Business: The Australian Government

Campaign: The Line: http://www.theline.gov.au/

Abstract:

In June 2010 a new Australian Government initiative was launched at the Annual Song Summit. It was called The Line and it focused on teaching young Australians about what is and isn't appropriate behaviour in positive relationships. It is located completely online, and aims to educate kids about what to do if they're being bullied both offline and online (cyber bullying). It is an aesthetically pleasing campaign, using beautiful line drawings and expressive watercolour effects to reflect different moods, but it also has some shortcomings. The campaign may have been deliberately limited to the internet for cost reasons, but if that is the case it could do better to have a more complete online presence, as it is missing some key social networking features. However, the aesthetic style, use of language and appeal to their apparent target market seems to be quite consistent across all of their chosen advertising platforms.

1: Search Engine Optimisation

It has been said many times that every smart company has a website, and usually this website will stand alone as another form of advertising. So what needs to be done to draw people to the site as well as advertising the original idea? Search Engine Optimisation and Google AdWords are two terms that have entered common use when discussing ways to improve an online presence. The Line has strengths is its use of Google AdWords, but falls down somewhat in its organic search engine optimisation. What this means is when you search Google for "the line", "bullying", "bullying au", "women", "relationships" and "Cyber Bullying/Cyberbullying" the first search result will be a paid ad from the Australian Government promoting The Line. Unfortunately, only a search directly containing the words "the line" in succession will wield what is called 'organic' search results, or results not necessarily affected by payment of the company to Google. All of the other aforementioned keywords bring up only a paid ad, and The Line does not appear organically on the first page, which basically means if that paid ad was not there, the site would not be linked strongly enough with relevant keywords to be found in a normal Google search. This can be rectified; the Government just needs to implement some basic search engine optimisation techniques, such as these listed by Angela Knaggs:

"- developing a solid keyword strategy

- creating quality content

- building legitimate links

- maximising spider friendliness"  (Knaggs, 2011)

2: Website

The website itself seems to be targeted towards young people of both sexes, with a special section for parents and teachers. The way it aims to appeal to the younger audience is consistent across the whole site, focusing on use of doodle-like images, a young tone of writing, and a degree of participatory content. The parents and teachers' page has a more sophisticated tone, using more complex language and including numerous fact sheets for further reading - something that would not be appealing to youngsters but adds credibility in the eyes of adults. George Miller's "magical number seven, plus or minus two" rule for our processing capacity is used often on this site, regarding the number of links in the navigation bar, words in titles and elements in the main and secondary content sections of each page (see Figure 1). This is an example of web best practices and should be implemented to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed when visiting each page. (Miller, 1956)

Figure 1: Home page of The Line demonstrating Miller's rule of 7+/-2

Some elements are hard to find using the navigation bar. For example, the “follow the line” section with interactive videos appears on the home page, but is then listed as a sub-link under “share the line”. Ambiguous titles like these fit in with the reoccurring “line” theme, but make the site harder to navigate. They are one example of how this site sacrifices usability for aesthetics. Another occurrence of this is the choice to use Adobe Flash, a proprietary software,  for their videos. This limits mobile connectivity, and is becoming obsolete, as their interactive 'choose the ending' function can now be easily recreated using YouTube.

The site does incorporate many Web 2.0 elements, including:

• "Facebook Social Plugins" box on the right sidebar which lets you connect to Facebook and 'like' the site without navigating away.
• A "share this" button in the footer that will connect you to most popular social networking sites and share a link to The Line.
• A mini poll on the sidebar which aids in participation as well as research without increasing the "annoyance factor" (Knaggs, 2011) for users due to its simple format.
• A suggestion box on the sidebar where users can enter in poll or blog topic that they'd like to see.
• A pledge statement about respecting relationships that supporters can copy and paste to their profiles, attempting a viral advertising effect.
• A "draw your line" interactive page where users can create line doodles similar to those featured on the site and save or post them for others to see. There are currently 3062 user-created images, and some of these will be used in a music video by Australian Hip Hop artist Pez.
• A blog which welcomes user comments featured on the site under the "share the line" link.
• As mentioned before, there are interactive "choose your ending" videos aimed at young people with an educational message. One can be viewed here:

