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Spring EVENTS calendar INSIDE, page 23 Comparative Media Studies | Writing cmsw.mit.edu spring 2015 Comparative Media Studies|Writing

“SPRING” 2015

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MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing 14E-303 and E15-331 Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 02139 617.253.3599 / [email protected] / cmsw.mit.edu cmsw.mit.edu/magazine

Head Edward Schiappa

Research Managers “Even without all the negative associa- Federico Casalegno, Mobile Experience Lab tions with the term gamer though, many Ian Condry, Creative Communities Initiative people probably would not want to admit Sasha Costanza-Chock, Center for Civic Media that they prioritize games over other aspects Kurt Fendt, HyperStudio of life. Video games have existed for decades, Fox Harrell, ICE Lab they’re the largest entertainment industry in Suzanne Lane, Writing, , and the world, and many people now make their Professional Communication living playing games, yet somehow we still Nick Montfort, The Tank 3 TO OUR READERS have not legitimized games as a pastime.” Scot Osterweil, The Education Arcade in Medio Nix —Jesse Sell, p. 5 Philip Tan, MIT Game Lab Edward Schiappa Sarah Wolozin, Open Documentary Lab

4 Feature “Traditional is media specific; Gamer Identity you make a film, a radio story, a television Core Staff Jesse Sell, CMS ’15 show, etc. Today, digital documentaries Gabriella Horvath are informed by games, civic engagement, Financial Assistant Feature 6 activism, artificial intelligence, and creative Jill Janows EdTechX computing.” Director, Grants Development Philip Tan, Eric Klopfer, and Shannon Larkin —Sarah Wolozin, p. 9 Louisa Rosenheck Graduate Administrator

Interview Karinthia Louis 9 “Critical to any new technology’s success documentaries, MIT-Style Administrative Assistant is having a cadre of people who are able to Michael Rapa 10 NEWS lead the development of new legal and social Technology Support Specialist Creating User-Friendlier frameworks for dealing with the ambiguity Becky Shepardson Environments and contingencies brought about by a new Academic Coordinator Steve Calechman technology.” Sarah Smith Administrative Officer —Chelsea Barabas, p. 15 12 Feature Steven Strang Eyes Over Kenya Director, Writing and Communication Center Chelsea Barabas, CMS ’15 Image above: MIT students on top of post- Jessica Tatlock blizzard snow pile behind Simmons Hall. Assistant to the Head people, places, things 18 —Photo by Tom Gearty, featured by Spectrum, Andrew Whitacre personal and Project Updates a publication of the MIT Office of Resource Communications Director 23 events Development: http://spectrum.mit.edu/ cmsw.mit.edu/people Spring 2015 Talks continuum/the-alps-of-mit. TO OUR READERS

Or So Far, “In Medio Nix” By Edward Schiappa, Head of Comparative Media Studies/Writing

“As I write this, the Boston area is dealing with one of its snowiest winters in history, with blizzard conditions shutting down mass transit and closing schools and universities, including MIT. As this issue of In Medias Res testifies, however, the challenging weather has not slowed the of activities of the denizens of CMS/W!”

reetings! didn’t quite work and what worked splen- in deploying drone technologies in a sustain- As I write this, the Boston didly. able way. The goal of their trip was to identify area is dealing with one of its Two of our most visible and active the sort of support needed for drones to be a snowiest winters in history, research groups are the Open Documentary sustainable component of Kenyan conserva- Gwith blizzard conditions shutting down mass Lab (ODL) and the Mobile Experience Lab tion efforts (p. 12). transit and closing schools and universities, (MEL). ODL is directed by Sarah Wolozin We close this issue with summaries of ac- including MIT. As this issue of In Medias Res with Professor William Uricchio as Principal tivities by individuals and the research groups testifies, however, the challenging weather Investigator. Nancy DuVergne Smith of the affiliated with CMS/W. The breadth of ac- has not slowed the pace of activities of the MIT Alumni Association sat down with tivities going on here is great. denizens of CMS/W! Wolozin to talk about the “Moments of In- Throughout the spring semester, CMS/W We are fewer in number this spring as a novation” website, co-constructed with the hosts an impressive series of guest speakers number of our faculty are away on sabbati- International Documentary Festival of Am- engaging topics as varied as comic books to cals and leaves. As a result, we have decided sterdam’s Doclab (p. 9). hate crimes in cyberspace. Some highlights to postpone our biennial Media in Transition MEL is directed by Associate Professor of include our MLK Visiting Scholar Coco conference for one year, but look forward to the Practice Federico Casalegno. As Steve Fusco, who will preview her fall 2015 book organizing it for spring 2016. We also look Calechman’s article demonstrates, MEL is at on “performance and politics in Cuba” on forward to telling you all about the accom- the forefront of explore the design of tech- the role of the state in Cuban art during the plishments of our faculty on leave when nology aimed at enhancing people’s experi- 1980s; Kevin Driscoll, who locates the roots everyone returns this fall. ences of locations we typically experience on of social media as we think of it in the bulletin Our vibrant curriculum in gaming a transitory basis, such as a gas station, res- board systems of the early web; and Thomas continues to be enormously popular with taurant, or hotel lobby. If you want to see the DeFranz on queer social dance in African- MIT undergraduates, and the role of games future of such places, then you should check American communities. We’re particularly in society continues to be reflected upon by out what MEL is up to! (p. 10) excited to have Driscoll and DeFranz here: faculty and graduate students as well, as the Chelsea Barabas (CMS ’15) tells us about both have roots at CMS/W, with Driscoll essay by Jesse Sell (CMS ’15) illustrates. her trip over MIT’s Independent Activities a 2009 graduate of our Comparative Media Carole Urbano and Philip Tan then tell Period to Kenya, where she and graduate Studies master’s program and DeFranz a us about the role of Education Arcade and student Jude Mwenda (MAS, ’15) worked former MIT professor affiliated with us MIT Game Lab in the launch of the first with wildlife conservancies to conduct a fea- before his departure for Duke in 2011. See two courses of EdTechX, a series of massive sibility study for the use of drone technologies p. 23 for a full list of this spring’s events, and open online courses (MOOCs) dedicated to to support anti-poaching activities. Barabas join us if you can. the subject of educational technology. Their and Mwenda conducted a series of workshops illustrates the enormous amount of with wildlife conservation workers and local work that goes into the creation of MOOCs, communities bordering wildlife parks in and they provide a candid account of what order to understand the challenges they face

spring 2015 3 FEATURESFEATURE Gamer Identity

Is it time to shed “gamer” altogether?

Jesse Sell, CMS ’15

ecently in a course I’m assisting, I asked the students to to identify their player type quickly and easily. I was intrigued and go around the room and choose which one of Richard decided to keep digging. “By a show of hands, how many of you Bartle’s player types1 they identify most strongly with. video games?” All but a few hands went up. “Okay, how many of you Bartle’s types include the achiever, the explorer, the consider yourselves to be gamers?” Only a small handful of students Rkiller, and the socializer. The article focuses particularly on Multiple kept their hands in the air. Interesting. User Dungeons, but the player types are easily applicable to almost So what, then, does gamer mean? It clearly isn’t just “one who plays any variety of game. games”. It is much more complicated than that. It comes with a whole Achievers are the type of people to go through a game with the goal set of characteristics that aren’t easy to pinpoint. It’s the classic “know of completing everything the game has to offer. If there is an award to it when you see it” identification. With issues like #gamergate2 and be won, the achiever is going after it. Explorers are inclined to com- other re-defining moments in the industry, it is time we petitiveness and spend their time finding the outer edges of the game. look at the term gamer and either discard it or reshape it. Easter eggs and secrets are paydirt for explorers. Killers are exactly I’ve long held the opinion that anyone who plays a game is a gamer. what they sound like. Closely related to griefers, they spend their time It’s been a matter of inclusion for me. I want the term gamer to be hunting down other players, preying on the “weaker” types. Finally, less strange. If more people identify as gamers, it somehow validates the socializers are those players who spend their time chatting with or my own longtime gamer identification. After speaking with this class helping others. They may be a knowledgebase for the other players, or though, I had to change how I define gamer. they may simply enjoy spending time with others instead of seeking Take a moment to think of what gamer means to you. their own rewards. So, is gamer a negative term? More than likely, you’ve conjured up As the exercise unfolded, the entire class identified most strongly a very particular image in your head. What are some of the charac- with the achiever role, with a few leaning towards the explorer role. teristics there? We can toss out the negative stereotypes right away: Not a single student identified themselves as a killer or a socializer. antisocial, dependent, detached, lazy, and perhaps even misogynistic. After some more questioning a few students admitted to inhabit- Those are some of the words that I associate with gamer, yet as a ing either of those roles when the suited them, but still, none gamer I would argue that I’m nothing like that. I would also say that strayed from the path of the achiever for very long. Whether the result the vast majority of people I play games with are nothing like that. of the exercise was a byproduct of having a class full of MIT students In fact, most of the players I know are inventive problem-solvers who or if most people just identify more with the achiever role is impos- care a lot about other people. As far as I’ve noticed, that archetypical sible for me to tell. The fascinating part, though, is that I knew several image is very rare yet the word gamer still holds that stigma. If we toss of the students don’t typically play video games, yet they all were able out all of those negative stereotypes, though, would more people self- identify as gamers? I doubt it.

