Cultural WoW

I noticed that Jill Walker has a chapter (perhaps several?) on WoW in a new book on role-playing and games. I should get my hands on that publication although I'm quite text stressed now. Too much interesting to read in too little time. (I'm struck by another fatigue as well, the "No! Not another season-fatigue! I want my favorite TV-series to tell their story in only a few seasons. It's naive, I know, and I foolishly believed that the enigma of Life on Mars would be solved in 8 episodes. Stupid me! I was not thrilled when I found out I "had to" follow another season of it.)

She also blogs on the multitude of references to culture, music and other media in WoW. For example, you can buy a Hanzo sword for your character and if you're familiar with the Kill Bill movies, you'll recognize the item. It's a great surprise when accepting a quest with references to Bob Dylan for instance. It's an Easter Egg, making you smile. Speaking of items, I did the Deadmines with my Draenei character last Sunday and there, I got myself a truly dreadful weapon... a rolling pin! Watch out!

Accepted papers and conference site launch

Lots of academia in the pipeline now. I got my papers accepted for two conferences, the CMID07 in Hemavan, Sweden, concerning crossmedia interaction design and EuroITV in Amsterdam in May. Hurray! I'm so looking forward to indulging myself in passionate, scientific discourse and chilly, snowy slopes!

At the same time, the preparations for our own conference Eyes on iTV has taken off big time now, as it's due to take place in late May here in Vasa. I started drawing on the logo for it last week and finally, today, the new, improved site launched. During the conference, we're putting together an academic ensemble, where researchers can present and discuss iTV related issues. There'll be no publications, pre-submissions of paper propositions or the like. Instead, the outcome will be a meeting between media scholars and media practitioners. I'm fond of this form of encounters, where experts share their insights and case studies with an audience for say 20-30 minutes followed by an open discussion with the audience. The ones I've attended have provided with loads of knowledge and few yawns, I hope ours will do the same. The submission tool for abstracts for proposed presentations will be up in a few days.

exEnteractivity's got a new look

My other blog, or perhaps rather a resource site for my PhD thesis, has been pimped up. I added the recent findings on how the viewing experience of iTV differs depending on the interactivity tool, i.e. the mobile phone or the set-top box. My near future agenda with conferences to attend and papers to have camera-ready soon is updated as well.

Stojetari

Pretty fascinating. The tale of Stojetari, or why people from Malax has a reputation of being gluttons for food, is often brought up as I'm born and raised in Malax. But the roots of the tale have been a bit ambiguous and now, I found an explanation to the story that differs from the "modern" one. This is an assumption regarding the background of the tale made by the municipal doctor Hampus Granfelt, in early 20th century, and the quote is from the book Malax 1914 – En undersökning av kommunalläkaren Hampus Granfelt om Malaxborna och deras levnadsförhållanden i tidigt 1900-tal, published by Malax museiförening.

"Man hör ofta isynnerhet i Österbotten uttrycket “äta som en Malaks storätare”, dock tror jag ej att malaksbon äter mera än hans grannar i norr och söder, öknamnet torde tilldelats honom af hans granne i norr såsom jag hört uppgifvas, emedan malaksbon förut vid sina stadsresor ofta medförde ”matsäck”. Födan är mycket enkel och saknar omväxling, de förnämsta födoämnena utgöras af bröd, potäter, mjölk, gröt eller välling, smör, som dock i allmänhet ej förekommer vid hvarje måltid, salt fisk och salt kött, det sistnämnda torde dock vara en ganska sällsynt gäst på matbordet." (pages 32-33)

Blogs and me in the news

The daily newspaper Vasabladet, at which I worked a couple of summers both as a writing and layout reporter, has a feature story today on blogs. I contribute with the explanation part, as to why people blog. I once blogged on the underlying reasons and in the feature story, I repeat that I believe two human needs are met by blogging, that is the need to express oneself and to belong to a community (or as the sociologist love to call it: Gemeinschaft) or a peer-group. The story is not on-line, curiously enough, but if I find the time, I'll see if I can upload a screen shot of the story.

Mobile testing

Desperate housewives ain't all too exciting so I'm testing mobile blogging.

Individual or collective net action?

In the Davos07 aftermath, Jeff Jarvis ponders the elements and power of the net in a blog post. He concludes that a "Society 2.1", where people come together online, is at the horizon rather than a "Web 3.0" which is all about individual action online and nicely handing over UGC material to others.

Mobile cloak

Earlier this week, I got myself a new Nokia N80ie. Since the display is rather big, it's kind of vulnerable lying around naked amongst pens, books, keys and other stuff in my bag. Naturally, I had to eliminate this threat to the usability of an otherwise pretty good mobile by crocheting a warm, protective and comfy mobile phone cloak. Turned out pretty nice.