VIDEO: http://www.theline.gov.au/follow/4

3: Social Media Integration

The extent of social media integration for The Line is somewhat limited, with only a Facebook page being advertised. The Facebook page is consistent with the writing and visual style of the main website, and contains extra social features like a discussion board forum and regular status updates. The Government has also paid for sponsored advertisements in the Facebook sidebar, presumably aimed at young people and possibly teachers. These ads feature the doodle-like line drawings and slogans like "stop bullying" and "know where to draw the line".

5: Room For Improvement

The Line could have better penetration amongst young internet users if it's regular status updates were also placed on a Twitter site, and the beautiful interactive videos hidden away on their website would be much more popular on a youtube channel, like NAPCAN's Smart Online Safe Online video:

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watchvCBjiaytbt5Xwk

If the Government could implement better search engine optimisation, they may not need to spend so much of their budget on Google AdWords. This could give them more money to broadcast their informative videos on television, leaving in the interactive ending as a pull to the website.

Bullying UK also has a free iPhone application available, which could greatly improve recognition for The Line.

Bibliography

Knaggs, A. (2011, January-April). Bond University. Retrieved Feb 18, 2011, from Internet Advertising 111: http://ilearn.bond.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_23676_1%26url%3d

The Digital Divide

DMS 302
Week 12
The Digital Divide

The digital divide is a term relating to the disparity between people who do and don't have physical access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as well as the education, resources and even predisposition to be able to effectively embrace these technologies. This divide can be because of differences in "gender, income, race" and, most commonly, "location". Thus, it can be a "global divide", where the discrepancy in technology penetration is visible between nations of differing  economic or political standing, or "social", which applies to a divide within different groups in a single nation. (Rice, 2002)

This digital divide also applies to videogames, and bridging that may close the gap for other technology as well. David T. Gordon believes that "students who play computer games tend to be more comfortable with the technology and more adept at using it."(2008), so once people on the disadvantaged side of the divide gain access to videogames, they can use them to become more familiar with all forms of emerging technology. In a way, videogames are a very sensible new medium to try and introduce worldwide, as The Playpower Foundation proves that older games/consoles are cheap and equally as entertaining and educational as the newest examples.(2010)

Video available here:

 

Playpower: An introduction from Playpower Foundation on Vimeo.

In terms of bridging a 'global' divide for videogames, one often overlooked issue is that games made in the western world usually depict characters that reflect their local culture. The Playpower Foundation and others have addressed this, and made games more  appealing to the locals they distribute to by building upon their own traditions, myths and even physical appearance. They contextualised their learning experiences so children and adults could apply their lessons to their everyday experiences.

When it comes to a 'social' divide within a nation, there are many demographics that seem to be missing out on the technological luxuries that we take for granted, even in developed countries like the U.S.A, U.K. and even Australia. One of these demographics is citizens living in rural areas. There has been quite a bit of hype lately over the infinite possibilities that a booming mobile technology market can bring to worldwide connectivity. It is only reasonable to believe that videogames could ride that wave of success and take advantage of this new way to distribute content and teach those who are only familiar with mobile technology (as that's all they have available due to location) more effectively than other mediums, as mobile and offline games (that don't take up precious bandwidth) are already extremely popular, even with people who hardly consider themselves 'gamers'.