1 Bartle, Richard (1996) Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades. Players who suit MUDs. Journal of MUD Research. Vol. 1 (1), June 1996. 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy

4 in medias res FEFEAATUTURRESE

Even with the realization that the stereotypes are pretty far off-base without their consent, they definitely do not come with the same (as stereotypes tend to be), there is still a deep-seated negative associa- negativity. tion with the term gamer. I’d argue that this negativity comes from Even without all the negative associations with the term gamer the medium itself. The industry has been associated with misogyny though, many people probably would not want to admit that they pri- for quite a long time at this point. #gamergate churned up a huge oritize games over other aspects of life. Video games have existed for amount of animosity around gender in the video games industry. The decades, they’re the largest entertainment industry in the world, and industry does not have the best track record when it comes to the rep- many people now make their living playing games, yet somehow we resentation of anything outside the realm of white, male hegemony. still have not legitimized games as a pastime. They’re so fundamental- It’s very slowly getting better, but #gamergate shows the impetus for ly similar to sports to have evoked the term e-sports, but most parents more change. For a long time, the argument has been that games are would be to let their child participate in a soccer or volleyball “for boys, by boys”. It’s long past time to throw this argument out. tournament for an entire weekend but would get upset to think their Almost everybody plays games, so it’s time that everyone has a chance child might spend that same amount of time playing video games. It’s to both make and be seen in games. Some people discard the fact that not my place to argue for or against the legitimacy of sports-playing most people (men, women, and other) play games as irrelevant by (physical fitness and socializing being just two of many examples in saying something along the lines of, “yeah everybody plays games, but support of sports), but I would argue that as a pastime, video games they aren’t real gamers.” What’s a real gamer though? are incredibly similar. Perhaps it’s just a matter of time before we start That statement typically sets the stage for the creation of a to see video games alongside sports as legitimate pastimes. Until then, dichotomy between “casual” and “hardcore” games, as if somehow the term gamer will continue to be a problematic identity. one game is more canonical in the gaming world. Nothing irks me It might instead be better to get rid of the term gamer altogether. Its quite as much as this separation, especially considering it’s almost im- long history may be too hard to wipe away. As more people continue possible to actually distinguish “hardcore” and “casual” games when to play games, perhaps other (less problematic) terms will emerge. The you actually sit down and try. Hopefully people are spending their industry continues to grow every year without signs of stopping, so as free time doing whatever they want to do. To argue that anyone can I mentioned earlier, it might just be a matter of time before the legiti- spend time playing games “harder” than someone else is just ludicrous. macy of gaming wipes away the stigma of the term gamer. Is someone participating in a four-hour raid in World of somehow more legitimate than someone spending their four-hour A version of this piece first appeared in November on the MIT Game Lab blog: http:// plane ride crushing some candy? No. I also wouldn’t argue that both gamelab.mit.edu/gamer-identity/ of these people are gamers though. One student in class posited that a gamer is anyone who prioritizes Images games. I find this definition to be perfect. We often use this same logic https://www.flickr.com/photos/16865302@N00/393152033/ when referring to other pastimes: movie buff, quilter, bird watcher, http://www.wtfgamersonly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/I-Love-Gaming.jpg sports fan. While it might not be fair to apply these labels to people http://hntb.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/gamer.jpg spring 2015 5 FEATURESFEATURE EdTechX

Our Online Courses on EdX

Philip Tan, Eric Klopfer, and Louisa Rosenheck

he Scheller Teacher Education Program, The Education Student Engagement Arcade, and the MIT Game Lab recently launched the first two courses in EdTechX, a series of massively open In face-to-face classes, it can be challenging to know whether you online courses (MOOCs) focused on educational technol- are engaging students. We often have to rely on subtleties like facial Togy. Both MITx courses, 11.132x Design and Development of Edu- expressions and sitting postures to provide valuable feedback to an cational Technology and 11.126x Introduction to Game Design, were instructor. How do you determine whether you are succeeding in developed on the EdX platform. Of the over 40,000 combined regis- reaching students that you cannot see or interact with in real-time? trants, approximately seven percent or 3,000 students earned certifi- We needed to create different opportunities for actively engaging cates for their participation. students throughout the course, starting with the primary medium For those of us involved in designing these courses, the story goes of the MOOC: streaming video. To lay the foundation for student far beyond earning certificates. We wanted to push the envelope of interaction, we settled on three primary forms of video-based content what was possible. Since these were new courses, we had a blank slate — interview style, or demonstration-based videos, and activity from which to work rather than transferring a residential version of breaks. an MIT course to the digital environment. We maintained a deep Interviews borrowed from the visual language of celebrity talk commitment to replicate the interactive, collaborative, and intimate shows. We took advantage of our access to many of the pioneering environment of our typical small, project-based courses delivered voices in our fields and worked through foundational concepts right on campus. But how exactly do you build and support that sort of on camera. Instead of telling students everything we knew about a learning and community in massive online courses? topic, they could hear reasoning and rationale from the horse’s mouth. Our solution included several specific instructional design decisions Edited into five- to ten-minute segments, these informal and infor- to support elements we considered critical to the learning process — mational clips subtly suggested to students that knowledge doesn’t student and community engagement, student-constructed knowledge, need to come from one authoritative voice, and that there is room and collaboration. Of course, we also made many mistakes along the for different perspectives, approaches, and philosophies to work way, which allows us to apply further refinements to our next two together. Demonstration videos took on more of a how-to vibe, not courses in 2015. unlike children’s science television and YouTube cooking channels.

6 in medias res FEATURE

The instructors would not only introduce assignments and goals, but and Unhangout. This allowed participants to evaluate the benefits and also demonstrate how they would tackle a sample problem. In one challenges associated with the tools and provided them with opportu- clip, Sara Verrilli and Philip Tan designed a board game in under ten nities to interact with each other and with the course team. minutes in front of the camera, and concluded the segment by chal- The Introduction to Game Design team presented live video in the lenging the students to do the same. These think-aloud videos aimed form of broadcast on Twitch.tv, mirroring the practices of the gaming to reduce the anxiety of getting started by showing how even instruc- community. While attendance at these events was promising, sched- tors can make mistakes. The presenters continuously talk through uling for the real-time events were defined by staff working hours their process and decision-making, student expectations by in the US Eastern Time Zone, limiting live participation from the demonstrating what reasonable effort and success might look like. global student population and forcing them to rely on online archives Every video series was punctuated by an activity break. In Design instead. and Development of Educational Technology, one activity break en- We considered the potential value in supporting more organic couraged students to stop the video, try their hand at juggling, and community development. Student-created social media pages and reflect on what it felt like to take on the role of the learner. This hashtags are a mainstay of the MOOC experience, so we created gave students the room to explicitly contemplate the learning theory official pages on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Google+, allowing distinct from the technologies. Other activity breaks afforded students participants to communicate with fellow students through media that the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with and consider they found more familiar. Introduction to Game Design participants possible applications of the tools and technologies — exploring and created an internet relay chat channel to support each other on the use manipulating motion graphs with SimCalc1, experimenting and of GameBlox as a development tool. Staff did not monitor or moderate exploring using simulations with tools like PhET Science Sims2, these vehicles heavily but occasionally participated in them to guide Molecular Workbench3, and StarLogo Nova4. students back to the course forums, where the team could focused our efforts to build community and support student interaction and Community Building collaboration.

Learning is an inherently social process — we learn by explaining to Student-Constructed Knowledge our peers, challenging other ideas, and being challenged by others. The physical classroom presents opportunities for students and teachers to Unlike many MOOCs, both Design and Development of Educational interact in these ways, forging peer and student-teacher relationships. Technology and Introduction to Game Design were designed around Yet, these types of experiences are not often baked into MOOCs; the principles of project-based learning. We sought to create opportu- many students experience online instruction in isolation. Seeing the nities for students to provide evidence of their learning and explore al- social aspects of learning as critical to the process, we sought to create ternative methods of grading over typical online quizzes. Each of the better student interactions in forums and live events to create a more activities and assignments throughout the two courses were designed intimate experience for students, creating an environment to increase to provide students with incremental knowledge and skills required to the quantity and quality of peer interactions. complete the summative course project. In the early weeks of both courses, the lead faculty — Eric Klopfer For the Design and Development of Educational Technology, that and Philip Tan — conducted Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions on meant preparing students to create and deliver a Kickstarter-like pitch Reddit. AMA participants were able to get a feel for the faculty and about a new educational technology. Introduction to Game Design how the course might go while also meeting some of their classmates. students created a digital or tabletop game using iterative game design Both sessions helped to spark peer interactions and model respectful processes. The projects not only provided an effective example of communication among prospective participants. the theories discussed in the classes. They also provided students To support a diverse student body, in terms of geography, technical with a final goal. Weekly assignments all led to the summative final expertise, bandwidth, etc., we needed to build a broad event and project, allowing students to think through their projects each week social media infrastructure. We wanted to support students within to integrate new course information, peer feedback and questions. their technological comfort zone while introducing a broader range The projects for these two courses may have been too large a scope of possible technology tools that could enhance ongoing collaboration for students to handle in a short time frame. This was especially true and contribute to a sense of community. given the amount of theoretical and technical content students were The Design and Development of Educational Technology team trying to process at the same time. Students were trying to incorpo- held a number of live events using various technology tools spaced rate new theories and best practices while having to become fluent in evenly throughout the course. These events were delivered on new technologies. This tension created a level of frustration on the different technologies including Talkabout, Google Hangouts on Air, part of students who were invested in completing the course with an admirable portfolio. Despite these frustrations, there was an over- whelming desire on the part of students to continue to make progress 1 http://math.sri.com/technology/index.html on their final projects. Many did complete them and gained valuable 2 http://phet.colorado.edu experience from doing so. 3 http://mw.concord.org 4 http://www.slnova.org spring 2015 7 FEATURE

Philip Tan and Sara Verilli model a paper prototyping exercise for 11.126x Introduction Live on twitch.tv! Philip Tan and Paul Medlock-Walton answer questions about game to Game Design participants. design and Gameblox, a new blocks-based programming tool for designing games.

