How can we create a safe environment for children online without discouraging participation?
This was the question set by Jim Flemming from Childrens BBC, regarding their message board on the Childrens BBC website. In researching this issue I came across a website called ZD Net, and an article written by Dion Hinchcliffe called: Ten leading platforms for creating online communities. The first thing Dion Hinchcliffe states is "Learning how to design an effective community is something that were all going have to get better at in the coming years", and continues "as were still in the early stages of learning how to build online communities successfully". These statements represent the views of many I.T. consultants and business leaders globally. They also idicate that at present there's no clearly defined way to successfully create an online community, and quite often it's just a case of trial and error. Another very interesting point that Dion Hinchcliffe makes is regarding how "Too many online communities today exhibit worst practices such as a lack of sustained community management, a tendancy to use computers for 'Push Marketing', cross wiring business and consumer motivations, and lastly, starting with the technology first".
The way to avoid these pitfalls is by using Tacit Interactions, which consist's of eliciting useful participation, reaching out and engaging all on the network, thus creating a community. To do this one needs good understanding of how communities work, and to make sure that their are established clear goals involving what needs to be achieved. Plus also understanding what your community would like to do, and gaining a true understanding of it. Tacit Interactions do not provide an exact template or set of rules on how to correctly create an online community. But moreover only offer a rough set of useful guidelines on how to make online communities work.
Below is a useful diagram by Dion Hinchcliffe called the "Membership life plan of online communities", and shows the path and life span that a community member's engagement takes, during their involvement with an online community.
Discover-[Peripheral(vistitor)]-Join-[Inbound(novice)]-engage-[Insider(regular)]-ascend-[Veteran(leader)]-change-[Elder(retired)]-Depart.
After contemplating the merits of Dion Hincliffe's above mentioned article and the argument that it makes, one should now re-examine the question that was set by Jim Flemming from CBBC. His question was: How can we create a safe environment for children without discouraging participation?
Some commentators would suggest that Dion Hinchcliffe's methodology, actually proposes that building a successful online community first is the ultimate goal. And all technical reasoning must come second. Using this premise one must analyse the Key elements of Jim Flemmings question, which is to "create a safe environment for children", and "without discouraging participation". The two standout words from these elements are - environment & participation, or in other words community & engagement. Therefore some may conclude that the correct required stratergy is to design a flurishing online community first, which successfully engages all of its members. Before initiating the safety protocol policing policy. Who's sole existence is only merrited by the fact that it is there as the protecter of the community. Thus it's true purpose being to uphold the community, and not to inhibbit it. In order for this function to be delivered attentively, it must only make its tweeks and alterations at the last stage before the facility goes live, but not to an extent that would discourage participation. With the safeguard's only responsibility being to complement the primary objective. Which is the achievement of designing a true online community for children which they can successfully engage.
This then leaves the conundrum, how do we design a true online community for children which they can successfully engage.
Why not look at the example of real world communities and how they work, and then transform them into a cyberspace virtual community for children. What do real world communities consist of and how do they work? Is the possible answer connections. When one looks at real world communities it's hard to look beyond this point. Examining the real, one may find that within the local geographical social hinterland, many connections occure in many different ways. Stepping out of ones urban residence they may find neighbours in the adjoining residences. Then adjoining streets & roads to their own. Then the area these streets are incorporated in, which borders other areas, which altogether are incorporated into a city. Then counties, then regions, then countries, then continents, and so on. But if one begin's with the immediate local geographical area one may find that it's poeple interconnect and interact through many different ways. Some of these methods consist of neighbours interacting of all ages in their locality, children interacting at school, people interacting at workplaces, consumers interacting with retailers etc. Real world communities also create organised interest groups for example the cubs, the scouts, the boys brigade, the girl guides, the mothers union, football teams etc. But they also create informal groups of friends, gangs, colleages, believer's and other collective groups who also have common interest's. There are also places for these different groups to gather and bond such as community centres & youth clubs, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, pubs, clubs, cafe's, stadiums, galleries, museums, cinema's, theatre's etc. It doesn't stop there, these individual's and specific interest groups also engage with the wider society and other individuals and other groups at the same time. The dynamics of human societies community engagement is very vast, and there's an astronomical multitude of interconnections, using many different methods and platforms. These in essence are the tools of how they engage. But what actually makes them want to engage, is the possible answer desire. Desire is what makes most human beings actually engage in society. It is the drive that makes people interact, because some kind of interaction either large or small is required in fulfilling ones goals. If this is the case, then this is what needs to be recreated in a virtual community. There needs to be many different area's of various sizes for the children to meet. A desire or a goal must be created to give them the inner drive to engage, and CBBC must then create all of these aspects for their virtual online community. It also must do it in benign ways, for example instead of competitions have exhibitions. Have secret votes & polls to engage childrens opinion, and make them feel that their opinion matters, giving them a sense of worth. Create genres and culteral connections that delivers the power for smaller groups to intertwine into larger groups. But always maintain common interest areas so that the children can always bond and then engage. Beware not to de-territorialise, which can create a disconnect between culture and social spaces, thus inhibbiting the creation of a community. A very large foundation stone needs to be laid by CBBC, that will allow a magnitude of buiding blocks to be placed on it. Cultural territories create communities and organise a sense of cultural belonging, without the forementioned tools and building blocks a successful online community that fully engages children will not occure.