What hype you say? The Economist(2009) has been investigating the effects of mobile phones on developing countries' GDPs, and have some solid statistics that show real potential for the mobile market,

"In 2000 the developing countries accounted for around one-quarter of the world’s 700m or so mobile phones. By the beginning of 2009 their share had grown to three-quarters of a total which by then had risen to over 4 billion [see chart above]."(2009)

The Playpower Foundation are extremely enthusiastic about the potential of mobile games for education, stating as seen in the above video,

"Mobile phones and netbooks will eventually become radically affordable as well. Those devices already pre-load games like solitaire and snake, but what if they also came pre-loaded with learning games to teach math, programming and language skills?"(2010)

This growth has shown similar success for rural parts of developed countries as well, for example the rollout of the 3G network in Australia, reaching people who previously lived in remote internet "black spots". Interactive Australia 2009 commented on the extreme importance that mobile technology had on the videogame market, even going so far as to say, "Today, the popularity of family games and mobile hand-held devices have jointly fuelled the expansion of the video game market" and even bridge the divide a little by "introducing games to a wider audience demographic."(Brand, Borchard, & Holmes, 2009, p.56)

So, if the hype proves justified, we could have found a solid formula for bridging the digital divide for those without economic stability around the world, and those without the same broadband or educational capabilities at home. All it takes is education through play, and mobile distribution, and it's possible to reach people who not only never imagined themselves playing videogames, but never saw themselves breaking from their social confines due to the skills learned from playing them.

Bibliography

Brand, J., Borchard, J., & Holmes, K. (2009). Interactive Australia 2009. Bond Univeristy: The Centre For New Media Research.

Playpower Foundation. (2010, May 7). Playpower: An Introduction. Retrieved December 1, 2010, from Playpower: http://playpower.org/

Rice, R. (2002). Primary Issues in Internet Use: Access, Civic and Community Involvement, and Social Interaction and Expression. In L. L. Livingstone, Handbook of New Media (pp. 105-129). London: Sage.

Special Reports. (2009, September 4). Mobile marvels. Retrieved December 1, 2010, from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/node/14483896

Community

Sophie Rossetti 13090191

DMS 302 

Week 11:

Community

The term 'community' has broad and varied definitions, depending on whether it is physical or virtual, purposeful or random, and also changes according to the culture it is present within. According to Van Vliet and Burgers, communities usually occupy one (or more) of 4 realms; "social", "political", "economic" and "cultural". These realms share the elements of "social interaction, shared values, and a shared symbol system" that define them as a community (Van Vliet & Burgers, 1987). At the moment there seems to be two main categories of community; geographic and ideological (Brand, 2010). However we are already seeing those distinctions becoming less important, and in the future, the same 'sense of community' found in geographic communities will be found in ideological communities brought together through computer-mediated communication (CMC).

McMillan and Chavis believe this 'sense of community' comes from participants perceiving "feelings of membership and influence" as well as "integration and fulfilment of needs" and, most importantly, a "shared emotional connection" (Chavis, Hogge, McMillan, & Wandersman, 1986). Communities formed via CMC that promote these elements extend beyond the label of 'virtual groups' into the realm of 'virtual communities'. Social networking sites are one example of this, though there has been some debate over how much of this 'emotional connection' is shallow and farcical, and whether these sites promote egotism on an equal level with membership and participation.

When it comes to videogames, since their inception there have been close-knit communities devoted to obtaining, cataloguing, personalising and sharing information about tactics, story and walkthroughs groups of fans reminiscent of Henry Jenkins' “textual poachers” ¹ (1992). More recently, with the advent of MMOGs, videogames have created a platform for virtual communities that actually occupy a virtual space, imitating 'geographic' communities. As previously stated, communities can occupy one or more of Vliet and Burgers' 4 realms, and Jeffrey Brand has fashioned an example using the World Of Warcraft (Blizzard, 2004) online community to demonstrate just how well videogames and virtual worlds can bring people together from all over the world:

“WoW as an Online Community

• Social Realm:

– Allows individual and group ‘campaigning’

– Allows private and group chat

– Encourages group formation & memberships

• Political Realm:

– Encourages groups to be involved in rule development

– Allows individuals and groups to ‘enforce’ rules (to a certain extent)

• Economic Realm:

– Players purchase items that they need either from the NPCs (nonplayer

characters = the computer) or from other players.

