica Mulligan has written a History of Online Games which is difficult to track since it is no longer neither at Happy Puppet or Imaginary Realities etc. Luckily, Gatecentral turned out to hold a copy!
- nicely supplemented by
The History of Networked Gaming (undergrad project, mainly technical)
and another brief history of online gaming here
and a history of interactive games at onlinegamegurus.com
The MUD Timeline (Laurel Burka)
Raph Koster's Online World Timeline
Gamespy's three part feature on the History of MUDs, published january 2001
Jessica Mulligan has written a History of Online Games which is difficult to track since it is no longer neither at Happy Puppet or Imaginary Realities etc. Luckily, Gatecentral turned out to hold a copy!
- nicely supplemented by
The History of Networked Gaming (undergrad project, mainly technical)
and another brief history of online gaming here
and a history of interactive games at onlinegamegurus.com
Revisit
CTHEORY.NET > Pleasure Island - and Instruction booklet for a new and virtual life by Kenneth Chen in CTheory. I need to revisit it.
CTHEORY.NET > Pleasure Island - and Instruction booklet for a new and virtual life by Kenneth Chen in CTheory. I need to revisit it.
The New Media Reader edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort looks like a solid anthology, worth using in class.
A breeze
Hehe. The BF has invited me for an extended weekend at the seaside, including luxurious seafood buffet with friends. I'm off for this non-digital experience tomorrow morning, so don't expect to read - or be read by - me before next week.
With Susana Tosca I have just booked a flight to MelbourneDAC via Tokyo, a trip which will provide me with the opportunity of finally visiting the Fujii-family and sisters Naoko and Yuko in Tokyo. I've spent all the day filling out funding forms to get me there. XXX.
Furthermore, I have just been invited to a wedding in the UK, in August, in lovely city Canterbury. German friend and fellow ph.d.scholar-sufferess A. is getting married to English Archeologist. I got to know her when I was studying at UKC which is also where I meet Yuko who is now back in Tokyo. A, on the contrary, never left. She is one of the smartest and kindest people, I have ever met. I'm really happy for her.
Can't wait to get out of the writing cubicle.
Hehe. The BF has invited me for an extended weekend at the seaside, including luxurious seafood buffet with friends. I'm off for this non-digital experience tomorrow morning, so don't expect to read - or be read by - me before next week.
With Susana Tosca I have just booked a flight to MelbourneDAC via Tokyo, a trip which will provide me with the opportunity of finally visiting the Fujii-family and sisters Naoko and Yuko in Tokyo. I've spent all the day filling out funding forms to get me there. XXX.
Furthermore, I have just been invited to a wedding in the UK, in August, in lovely city Canterbury. German friend and fellow ph.d.scholar-sufferess A. is getting married to English Archeologist. I got to know her when I was studying at UKC which is also where I meet Yuko who is now back in Tokyo. A, on the contrary, never left. She is one of the smartest and kindest people, I have ever met. I'm really happy for her.
Can't wait to get out of the writing cubicle.
Tag, you're it!
Interesting story in Wired about Benetton wanting to put a little chip into their clothes, as to make administrative interaction with the clothes pieces easier - but also potentially enabling them to track the users who wear the clothes.Tag, you're it: What Your Clothes Say About You
I wonder if they have pondered the effect it could have on the dating scene; for instance taking the concept of the Japanese LoveGetys one step further: you could sign up for a Benetton web dating service which gives you an alert on your mobile phone anytime someone approaches you who wears a beige Benetton suit, etc...
Interesting story in Wired about Benetton wanting to put a little chip into their clothes, as to make administrative interaction with the clothes pieces easier - but also potentially enabling them to track the users who wear the clothes.Tag, you're it: What Your Clothes Say About You
I wonder if they have pondered the effect it could have on the dating scene; for instance taking the concept of the Japanese LoveGetys one step further: you could sign up for a Benetton web dating service which gives you an alert on your mobile phone anytime someone approaches you who wears a beige Benetton suit, etc...
They've Done IT!!
Torill, amiable norwegian colleague and writer of thinking with my fingers has just handed in her thesis!! And Hilde, another colleague and my former hospitable norwegian landlord, defended her's a few weeks ago.
Massive Congratulations to both (somewhat belated to Hilde, though, but you truly rule, girl!)...it is so nice to know it is possible.
It is possible...
It is possible...
It is possible...
to finish a thesis!!
Torill, amiable norwegian colleague and writer of thinking with my fingers has just handed in her thesis!! And Hilde, another colleague and my former hospitable norwegian landlord, defended her's a few weeks ago.
Massive Congratulations to both (somewhat belated to Hilde, though, but you truly rule, girl!)...it is so nice to know it is possible.
It is possible...
It is possible...
It is possible...
to finish a thesis!!
Argh, the system!
