Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting GaLA Game and Learning Alliance The European Network of Excellence on Serious Games WP 8: Support and services Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge 1

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting WP 8 Objectives 2 1.Provide support and services for the different research, integrating and outreach activities 2.Offer tools and services for collaboration between internal and external partners reducing the fragmentation 3.Set-up, implement and maintain Virtual Research Environment (VRE) able to support effective international and multi-disciplinary 4. Set-up of a pan-European SG Living Lab Network (SGLLN). 5.Application of different social network analysis tools

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting WP 8 Achievements 3 Task 8.1 Task 8.3 WP8 STARTEND M6 Gala Social Network analysis approach M8: GaLA VRE Requirements M12: LL Requirements M12 GaLA VRE Release Task 8.2 Main result: MS 28- VRE release ( (T8.1) 14): Result: VRE(14) and LL requirements (14) Gala Social Network analysis approach(9)

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting GaLA Game and Learning Alliance The European Network of Excellence on Serious Games Virtual Research Environment (VRE) Requirements (Del. 8.1) ELIOS Lab – DIBE – University of Genoa 4

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Objectives The VRE is the technological platform of the GaLA Virtual Research Center (VRC), a major long-term target of the project –Close collaboration and integration among the actors that represent excellence in Serious Game (SG) research in Europe Open to cooperation also by third parties 5

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting State of the art (I) Thematic VREs –TextGrid, ArcheoGrid, Esad, MemRE, VeRSI Scientific workflow management –Probably the most important application for scientific VREs Typical domains: climate modeling, structural biology, chemistry, disaster recovery simulation –Kepler, Galaxy, OpenWetWare, NanoHub 6

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting SoA (II) - Tools and systems for VREs 7 TOOL/SYSTEMMAJOR FEATURE MyExperimentSupport for social networking in a research environment Microsoft RIC Commercial virtual research environment integrated with MS Office and SharePoint. Focus on project management eSciDoc Open source VRE, with specific services for scholars (in particular, publication management) SakaiOpen source e-Learning system with project management facilities Enterprise Content Management systems Flexible and powerful tools to build highly customized VREs. IBM FileNet Content Management is the most diffused, MS SharePoint is integrated with MS Office, Alfresco is open source. Semantic MediaWiki Help users to find more information in less time, and improve the overall quality and consistency of the wiki. Particularly useful to enhance existing contents in Wiki format.

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting SoA (III) - Tools for research on SGs Basic approaches to support de-fragmentation 1- Classification of SGs –serious.gameclassification.com (2300+ featured games)serious.gameclassification.com –Imagine and Engage Learning EU databases 2- Design Patterns –Design Patterns in SGs: a problem-oriented design approach –Stellar’s GEL Theme team Integration, cognition, presentation, social, teaching, engagement 3- Ontologies –Zagal et al., Game Ontology ProjectGame Ontology Project –Top branches: interfaces, rules, entity manipulation, goals 4- Blogging to understand games –Game Set Watch (Gamasutra), Semionaut’s Notebook, Terranova –Zagal et Al., GameLog projectGameLog 8

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting GaLA user requirements survey Early feedback on the existing GaLA collaboration area –Early release less than one month before (january 2011) –Limited features WP and Task management Document repository Mailing lists Forum for WPs and tasks Calendar Researchers’ contacts with pictures Online survey –36 respondents 9

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting User requirements results (I) Project management –Key functionalities: document repository and contact management –Assessment of the first release (January 2011) Useful system Not high assessment –System not complete and low user familiarity Features suggested (and implemented) –Collaborative editing (Wiki) –Support for surveys –Meeting management –Support for social networking (included in the Young Academy) 10

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting User requirements results (II) Collaboration tools –Need for tools for specific SG research (definition of the SG field) Databases for games and related research, ordered repository of SGs and use cases Social networking –Key functionality Group management –Other important Interest management and sharing, support for online events, support for presence and exchange and, finally, showcasing –Low rating for parameteres typical of social VREs reputation management, IP management and ownership, crediting, attribution 11

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Overall need Researches in the SG field have to work to shape the knolwedge in a young and complex field Need to focus on the creation of a common vocabulary (e.g. taxonomies, data, standards and metadata) that allows researchers from different fields (pedagogy, psychology, computer science, game design, etc.) to understand each other and develop a common understanding Build an operationally exploitable network of knowledge –Link among games, mechanisms, pedagogical theories, assessment methods, deployment modes, development tools, business models, research papers, etc. This requires exploiting lower-level tools and systems to build key specific modules for a SG VRE 12