– Magical artifacts and other items can be used for trade, but the

game has a currency…GOLD (virtual gold that is :)

• Cultural Realm:

– The environment and ‘classes’ of characters played results in

shared symbolic systems and understanding of things.

• E.g. each character race has a distinctive ‘dance’….and character

classes have particular moves/powers which are understood by players

as an inherent part of the game”(Brand, 2010)

In a decade, this trend towards virtual communities should continue to increase, so long as CMC remains popular. The question of whether we will all belong to more communities or bigger communities will depend on whether we choose to expand our horizons and connect to people outside our usual preference, joining together in heterogeneous and culturally diverse groups, or if we choose to remain in our comfort zones, our “flocks” as Ethan Zuckerman believes (2010).

Video: Listening to Global Voices - Ethan Zuckerman

According to Zuckerman, "we see the people we already know and the people with similar interests to the people we already know, and we tend not to see that wider picture". This can be seen when we study the way 'Stumbleupon' delivers content to its users. It claims to be widening our horizons, and with a few clicks of the “stumble” button it becomes clear that there is a lot out there on the web that we have yet to explore, but Stumbleupon only delivers the websites that fall within user-specified categories². Similarly with internet advertising, we are increasingly being exposed to personalised ads on sites like Facebook and Google. Is this sort of behaviour isolating us from other cultures? Only time will tell.

One thing is certain, the definitions of 'foreign', 'private' and 'friend' will drastically change over the next decade, and will therefore affect the way we see communities.

"Foreign":

The increase in distribution of mobile phones and the speed at which broadband networks are becoming mobile will see us living in a connected world before we know it. Zuckerman says "there are parts of the world that are systematically cut off"(2010), but as the internet finally reaches the rest of the population, we will be faced with two paths; tribalism or the "Global Village" (McLuhan, 1964).

"Private":

If Facebook is any indication, the future of the internet is one of little to no privacy. This openness with our peers goes back to a simpler time, when we lived in close-knit communities, and relied on each other (over mass media) for our information and support. We're breaking down the barriers to our private lives, as communities move back from "Gesellschaft" to "Gemeinschaft" (Tönnies, 1887). Mark Zuckerberg has noticed the trend³, and many more companies will follow.

"Friend":

At the moment, it is reasonable to say that a large majority of social network users have people on their 'friends list' that aren't even people, let alone what they would define as  real 'friends'. When Danah Boyd undertook an investigation of social network site Friendster, they found the most common reasons for people appearing in your friends list were that they were:

"1.   Actual friends

2.    Acquaintances, family members, colleagues

3.    It would be socially inappropriate to say no because you know them

4.    Having lots of Friends makes you look popular

5.    It’s a way of indicating that you are a fan (of that person, band, product, etc.)

6.    Your list of Friends reveals who you are

7.    Their Profile is cool so being Friends makes you look cool

8.    Collecting Friends lets you see more people (Friendster)

9.    It’s the only way to see a private Profile (MySpace)

10.  Being Friends lets you see someone’s bulletins and their Friends-only blog posts (MySpace)

11.  You want them to see your bulletins, private Profile, private blog (MySpace)

12.  You can use your Friends list to find someone later

13.  It’s easier to say yes than no " (Boyd, 2006)

Will our online relationships eventually become equally or more important than our real world ones? They already are for some. Many businesses (like IBM) are leaning towards moving their offices entirely out of the physical world, fostering relationships between co-workers that have never met face to face (Reuters, 2006). One in every 8 marriages in the US are between couples who met online. It makes sense really, if the economy of EverQuest (Sony, 1999) once amounted to more than the Chinese or Indian economy (Castronova, 2001), it should be important to bolster both professional and personal relationships in the world where we are projected to spend more and more time living out or lives.