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Monday, 24 October 2011
Rebel Play
Do media platforms and genres have specific gender appeal? Why don't more women play console games?
I reviewed a Youtube video article by a female gaming journalist called Leigh Alexander. Currently the news director at Gamasutra, and formaly an associate editor of kotaku. She also maintains a blog called Sexy Videogame Land.
With regards to the question that was set by Rebel Play, Leigh Alexander a highly experienced journalist in this field provides an array of possible answers to both parts of the question.
Since its inception gaming has been the domain of males, and today the majority of video game designers & players are still male. As a result their is gender prejudice on both sides. This prejudice is created by a number of factors, which includes the notion that console games mainly consist of the action & sci-fy genres, which inturn are all blood & guts. Due to this women feel that the patriarchal hegemony in the game design industry (and because of their subsequent content matter), inevitably means that console games aren't for them. Delving deaper into this we find out why. Leigh Alexander states that at present "the game settings don't appeal to women, the gameplay doesn't appeal to women and the characters don't appeal to women". Femine attitudes towards game console characters and how they are marketed shows a distinct animosity to the current game console market. With an example of this being Lara Croft, one of the most famous gaming characters ever created. She was a hyper sexualised female character, and at times was even marketed posing topless, something that has become the norm for this market. Sexual marketing also applied to the box art of many other games in this sector. This made women feel that this type of game genre was not for them, and they felt excluded from the game console market altogether. In essence women feel that the soft porn marketing and the highly sexualised portrayal and actions of some game console characters, must be greatly reduced and replaced by positive female role models, in order to successfully engage a larger female market.
There are encouraging possibilities that a large female congregation is waiting for the oportunity to engage with the game console market if the above mentioned changes are made. Over the last ten years the casual games maket has seen a 74% increase in female consumers. Women in their 30's have replaced men aged 18-34 as their main customers. According to Leigh Alexander if "New settings, new gameplay innovations, new character archetypes, and new approaches to design", occure. Then their is a major possibility of crossover consumerism. The biggest possibility of this happening involves far more women becoming directly involved in the industry. Another solution to engaging the female gender, is a long term plan which involves targeting the younger female market, which creates the possibility of girls "growing up with a greater appreciation of the medium". Thus in future more willing to engage in the games console market. Finally if the games console industry stopped being gender specific, and started targeting people instead of the individual male & female genders. Then they may create more success for the console industry in the future, by engaging all genders as a single collective.
I reviewed a Youtube video article by a female gaming journalist called Leigh Alexander. Currently the news director at Gamasutra, and formaly an associate editor of kotaku. She also maintains a blog called Sexy Videogame Land.
With regards to the question that was set by Rebel Play, Leigh Alexander a highly experienced journalist in this field provides an array of possible answers to both parts of the question.
Since its inception gaming has been the domain of males, and today the majority of video game designers & players are still male. As a result their is gender prejudice on both sides. This prejudice is created by a number of factors, which includes the notion that console games mainly consist of the action & sci-fy genres, which inturn are all blood & guts. Due to this women feel that the patriarchal hegemony in the game design industry (and because of their subsequent content matter), inevitably means that console games aren't for them. Delving deaper into this we find out why. Leigh Alexander states that at present "the game settings don't appeal to women, the gameplay doesn't appeal to women and the characters don't appeal to women". Femine attitudes towards game console characters and how they are marketed shows a distinct animosity to the current game console market. With an example of this being Lara Croft, one of the most famous gaming characters ever created. She was a hyper sexualised female character, and at times was even marketed posing topless, something that has become the norm for this market. Sexual marketing also applied to the box art of many other games in this sector. This made women feel that this type of game genre was not for them, and they felt excluded from the game console market altogether. In essence women feel that the soft porn marketing and the highly sexualised portrayal and actions of some game console characters, must be greatly reduced and replaced by positive female role models, in order to successfully engage a larger female market.