I am tentatively up and running again (well at least my computer is back), but have spent most of a day like today on the phone, trying to reach The One Person in the public system of financial support who is apparently capable of helping me. So far without any luck. Doctor has consented to a official sick-leave going in back in time to when the flu started and taking into account my problems with back and arm, which is still troubling me. However, my union (Magistrenes A-kasse) denies me any help, disregarding my physical well-being, because I am still registered as a ph.d. student, even though I am officially unemployed, and in principle willing to take on any relevant work which comes my way... Rejected by them, I turned to "Kommunen" (the local authority in all welfare matters) which has sent me ping-ponging between several offices for several days now, until today I finally got the right phonenumber to the right office, but noone ever picked up the phone though I tried to get through for several hours. All I want is to get some financial support for the period during which I have been/am not able to work, but it seems like getting this support might turn out to be a day-job in itself. It feels like I am in the middle of a Kafka-story.
Hmmh, a friend kindly suggested that I should rename the blog and call it "Brokke-blog" (intranslatable Danish pun, to "brokke sig" is to complain or moan.) Perhaps I will. At least, I feel more like a "brokkehoved" (a talking moaning head) than an academic at the moment ;). Tomorrow, I will be smart!
I am tentatively up and running again (well at least my computer is back), but have spent most of a day like today on the phone, trying to reach The One Person in the public system of financial support who is apparently capable of helping me. So far without any luck. Doctor has consented to a official sick-leave going in back in time to when the flu started and taking into account my problems with back and arm, which is still troubling me. However, my union (Magistrenes A-kasse) denies me any help, disregarding my physical well-being, because I am still registered as a ph.d. student, even though I am officially unemployed, and in principle willing to take on any relevant work which comes my way... Rejected by them, I turned to "Kommunen" (the local authority in all welfare matters) which has sent me ping-ponging between several offices for several days now, until today I finally got the right phonenumber to the right office, but noone ever picked up the phone though I tried to get through for several hours. All I want is to get some financial support for the period during which I have been/am not able to work, but it seems like getting this support might turn out to be a day-job in itself. It feels like I am in the middle of a Kafka-story.
Hmmh, a friend kindly suggested that I should rename the blog and call it "Brokke-blog" (intranslatable Danish pun, to "brokke sig" is to complain or moan.) Perhaps I will. At least, I feel more like a "brokkehoved" (a talking moaning head) than an academic at the moment ;). Tomorrow, I will be smart!
Alternate Reality Gaming Resource Site
Unfiction.com is a good site for those interested in alternate reality gaming and games (such as Majestic or Artificial Intelligence's "The Beast").
The webmaster points to various ongoing games and discussion boards and also has links to history and glossary. Via my friend Tommy, who is also a former student who, with other student Mogens, wrote a very good essay on Alternate Reality Gaming. I hope they publish it one day (nudge, nudge).
Unfiction.com is a good site for those interested in alternate reality gaming and games (such as Majestic or Artificial Intelligence's "The Beast").
The webmaster points to various ongoing games and discussion boards and also has links to history and glossary. Via my friend Tommy, who is also a former student who, with other student Mogens, wrote a very good essay on Alternate Reality Gaming. I hope they publish it one day (nudge, nudge).
Faith and the Internet
An old acquaintance and colleague of mine, Morten Thomsen Højsgaard has edited and published a book titled Den Digitale Kirke - syv artikler om internet og kristendom (The Digital Church, 7 articles on the Internet and Christianity). It is out in the stores today.
Morten was interviewed on DR2 (the "secret" public service channel of Danish Television) yesterday in Deadline and did a good job of explaining how and why debates on religious faith have exploded on the internet during the last year. Changes in (Danish) society (the introduction of other religious beliefs through immigrants, the awareness of the importance of religious belief spawned by September 11th etc); changes in technology which allows people access to new modes and forms of communication, and changes in the modern church itself (faith increasingly becoming a personal matter or choice) is reflected in people's curiosity and need to discuss faith on the digital meeting ground.
Morten, I believe, is a visionary, in that he was thinking about the relation between the internet and religious belief already 4-5 years ago, when I met him for the first time, long time before many of his peers did. His research is interesting because we meet on common ground to a certain extent: we both need to know about virtual communities and communication forms and modes for our individual research. There are MUDs with Christian Themes, even. It is a good reflection of the fact that many researches with a background in the Humanities will find themselves crossing the same land while trying to reach their individual research goals. We might as well benefit and learn of each other, rather than rejecting "the other's" insights, because their field of study at first glance do not seem relevant to us.
An example of puzzling intersection: I browsed through Morten's introduction to the book, in which he mentions a "virtual diocese" on the www: Partenia.fr. It has its own bishop and is, in fact, a "real" diocese, however there is no physical anchoring of this diocese in the physical world. A new example of what one could call a virtual world, presenting a new and intriguing mix of the virtual with the real.