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting 1- Project management Joomla-based GaLA website –Shared calendar, definition of WPs, tasks and milestone, assignment of responsibilities to users (e.g. WP coordination) ; definition of timing (e.g. WP deadlines) ; shared repository of documents; communication channel (e.g. forum and news feed on call for papers, projects and publications ); list of contacts; online surveys; meeting management. Additional tools are taken off-the-shelf –Skype for call-conference and Mendeley for reference management –Standard choices in GaLA, in order to avoid confusion across tasks, as required by partners 13

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting 2- Support for communities The wiki and forums comply with the UGC requirements for Social Networking, as requested in Del. 8.8 The SN part of the VRE is developed in the context of the Young Academy (YA) network – Del 5.1 –Elgg technology –Database of people with profile; possibility of friendship and following; Smart presence on popular Social Media (WP9) –Integrated in the GaLA website –Tools for cross-posting 14

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting 3- Support for SG field definition The most innovative and important part of VRE, developed to support the community of SG researchers A repository of SGs described in a multidisciplinary way Implemented through the WikiMedia engine –Knowledge structured according to the WPs, functional to the partners’ needs Upgrade: Knowledge Management Engineering (KME) –Knowledge Management System Off-the-shelf or ad-hoc –Semantic MediaWiki Build a system as a network of entities –Hierarchical ontologies with descriptions and examples Texts, keywords and other multimedia assets deemed as useful –Links among entities 15

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Six views on the world of SG research Description/classification of SGs Analysis of game components (TC Mechanics) Pedagogy (TC pedagogy and WP1 Metrics) Deployment (WP6 and WP7) Application domains (WP3 SIGs) Technologies and tools (WP2 TCs) 16

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting GaLA Game and Learning Alliance The European Network of Excellence on Serious Games GALA VRE Release Riccardo Berta, Francesco Bellotti, Alessandro De Gloria ELIOS Lab, DIBE, University of Genoa 17

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Structure According to the D8.1(VRE Requirements) document, the VRE has been organized in three parts: 18 GALA VRE GALA Web Site Login Collaborative knowledge (Wiki) Project Management Events Management Survey Support Support for collaboration and project management Support for SG field definition Young Academy Support for communities Social Net Integration Work in progress: knowledge engineering system User Profile and Connections

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting A mash-up approach 19 CMS Wiki Engine Social Network Engine GALA VRE Project Management Voting System User Profiles Events management Form editor Extensions Core Technologies

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Project Management The Project Management (PM) section offers a complete set of tools for the management of the project activities, with the following main features: –work packages and tasks support –milestones –time tracking –file management –discussion –calendar 20

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Events Management In the context of GALA, several events will be realized –project meetings, alignment schools, summer schools, etc. To support the management of these types of events, the VRE features a generic booking system for events The booking system provides the user with the possibility of –watching the current events –his booking status –publishing new events as well subscribed GALA users only 21

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Voting System The management of a network of researchers needs also tools to support the democratic decision making process The VRE has a tool to manage voting among GALA members: –Creating voting pages –Checking votes and results –Online voting interface 22

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Survey support Several GALA tasks need to collect information from GALA members (e.g. about activities) and from several type of user (e.g. stakeholders opinions). The VRE feature a tool to support researchers in collecting information through online questionnaires –Create a survey –Connect to a DB table –Publish and online page 23

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting User Profile To support GALA users’ involvement and collaboration, the VRE features an extended user management tool by –personalize profiles with personal information (e.g. about research interests). –connect with each other We are in the starting phase in collaboration with Task 8.3 (Community Nurturing) 24

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Young Academy (YA) network A social site which provides a support to friendship and following aimed at –promoting SG studies –people interested in SG studies also outside the GALA partnership Described in the D5.1 (Report on the SG education 1) 25

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Collaborative writing (GALA Wiki) A VRE area that allows the creation and editing of interlinked pages by using the simplified mark-up language used by Wikipedia It is used by the GALA members to collaboratively write documents –deliverables, working documents and scientific papers The structure is organized with: –one main page for each WP, TC, SIG –from these top pages, each team can setup pages, links and contents In a collaborative way –a special section with several tools to manage the structures and administrate the growing set of pages. 26

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Work in progress: the KES The VRE has been online since three months after the beginning of the project –incrementally evolved according to the continuous requirements of the GALA partners. The collaborative editing tool (GALA Wiki ) is functional to GALA members for their cooperation, but of relatively limited impact outside the consortium. So, our plan is that the final version of the VRE will feature also a Knowledge Engineering System (KES) –a more structured, searchable and machine-readable knowledge environment able to manage a network of semantically defined knowledge entities –The KES will be interoperable with some of the most relevant databases for SG research 27

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Work in progress: the KES 28

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Conclusion We have presented the release of the VRE –the technological infrastructure of the Virtual Research Center The target is to provide an online support to GALA researchers – and also beyond GaLA, in the future. According to the D8.1 requirement document, the VRE has been organized in three parts: –project management and collaboration tools –support for communities –support for SG field definition Technical viewpoint: mash-up approach Future plan: add a Knowledge Engineering System –is a more structured, searchable and machine-readable knowledge environment 29

