Positive Technology Journal

Via TheAppGap 

Kluster is a platform for crowdsourcing and then organizing and putting to use skills, energy and availability on projects and initiatives.  From the ReadWriteWeb review:

Kluster Launches at TED: A New Product in 72 Hours

Crowdsourcing firm Kluster officially launched yesterday at the TED conference, which is underway this week in Monterey, California. Founder Ben Kaufman, who bankrolled the company in part with money from the sale of his last company Mophie, has organized a gimmick over the course of the TED conference he hopes will prove Kluster’s worth. Kaufman intends to let TED attendees — and users from around the world — design a completely new product over the course of 72 hours.

The idea behind Kluster is that a group of passionate people working together can come up with better solutions for any decision-making problem than a single person. Whether that is planning an event, designing a new logo, or creating a new product, Kluster believes their system can.

[ Snip … ]

The Kluster system works by breaking down products into manageable chunks. For each chunk (or "phase"), people submit what are called "sparks." Sparks are proposed solutions for that phase. For each spark, other participants can submit "amps" — which are improvements to that idea. Users also assign "watts" to sparks and amps they like. Watts work kind of like investments. You accrue points based on participation and other factors, and can invest those points (watts) in ideas you like.

Then an algorithm that takes into account "each user’s successes, failures, reputation, areas of expertise, and overall history" goes to work to determine which sparks are the best. Companies interested in using the Kluster system, put up cash prizes that are doled out along the way (at the completion of each phase).

Re-blogged from Medgadget

Researchers at Breakthrough Learning have developed the world's most stressful board game to help foster systems thinking, collaboration, and innovation in the health care setting.

Played out over a simulated 24-hour day at a hospital, "Friday Night at the ER" graphically shows the downside of short-term thinking, faulty assumptions and an every-manager-for-himself philosophy.

Four-player teams try to juggle a limited number of hospital beds, a relentless influx of patients and a gradual attrition of nurses to care for them, all while racing against a clock that forced faster and faster decisions. Every so often, game cards announce another mini-crisis to ramp up the pressure.

The patient count in the ER waiting room soars as the day goes on, especially if the players running the operating room, critical care unit and medical-surgical floor don't cooperate to free up bed space, share nursing staff and think ahead to the next challenge.

"It's about collaboration and teamwork, about seeing your department as one piece of an enormous mosaic," game leader William Ward [Johns Hopkins University professor of health finance and management -ed] told the players. "Whether it's lab, registration, records, we tend to manage just in our own little departments. I swear at the bottom of the Atlantic there's still a hospital department manager in dry room on the Titanic who went down thinking 'It's OK. My department is dry.'"

Via Networked Performance

At the core of the fundamental questions of “what is art” and “what is technology” we focus The Handbook of Research on computational Arts and Creative Informatics at the convergence of computer science and artistic creativity. We seek to discover new ways to conceptualize art and investigate new methods of self expression through the use of technology. Here we are inviting experts in a wide range of disciplines to discuss the emergence of expression and art through that of science, information technology, computer science, artificial intelligence and many other related fields. We see this book as a comprehensive recourse where artists and scientists can collaborate on ideas, practices and experimentations on these topics. As technology becomes meshed further into our culture and everyday lives, new mediums and outlets for creative expression and innovation are abound. We are emphasizing the creative nature of technology and science itself. How does the human side of technological achievement influence our creative abilities as technology is a creation in itself? Has the ontology of the information age influenced society at the level of both the human and non human? Through this handbook we are addressing novel concepts from creation, interaction, communication, interpretation and emergence of art through various technological means and mediums.

The Handbook of Research on computational Arts and Creative Informatics will provide a comprehensive range of topics regarding the interaction of the sciences and the arts. Key concepts, theories and innovations involving the computational side of the arts and other creative technologies will be discussed. This particular volume will feature chapters (8,000-10,000 words) written by experts and leading innovators of their respective fields.

Recommended topics include, **but are not limited to**, the following:

+Essays and Discussion on Art and Technology
+Art and web design
+Fractals, tessellations and Creativity through mathematical expression
+Interactive and computational sculptures and artworks
+Kinetic sculptures
+Creativity as an emergent property of art and science
+Digital art and creative expressions
+The creative process in IT education
+Art created by Artificial Life and Intelligent Agents
+Creativity in computer interface and web design
+Creativity from emergent properties
+Art expressed or created by multi-agent systems
+Virtual spaces and Art of synthetic/ virtual worlds
+Art and expression through information visualization
+Animation, simulation and modeling
+3-D artwork
+Art for the blind and visually impaired- Universal Creativity
+Human expression through cybernetics
+Robotics and Art
+Future trends in Art as influenced by emerging technologies

Submissions: Interested individuals are invited to submit a 1-2 page manuscript on their proposed chapter by November 15, 2007. We encourage the inclusion of related topics not mentioned above that may be related to both the theme of the handbook and your particular research area or expertise. Upon acceptance of your proposal, you will have until February 28, 2008 to submit a completed draft of your chapter.

A set of guidelines will also be sent to you upon acceptance. Each potential author will receive notification on their acceptance status by November 30, 2007.