An old acquaintance and colleague of mine, Morten Thomsen Højsgaard has edited and published a book titled Den Digitale Kirke - syv artikler om internet og kristendom (The Digital Church, 7 articles on the Internet and Christianity). It is out in the stores today.
Morten was interviewed on DR2 (the "secret" public service channel of Danish Television) yesterday in Deadline and did a good job of explaining how and why debates on religious faith have exploded on the internet during the last year. Changes in (Danish) society (the introduction of other religious beliefs through immigrants, the awareness of the importance of religious belief spawned by September 11th etc); changes in technology which allows people access to new modes and forms of communication, and changes in the modern church itself (faith increasingly becoming a personal matter or choice) is reflected in people's curiosity and need to discuss faith on the digital meeting ground.
Morten, I believe, is a visionary, in that he was thinking about the relation between the internet and religious belief already 4-5 years ago, when I met him for the first time, long time before many of his peers did. His research is interesting because we meet on common ground to a certain extent: we both need to know about virtual communities and communication forms and modes for our individual research. There are MUDs with Christian Themes, even. It is a good reflection of the fact that many researches with a background in the Humanities will find themselves crossing the same land while trying to reach their individual research goals. We might as well benefit and learn of each other, rather than rejecting "the other's" insights, because their field of study at first glance do not seem relevant to us.
An example of puzzling intersection: I browsed through Morten's introduction to the book, in which he mentions a "virtual diocese" on the www: Partenia.fr. It has its own bishop and is, in fact, a "real" diocese, however there is no physical anchoring of this diocese in the physical world. A new example of what one could call a virtual world, presenting a new and intriguing mix of the virtual with the real.
Nemesis
My optimism last week was overturned when my cold during the weekend got worse and furthermore has been supplemented by sinuitis. And it turned out I had to return my computer to the repair centre because they had failed to put in an important little "gadget" when they put it back together again, which in effect meant I couldn't hear any sounds or music on the computer. And of course the gadget is not that easily retrievable, so so far they are keeping it. Sigh.
So here I am, several days further down the road and nowhere nearer to finishing my ph.d.thesis. Oh, and I have no funding bodies to pay my bills. It is a long story that I am not going to tell here, but money (or the lack of them...) is becoming a real issue. It has gotten to the stage where I am considering getting a "proper" day job to be able to pay the bills.
So, sorry, no clever thoughts coming up here in the near future.
My optimism last week was overturned when my cold during the weekend got worse and furthermore has been supplemented by sinuitis. And it turned out I had to return my computer to the repair centre because they had failed to put in an important little "gadget" when they put it back together again, which in effect meant I couldn't hear any sounds or music on the computer. And of course the gadget is not that easily retrievable, so so far they are keeping it. Sigh.
So here I am, several days further down the road and nowhere nearer to finishing my ph.d.thesis. Oh, and I have no funding bodies to pay my bills. It is a long story that I am not going to tell here, but money (or the lack of them...) is becoming a real issue. It has gotten to the stage where I am considering getting a "proper" day job to be able to pay the bills.
So, sorry, no clever thoughts coming up here in the near future.
Dancemat trails
A few days ago, I heard part of a song in a video trailer for a movie called Gaudi Afternoon. I knew I had heard the song before, but where? Eventually, some unknown part of my brain came up with a strange connection: it turned out to be the "Mucho Mambo Sway", which is one of the songs featured on the Playstation 2 dancemat "game" Dancing Stage Euromix. I have been dancing it quite a few times, competing against Susana and Jesper on who could do the most correct and precise moves on the mat following the steps presented on the screen while the song played. I found a sample of the song online, and when I played it on the stereo here at home, my feet almost automatically started doing the moves from the game, which somehow felt pretty weird repeating _without_ the dancemat. I wonder whether there are discos in Japan where the pro dancemat gamers actually dance the dances from the game without the mat, moves learned "by heart" by their feet???
A few days ago, I heard part of a song in a video trailer for a movie called Gaudi Afternoon. I knew I had heard the song before, but where? Eventually, some unknown part of my brain came up with a strange connection: it turned out to be the "Mucho Mambo Sway", which is one of the songs featured on the Playstation 2 dancemat "game" Dancing Stage Euromix. I have been dancing it quite a few times, competing against Susana and Jesper on who could do the most correct and precise moves on the mat following the steps presented on the screen while the song played. I found a sample of the song online, and when I played it on the stereo here at home, my feet almost automatically started doing the moves from the game, which somehow felt pretty weird repeating _without_ the dancemat. I wonder whether there are discos in Japan where the pro dancemat gamers actually dance the dances from the game without the mat, moves learned "by heart" by their feet???
Death Stories project
Walgblog (DK)
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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.