So it seems that in the vast nothingness of reality, we're all just looking for a way to sate our loneliness. When we turned to cyberspace, we were initially excited by the fountain of creativity we found there, with content flowing from all over the globe. Then we decided what we liked and what we didn't, and found others that shared these interests. We formed virtual communities. Unfortunately, we clung to these communities and rarely ventured out to see what other flocks had to offer. It now looks like we're standing at a crossroads. Will we follow the tweets of our 'friends' and their sponsors down the path of self-induced isolation, or follow explorers like Ethan Zuckerman down the road to a worldwide community, connected by CMC? Either way, the next decade will mark a revolutionary change in the meaning of the word 'community'.

APPENDIX:

1. Jenkins' model of fandom:

• Fans adopt a distinctive mode of reception: Their media consumption is not casual, to fill dead time, but instead selective and directed.
• Fandom constitutes a particular interpretive community: Fandom is fundamentally a social pursuit.
• Fandom constitutes a particular Art World with its own aesthetic standards, conventions, critical evaluation etc. But it differs from the established art world in that the materials are recycled, and therefore acts more like a counterculture.
• Fandom constitutes an alternative social community and therefore attracts minority groups. (Jenkins, 1992)

2. www.stumbleupon.com

3. Video of interview with Mark Zuckerberg at the Crunchies is available here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3848950

Bibliography

Boyd, D. (2006, December 4). Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing community into being on social network sites. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from First Monday: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1418/1336

Brand, J. (2010, September-December). Digital Media and Society_302. Retrieved October 26, 2010, from Bond University: http://ilearn.bond.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_22350_1%26url%3d

Castronova, E. (2001). Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier. California State University.

Chavis, D., Hogge, J., McMillan, D., & Wandersman, A. (1986). Sense of community through Brunswick's lens: A first look. Journal of Community Psychology.

Jenkins, H. (1992). Textual poachers: television fans & participatory culture. New York: Routledge.

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media. Gingko Press.

Reuters, A. (2006, October 24). IBM eyes move into Second Life ‘v-business’. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from Second Life News Center: http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2006/10/24/ibm-eyes-move-into-second-life-v-business/

Tönnies, F. (1887). Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft. Leipzig: Fues's Verlag.

Van Vliet, W., & Burgers, J. (1987). Communities in transition: From the industrial to the postindustrial era. In Neighborhood and Community Environments .

Zuckerman, E. (2010, July). Listening to global voices. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from TED Talks: http://www.ted.com/talks/ethan_zuckerman.html

Collective Intelligence

DMS 302
Week 7

Collective intelligence. What is it? It involves a 'collective' of people with individual knowledge collaborating, and gaining 'intelligence' as a result. In short, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Theorists such as Joe McKendrick and Terry Flew have studied this concept in relation to digital and mass media. Looking specifically at videogames, scholars like Jane McGonigal have highlighted the importance of gaming as a tool for collaboration (e.g. educational games) as well as a good example of how collective intelligence is formed (e.g. web communities devoted to MMOGs). Ross Mayfield is also an advocate for the notion that as our 'collaborative intelligence' (ability to collaborate in/lead a group) increases through social media, so does the reach of our collective intelligence:

Figure 1: The power law of participation (Mayfield 2006, in Flew, 2008, pp 32)

What does it achieve?

The internet resonates with the core idea of Knowledge Work and provides the perfect platform for the Knowledge Economy. Why? Because the internet (especially with web 2.0) is a network, which allows interaction, which in turn encourages participation, which allows an exchange of the currency of the knowledge economy, which increases collective intelligence (Lévy, 1997). Thus, "Facebook is grooming us for our future in knowledge work."(Brand, 2010)

Terry Flew points out that with the recent explosion of networked ICTs and social networks, all this knowledge content finally has a place to come together, and become available to increasing numbers of people. (2008) One need not look further than Wikipedia to see this theory in action. Joe McKendrick has argued that with this mass melding of minds, it is inevitable that problems of the past, present and future will be discussed. As two heads are better than one, many are better than two at solving these problems, as the heterophilic nature of these groups bring a diverse range of experiences and ways of thinking to the table (2010).