Collaboration and Peer Review experience with providing peer review among the course participants. To help students become more adept at peer review, we increased The final component we rethought was collaboration and peer review. our modeling of providing constructive and supportive feedback Both are critical instructional strategies of residential courses delivered beyond the forums. The Design and Development of Educational by the MIT Game Lab and Scheller Teacher Education Program. It Technology course team hosted a Google Hangout on Air5 in which was important to design both the technical infrastructure and the cur- Eric Klopfer, Scot Osterweil and Jen Groff reflected on a few student riculum to ensure a positive collaborative experience for students. projects, asking probing questions to help students think about their From a technical perspective, we spent significant energy identi- project, their goals, and possible refinements. The Introduction to fying the most effective forum and discussion tools for supporting Game Design did the same with weekly videos. We shared standard community interaction and conversation. We also had to find solutions peer-review guidelines and discussed comments from the forums and that would integrate easily with the EdX platform. We created a cus- live chat to demonstrate examples of effective feedback. tomized student forum system based on open-source technologies Students were encouraged to create working and affinity groups for both courses. The forum features seemed to work well overall, that might serve as their personal learning community. Several groups providing opportunities for students to interact in groups, share course were successful with members stepping up to serve as dedicated facili- artifacts, develop a personal profile, and highlight interesting work. tators, ensuring that the group came together and stay on task. We are Many of the students who had taken other MOOCs commented on currently studying the most successful groups to determine how to the enhanced interactions provided by our forums. better foster and support the behaviors that made them work. Still, there is much more work to be done. Some students struggled We anticipate that building-in greater support for creating and to make connections with others with similar interests, in nearby maintaining self-directed collaborative groups, combined with locales, or with similar background knowledge and experience. There enhanced modeling and supports for effective peer review, will result were also typical technical hiccups with peer review — students in- in fewer bland “Good job!” and “Fun game!” comments and more advertently submitting blank documents or inaccessible web links — insightful questions that help students consider their projects under a but we are most committed to improving the value of the feedback new lens. This sort of reflection allows a student to make explicit and provided to students. deeper connections between the course content and their own work. In a MOOC, there are so many students that it is clearly not sustain- Design and Development of Educational Technology and Introduc- able for the faculty, teaching assistants and other members of the course tion to Game Design validated that project-based collaborative in- team to personally review and provide feedback on all submitted struction can succeed in the virtual world. A subset of students were work. It was a priority for the course teams to get peer review to deeply engaged and became integral members of a strong learning work well. We tried many different approaches from the start, such as community. We will continue to iterate and identify ways to scale that establishing guidelines and norms about providing effective feedback positive experience for a larger percentage of students and make these on the course pages and modeling what feedback might look like in successes feel like core components of our courses. Coming up in the the forums. EdTechX Series will be 11.127x Design and Development of Games Despite this, many participants received either no feedback on their for Learning6, which starts April 1, 2015, and 11.133x Implementation work or feedback of low value due the lack of comfort, experience, and Evaluation of Educational Technology, starting in July, 2015. knowledge, or context on the part of the reviewer. In an ideal world, peer review allows students to help support each other as they acquire and refine new knowledge and skills. As the courses progressed, it 5 http://mitsha.re/1zDgX2H became evident that there was a disparate range of familiarity and 6 http://mitsha.re/1zDhvWg

8 in medias res INTERVIEWSINFEATURESTERVIEW Documentaries, MIT-Style

Experience interactive, multimedia, immersive storytelling

Nancy DuVergne Smith, MIT Alumni Association, with Sarah Wolozin, Director of the Open Documentary Lab

elling real stories in interactive time is the MIT Open and innovation at MIT is based on an interdisciplinary approach. It Documentary Lab’s experimental turf. The lab brings makes MIT a great place to incubate new storytelling projects, take together storytellers, technologists, and scholars to invent the time to reflect, collaborate across disciplines and shape the future new storytelling modes that focus on collaborative, inter- of storytelling. Tactive, and immersive forms. The research goal is to understand the impact and evolution of such new story forms. NDS: What is the Moments of Innovation “docubase” and why is it Documentaries are taking a creative leap thanks to influences such important? as television, ubiquitous handheld cameras, user-generated content, interactive documentary forms, and work that combines and crosses SW: Moments of Innovation is a website we created together with the media, according to William Uricchio, professor of Comparative International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam’s Doclab in honor Media Studies, the program where OpenDocLab was founded in of their 5th anniversary. It’s designed and developed by the French 2012. “The documentary field now is like looking at the first five to company, Upian. And it’s based on Professor William Uricchio’s thesis eight years of television…new tools, new storytelling techniques, new that today’s storytelling practices such as participation, interactivity, participants,” he said in an Great Ideas interview. “It’s a very exciting and data visualization are not new. They have long and rich histories; moment.” people have always used the tools of the day to tell these kinds of You can get a sense of the approach by visiting Moments of In- stories. Uricchio also argues that documentary has always been at the novation, an interactive whitepaper that describes the long search for forefront of innovation; documentarians were often the first to exper- immersive story experiences and highlights recurrent themes in docu- iment with new technologies. It makes sense because we all observe mentaries. the world around us and tell stories to make sense of it and some people are driven to express it and can do so in a public way. What’s Nancy DuVergne Smith: Why is MIT a good place to investigate exciting today is that public storytelling is more democratized than the future of storytelling? ever before; the means of production and distribution are in people’s pockets or purses in the form of a cell phone. Sarah Wolozin: The future of storytelling — and I would argue that Docubase is a database that aggregates and curates the innovation the future is here — is interdisciplinary and based on innovative taking place in documentary storytelling today and serves as a place of new uses of emerging technologies. Traditional storytelling is media inspiration and education about new documentary forms. According specific; you make a film, a radio story, a television show, etc., and to Uricchio, we are going through a major shift in documentary sto- each has its own forms and processes. Today, digital documentaries rytelling and Docubase is serving to archive these experiments for are informed by all of these media as well as games, civic engagement, posterity and encourage them. activism, artificial intelligence, creative computing, to name a few. MIT has researchers studying and experimenting in all of these areas Originally published at http://slice.mit.edu/2014/10/17/documentaries-mit-style

spring 2015 9 FEATURESNEWS Creating User-Friendlier Environments

Federico Casalegno designs technology environments that keep human experience at the center of user experience.

Steve Calechman, MIT Industrial Liaison Program

echnology is a two-headed monster. It can instantly and the area. Moreover, the hotel’s concierge can further customize bring information to the most remote locations. But it events for guests. can also create a coffee shop full of people, starting at As Casalegno says, this new lobby isn’t necessarily doing anything screens without acknowledging anything or anybody else. that a person couldn’t do on their own. But the technology, now in TFederico Casalegno aims to avoid that dynamic. the prototype stage (see p. 11) and ready for expanded testing, is an The director of the MIT Mobile Experience Lab looks to innovate example of how location-based media and ubiquitous computing can with technology but only in support of the user. This approach results further social interactions for both the hotel and guest. “It brings hos- in less impersonal hotel lobbies, smarter gas stations, more intuitive pitality to a new era and makes for a richer experience,” Casalegno homes, and a conference that examines creativity with a decidedly says. “And when there are many hotels in a market, this tailoring is the bottom-up approach. “We want to design technologies around people, kind of thing that can make you stand out.” not people around technologies,” Casalegno says. More than filling up your tank The warmer reception area Much like with the lobby, the gas station has been a consistent entity. The hotel lobby is a well-established place — check-in desk, free news- But Casalegno says that it’s also been stagnant in its design and un- papers, restaurant — and it’s not wholly impersonal, but it’s not always fulfilled in its potential as a multi-use urban space. Before he made inviting. Casalegno has partnered with Marriott to take embedded any changes, he had students travel around his native Italy, stopping media and create a lobby as a social space. Business travelers are the at hundreds of stations and observing how people use them and how testing target , so Casalegno has used LinkedIn accounts as they could use them. From that ethnographic research, he’s partnered source material. Once a guest checks into the hotel and unlocks their with the oil and gas company ENI and created a full-scale, future- network from a phone or laptop, Casalegno’s application would match looking prototype. people based on various components, such as industry, college, and The changes first start with the essential service of providing shared connections. fuel. Some simple technologies can make that transaction smoother, But more than just picking out common words, the app is able to Casalegno says. In his model, the station would immediately recognize rank the strength of potential matches. Before it would put together a driver’s model, direct it to an available pump, and know what kind of people who have worked in the same city, it would introduce people fuel the car uses. The pump and nozzle would use robotics to eliminate who have worked at two of the same companies. Along with the app, the need for human interaction. Payment would become seamless, Casalegno has designed an interactive lobby table that works in the he says, and also eliminate human assistance, since the station would same respect. When someone places their mobile device on it, the recognize the driver and be able to access the person’s bank account. device would glow, alerting the person of possible connections, along But that’s just one aspect of the design. The station is also greener, with providing a scrolling text of events of interest in both the hotel with solar roof panels that could be opened, be closed, and collect