There are encouraging possibilities that a large female congregation is waiting for the oportunity to engage with the game console market if the above mentioned changes are made. Over the last ten years the casual games maket has seen a 74% increase in female consumers. Women in their 30's have replaced men aged 18-34 as their main customers. According to Leigh Alexander if "New settings, new gameplay innovations, new character archetypes, and new approaches to design", occure. Then their is a major possibility of crossover consumerism. The biggest possibility of this happening involves far more women becoming directly involved in the industry. Another solution to engaging the female gender, is a long term plan which involves targeting the younger female market, which creates the possibility of girls "growing up with a greater appreciation of the medium". Thus in future more willing to engage in the games console market. Finally if the games console industry stopped being gender specific, and started targeting people instead of the individual male & female genders. Then they may create more success for the console industry in the future, by engaging all genders as a single collective.
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Hurricane Films:
How can you engage an online audience in storytelling? - How do you encourage users, especially those from an older generation to participate?
The above question that was set by Hurricane Films is designed to aid them in the formation of a comprehensive stratergy, that would enable the Hurricane Films website www.peoples-stories.com to establish itself as the key element and essential conduit in being the ultimate storytelling device for the older generation and in particular the over 65's. The initial campaign strategy is to target Merseyside but it must be created in a way, that allows the stragergy in future to be rolled out in an efficient and successful manner throughout all regions of the UK. Allowing the continuous growth of the site geographically as it spreads into new regions, but also to develop its knowledge base and interaction with these new regions as it moves forward.
In researching the extent of Hurricane Films predicament, I reveiwed the Age UK (formorly Age Concern) website and discovered that according to their website that 5.7million people over the age of 65 have never used the internet before in the UK and also don't own a computer. This one statistic creates an enormous obstacle to Hurricane Films ambitions. There are three ways of dealing with this situation. First to try and work around the fact that 5.7million over 65's have never used the internet, and attempt to engage them indirectly via third parties such as family members, activist/community groups and internet cafe's. Secondly to tackle this situation head on and for Hurricane Films to encourage the 5.7million over 65's to buy or obtain computers and to educate them in using the internet directly. Thirdly a combination or mixture of the previous two viewpoints.
It is also prudent to review similar situations in recent history invovling technological evolution and how an older demograph of the British population was energised into joining and participating with UK societies new interactive technological media ethos, despite it's initial negative correlation. This was the case regarding Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) in the UK, and we have examples of both failure and then success. The original inception as the ONdigital/ITV digital conduit failed. This was due to Sky being their major provider of programmes, and thus receiving 70% of ITV digitals profits. Another reason for its failure was due to it being a subscription service. BBC investigations revealed that their was a distinct age divide regarding the British publics attitude towards DTT. It revealed that the over 45's were largely unwilling to invest in DTT, having to buy new digital set top boxes and possible new television sets combined with the cost of a subscription service, lacked appeal to the older generation when they couldn't see the potential benefits. Some commentators may argue that this predicament is echoed today with the over 65's lack of engagement with the internet, as they have to invest in computers and subscribe to a broadband package, and for many of them they can't see the benefit of this substantial investment. DTT only became a success when the BBC lead the Freeveiw launch and role out of the digital switchover. As a result in only 18 months 3.4million UK households were receiving digital television via freeview, and those figures continued to grow rapidly thereafter. This had been a joint venture led by the BBC, and involved National Grid Wireless (formerly Crowne Castle) & BSkyB as private partners, but left the BBC as the focal point of this service, it's controller and main profiteer.
For Hurricane Films to fulfil the ambition that the above question alludes too, it potentially has to make mammoth undertakings. Hurricane Films is a small private regional company, and doesn't have the scope of the BBC. The answer for Hurricane Films is to tweek the Freeview role out model to benefit itself. The BBC was a large not for profit company that colluded with smaller private partners. Hurricane Films is a smaller private company that needs to cooperate with a number of larger not for profit organisations, but maintain controll of the project at all times like the BBC with Freeview, thus being the head of a Cooperative and which as a company is still allowed to make profits, whislt also remaining its main profiteer.
