Trends in Multimedia

Open Lecture organized on 27 August 2004 by the Amsterdam New Media Institute
Stefano Bocconi

This plublic lecture was organized as a closing act of the first Summer School organized by this new born institution, the Amsterdam New Media Institute. In a not very crowded room at the last floor of the Post CS building the day was started by Frits Huffnagel (Wethouder Economische Zaken en ICT van de Stad Amsterdam, in English that could be member of the City Council ?), with a talk about the role that Amsterdam can play as a hosting city for new media technology.

The talk was pleasant (at least for my understanding of the Dutch language), short and informative enough; Amsterdam is a well-positioned city for hosting companies in general, but apparently two factors are hindering the process for companies to settle here: lack of qualified working force and infrastructures.

More specifically, apparently there is lack of technical people with marketing skills, and the Wethouder hoped that this Summer School (financied by the City Hall as well) was a valid answer to tackle this shortage. About the infrastructures, he presented a proposal he had to simplify the burocracy for companies, a sort of one point for all issues telephone number, apparently inspired by the way public administration is organized in the USA (it seems that citizens have a unique number to call for all issues they may have for the public administration).

After that there was a panel discussion which I did not really follow, except for two things:
For the chronicle these people were on the panel: Marleen Stikker (Waag), Emilie Randoe (Hogeschool van Amsterdam), Jos de Bruin (Universiteit van Amsterdam), en Paul Rutten (InHolland en Erasmus Universiteit).

Mobile games

Then the real presentations came! The first one was from Matt Adams of Blast Theory, London. His presention was about mobile games, i.e. games that can be played with a portable device like a PDA or (hopefully in the future) a mobile telephone.

The two games he presented were not meant to be commercial goods but more a way to explore social changes inducted and enabled by this new mobile technology. Both games were a sort of seek and hide variations, with partecipants physically going around a city and other following them on the internet. In the first one the online player had to escape the players in the city, while in the second, Uncle Roy all around you, they both had to collaborate in order to find someone (uncle Roy).

From Uncle ROY FAQ:

What is the aim of the game? Online Players must persuade a Street Player to collect a postcard from one of a number of hidden locations around the city. Online Players must then guide them to Uncle Roy's office.

Where are the postcards? There are photos scattered throughout the virtual city. One them marks the location of your postcard. Keep searching through the photos until you reveal this location. Once you've found it, take a Street Player the same location in the real city.

How do I talk to a Street Player? Click in the chat window on the left marked Message Street Player. Type a message and then hit Return to send it. The message will appear on the Street Players handheld computer. Street Players can record audio replies.

What are Street Players trying to do? They are looking for Roy. He sends Street Players messages to help them. Online Players must be persuasive and persistent to gain the trust of a Street Player.

How do I know if I have won? You cannot win. But you will know when you have reached the end of the game. The game lasts between 30 minutes and an hour online. Street Players have 60 minutes.

Are there really people playing on the streets right now? No. The last game of Uncle Roy took place in June 2003 in West Bromwich, UK.

The fact to be immerse in reality to play a game is a sort of setting which is unusual and leads to interesting side effects, the most notable being the fact that you do not know whether the environment you are in is part of the game or not: some of players congratulated the organizers of the game for the excellent performance of some actors facilitating the game ("that bus driver shouting at me was great") who actually were real and not acting, and players denied access to places thinking they did not ask properly, did not give the right password or did not wink ("I have a meeting with uncle Roy", blank face and "We do not have an uncle Roy here").
The ultimate goal of the game was not to find the not-existing uncle, but to close a deal of mutual support with an unknown person: the street player were asked a certain point if they would agree to help a stranger in a existential crisis, and the one who agreed were given the telephone number of another player. The presenter himself had this telephone number in his mobile, and even if he had not contacted the other yet, he knew he could.

Media Lab Europe

Simon Jones is the director of Medialab Europe, Dublin, and he presented the lab and its apparently most notable subject of research at the moment, Intimate interface. These interfaces are way of controlling devices using not only the traditional I/O ways, but different part of the body. To give an idea, mobile telephones equipped with an accellerometer to sense movement and direction, so that if you bring the mobile to your back pocket the telephone will present you with you bank saldo (from the association back pocket -> wallet -> money). Another device was a football game that you had to play kicking the ball against a wall, and the wall was connected to another wall somewhere else where other players were doing the same.

I was not particularly impressed by the inventions that did not seem like much at all (nothing a 8 year old boy could not do with an enpowereed lego), but more interested in the way the lab works: it is a private company, they do not do commissioned research but allow financing partners to come and visit the lab when they want to "steal" all ideas they see ripe for the market. They have the demo philosophy, everything must be prototiped and showcase, and projects leading nowhere must be ruthlessly killed. They do not offer long term contracts but encourage people to come and go, to have fresh ideas continously streaming in. The people they are looking for are top of their field but not only: they must be interdisciplinary inside (like Intel inside), i.e. people that have been doing more things at a professional level (like music and research).

All in all a living hell... (just joking). Since I did not have any technical issue, I did not approach the guy after his presentation: wrong wrong wrong, now I would know what to ask (Can I come and visit?)
I have to learn this, or simply go to such events togheter with a professional keynote speaker hunter (like we have in our group) and learn ......