10 in medias res FEATURESNEWS

rainwater. And while the intent is to remove unnecessary human Casalegno says he wanted something that was both environmentally intervention, it’s not to eliminate it. The station would dissemi- friendly and responsive to conditions. The house envelope is made nate transportation-related information and also serve as a shared out of easy-to-assemble, sustainable wood. The inside is wired, and workspace, providing high connectivity and access to video confer- temperature is controlled in order to optimize energy usage. Along encing and the latest communication devices. Rather than having to with internal monitoring, the windows can respond to the weather drive somewhere or do business from the car, the person can remain and needs of the house by changing from tinted to opaque. in one place. “We expand the gas station, which is sustainable in terms Another project involved Google Glass. Casalegno’s lab has been of energy use and architectural design, into a hub, which provides working with Avea Telcom on a new app that would add to eating out. mobility-on-demand for users,” Casalegno says. But like with his other works, before any technology was conceived, he had students go into restaurants to understand the diner’s experi- Bringing together ideas ence. The research was done in Istanbul, so one of the prevailing issues was understanding a menu and talking to a waiter when it’s in More than designing elaborate solutions, Casalegno’s work often a foreign language. involves injecting a new way of thinking into a process. To that end, More than develop a translation app — a relatively easy and acces- he organized the Design Driven Innovation conference at MIT. sible fix, Casalegno says — the intention was to encourage social in- While it brings together engineers, creators, builders and students teraction. The app that was developed provides real-time information from strategic design, digital experiences, fabrication and prototyp- about food items, such as how they’re grown and eaten, and then ing, the starting point for all the conversations, regardless of product connects the user with locals. That kind of enhancement and fostering or clientele, is understanding behavior. “We design for humans,” he connections are central to Casalegno’s work, balancing innovation says. “And even if we design robots, they will help humans to have with responsiveness. “Technology doesn’t have to be simple,” he says. better experiences and richer life.” “It just has to be user-friendly, efficient, and help the customer utilize Along with generating ideas, the conference explores a sometimes their power more. If you offer that, that’s what people will probably overlooked necessity in product development — how to develop choose.” quick prototypes and test designs in real-world settings. An example, which Casalegno has been working on, is the smart, connected home. Originally published at http://ilp.mit.edu/newsstory.jsp?id=20304

spring 2015 11 FEATURESFEATURE Eyes Over Kenya

The use of drones for conservation

Chelsea Barabas, CMS ’15

Chelsea Barabas and Jude Mwenda (MAS, ’15) spent January’s has been heard. Even if an approximate location can be identified Independent Activities Period in Kenya, where they collaborated with through triangulating data from different park ranger watch towers, wildlife conservancies to conduct a feasibility assessment for the use of poachers are likely to be on the run within minutes of firing their drone technologies to support anti-poaching activities. They conducted a weapons at an animal. This means that a drone needs to have enough series of workshops with wildlife conservation workers and local communi- battery life not only to arrive at the site of violence but also to track ties who reside on the border of wildlife parks in order to understand the poachers once they start running from the crime scene. With a full challenges they face in deploying drone technologies in a sustainable way. battery, the drone that Ol Pejeta used for their initial pilot could fly The goal of the project was to identify support mechanisms that need to be for a maximum of ninety minutes. However, the park guards estimate put into place in order for drones to be a sustainable intervention for con- that they would need at least four hours of flight time in order for the servation efforts in Kenya. The four sections of this piece were authored drone to be useful during a chase down of poachers. Moreover, even as reports from the field. with an expensive, commercial-grade camera it was very difficult for the park staff to glean critical information about exactly how many people might be involved in a poaching hit and whether or not they 1. Drones in Ol Pejeta were armed. Without such information, it was difficult for rangers to know how to best approach a band of fleeing poachers. arrived in Kenya with two colleagues, Jude Mwenda and After reviewing some of these challenges, we explored with the John Kidenda, to work on a project exploring the potential of Ol Pejeta staff other potential use-cases for the drone technology in applying unmanned aerial vehicle technology — drones — to their work. We discussed the potential for using drones to conduct promote conservation efforts in Kenya. Earlier this week we more frequent animal censuses, as well as tracking the health and Itravelled to Ol Pejeta, a private wildlife conservancy located near Mt. expansion of specific vegetation. Our team is now in the process of Kenya in the northern part of the country. In addition to being home using this fieldwork as a launch point for more brainstorms about how to a rich ecosystem of flora and fauna, Ol Pejeta serves as the guardian our specific backgrounds in citizen science and grassroots technology territory for over one hundred rhinos, including three of the five development might support this work. We are also ramping up to remaining northern white rhinos in the world. Given the immense conduct our first pilots of our own drone technology. We have DJI price a northern white rhino horn fetches in the black market, this Phantom II drone, as well as three different types of cameras we want particular rhino species has been nearly driven to extinction. Ol Pejeta to experiment with to understand what type of imaging is possible spends a large amount of time and effort every year guarding these with-low grade cameras, as well as how resilient the drone compo- animals, as well as other endangered species, from poaching activities. nents are to the elements in east Africa. Last year the conservancy conducted a drone pilot study to explore ways they could use this emerging technology to supplement their ongoing efforts to catch and deter poachers from killing animals on 2. Plant Analysis Drone Pilot their land. Our team was interested in this project, because to date it is one of the most ambitious drone projects undertaken on the African During our trip one of the key things we have learned about are the continent, where access to this type of technology is still in the early challenges of using drones to track and catch poachers. The folks at stages of development. Jude, John, and I travelled to the conservancy Ol Pejeta explained to us that they understood the primary benefit of to learn more about how the project was going, as well as investigate launching an anti-poaching drone project to be the deterrent factor ways we could support Ol Pejeta’s work in the future. of having an “eye in the sky.” Drones were unlikely to be able to pro- Over the last couple of days we have had some very interesting and actively spot and prevent poachers from entering the park, but they informative meetings with some of the key leaders in the conservan- could mitigate poaching activity by making surveillance and protec- cy’s drone project. They explained some of the challenges they faced tion measures both more apparent and ominous to outside observers. in using drones specifically for anti-poaching efforts. For example, Ol However, we wondered how long the deterrent effect would last if the Pejeta covers a very large swath of land, making it difficult to pinpoint rates at which poachers were actually apprehended did not actually exactly where a poaching situation may be taking place once a gunshot increase with the drone system. Given challenges in the duration of

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Mission accomplished! With our friendly onlookers. drone flight time and the toll that the rugged environment took on camera (around $250) and mount that we used to compare the quality the drone hardware, it remains unclear whether or not drones would of the images we gathered. Our plan was to assemble these cameras, actually increase park rangers’ effectiveness at tracking poachers. then to collect data out in a place where charcoal is frequently burned In light of these findings, our team decided to spend the last couple out in the open. To do this, we travelled to a town about 40 km of weeks exploring a different conservation use case for drones: veg- outside of Nairobi, called Mattu. A good friend of Jude’s named Jason etation monitoring and spotting illegal charcoal burning. In Kenya, is from this area, so he accompanied us as a local guide. charcoal burning is a growing ecological concern, because it often Given large amounts of traffic on the roads leaving Nairobi, it took involves the indiscriminate clear-cutting of trees and shrubs on public us much longer than we expected to reach our destination. As we land. Experts are concerned that the rapid rates of deforestation could pulled into town we had only about an hour of sunlight left in the exacerbate the effects of draught, increasing soil erosion and reducing day! As such, we decided that our safest bet would be to travel to the vibrancy of the surrounding flora. Currently, there is no efficient Jason’s family land and build our own fire in a pit in the ground, and methodical way to monitor such activity. simulating an actual charcoal burning experience. Jude and I rapidly Over the last week or so, our team hacked together two different gathered firewood for the task as John and Jason prepared the drone types of cameras to see whether or not we could observe charcoal and cameras for flight. burning from the sky. The first camera we used was an Infragram As we rapidly went about our work, a small crowd of curious camera from Public Lab. This camera provides an open source onlookers came to observe what we were doing. With only about platforms to analyze plant health with near infrared . The thirty minutes of daylight left, we launched our drone in the air, second camera was a cheap Raspberry Pi camera module. In contrast flying it over the where the fire was burning. We took photos on to the cameras piloted at Ol Pejeta, which cost around $7,000, our all three of our cameras, capturing not only the fire but also a mag- cameras were quite cheap. We spent less than $100 for the parts we nificent sunset against the hills of Mattu. assembled. In addition to these two cameras we also had a GoPro By the time the sun had set, we had captured several hundred