Florae trend

I rarely follow trends when it comes to my home's interiors but as I love to keep up with what's going on, I read an article on the trends in home furnishings 2007. Apparently, country style is so hot with leaves and flowers at the forefront. I'm thrilled! I'd love to have the bureau to the right, with all sorts of peonies on it.

The science of the tingling sensation

Yesterday afternoon, my head hurt, my eyes were sore and there was not one thought worthy of a single moment of attention passing through my system. Luckily, I know what makes me hurtle out of such a coma and back to reality: running. While sweating on a tread mill last night, I localized the deep, pleasant and highly rewarding feeling also known as runner's high. For me, it's like a jellyfish of power mooching about in the center of the abdomen, with tentacles injecting tingling sensations. One had better feed this jellyfish of strength as when it's awake, it makes you feel like you're God almighty crossed with Popeye and Forrest Gump, who ran across the continent. (And yes, it's the same jelly fish arms that arre somehow annoyed when you get a stitch.)

While jogging on, I started pondering whether the runner's high experience is somehow interlinked with my barometer of a good game. According to me, a good computer game is one that makes my stomach tingle. Following the Burning Crusade of WoW, I created a Draenei character (I'm on the Al'Akir server, named Paeonia, so there, now you know to whom you want to address coins of gold) and while learning the secrets of totems, I gained wings and flew off a mountain. And I'll be damned, it actually felt like I was flying myself. The moment my character had no soil under her hoof, a tingling sensation spread in my stomach just as if I was flying myself. This emotion was more temporary and diffuse but nonetheless real and more intense than the runner's high. I'm playing with the idea to wire up some of my friends, or myself, to the skin conductance and pulse electrodes in our lab at work while playing - or flying for that matter - in WoW. There hasn't been all too many studies measuring bodily responses to playing games, although I recently read one where the researchers found a significant effect of conduciveness for pride and joy. That is when the game runs smoothly and you're likely to achieve your goal, emotions like joy and pride are likely to rise. Perhaps it is joy, or pride, I'm feeling as I'm improving my character's skills by flying off the rock, but that's not the whole truth, I suspect.

And speaking of running, why is it that one's strength and stamina improves and lasts longer when someone is running next to you at the exact same pace? Is it an heritage from our 9 months spent in mummy's belly and experiencing the simultaneous beat makes us feel secure and relaxed? I wonder if there's a relation between the heart beats of the child and the mother. Do they beat simultaneously and if the mother's heart beat takes off, does the child's heart pace keep up with her beat? It's funny how I benefit from one rhythmic beat, that is having someone next to me who's heel touches the ground the exact same second mine does while others annoy me. I utterly recent playing the piano with a metrometer accompanying me. I guess I've always regarded the metronome as an intrusion in my creativity, something that limits my freedom to interpret a minuet in my own way. Unfortunately, my piano teacher back in the 1980's didn't agree...

Schlager slayer

The truly excellent video produced in house and shown at last year's Christmas party at my work is now available on youtube. The Schlager slayer is a thriller with a great pinch of humor, made by the media students.

I'm a piece of white chocolate

I attended a seminar on language and media last weekend and opinions were raised regarding the preferences of language style of different generations. The assumption was that elderly people don’t really like reading English words in the news paper, slang or expressions like rofl. About midways in the debate, I started reflecting on which generation dwelling I confess to (I’m born 1978). Am I a Generation X:er (people born 1965-1978)? Or do I belong to the Generation Y (1979-1999) or even the MTV Generation (1974-1985)? At times, I feel like I belong to Generation Y, that is net-savvy folks brought up in an wired world where a natural source of news is the online version of the local newspaper. But then again, I don’t really feel like I match the description (although I was fortunate enough to have a commodore 64 in my room with the splendid game Boulderdash). I feel like I’m a piece of white chocolate, which is referred to as chocolate, but contains neither cocoa beans nor caffeine. It is not real chocolate, close but no cigar, kind of. Shortly, I feel like I’m too old for the net generation category but too young to tick the generation X box. I’m somewhere in between two distinct generations.