Bubbl.us is a (free) web application that lets you brainstorm online. Key features include: 

• Create colorful mind maps online
• Share and work with friends
• Embed your mind map in your blog or website
• Email and print your mind map
• Save your mind map as an image

Here is an example:

From Networked Performance

Programmable Media: Open Platforms for Creativity and Collaboration :: A symposium organized and presented by New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., hosted by Pace Digital Gallery :: Date: March 2, 2007 :: Time: 10 am to 3:30 pm :: Venue: Multipurpose Room, 1 Pace Plaza, Pace University :: Contact: Helen Thorington (newradio[at]turbulence.org); Jillian McDonald (jmcdonald2[at]pace.edu). Registration is encouraged: email turbulence at turbulence.org.

In July 2004 the not-for-profit media organization New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. began the networked_performance blog to chronicle observations that internet based creative practice is expanding due to the ready availability of wireless, mobile, and GPS computational devices and the emergence of the programmable web. We observe that artists, designers and researchers working in digitally networked and programmable environments are increasingly making projects that are media platforms, tools and services which are open and contingent upon participation and the contribution of content to realize them.

Programmable Media: Open Platforms for Creativity and Collaboration, hosted by Pace University, will explore two forms of current practice. First, the creation of original software to create tools and services for creative and social use, such as a freely available 3-D drawing tool and musical instrument, or a public commons meta layer conceived as a continuous public space for collaboration. Second, the creation of original work using the tools available within open platforms such as Second Life and MySpace to build community and raise awareness.

 

 via Networked Performance

NIME 2007 CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: On behalf of the NIME07 Committee, we would like to invite you to be part of the 7th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), organized by Harvestworks and New York University's (NYU) Music Technology Program in partnership with LEMUR and the NYU InteractiveTelecommunications Program (ITP).

We encourage contributions of the following kinds: * Papers (full-length, short-length, posters) * Demos * Live Performances * Installations. Complete submission guidelines are now available at http://www.nime.org/2007.

Via World of Psychology

Researchers from the University of Toronto found that creativity is improved when people are in a good mood.

Read the post on WoP

Read ABC health report on the study

from Rhizome.org

26-28 November 2006
University of Technology, Sydney

Reduced fee early registration deadline approaching: 8 November 2006.

ENGAGE is an international symposium positioning audience experience at the heart of our understanding of interactive art. Papers will be presented by leading artists, curators and theorists exploring key issues in audience-based interactive art research.

Further information on keynote speakers, presenters, registration and contact information is available at: http://www.creativityandcognition.com/engage06/

ENGAGE is the 3rd annual symposium organised by the Creativity and Cognition Studios at the University of Technology, Sydney. Sponsorship is care of the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (ACID), creating new forms of human interaction with emerging content technology; and the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT), Australia's peak network and advocacy body for media arts.

From Networked Performance

EvoMUSART 2007: 5th European Workshop on Evolutionary Music and Art: 11-13 April, 2007, Valencia, Spain: EVOSTAR: EVOMUSART: "ArtEscapes: Variations of Life in the Media Arts"

The use of biological inspired techniques for the development of artistic systems is a recent, exciting and significant area of research. There is a growing interest in the application of these techniques in fields such as: visual art and music generation, analysis, and interpretation; sound synthesis; architecture; video; and design.

EvoMUSART 2007 is the fifth workshop of the EvoNet working group on Evolutionary Music and Art. Following the success of previous events and the growth of interest in the field, the main goal of EvoMUSART 2007 is to bring together researchers who are using biological inspired techniques for artistic tasks, providing the opportunity to promote, present and discuss ongoing work in the area.

The workshop will be held from 11-13 April, 2007 in Valencia, Spain, as part of the Evo* event.

The event includes the exhibition "ArtEscapes: Variations of Life in the Media Arts", giving an opportunity for the presentation of evolutionary art and music. The submission of art works for the exhibition session is independent from the submission of papers.

Accepted papers will be presented orally at the workshop and included in the EvoWorkshops proceedings, published by Springer Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series.

Further information can be found on the following pages:
Evo*2007: http://www.evostar.org
EvoMUSART2007: http://evonet.lri.fr/TikiWiki/tiki-index.php?page=EvoMUSART

In the issue of the Electronic Journal of E-Learning to be published in the summer of 2006, there will be a section focusing on Communities of Practice. This special section will examine, from a theoretical and practical perspective, how the concepts of Communities of Practice and e-learning can be combined.

Possible topics include:

• Communities of Practice for e-learning professionals;
• Establishing Communities of Practice to support e-learners
• Communities of Practice and informal e-learners;
• Technologies supporting Communities of Practice and e-learning

The Electronic Journal of e-Learning provides perspectives on topics relevant to the study, implementation and management of e-Learning initiatives.

The journal contributes to the development of both theory and practice in the field of e-Learning. The journal accepts academically robust papers, topical articles and case studies that contribute to the area of research in e-Learning.

University of Paisley, Scotland, UK 25-26 October 2007

Over the last ten years, the way in which education and training is delivered has changed considerably with the advent of new technologies. One such new technology that holds considerable promise for helping to engage learners is Games-Based Learning (GBL).