spring 2015 13 FEATURESFEATURE

spring Event HIGHLIGHTS

“Illuminated Bodies” Kat Von D, LA Ink, and the Borderlands of Tattoo Culture Theresa Rojas, Ohio State University and Predoctoral Fellow in John leading discussion on drone opportunity areas (Photo by Okari Omariba) Comparative Media Studies/Writing February 19 @ 5:00 pm images. Success! (We weren’t 100% confident that the Pi camera we MIT Building 4, Room 231 built would actually work the first time, but it did!) The next task for us was to repurpose some code that Jude found to analyze the data. The code involves an algorithm that analyzes aerial satellite images to identify ground fires based on the level of vegetation on “Women in Science” the ground and the smoke billowing from the fire. Over the weekend Computational geneticist Pardis Sabeti and energy studies expert Jude adapted this code to serve our needs. Jessika Trancik February 26 @ 5:00 pm MIT Building 66, Room 110 3. Drone Workshop at the iHub Last Friday our team held a drone workshop with our partners at the “Coming of Age in ” iHub, a center for collaboration and tech incubation in Nairobi. The The Darkness of Young Adult goal of the workshop was to convene entrepreneurs and hobbyists Kristin Cashore, of the award-winning Graceling Realm who are currently working with drones in Kenya to discuss current trilogy, and the University of Florida’s Kenneth Kid and future applications of drone technology in the local context. March 19 @ 5:00 pm We were keen to learn from participants about the challenges and MIT Building 66, Room 110 potential opportunities they identified for using drones for entrepre- neurial activities, as well as addressing social and conservation issues. We were not sure how many people would attend the workshop. In prior weeks, we conducted some research and invited about ten “Re-calling the Modem World” individuals who were working with drones or aerial technology more The Dial-up History of Social Media generally. In addition, we posted the event on the iHub website. We Kevin Driscoll (Ph.D., University of Southern California and were aiming to have about a dozen participants attend. However, on S.M. in CMS, ’11), postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research the day of the event we were pleasantly surprised by the number of April 9 @ 5:00 pm people who turned up, around forty participants in total. The partici- MIT Building 4, Room 231 pants ranged from young adults from Kibera’s Tunapanda Institute (a center that provides tech and computer training to young adults with minimal resources) who had never seen a drone before, to seasoned “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace” engineers and entrepreneurs who were building their own drones Danielle Keats Citron, University of Maryland Francis King from scratch and developing business models based on their drone Carey School of Law expertise. May 7 @ 5:00 pm We opened our workshop with a discussion of how drones are MIT Building 4, Room 231 currently being used in Kenya. Right now, the most common applica- tions are media driven: using drones to capture aerial images of events Full listings on p. 23, and online at cmsw.mit.edu like weddings and journalistic reporting of large public events. Some

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Critical to any new technology’s success is having a cadre of people who are able to FUNDERS AND lead the development of new legal and social frameworks for dealing with the ambiguity PARTNERS and contingencies brought about by a new HOW TO SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS technology. AND RESEARCH people were using drones to develop promotional and marketing MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing combines an in- material, such as filming commercial real estate. We then moved to novative academic agenda with collaborative research at the talking about aspirational uses of drones in the future. People had frontier of media change. CMS/W is committed to shaping some great ideas, such as using drones to monitor traffic flows and de- new media uses and practices for a range of purposes — from livering medicine and remote diagnostics to medical patients in rural entertainment, education, and creative expression to civic en- areas. Participants also conceptualized drones as a potential new infra- gagement and community empowerment. structure, which could make some services such as wifi hotspots more Donors, sponsors, and research partners make it possible for accessible to the general population. us to pursue this far-reaching mission. After discussing some of the inspirational potential use-cases of For information on funding opportunities, contact Director drones, we moved to discuss some of the significant challenges we as of Grants Development Jill Janows at [email protected]. a community of drone enthusiasts faced in fostering innovation and experimentation with this technology. Kenya, like most countries, Individual Donors has not yet developed a robust policy framework for regulating drone Individual supporters are essential to the CMS/W mission, activity. However, as recent as last week the Kenyan Civil Aviation enabling us to continue attracting the best students worldwide Authority issued a notice requiring anyone who wants to deploy and maintain a dynamic set of research activities, all shaping the drones for personal or public use to receive permission before doing so. future of media. Various levels of support can leverage support The proclamation was received with mixed emotions. On one hand, from private foundations and government grant programs, this provides some clarity and protection for people who feared being fund a research assistantship for one of our graduate students arrested or harassed by the police for flying their drones. However, it — providing living expenses and a stipend, one of the ways remains unclear how difficult it will actually be to obtain permission we continue to successfully draw the world’s top talent — and from the KCAA. Additionally, the group expressed a desire for clear afford for a number of named acknowledgments. guidelines regarding operator liability and the establishment of per- missible civilian fly zones. (Continues p. 16…) Foundation, Corporate, and Public Support Major support from private foundations, industry sponsors, and the public sector has been a cornerstone of CMS/W’s success over its history. You will join the likes of the Knight Founda- FOLLOW OUR tion, Cisco Systems, the MacArthur Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Johnson & Johnson, the National Research Foundation of Singapore, Motorola, and WORK many others. HERE’S HOW YOU CAN FIND our Research Partners UPDATES AND OTHER NEWS CMS/W regularly partners with other universities, profession- al organizations, and independent research and development Daily updates: @cmsw_mit, @MIT_Sciwrite groups. Current and past collaborators include Massachusetts Event news: facebook.com/MIT.CMSW , the National Film Board of Canada, and, at Video: cmsw.mit.edu/category/media MIT, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, the Networking: cmsw.mit.edu/linkedin Office of Educational Innovation and Technology, the Program Research: cmsw.mit.edu/blog in Arts, Technology, and Culture, and the Scheller Teacher Announcements: cmsw.mit.edu/signup Education Program.

spring 2015 15 FEATURESFEATURE

Participants discussing challenges with drones (Photo by Okari Omariba) We wrapped up the workshop with a drone demo! (Photo by Okari Omariba)

In addition to policy issues, the group also discussed challenges 4. Final Reflections with the hardware and software platforms on which drones operate. It is very difficult for local enthusiasts to repair and replace parts on their Over the last few weeks, we’ve had some diverse and highly educa- drones. Not only is it difficult to source manufactured goods from tional experiences working on our UAV project in Kenya. The goal of abroad, but it’s also challenging to find the resources and materials our project was to survey the landscape for future innovation and ap- necessary to manufacture locally. One participant described his frus- plications using drone technology in the region. This work involved tration after attempting to access one of the few 3D printers located interviewing individuals and organizations currently experimenting in Nairobi in order to recreate a component on his drone. Addition- with drones in Kenya, as well as building and piloting some of our ally, finding skilled individuals who have the ability to develop and own technology to gain some practical insights into the challenges implement local designs was also a challenge. The drone market is and opportunities of using drones in this context. not big enough to provide a steady income for software engineers and designers who are in high demand in other sectors. From these experiences, we learned a few key things: After brainstorming some of these challenges we broke into small groups to discuss specific short-term and long-term solutions to each • There already exists a large number of UAV enthusiasts, designers, of these problem areas. This was probably the most fruitful part of our and hackers in Kenya. But before January this group had not co- workshop, as it gave us a chance to dig into tangible next-steps we ordinated themselves into a cohesive community. This is rapidly could take in order to develop the experimental drone community in changing. The workshop we held at the iHub a couple of weeks Kenya. There was great enthusiasm around the idea of establishing a ago has sparked the formation of a group calling themselves the permanent group of lobbyists and hobbyists to exchange knowledge Association of UAV Operators in Kenya. There are currently about and advocate for more robust policies from the government. We twenty members actively engaging in conversations and debates have already established a working group that will be working on about how to further the interests of the drone community moving an “internal code of ethics” and certification process for the drone forward. For example, this past weekend, a small group convened community in Kenya. Our hope is to form a citizen community at a local cafe to start early conversations around the development that self-regulates their drone activity, as well as provides training to of an advocacy and lobbying group to interface with the govern- novices who are new to the risks and challenges of flying drones. We ment regarding future regulations and guidelines for drone use. are also planning to build a website which will serve as an online hub The formation of this group is quite timely, as the Kenyan Civil for drone operators across east Africa. Aviation Authority just recently announced that any and all indi- Overall, the workshop was a great success. viduals using drones (for personal or commercial use) must receive Although the number of people interested in drones in Kenya is permission from the government before doing so. It remains quite large, they had never held a formal convening to get to know one unclear how difficult it will be to obtain such permission, but this another and share their experiences. Our event provided an opportu- group is dedicated to building a support network to facilitate the nity for these disparate individuals to coalesce into a community. The process. workshop also enabled our team to identify tangible opportunities to extend our work moving forward. In the coming months, I look • There is a lot of potential for drones to be a highly-beneficial forward to contributing to this emerging community and developing leapfrog technology in the Kenyan context. Our discussions with more interventions to overcome the challenges we identified during thought-leaders on the ground revealed many thoughtful and these initial discussions. creative potential use cases for drones in the future. Many of these 16 in medias res FEATURESFEATURE

ideas conceptualized drones as a potential support infrastructure, high, while the accessibility of critical parts for maintenance is on which critical services and products, such as the delivery of still quite low. Entrepreneurs also struggle to hire employees medicine or disaster response, could be implemented more effi- with the skills necessary to scale the design and manufacture of ciently. Developing “as the crow flies” distribution channels could locally-sourced drones. However, there are some promising de- be immensely beneficial, particularly in areas of the country where velopments underway in Kenya, such as the opening of Gearbox, the road infrastructure is underdeveloped (rural areas) or where a shared maker space designed to “bridge the gaps preventing new traffic is quite dense (Nairobi). inventions and ideas from becoming commercializable products.” Gearbox is scheduled to open this year, with the primary aim • Drones provide an interesting educational platform for the devel- being to unleash industrial innovation in Kenya, building a base opment of critical skills necessary for the future growth of the for widespread economic growth. Organizations like this will be Kenyan tech scene. Not only do drones provide opportunities critical to the future development of an ecosystem where cutting- for individuals to develop skills in handling both software and edge technologies like drones are able to thrive. hardware, but they also provide a unique opportunity for young entrepreneurs to familiarize themselves with the uncertainty that Overall, our time in Kenya has yielded some very interesting comes along with working with a cutting-edge technology. The insights for our team. In the coming months, we will continue to col- legal and social structures currently in place have not had the op- laborate with our partners on the ground in order to support the portunity to catch up to speed with the rapid development of UAV future development of the drone-innovation ecosystem in the country. technology. Critical to any new technology’s success is having a This includes bridging promising projects, such as the work in Ol cadre of people who are able to lead the development of new legal Pejeta, with the partners and resources necessary to increase their sus- and social frameworks for dealing with the ambiguity and contin- tainability. We will also continue to participate in the emerging UAV- gencies brought about by a new technology. Drones provide an op- advocacy community as they take critical next steps to pooling their portunity to develop these skills, which can strengthen the future resources and efforts to educate policy makers and the general public trajectory of the Kenyan tech scene overall. about UAV technology.