So I started listing what stands out for people, born like me in 1978 and teeter-tottering between Generation X and Generation Y. This is a highly non-scientific, statistically non-significant but indeed a subjective identification of a pattern: Many of my friends in my age value friends and family (as opposed to the job), money (ironically enough considering the earlier parenthesis), sharing and connectedness. They tend to think in terms of chains instead of hyper links. They are net-savvy and wired, but still don’t give the possibility of leveling in WoW higher priority than strolling around in the park a beautiful, sunny winter’s day. Right about here, a label for this group of people came to mind: Generation W. The “W” would be ideal, not due to the evolution of www (the web) while we were young and neither due to our life being pretty wired, but because of the typography. The W is basically two V:s in one, which symbolizes a fellowship, a togetherness. Depending on the font used, the first V is mirrored, that is identical but yet different. And because it is mirrored, it’s easy for another letter to take over (like WW). That reflects the sense for justice and thinking in terms of chains. The letter W also, depending on the font, resembles a pot which of course makes one associate to inclusiveness, togetherness.

Excited about my “new” notion, I googled it to see in what contexts it has been used and whether it is a widely used term. Apparently, there’s a tv-series with this name aired in the late 1990’s. But other than that, I did not manage to get a clear picture of what “Generation W” stands for, or who it comprises. According to one source, it’s been applied to persons born in 1980-2000 (the W stands for web perhaps). Another blogger writes about the war generation, in other words kids born or brought up while Bush is in the White house. If any of you readers are familiar with the field of generation research and how the notion of generation w is used, please let me know!

Content manifest

When people learn I blog, the general reception is a joyful “Ah, yes, I regularly read some blogs myself, it is an interesting phenomenon.” Some ask what I blog about, and with what software and ask for the url, but not once has the question of why – the reason for my blogging - been posed. I’ve pondered why that is. Perhaps it is so, because those who know me know that writing is my true element and therefore, it does not really come as a great surprise that I’m writing blog posts on the internet. Or perhaps one of the greatest human basic needs is so widely recognized that most don’t reflect on it, that is the need for self-expression. Maybe when they learn that someone blogs, they automatically think that “yeah, putting down one’s thoughts and sharing them with the world, that makes perfect sense” and wouldn’t come to think of questioning it or digging into it.

To be honest, I’m glad I’ve never been asked to “justify” my blogging as I haven’t had a clear, pin-pointed objective. I had to reflect on it when I recently updated the layout and template of my blog. I figured I should add some sort of product description of Paeonia to guide new readers. I’m not assuming people have the time to read through half my archive just to get a grasp of who I am or what topics I write about.

Tangled up in thoughts on motives for blogging, while updating my template, I came to think about the papers I used in my teaching on blogging last autumn. Susan Herring found in her study that “surprisingly many” blogs contain few or no links at all. The blogs were not as interactive as one would expect, but rather individualistic, even intimate, and they seemed to play the role of a tool for self expression. Again, the self expression. I believe that is a huge drive for us humans, perhaps increasingly more so these days. People love to talk about themselves, their life and to share stories and experiences they’ve had. Nothing new, nothing bad about that. Perhaps the fact that the majority of blogs are personal, diary-kind of blogs mirrors the need to express one-self.

Another assumption would be to consider the blog a means to reflect upon one’s identity, using Gidden’s thoughts on self-identity. He basically says that our self, our identity, is nothing we simply inherit from our parents. It’s not static or impossible to redefine, on the contrary. Our self and identity is rather a story or biography that we keep telling ourselves around us, by our clothes, our actions, hobbies and tales we tell. Naturally, this is not done in a vacuum either, the tale you tell about yourself to others and their feedback is important. This is of course something that goes on every day, you can’t build it one day and preserve it like that forever. Now, is this why diary-like blogging is so popular, because it serves as a tool to keep our story, our biography, going? Is blogging a tool to keep reflecting on ourselves and the world, and to (re)define our place in it? The beauty of it is that as you keep the story of yourself going, you also get to share it with an immense audience, who can actually give you feedback on your biography.

One thought that lands close to the one above is that the limit of how far the individualization of our society can go is perhaps close. Maybe people want to take a step back, maybe they want to be individualistic by blogging, but together with others, in blogging communities on the net. Like small islets forming an asymmetric pearl necklace in a lake, individual but still together, within reach.

Well, I did manage to identify the two main ingredients that make up Paeonia. There’s, firstly, a need for storage for thoughts, links and ideas. Secondly, I think better when I write. I formulate myself better then as I need to visualize an imagined audience. It helps getting to the core of loose thoughts. (A friend who I went to university with had a complete opposite way of doing things. At exams, he sat for hours simply thinking, with an entirely blank paper in front of him. Then the last 30 minutes, he put a perfect answer to paper, handed it in and got straight A:s. I on the other hand need to draw and write while trying to figure out what to say.) So voilà, the answer to why I blog is that I need 1) a place to store interesting things I stumble upon and 2) a creative sandbox where I can grow loads of toys and then refine those I believe in. What really bugs me though is that I don’t have much time to actually sit down in this sandpit and play with the thoughts and develop them into something. Thinking requires time and I’ve been short of that lately.