The Conference offers an opportunity for scholars and practitioners interested in the issues related to GBL to share their thinking and research findings. The conference examines the question “Can Games-Based Learning Enhance Learning?” and seeks high-quality papers that address this question. Papers can cover various issues and aspects of GBL in education and training: technology and implementation issues associated with the development of GBL; use of mobile and MMOGs for learning; pedagogical issues associated with GBL; social and ethical issues in GBL; GBL best cases and practices, and other related aspects. We are particularly interested in empirical research that addresses whether GBL enhances learning. This Conference provides a forum for discussion, collaboration and intellectual exchange for all those interested in any of these fields of research or practice.

Important dates:
Abstract submission deadline: 17 May 2007
Notification of abstract acceptance: 24 May 2007
Full paper due for review: 5 July 2007
Notification of paper acceptance: 16 August 2007
Final paper due (with any changes): 6 September 2007

A full call for papers, online submission and registration forms and all other details are available on the conference website.

Re-blogged from World of Psychology (original post by Sandra Kiume) 

The Design for Our Future Selves awards 2006 from the Royal College of Art offered seven awards for ‘An architecture, design or communication project which addresses a social issue or engages with a particular social group in order to improve independence, mobility, health or working life.’

Christopher Peacock won the Snowdon Award for Disability Projects and the Help the Aged Award for Independent Living with his invention handSteady. It’s an innovative device enabling people experiencing tremor (involuntary shaking caused by Parkinson’s disease, side effects from some medications and other conditions) to stabilize objects as they hold them.

Sohui Won, a finalist in Interaction Design, created psychological tools for treatment of loneliness in a project titled Weird Objects - Objects for autophobics and for all of us who experience loneliness and autophobia (fear of being alone).

Among the creations:

From the project's website 

CatchBob is an experimental platform to elicit collaborative behavior of people working together on a mobile activity. Running on a mobile device (iPAQ, TabletPc), it's a collaborative hunt in which groups of three persons have to find and circle a virtual object on our campus.

Videos of CatchBob!:

• The long video (3:30, .mov, 15.8Mb) can be downloaded here.
• The short version (1:20, .mov, 8.3Mb) can be downloaded there.

From the conference's website 

CSCW 2006 is the premier venue for Computer Supported Cooperative Work.

Please join us for the 20^th Anniversary of the first CSCW meeting! We have a number of special events planned as part of our Anniversary celebration.

CSCW has consistently been at the leading edge of thinking about the role of coordination and communication technologies in our lives. With your help, CSCW 2006 will play an important role in continuing this tradition. Come and help us make our 20^th Anniversary of CSCW a stimulating and exciting event.

New this year, CSCW will be running SIGCHI Best Awards programs for the Papers and Notes submission categories. These awards will recognize the most outstanding submissions in these categories.

Call for Participation: This workshop will bring together practitioners and researchers who are involved in the use of computational systems in the fine and performing arts, lite* the application of computational and generative methodologies in the arts and related creative disciplines. However a very broad list of (non-exclusive) descriptors might include:

* the application of computational and generative methodologies
in the arts and related creative disciplines
* computational approaches to creativity, cognition and
aesthetics
* the application of artificial intelligence and artificial life
* the application of evolutionary and adaptive systems
* cultural applications of computing and digital electronics in
general

A special issue of the journal Virtual Reality will be devoted to the use of Collaborative virtual environments to support creativity. Here is an excerpt from the journals' call for papers:

Creative processes often are collaborative in nature, with a group of people reflecting on an overall theme, jointly contributing thoughts interactively, and ultimately generating new ideas. Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) to support this process, thus, should support the group, provide a creative atmosphere and comfortable environment, and support the seamless expression and visualization of ideas. This requires the environment to be inspiring, to enable a wide range of design options, to allow multiple and appropriate types of interaction, to provide for seamless interaction, advanced visualization technologies and simplified sharing mechanisms. Example application areas of such systems are the design and development of computer games, art, product design, fashion, digital storytelling environments, entertainment services, advertising, and architecture or urban planning. The aim of this special issue is to provide an overview of innovative and state-of-theart research on Collaborative Environments in Virtual Reality which support the creative process. Paper contributions should discuss in general how to support creativity with collaborative tools and virtual environments.

Research questions cover a wide range of topics such as how to

• allow participants with various professional backgrounds, working languages,
  and ways of expressing their ideas to collaborate with each other locally and
  over distance
• allow for quick and efficient selection of options to express and visualize
  innovative ideas, going well beyond support for 2D drawings, text and voice
• provide a non-technical, human-friendly and supportive work environment
  with the focus on creativity
• support the design of multi-dimensional interactive applications
• keep an overview on different activity lines in both the design and the use of
  multilevel, multi-dimensional applications
  

October issues (4-5, Pages 363-536) of the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies focus on the different ways that computers can be involved in creative work.

The journal covers research in computing, artificial intelligence, psychology, linguistics, communication, design, engineering, and social organization, which is relevant to the design, analysis, evaluation and application of innovative interactive systems.