• Although there is much enthusiasm around drones in Kenya, there More writing on Barabas’s and Mwenda’s trip is available via the MIT Public Service are very few UAV-based projects that have managed to establish Center: http://mitpsc.mit.edu/blog. sustainable long-term operations. The price of drones is still quite

Mwenda and Barabas watching their drone fly into the sunset

spring 2015 17 PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS Updates from the CMS/W Community

Two new initiatives consumed the majority Creative Communities of The Education Arcade’s attention this fall Though coming near the end of the Center Initiative — EdTechX, a series of MITx online courses for Civic Media’s second-round grant from The Creative Communities Initiative, now in available on EdX and Using Popular Games the Knight Foundation implied that work its second year, is expanding and diversifying. for Serious Learning, a two-year research- slow, it has done anything but. In fall 2014, CCI welcomed two new grad based design project. Both projects are col- Both Assistant Professor Sasha Costanza- student research assistants — Lilia Kilburn laborative efforts with the MIT Game Lab. Chock and CMS/Civic Media alum Molly and Lacey Lord — as well as a new faculty Using Popular Games for Serious Learning Sauter (S.M., ’13) published books this fall. In member, T.L. Taylor. Taylor and Ian Condry represents a new challenge. The Education Out of the Shadows, Into the Streets!: Transmedia are co-teaching the graduate workshop in Arcade is typically charged with looking at Organizing and the Immigrant Rights Movement ethnographic methods this spring. The two’s a specific instructional challenge and then (MIT Press), Costanza-Chock takes on the other courses are consonant with the CCI creating a new game to address that learning argument that social media is a sufficient approach, that is, by bringing a focus on how objective. In this project, it will be looking platform for effective protest; rather, he says people use media in their lives, rather than on at existing games and game platforms to — using case studies around the proposed focusing on texts or the materiality of media identify games that are already popular with DREAM , police brutality against those forms. CCI uses ethnographic approaches as high school students and identifying learning supporting immigrant rights, and others — complementary to other approaches to media objectives that might be addressed via a com- it serves to complement methods of face-to- studies. Its work remains focused on using bination of game-play and other instructional face organizing. Sauter, now a Ph.D. student exploring the intersections of online and practices. It will focus on humanities instruc- at McGill University, expanded her CMS offline worlds to identify new solutions to old tion at the high school level. With the support thesis into a book published by Blooms- problems. of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, Kyrie bury Academic, The Coming Swarm: DDOS, In addition to CCI’s ongoing sponsored Caldwell, Rik Eberhardt, Scot Osterweil, Hactivism, and Civil Disobedience on the Internet. research into the uses of online platforms for Philip Tan, and Carole Urbano have spent Costanza-Chock and Sauter featured their pregnant moms, it also has research projects the fall researching high school humanities writing in talks this fall. (A podcast and exploring video streaming (Taylor) and content standards to determine which might liveblog of the latter, produced by CMS the future of music creativity and industry benefit from game-based learning activities. grad students, is available at http://mitsha. (Condry). The team has also been searching to uncover re/1K34AUg.) Its advanced grad student researchers are existing practices of teachers using commer- And between semesters, CMS grad student doing innovative work as well. cially available digital games. The project is Chelsea Barabas and Media Lab grad student Chelsea Barabas is writing about hiring in highly collaborative and the team has been Jude Mwenda travelled to Kenya to research the tech industry, based on summer research working to identify potential partner school the opportunities and challenges of using in San Francisco where she did fieldwork districts and teachers interested in finding UAV technology to address social and eco- with a group aiming to help minority youth new ways to engage students. These teachers logical challenges in east Africa (see story get tech jobs. She also interviewed leading will serve as co-designers. on p. 12). Their work focused on testing executives who use social media data mining Work on The Radix Endeavor continues low-cost methods for monitoring the illegal to identify promising job candidates. as the team has expanded the current pilot clear cutting of trees to make charcoal, as Desi Gonzales, another a second-year grad to include middle grades. The online multi- well as exploring potential ways to augment student, is writing about maker spaces in art player quest-based game includes more than existing drone projects through the use of museums, and how this is transforming what 115 quests in seven topic areas including citizen science platforms (like Zooniverse) we think of as art making. genetics, evolution, ecosystems, and human to help process the data gathered by drones. Finally, we are also working with CMS body systems as well as quest lines for They also held a workshop at Nairobi’s iHub undergrad major Karleigh Moore, who is geometry, algebra, and statistics quest lines. in order to learn about the civic applications conducting research on in Tumblr. Graduate student Jesse Sell developed support other drone hobbyists are experimenting All in all, it’s exciting times for CCI, which materials that the more than 13,000 users can with in Kenya. we look forward to identifying more people use to get a feel for the game and enhance who might be interested in joining our team. their play experience. civic.mit.edu cmsw.mit.edu/cci educationarcade.org 18 in medias res PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS

HyperStudio launched a new version of An- The MIT Game Lab hosted the third annual The ICE Lab published a number of articles notation Studio, its collaborative digital an- Boston Festival of Indie Games in September, and released multiple projects. Director Fox notation tool. Supported by a Startup and bringing over 3,000 members of the public Harrell is spending the 2014-2015 academic Implementation Grant from the National to MIT to meet 200 game developers that year at Stanford University as a recipient of a Endowment for the Humanities, it has spanned digital, tabletop, and experimental fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study expanded its user base to more than 2,500, genres. Speakers addressed issues of diversity, in the Behavioral Sciences and a Lenore from high schools and community colleges to representation, technology, live-action role Annenberg and Wallis Annenberg Fellowship universities. Instructors in literature, writing, playing, education, and interactive fiction. in Communication. Professor Harrell’s focus and foreign languages have integrated it into We continued to host lectures and meetups will be on developing computational media their curricula. One can now filter annota- for local game developers such as Boston systems that can achieve greater aesthetic, tions according to tags, users, and visible text Indies, Women In Games Boston, and Boston affective, and social resonance — in particu- segments and work with a greater variety of Group. Topics included sensor inputs lar, games and social media for expressing and text formats. Institutions can now set up their and deck-building game design. better understanding cognitive phenomena own branded instances. In November, Hy- We ran workshops with media organizations related to social identity. Recently the Lab perStudio organized an Annotation Studio to help them understand how game design and has developed a platform called Chimera that webinar in which faculty members Wyn development could work with their business. supports authoring games and interactive Kelley (Literature), Suzanne Lane (WRAP), We also worked with LearnDistrict to present that more effectively take social Ina Lipkowitz (Literature), and Jim Paradis “Girls Make Games”, a two-day workshop, identity into account. In Chimera, social (CMS/W) discussed different pedagogical and with the People’s Republic of Interactive identity categories are gradient (members approaches for classroom integration. Fiction and Boston Indies for the Interactive can be more or less central to categories), HyperStudio has significantly advanced Fiction Jam. Our lab also hosted the Global dynamic (members can move between cat- Artbot, an application that allows users to Game Jam for the seventh year. egories), and allow for multiple memberships. discover art events and exhibitions in Boston. Riot Games and Games came to Harrell is also consolidating results of his Artbot uses server-side data scraping, text campus to talk to students about their technol- 5-year NSF Career Grant-supported project analysis, and content linking to create indi- ogy and job opportunities. Suehiro “SWERY” called “Computing for Advanced Identity vidualized suggestions, all presented through Hidetaka and gave Representation” for publication. an elegant mobile interface. HyperStudio lectures in classes about their experiences as Harrell and the Lab are collaborating with will launch a beta version, conduct extensive game designers. Many scholars visited and an MIT Open Documentary Lab visiting user testing, and continue to make improve- shared their work during our monthly lab artist, photojournalist Karim Ben Khelifa, ments on backend recommendation system. lunches, including Celia Pearce, Sebastian on a virtual reality project aimed at engen- The project leads, Liam Andrew and Desi Deterding, Simon Niedenthal, Jesper Juul, dering empathy in the face of war called The Gonzalez, will present their research on de- David Dufresne, and Gabrielle Trépanier- Enemy. He and the project have received veloping cultural discovery systems at the Jobin. Philip Tan presented his work with support from the Sundance and Tribeca In- 2015 Museums and the Web conference. Blizzard Entertainment at GDC Next 2014 stitutes. The Lab is developing models of in- RA Andy Stuhl has worked closely with and will be joining T.L. Taylor and Jesse Sell teractive narrative and user identity dynamics Jeff Ravel and other French theater scholars at GDC 2015 to discuss design and collegiate as the user interacts with virtual versions of on developing case studies that allow users of participation in eSports. real combatants on both sides of internation- the Comédie-Française Registers Project to Students from CMS.611/6.073 Creating al conflicts. CMS graduate student Ainsley explore the range of research questions that Videogames also worked with the Red Cross/ Sutherland is working on her related thesis can be addressed with the project’s tools. A Red Crescent Climate Center to prototype on forms of engagement in virtual reality. multi-dimensional analysis tool developed digital games on cholera hygiene, heat wave Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence by Christopher York (’01), offers scholars mitigation, and humanitarian funding models. Ph.D. students Chong-U Lim and Dominic dynamic insights into the many facets of the The Climate Center used one game during the Kao are publishing frequently in the areas project’s data from 1680-1793. The project’s UN Climate Talks. of modeling identity in social media, games, tools and website will go live in June. and related educational technologies. gamelab.mit.edu hyperstudio.mit.edu icelab.mit.edu