Hurricane Films needs to launch a Pilot Scheme for Merseyside that at a later point can be rolled out across other UK regions. It also must sell this idea & stratergy to it's partners in order to bring them on board and invest in the project with them able to see potential benefits to the elderly. The partners in the Cooperative must involve schools, colleges & universities (For varying degrees of social communictions) along with local and national government (providing multiple applications). There must also be a collection of local, regional and nation charities & activist groups that deal with the older generation (e.g.Age UK). The Cooperative must also include agencies such as Local Solutions that blur the lines between local government and charity. The NHS, Social Services along with private care & nursing homes must also become involved (assisting the more vulnerable). Within all these groups champions (individuals) must be set up and given support with moving the concept forward, with various types of people that can aid the project in different ways. There is also the individual (from the older generation) who is able to assist as an internet champion.
The current government is envoking the idea of the big society and is attempting to introduce legislation and other mechanisms to aid this government policy. The 5.7million people who are over 65 and are currently unable to benefit from the internet, through either a lack of education in this area, or means, or possibly both. Would benefit considerably from this potential Hurricane Films lead Cooperative. The benefits to the elderly are as follows: They are missing out on the immense financial and social benefits that the internet can offer, for example keeping in touch with grandchildren, discovering new interests and hobbies, and by shopping around to save money on products and services. It also gives them a window and access to the world from their own home, at a time when mobility can be a problem, and a computer normally is cheaper than a car. There has also been the problem of nursing & care home abuse and scandals which were highlighted in the media this year (Southern Cross, Castle Beck & Winterbourne), and the internet can give the vulnerably a voice and protection in our society. By creating a new online community for the over 65's, a new community spirit would be created and work to combat lowliness amognst the old, which in turn could improve their quality of life and in turn their life expectancy through higher moral. The governments new e-petition legislation that allows online petitions with 100,000 signatures or more to enforce a debate in parliment on their chosen subject matter. Could potentially give the silver vote a greater political voice in parliment, and create policies and laws that would be highly beneficial to the over 65's, with them conceivably becoming a very powerful lobbyist group. Regarding potential monetary benefits and possible discounts for the elderly regarding computing and broadband services, it depends on the goodwill the Cooperative can generate from organisations and individuals involved within it. Along with goodwill from local & national goverment, the taxpayer, and wider society. Thus how much direct or indirect ability Hurricane Films or the Cooperative has to aid the engagement of the elder generation with the internet depends on the amount of investment capital the project can raise.
The Benefits to Hurricane Films being at the head of this Cooperative are as follows: It creates a high level af trust amongst the over 65's and also throughout the wider UK society, as this would be seen as an organisation for good by the general public. Therefore empowering the Hurricane Films brand over all others in this sector, and creating engagement with the older generation for their principal project www.peoples-stories.com . The encouragement from individuals and organisations of wider society (either involved in the Cooperative or not) towards older individual citizens to tell their stories would almost always involve the conduit of Hurricane Films. The amount of consumer interest and potential material that this creates could lead to a highly profitable business model that could spread across multiple platforms. Including a highly profitable website, television broadcast programmes and feature films. Creating profit margins that would guarantee a small private companies future, whilst operating in the current & future difficult market conditions.
The above question that was set by Hurricane Films is designed to aid them in the formation of a comprehensive stratergy, that would enable the Hurricane Films website www.peoples-stories.com to establish itself as the key element and essential conduit in being the ultimate storytelling device for the older generation and in particular the over 65's. The initial campaign strategy is to target Merseyside but it must be created in a way, that allows the stragergy in future to be rolled out in an efficient and successful manner throughout all regions of the UK. Allowing the continuous growth of the site geographically as it spreads into new regions, but also to develop its knowledge base and interaction with these new regions as it moves forward.
In researching the extent of Hurricane Films predicament, I reveiwed the Age UK (formorly Age Concern) website and discovered that according to their website that 5.7million people over the age of 65 have never used the internet before in the UK and also don't own a computer. This one statistic creates an enormous obstacle to Hurricane Films ambitions. There are three ways of dealing with this situation. First to try and work around the fact that 5.7million over 65's have never used the internet, and attempt to engage them indirectly via third parties such as family members, activist/community groups and internet cafe's. Secondly to tackle this situation head on and for Hurricane Films to encourage the 5.7million over 65's to buy or obtain computers and to educate them in using the internet directly. Thirdly a combination or mixture of the previous two viewpoints.