Crisp thoughts

Best idea of the day: while struggling with narrowing down and concluding my thoughts into an abstract on 200 words, I decided to take a walk around the block, in an attempt to produce some new ideas (I trick I learned while working at Åbo Underrättelser, thanks Yrsa!). Naturally, it did the trick. It's -8 outside, sunny, a small chilly breeze, these are such beautiful surroundings I live in. Life and blood returned to my head and synapses reproduced at a massive rate. There, a free tip for all with challenging tasks ahead.

tv quiz solution

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the buzz word quiz I did on hot words at the conference on iTV in London I attended. Well, here's the solution (as a pdf-file).

My blog went wii

This is how my blog appears when read on a TV screen, using a Wii. I feared that browsing (in Opera) and reading the posts on a TV screen would be troublesome, near-sighted as I am, but it wasn't. And there was no need for squinting either as the "zoom in" feature made the text intelligible and clear.

Have your say on three pilots on science

Here’s an interesting interactive project involving the TV audience as content experts. PBS, a public broadcaster in the US, is asking the viewers for help in deciding which of three TV pilots – “Wired Science”, “Science investigators” and “22nd Century” - will become a regular science series on the channel. You can watch the three pilots free of charge at the PBS website and then comment on them. Based on audience research and on the feedback of the viewers, PBS then decides which pilot makes it into a series.

New look

Last night, my fiancé and I, we were preparing our New Year's stay up north by packing overalls, warm winter ski outfits, cameras, the whole works really, firmly believing we were going to head north early this morning. Just before heading into the sauna last night though, our eyes fell on the printed reservation for the place we'll be staying at and what do you know! The reservation we'd made was for the 31st December 'til 2nd January, not 30th-2nd! If we hadn't seen that, we would've driven up there, without a place to stay that night! So I realized I gained, or won, a day. One additional, entire day without any plans, completely up for grabs for the best ideas. That truly was a strange feeling! So I started off by going out for some drinks with friends, getting home way too late and thus ensuring that my body opposes any activities today. It's not the most cleaver way to spend a day earned but hey, the human mind does not work rationally all the time.

So I'm parked in the couch with three heat generators, the cup of coffee, the laptop and the peach blanket I got for Christmas way way back, and I'm pondering what to make of this sorry day. Et voilà, I'll do a new template and layout for my blog, something I've been meaning to get around to for quite sometime now. When I'm hangovery, I'm always very creative - I get my best ideas in a weary state of mind - and thus this current project.

I did an eye tracking study about two months back on my blog. I had a couple of colleagues, who hadn't visited the blog before, to look it up and read what and as much as they wanted. Turns out that the heading is of no interest. That could imply two things, that a heading to someone entering the site is of no interest, or that my heading simply does not attract any attention. As my heading does not cover any substantial information that you absolutely have to know, I'm keeping it simple. No photos, no fancy graphics. Just two sentences.

Another finding is that the readers all started off by reading the blog posts, which were earlier to the left. This is interesting as there were several images, that usually attract the gaze, in the blog roll to the right. I'm guessing they have learned to ignore small features to the right as sponsored ads and other commercials are often in that very place, to the right. Therefore, I'll do a switch now, I'll have the blog roll, links and archive to the left as that is substantial information that I'm hoping people will see.

I was also thinking about coloring "Comments","Posted by Paeonia..." with a greenish nuance but judging from the heat maps, people tend to read them anyways, perhaps 'cause they're so obviously separated from the blog post. Therefore, I see no reason to color them, but one. It would be awfully boring not to blend the brown text with another color, my visual eye won't rest until something breaks the brownish advantage.

Only one more thing to do now really, and that is to figure out how to accentuate the links in a blog post. Now, they're not highlighted at all, which makes them disappear. I need to work on that...

Update: an image of the snowy slopes, when we finally got there

New year's resolution

Being a former journalist, I know what makes the press tick and therefore, I rarely complain on news stories. I do not approve of the negative, sensational perspective many news stories are presented with, but hey, I can always choose not to read them. I'm quite good at browsing further down after spotting a heading containing chock, porn and scandal.