spring 2015 19 PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS

The Mobile Experience Lab initiated the The MIT Open Documentary Lab received a The Trope Tank is bi-located in 2015, with Caring City research project in collaboration grant this fall for $175k from the John D. and a branch in , where the lab’s with La Fabrique De La Cité, a French urban Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to map director, Nick Montfort, is teaching at the innovation think tank to understand millen- and assess the intersection of new documen- New School and working on other projects. nials’ expectations from the cities that they tary forms and digital journalism. Professor He continues research with the MIT-based live in. The goal of the research is to imagine William Uricchio and his team will chart this Trope Tank team, Erik Stayton, and newly and design a caring city for tomorrow. In emerging landscape. appointed writer-in-residence Andrew order to do so the research team set up an As part of the grant, OpenDocLab held a Plotkin. international observatory spanning multiple convening, “The New Reality: Exploring the A team of literary translators based at the global mega cities including Boston, New intersection of New Documentary Forms and Trope Tank recently completed phase one of York, Paris, Berlin, Glasgow, Barcelona, Digital Journalism”. They hosted over forty the Renderings project, the results of which and Istanbul. The research methodology leading journalists, scholars, documentar- were published in the online journal Cura. combines immersion, visual ethnography, ians and other experts from such institutions Phase one included thirteen computational focused workshops, and extensive interviews as PBS Frontline, BBC, The New York Times, and digital literary works that were translated with resident millennials and experts. The The Marshall Project, Vox Media, Tribeca from, or written bilingually in, six languages: qualitative study uncovers millennials’ ex- Film Institute, and Sundance Institute. They Chinese, French, Japanese, German, Polish, pectations on various aspects of city life such explored a range of topics from new tech- and Spanish. Renderings is being reformu- as services, infrastructure, housing, mobility, nologies to audience engagement and new lated as a distributed project, with partici- and wellbeing and allows the research team documentary forms and processes. They pants worldwide, and the source languages to project how a Caring City of tomorrow explored questions such as how to better fa- and types of work are being expanded for the should perform. cilitate knowledge transfer between interac- next phase. The lab also initiated a project with ENI, tive documentarians and journalists, helping Research also continues on the story gen- an Italian petrochemical and energy company each to make use of lessons-learned in these eration project Slant, an international col- to understand how wearable technology can institutionally distinct domains. laboration to further develop a large-scale make dangerous and extreme environments, The OpenDocLab fellows program automatic story generator: such as industrial plants, safer. aWEARness continued into its second year. It attracts is a project that facilitates communication leading international artists, scholars, and between workers involved in the energy ex- technologists including Lara Baladi, an traction energy. The goal of the research is Egyptian artist who is exploring how to best to assist industrial plant workers in lowering present her archives of the Egyptian Revolu- their margin of error, thus contributing to tion and Raney Aronson, deputy executive their safety. After an extensive secondary producer of PBS’s Frontline, who is exploring research focused on understanding the ways new forms of documentary storytelling. in which biosensors can be used to gauge the Research assistants Sean Flynn and Deniz emotional and physical state of a worker. The Tortum are busy speaking at festivals, con- research team built prototypes utilizing state ducting research for the MacArthur grant, or of the art low-power technology and smart creating content for Docubase, a curated in- materials to inform further conversation and teractive database of the people, projects, and The Trope Tank continues to host the research. technologies transforming documentary in People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction, Lastly, the lab’s work with ENI and recent a digital age. Tortum and Beyza Boyacioglu the local IF group, and to support research, prototyping with Marriott were featured in a travelled to Sundance to write about the New creative work, and teaching using material piece about lab director Federico Casalegno Frontier exhibit. They were accompanied by computing resources, for instance by partici- by the MIT Industrial Liaison Program (see ODL Director Sarah Wolozin, who presented pating in an MIT Museum event during the p. 10). Docubase on a panel about the future of doc- coming semester. umentary. mobile.mit.edu trope-tank.mit.edu opendoclab.mit.edu 20 in medias res PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS

Personal Updates songs written by fans — the Huffington Post spoke with professor Ian Condry to better Emily Anthes (S.M., Science Writing, ’06) understand the phenomenon. “‘They know saw her Guardian article “How Insects Could Miku doesn’t exist,’ Condry says. ‘But they Feed the World” named by Foodtank as a know people on the other side do.’” “Top 8 Magazine Articles About Food in 2014”. The article describes the possibil- Rodrigo Davies (S.M., CMS, ’14) joined ity of helping feed the world’s projected Stanford as a Ph.D. student in the Depart- nine billion inhabitants with those plentiful, ment of Management Science and Engineer- Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Com- crunchy, protein-filling buggers. ing. After just one semester, he was persuaded munication (WRAP) is devoted to teaching to take a leave of absence by civic crowdfund- students how to analyze and produce effective In January, Associate Professor Vivek ing startup Neighbor.ly, to lead their new communication. WRAP researches these Bald received a 2015 Association for Asian product team. At Neighbor.ly he is helping concepts and professional practices, develops American Studies award for his book Bengali to build a new platform for individuals and new pedagogy, and assesses how students Harlem: Exploring the Lost Histories of South households to invest in their cities through learn, apply, and transfer this knowledge. Asian America. The AAAS said “Bengali municipal bonds. Many of our research projects are developed Harlem stood out from a stellar crop of books in our new research lab, ArchiMedia, for for its brilliant work of historical recovery Junot Diaz received the Public which we gratefully acknowledge the support and writing,” describing Bald’s writing as Library’s Literary Award for his outstanding of the Qatar Foundation. With the aid of our “beautiful prose” with “telling detail”. contribution to literature, joining the likes of research assistant, Lily Bui, ArchiMedia is Harper Lee, Susan Sontag, and John Updike. pursuing two central projects this year. An article lecturer Jared Berezin wrote was First, with a grant from MIT’s d’Arbeloff just published in Disability Studies Quarterly In what she calls “another win for the CMS fund, we are developing online communica- (“Disabled Capital: A Narrative of Attention matchmakers,” Katie Edgerton (S.M., CMS, tion instruction modules for MITx, specifi- Deficit Disorder in the Classroom Through ’13) got engaged to Amar Boghani (S.M., cally designed for use in project engineering the Lens of Bourdieu’s Capital”). The essay CMS, ’13, and Creative Technologist at our laboratory subjects. We’ve invented what we is a research-based personal narrative reflect- Mobile Experience Lab.) term “reasoning diagrams,” which illustrate ing on a memorable experience from his days the underlying relationships between central as a seventh grader struggling with attention Joshua Feblowitz (S.M., Science Writing, concepts in the research and experimental deficit disorder in math class. ’10) is graduating from Harvard Medical design process, and we have designed new School this coming May and will be textual analysis tools so that students can Lindsay Brownell (S.M., Science Writing, starting residency in emergency medicine manipulate and analyze texts within MITx. ’14) started September by finishing up her in the summer. During medical school, he Preliminary results, when these modules science writing internship at the European has written on a wide variety of topics in were incorporated into a Materials Science Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidel- medicine and plans to continue this through- and Engineering subject, strong gains berg, Germany. She then took a whirlwind out residency. in understanding of research concepts and the Eurotrip through Germany, Austria, Slovenia, ability to communicate research to different Croatia, and Spain before landing back in Kurt Fendt, Director of HyperStudio, was . The modules are being adapted for Boston in time to graduate from the GPSW. invited to speak at the conference “Shaping use in a Chemical Engineering project labo- She currently works as a science writer for Access! — More Responsibility for Cultural ratory subject. RA Capital Management, an investment firm Heritage” last November at the Hamburger Second, ArchiMedia endeavors to further that primarily invests in pharma and biotech Bahnhof Museum in Berlin, Germany. The another central focus of our research: how companies. She edits the company’s internal event, organized by UNESCO Germany digital media is shaping new practices in pro- research reports and manages the internal and the Wikimedia Foundation, brought fessional communication and in communi- newsletter, which will hopefully grow into together participants from primarily cating science and engineering to the public, an externally-facing venture later this year. European museums, archives, and libraries such as in the shift to incorporating graphical to discuss the impact of digital technologies abstracts in STEM journal articles, and to Since December, Denise Cheng (S.M., on preservation, access, and public audiences. presenting poster presentations in e-poster CMS, ’14) has started working as an innova- While in Berlin, Kurt gave a live interview sessions. Our goal is to provide a taxonomy tion fellow with the San Francisco Mayor’s on German Public Radio (Deutschlandradio and theoretical framework for assessing the Office of Civic Innovation. Kultur) about recent developments in digital effects of these new communication practices. humanities and their relevance for a broader In a post about virtual Japanese pop star public. cmsw.mit.edu/wrap Hatsune Miku — who performs synthesized spring 2015 21 PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS