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting GaLA Game and Learning Alliance The European Network of Excellence on Serious Games D8.4 SGLL requirements 30

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting The living lab concept “Living Labs are environments for innovation and development where users are exposed to new ICT solutions in (semi)realistic contexts, as part of medium- and long-term studies targeting evaluation of new ICT solutions and discovery of innovation opportunities” Folstad (2008, p 116). 31

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Pan-European SG Living Lab Network (SGLLN) Objective –support the innovation within the development and application –offer researchers the possibility to test and evaluate their games on a larger scale as well as to support collaborative research. –bringing the developers and application users together –increase the joint multi-disciplinary research –focusing on the integration –Supporting collaboration 32

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Potential stakeholders 33 source: iDATE

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Living Lab management 34 Source Apollon

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Requirements local SGLL An open result participative process based on mutual trust good diversity governance: rules focused on the process rather than on the result, with a good margin of freedom for the attendees A transparency of the process Agreement on the use of specific software, tools and programming language 35 Project preparation service Prototype creation Meeting place Testing and evaluation of games Game development Meeting place LL methods

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Requirements virtual SGLL Tools that replace and support –Face to face meetings (aural, visual) (Social media) –Black- or whiteboards –Sheets and pencils –Document sharing –Possibility to show things each other –Versioning tools –Tracking and tracing possibilities –Environment for collaborative development. 36

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting GaLA Game and Learning Alliance The European Network of Excellence on Serious Games Social Network Analysis Approach (D8.8) Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, BIBA Yulia Bachvarova, Stefano Bocconi, Cyntelix 37

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting WP 8 D8.8 Objectives 38 1.Describe the theoretical foundation of SNA as well as to explain how SNA can be used in the different stages of the VRE and LL community building. 2.Describes how Social Network Analysis can support the nurturing of the GaLA online community. 3.Serves as input for the requirement analysis of the VRE and LL.

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Establishing Communities of Practice 39 Engagement Conditions for promotion and stimulation of engagement Network management  Stimulate sharing  Instigate agreement  Need for leadership  Balance between support (guidelines and regulations) and freedom (evolving interests and circumstances that help the community to develop)

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Social Network Analysis 40 SNA Measures  Clustering  Connectivity  Centrality Network characteristics  Strength of the weak ties  Small world; six degrees of separation Enhanced SNA techniques  Recommender systems Collaborative filtering Content based recommendation

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Approach for SNA in GaLA 41 Community lifecycle

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Approach for SNA in GaLA 42 SNA for the Potential Stage  Connect people with similar interests  Check how the different stakeholders are represented and take adequate measures  Support engagement by motivating sharing SNA for the Coalescing Stage  Detect clustering and subgroups and the level of communication between these  Use collaborative filtering and content-based recommendation to enhance engagement by recommending suitable contacts and content

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Approach for SNA in GaLA 43 SNA for the Active Stage  Measure engagement by keeping track of the quantity of members’ contributions (blog posts, comments, rating) and the rate of information flow  Detect the ‘central’ people and support them in case the burden of managing the network increases  Use content analysis to study the relation between the content generated and the relation between content authors Data needed: User profile The social links (friend/follower) All user-generated content  Blog posts  Comments  Rating  Tagging

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting WP 8 Work in progress 44 1.The VRE is put into operation, with the help of SNA, the use will be analysed in order to find how it can be improved 2.Analysis carried out at the moment in the VRE based on the user profiles 1.Riccardo’s Twitter network 2.TCs relations based on common members (threshold of 5 members) 3.People with common interests (threshold of 9 interests) 4.Mail network (from Riccardo’s GaLA mails)( threshold of 25 mails) 3.Same mechanism will be used in the virtual SGLL, but taking privacy concern into account

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting WP 8 Next step 45 1.The VRE is now established- it needs to be used – depending on users’ feedback, the tools and the VRE will be upgraded so that it can foster the internal collaboration, esp. for co creation and discussion. 2.More tools are in the pipeline, especially merging different data sources: For example, mails as sign of activities instead of TC membership for TC connections Data needs to be meaningful and accessible Analysis needs to be related to domain experts experience 3.Launch the SGI SGLL as our first SGLL 4.Establish the other local living labs 5.Establish the virtual SGLL 6.Common plan of events taking the specific needs of each node into account.

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting Deadlines and Milestones 2. year 46 MS29 LL Deployment 21 MS30 Community Metrics 24 D8.9- Community metrics report- metrics and the periodic snapshots of communities

Genova December European Commission Information Society and Media 1 st Review Meeting THANK YOU FOR LISTENING 47