What can it achieve in videogames?

Not only do online communities devoted to existing game worlds prove the perfect example of how much can be learned when people share their knowledge (WoWWiki the online open encyclopaedia of the World of Warcraft universe has 87,634 pages), but the game worlds themselves can also be looked at in this way.

The efforts of Jane McGonigal, PhD links the problem-solving notions posited by McKendrick and others to the world of videogames. McGonigal is an expert in the Alternate Reality Game genre¹,  and has long believed in the power of videogames, especially Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), to bring people together to solve the world's problems.

Figure 2: More from Jeff Rubin here - http://www.dorkly.com/article/1996/videogame-characters-solve-real-world-problems

She believes that videogames should be taken seriously as a platform to utilize collective intelligence for future problem solving, as they provide an incredibly encouraging environment, and so many people are already playing them. She states, "playing a game together actually builds up bonds and trust and cooperation"(2010) which encourages participants to share strategies, lend a hand to the less experienced, and collaborate together to form new tactics. Pierre Lévy agrees with this concept, and highlights the activity of in-game clans or guilds who work together to achieve group goals that wield rewards for all members (1997). This activity is easy to observe within MMOGs, but McGonigal has also created 2 Alternate Reality Games which bring thousands of participants together to solve the important issues of a world without oil (www.worldwithoutoil.org), and prevent the immediate extinction of humanity by our own hands (www.superstructgame.org). In both cases the test audience wielded extremely positive results, and more details can be found on the websites or in this video:

There are many advantages for the producers of MMOGs; they are difficult to pirate (servers are expensive, and millions of friends and enemies are hard to replicate), the players don't just buy the game once - they pay for a subscription , and according to J. C. Herz,

Essentially, customer support has been completely decentralized, because players help one another — and also market to one another. Buzz across the room sells broadband better than any targeted advertisement can. (Herz, 2002)

With these encouraging facts, and humankind's growing enthusiasm for online connectivity, it should be easy for game companies to connect the dots and take advantage of the power of MMOGs. With luck, some may even choose to use their power for good and harness the collective intelligence of gamers to save the world.

APPENDIX:

More amusing images of videogame characters solving real world problems:

www.dorkly.com/article/1996/videogame-characters-solve-real-world-problems

How game worlds encourage collaboration and increase knowledge according to Jane McGonigal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrZiWqGILKs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM&feature=related

¹ [J.W.]Gosney extends this issue of Collective Intelligence in videogames one step further in his discussion of Alternate Reality Gaming. This genre, he describes as an “across-media game that deliberately blurs the line between the in-game and out-of-game experiences”^[22] as events that happen outside the game reality “reach out” into the player’s lives in order to bring them together. Solving the game requires “the collective and collaborative efforts of multiple players”; thus the issue of collective and collaborative team play is essential to ARG. Gosney argues that the Alternate Reality genre of gaming dictates an unprecedented level of collaboration and “collective intelligence” in order to solve the mystery of the game. (Wikipedia, 2010)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Brand, J. (2010, September-December). Digital Media and Society_302. Retrieved October 26, 2010, from Bond University: http://ilearn.bond.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_22350_1%26url%3d

Flew, T. (2008). New Media: An Introduction (3rd Ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Gosney, J.W. 2005, Beyond Reality: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming, Thomson Course Technology, Boston. In Wikipedia. (2010, October 6). Collective Intelligence. Retrieved October 26, 2010, from Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_intelligence

Herz, J.C. (2002, August 10) 'The Bandwidth Capital of the World', WIRED, accessed 26 October 2010 from: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.08/korea.html

Lévy, P. 1997 Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace,

Plenum Trade, New York.

Mayfield, R. (2006, April 27) 'Power Law of Participation', Ross Mayfield's Weblog; Markets, Technology and Musings, Retrieved October 26 from: http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2006/04/power_law_of_pa.html