It is also prudent to review similar situations in recent history invovling technological evolution and how an older demograph of the British population was energised into joining and participating with UK societies new interactive technological media ethos, despite it's initial negative correlation. This was the case regarding Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) in the UK, and we have examples of both failure and then success. The original inception as the ONdigital/ITV digital conduit failed. This was due to Sky being their major provider of programmes, and thus receiving 70% of ITV digitals profits. Another reason for its failure was due to it being a subscription service. BBC investigations revealed that their was a distinct age divide regarding the British publics attitude towards DTT. It revealed that the over 45's were largely unwilling to invest in DTT, having to buy new digital set top boxes and possible new television sets combined with the cost of a subscription service, lacked appeal to the older generation when they couldn't see the potential benefits. Some commentators may argue that this predicament is echoed today with the over 65's lack of engagement with the internet, as they have to invest in computers and subscribe to a broadband package, and for many of them they can't see the benefit of this substantial investment. DTT only became a success when the BBC lead the Freeveiw launch and role out of the digital switchover. As a result in only 18 months 3.4million UK households were receiving digital television via freeview, and those figures continued to grow rapidly thereafter. This had been a joint venture led by the BBC, and involved National Grid Wireless (formerly Crowne Castle) & BSkyB as private partners, but left the BBC as the focal point of this service, it's controller and main profiteer.
For Hurricane Films to fulfil the ambition that the above question alludes too, it potentially has to make mammoth undertakings. Hurricane Films is a small private regional company, and doesn't have the scope of the BBC. The answer for Hurricane Films is to tweek the Freeview role out model to benefit itself. The BBC was a large not for profit company that colluded with smaller private partners. Hurricane Films is a smaller private company that needs to cooperate with a number of larger not for profit organisations, but maintain controll of the project at all times like the BBC with Freeview, thus being the head of a Cooperative and which as a company is still allowed to make profits, whislt also remaining its main profiteer.
Hurricane Films needs to launch a Pilot Scheme for Merseyside that at a later point can be rolled out across other UK regions. It also must sell this idea & stratergy to it's partners in order to bring them on board and invest in the project with them able to see potential benefits to the elderly. The partners in the Cooperative must involve schools, colleges & universities (For varying degrees of social communictions) along with local and national government (providing multiple applications). There must also be a collection of local, regional and nation charities & activist groups that deal with the older generation (e.g.Age UK). The Cooperative must also include agencies such as Local Solutions that blur the lines between local government and charity. The NHS, Social Services along with private care & nursing homes must also become involved (assisting the more vulnerable). Within all these groups champions (individuals) must be set up and given support with moving the concept forward, with various types of people that can aid the project in different ways. There is also the individual (from the older generation) who is able to assist as an internet champion.
The current government is envoking the idea of the big society and is attempting to introduce legislation and other mechanisms to aid this government policy. The 5.7million people who are over 65 and are currently unable to benefit from the internet, through either a lack of education in this area, or means, or possibly both. Would benefit considerably from this potential Hurricane Films lead Cooperative. The benefits to the elderly are as follows: They are missing out on the immense financial and social benefits that the internet can offer, for example keeping in touch with grandchildren, discovering new interests and hobbies, and by shopping around to save money on products and services. It also gives them a window and access to the world from their own home, at a time when mobility can be a problem, and a computer normally is cheaper than a car. There has also been the problem of nursing & care home abuse and scandals which were highlighted in the media this year (Southern Cross, Castle Beck & Winterbourne), and the internet can give the vulnerably a voice and protection in our society. By creating a new online community for the over 65's, a new community spirit would be created and work to combat lowliness amognst the old, which in turn could improve their quality of life and in turn their life expectancy through higher moral. The governments new e-petition legislation that allows online petitions with 100,000 signatures or more to enforce a debate in parliment on their chosen subject matter. Could potentially give the silver vote a greater political voice in parliment, and create policies and laws that would be highly beneficial to the over 65's, with them conceivably becoming a very powerful lobbyist group. Regarding potential monetary benefits and possible discounts for the elderly regarding computing and broadband services, it depends on the goodwill the Cooperative can generate from organisations and individuals involved within it. Along with goodwill from local & national goverment, the taxpayer, and wider society. Thus how much direct or indirect ability Hurricane Films or the Cooperative has to aid the engagement of the elder generation with the internet depends on the amount of investment capital the project can raise.
The Benefits to Hurricane Films being at the head of this Cooperative are as follows: It creates a high level af trust amongst the over 65's and also throughout the wider UK society, as this would be seen as an organisation for good by the general public. Therefore empowering the Hurricane Films brand over all others in this sector, and creating engagement with the older generation for their principal project www.peoples-stories.com . The encouragement from individuals and organisations of wider society (either involved in the Cooperative or not) towards older individual citizens to tell their stories would almost always involve the conduit of Hurricane Films. The amount of consumer interest and potential material that this creates could lead to a highly profitable business model that could spread across multiple platforms. Including a highly profitable website, television broadcast programmes and feature films. Creating profit margins that would guarantee a small private companies future, whilst operating in the current & future difficult market conditions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)