Sam Ford (S.M., CMS, ’07) enjoyed coming screen storytelling with Google Glass; pro- GamerGate controversy, describing the dif- back to CMS/W as part of the fall collo- totypes in using 3D printing, augmented ficulty of teaching games studies knowing quium series.1 Sam participated in a round- reality, and smart toys in next-gen transme- that vile attacks will likely still await their table for the journal Transformative Works and dia storytelling experiences; co-organizing female students as they enter the field. Along Cultures and published a piece with Inc. in the and co-hosting an evening on the future of with Rik Eberhardt and Scot Osterweil, they fall. Sam was named 2014 Digital Communi- featuring Scott McCloud; and con- discussed the proactive steps they have taken cator of the Year by PR News and was on that sulting work for Disney, FOX, Warner Bros., in their courses to prevent hateful speech publication’s Social Media MVPs list. Sam DirecTV, Jaguar, BET, Havas Media, IBM, before it happens. also received one of Western Kentucky Uni- Cisco, and the Los Angeles Times. The Playful versity’s Summit Awards for volunteerism Thinking book series he co-edits for the MIT T.L. Taylor was interviewed by RedBull.com, and was named one of the Top 100 Global Press with William Uricchio and Jesper Juul discussing how “the last several of years have Corporate Social Responsibility Leaders is in full swing. Also, his daughter Zoe is been a scramble to keep up with how much by Global CEO. In the classroom, Sam just freaking awesome. this emerging form of networked broadcast finished teaching a WKU honors colloquium is impacting not just eSports, but gaming on U.S. professional wrestling. In the wake of the measles outbreak at Dis- broadly.” neyland, Assistant Professor of Science Lecturer Erica Funkhouser recently had Writing Seth Mnookin and author of 2011’s Professor of Comparative Media Studies new poems published in The Atlantic, Harvard The Panic Virus became the go-to source for William Uricchio is in Berlin thanks to Review #46 — along with Nandhini Sun- information on the history of the anti-vaccine the Berlin Prize. While there, he will give daresan, a Harvard student who was in her movement. He was featured by NBCNews. the Holtzbrinck Lecture at the American 21W.771 workshop — and in Agni #80. com, The New Yorker, the PBS NewsHour, Academy in Berlin on “The Cultural Work and many others. of Algorithms”; a keynote on ‘The Aesthetics MLK Visiting Scholar and interdisciplin- of the Cathode Tube” at The Interna- ary artist Coco Fusco receive the CINTAS Jason Rockwood (S.M., CMS, ’09) is now tional Festival of Films on Art in Montreal; a Foundation/Knight Foundation Award in working as a Principal Strategy Consultant at keynote on “The New Documentary” at the Visual Arts. Lithium Technologies (lithium.com). International Human Rights Film Festival One World in Prague; and lectures at the Faculty member Heather Hendershot has In November, CMS/W head Ed Schiappa Freie Universität Berlin. But mostly, he will been busy at the Radcliffe Institute writing attended the National Communication As- be writing about documentaries. her book on Firing Line. She has, however, sociation conference where he made three also taken time off from work to perfect her presentations. In December, Schiappa Outside of his communications duties, sweet potato pie recipe and to invent two published “Thomas S. Kuhn and POROI, Andrew Whitacre completed his first DIY new gin-based cocktails, The Hairdo and the 1984,” in POROI: An Interdisciplinary Journal video2, part of a project for “Field Video Pro- Bloody Hairdo. of Rhetorical Analysis and Invention 10, which duction” at the Harvard Extension School introduces a previously unpublished essay by (and paid for by MIT’s generous professional After Geoffrey Long (S.M., CMS, ’07) Thomas S. Kuhn titled “Rhetoric and Lib- development benefits). But the course was enjoyed the release or announcement of a eration”. Schiappa discovered Kuhn’s paper also in preparation for spring semester work number of his Microsoft projects, including while doing research in MIT’s Archives and with a UROP, when the two will develop the Xbox One, Adera, State of Decay, Special Collections. In January, MIT featured case studies of how academic departments Quantum Break, and the Ryse: Sword of Schiappa and his work on the Institute’s can use video to tell stories about humanities Damocles digital comic (which launched at homepage, around the time he also published research. A paper with their results and the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con and checked “The Development of Greek Rhetoric” in lessons will be published later this year. off one of his personal bucket list items), he the online version of the Oxford Handbook of Andrew has also been cheering the move of decided it was time to return to academia, Rhetorical Studies. one of his oldest , Jon Knapp, to the so he packed up his family and followed for Boston area. Knapp has joined Harvard’s CMS director Henry Jenkins to USC. As Steven Strang, director of the Writing and Ph.D. program in Film and Visual Studies, Technical Director and a Research Fellow for Communication Center, says his “big news is giving him the chance to cross-register with the Annenberg Innovation Lab (AIL), Geoff’s that in July my daughter had twins, one girl MIT; in fact this semester he has been on the projects have included Lighthouse in the and one boy, bringing to a total four grand- MIT campus each week to study with Woods, a ghost story for smart homes created children.” CMS/W affiliate and Literature Section for the Oculus Rift; experiments in second- professor Eugenie Brinkema. Both Philip Tan (S.M., CMS, ’03) and Sara Verrilli spoke with Boston.com about the 1 https://soundcloud.com/mit-cmsw/cms-alumni-panel 2 “How to Build a Radiator Cover”: http://goo.gl/IRilwT

22 in medias res EVENTS

Spring 2015 Talks

Feb 12 | 4-231 Apr 9 | 4-231 The State of the Medium Re-calling the Modem World: The Dial-up History of Bobbie Chase, Editorial Director of DC Comics, and comic book Social Media writer Marjorie Liu (Monstress, Astonishing X-Men, Black Widow) Kevin Driscoll (CMS, ’09) maps out the generative conditions that discuss the current and future state of the comic book medium. gave rise to amateur computer networking at the end of the 1970s and trace the diffusion of BBSing across diverse cultural and geograph- Feb 19 | 4-231 ic terrain during the 1980s. This history provides lived examples of Illuminated Bodies: Kat Von D, LA Ink, and the systems operated under vastly different social, technical, and political- Borderlands of Tattoo Culture economic conditions than the centralized platforms we inhabit today. Theresa Rojas, a CMS/W predoctoral fellow and Ph.D. candidate at The Ohio State University, examines the prolific, heavily tattooed Apr 16 | 66-110 | Communications Forum Kat Von D, who offers an aesthetic that challenges tattoo culture and The Mysteries of the Southern Reach notions of the “monstrous body” — and who has chosen to lead an , Authority, and Acceptance, the three books that make up exceptionally public life, telling her story in multi-mediated ways. Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, were among the most ambitious and exciting works of literature published in 2014. Vander- Feb 26 | 66-110 | Communications Forum Meer will discuss his role as one of the leading practitioners of “weird Women in ,” the environmental and ecological concerns that inform his Computational geneticist Pardis Sabeti and energy studies expert work, and his massive success. Jessika Trancik will discuss their careers and the outlook for women in science in the 21st century. Apr 23 | 4-231 The Dancing Body of the State: Queer Social Dance, Mar 5 | 4-231 Political Leadership, and Black Popular Culture Media and Memory at the Vidéothèque de Paris Thomas DeFranz, of Duke University and formerly CMS/W and Catherine E. Clark on how “the utopian rhetoric that accompanied MIT Music and Theater Arts, “wonders at the intertwining of African the Vidéothèque’s creation helps illuminate and call into question American social dances and political leadership, conceived as the the utopian promises of the much more recent revolution in digital bodies of elected officials.” He will suggest a haunting presence of history.” Clark’s current book project, Paris and the Cliché of History, queers-of-color aesthetic imperatives within political mobilizations of explores the intersection of the history of Paris and photography. black social dance, continually — and ironically — conceived as part and parcel of of liberation and freedom of movement. Mar 12 | 4-231 Dangerous Moves: Performance and Politics in Cuba Apr 30 | 4-231 Coco Fusco on the work of performance artists from the 1980s to Melville in the First Age of Viral Media the present, examining how the Cuban state has wielded influence Ryan Cordell, founding faculty member of the NULab for Texts, over performance through a combination of politics and practices Maps, and Networks at Northeastern University and co-director of that enable cultural production on the one hand and discipline public the Viral Texts project, will speak about his work uncovering pieces behavior on the other. that “went viral” in nineteenth-century newspapers and magazines.

Mar 19 | 66-110 | Communications Forum May 7 | 4-231 Coming of Age in Dystopia: The Darkness of Young Hate Crimes in Cyberspace Adult Fiction Danielle Keats Citron of the University of Maryland Francis King Kristin Cashore and Kenneth Kid on why , devastating Carey School of Law exposes the startling extent of personal cyber- apocalyptic visions, and tales of personal trauma are such a staple of attacks and proposes practical, lawful ways to prevent and punish young adult literature. online harassment. Cyber-harassment is a matter of civil rights law, she contends, and legal precedents as well as social norms of decency Mar 26 | 4-231 and civility must be leveraged to stop it. Cultural Studies and The Expediency of Culture, Rethought in Relation to Internet Platforms and All talks are at 5pm. A full schedule, including conferences and special events, is Megadata available at cmsw.mit.edu/events. The argument that culture empties out as it becomes ever more pivotal in the creative economy has, George Yúdice thinks, been borne out. Miss an event? Catch up at cmsw.mit.edu/media.

spring 2015 23 MIT Comparative Media Studies | Writing Building 14E, Room 303 & Building E15, Room 331 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 02139

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