But last Wednesday, I simply had to shake my head and complain a little. I was listening to the radio while heading to town and the news were on. The anchor informed me that the firework sale for making the New Year's Eve a bit brighter had started that day. And she continued: "Many are likely to hurt themselves while attempting to light a sky rocket or a Roman candle." The big event, the New Year's Eve, was still four days ahead and already there were speculations on how many was going to get hurt! Not if there would be any accidents, that's taken for granted, but how many. It wasn't a bit from a press conference or a story on accidents, the piece of news were basically three sentences, the first being that the sales started that day, followed by many will get hurt and finally for how long you'll be able to purchase fireworks.

Firstly, I wonder where's the news in this piece of information? Every year, accidents related to fireworks do happen and are very well reported on in the news. Secondly, why kill the excitement and joy? Why not report on the issue of New Year's in a positive, enlightening manner? Why the constant negative perspective? I guess the intention was to enlighten and to make sure that people are aware of the risks involved and to promote security while firing up the rockets. This is a good thing of course, but is this necessary every year? Why not at least add something like tips on how to spend it, what events are happening in major cities, some historical spice like how the Chinese invented it as a means for entertainment or whatever. People are interested in other things than death, injuries, sex and violence. Therefore, I suggest that some media folks ought to make it a New Year's Resolution to try to see things out of a more positive perspective.

Well, enough complaining, Happy New Year everyone! I'll be making an old dream come true, finally, which is waving off this year and embracing the next one in Lapland among deers and snowy mountains.

Is money loosing its value?

After an evening of intense wii playing in the living room (no, nothing broken yet except illusions of being a champ at tennis with a good old retro graphics) I decided to calm my brain with some aimless browsing on the net. I stumbled upon a recent study by the research company United Minds on what’s high-status and what’s not according to Swedes. It turns out that status is not for sale, as non-material values top the chart (these are all my home brewed translation):

1. To be well read
2. To be a good and engaged parent
3. To possess a fortune derived from one’s own work
4. To be capable at work
5. To master several languages
6. To be able to be on vacation the entire summer
7. To spend time and money on helping people in need
8. To have many friends
9. To live in a big villa/apartment
10. To have an entirely own style

To be able to buy posh new clothing brands did not make it high up the list. Qualities you can possess without a chest loaded with money by your bed, like being good at what you do and being a good friend, did however, which does not surprise me. I’ve sensed a change for a long time now. I’ve seen indications perhaps not on an anti-movement to the consumerism, to the materialistic society characterized by an “the one with the most gadgets when s/he dies wins” attitude and a love for “hard values” but certainly on a large scaled, firm declaration that “my choice is different”. That “Although I accept that you do the race, I choose not to participate in it. I don't need a 300 square meter house with exclusive floorboard from Africa in order to be happy and content with my life.”. I thought about blogging these signals that I pick up, lastly when commenting the President’s choice to wear a gown dating a couple of years back at the Castle ball. But it sank into oblivion until tonight when I read this press release on the status list.

Status can’t be bought, says United Minds, and neither can happiness, according to Kari Nars, whose book Pengar och Lycka (Money and happiness) I just finished. KN claims that the more a society stresses material efforts in order to land a happy life, the less it values the search for a deep satisfaction with life and the inner meaning of life. “Materialism marginalizes religiosity” he writes and gives as an example the great number of people resigning the church in Finland.

I’m not convinced this is the case and I don’t equal the fact that many do leave the church with a poor interest in religiosity. Maybe there simply are better ways of practicing it, according to many. I think on the contrary that more and more people are searching more and more for a meaning of life and take and interest in spiritual nourishment, religiosity and non-material values. Perhaps as a consequence of being tired of living in the material world that KN depicts. The great interest in self help books, the great number of days devoted to team building at work places and seminars on how to be a better employer/employee/father/lover/friend are examples of the evidence of a big interest in the meaning of life and spiritual matters, in my eyes at least. I don’t believe people read a book on, say, ”Making the most out of your job” in order to advance to become a boss in 2 months time. I believe there’s a desire for spiritual nourishment, for getting to know who you really are and who you want to be that lies beneath. And in a broader sense, speaking of the material values getting cold, I notice that many dig through their grand parent’s attics now, hoping to find a vintage/retro beautiful handbag to go along the city shopping afternoon, instead of simply buying a brand new bag with a rugged look. More and more people are actively supporting locally produced food and handicraft. Another signal of a declining materialistic view on life is the collective spirit found on the internet. I know of many who don’t pay for support when setting up their own websites. In stead, they consult discussion forums and user forums, where other people are glad to help and trade advice, for free.

In short, I see people striving to be and genuinely valuing what’s on the top 10 list in the beginning of the post. To them, money, gadgets, costs and surface is not as hot as are values, engagement, reliability and to dare have a deep and intense discussion on things. I for one would love to see more of that!