13 research outputs found
10 simple rules to create a serious game, illustrated with examples from structural biology
Serious scientific games are games whose purpose is not only fun. In the
field of science, the serious goals include crucial activities for scientists:
outreach, teaching and research. The number of serious games is increasing
rapidly, in particular citizen science games, games that allow people to
produce and/or analyze scientific data. Interestingly, it is possible to build
a set of rules providing a guideline to create or improve serious games. We
present arguments gathered from our own experience ( Phylo , DocMolecules ,
HiRE-RNA contest and Pangu) as well as examples from the growing literature on
scientific serious games
An advanced design approach to support urban transformations through multi-stakeholder collaborations
Urban transformations depend on the uses of the city by âoldâ and new citizens (residents, workers, migrants, refugees, students, seasonal, homeless individuals, tourists, city-users, commuters), and on their relation within urban spaces and resources, triggering regenerative opportunities, networking and empowerment processes. Considering the city and its heritage as a common good, in which each citizen could access and play for the knowledge, management, conservation and transformation of urban contexts, the contribute illustrates the results of experimental actions in Bologna (IT) finalized to test new stakeholder engagement processes and to develop new tools for participatory practices and new productions for the reactivation of the city. In the last years Bologna represents a field of experimentation for different forms of collaborative approaches with the aim to test and innovate tools and policies for the public space. The paper presents the results of specific projects linked to EU funding schemes (ROCK project) and local multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the Bologna Design Week, which are part of the research and experimentation carried out by the research unit team. This article illustrates a model to improve the regenerative capacities of the city, by reinforcing local identity and culture, fostering participation through active engagement of all relevant stakeholders, allowing a diversity of responses of groups of actors with different roles and different strengths
An advanced design approach to support urban transformations through multi-stakeholders collaboration.
open4noUrban transformations depend on the uses of the city by old and new citizens and on their relation within spaces and resources, triggering regenerative opportunities, networking and empowerment processes. Considering the city and its heritage as a common good, in which each citizen could access and play for the knowledge, management, conservation and transformation of urban contexts, the contribute illustrates the results of experimental actions in Bologna (IT) finalized to test new stakeholder engagement processes and to develop new tools for participatory practices and new productions for the reactivation of the city. In the last years Bologna represents a field of experimentation for different forms of collaborative approaches with the aim to test and innovate tools and policies for the public space. The paper presents the results of projects linked to EU funding schemes (ROCK project) and local multi-stakeholder initiatives (Bologna Design Week) which are part of the research and experimentation carried out by the research unit team. This article illustrates a model to improve the regenerative capacities of the city, recognizing and matching the different roles, influences and knowledge of actors and relevant stakeholders, to strengthen communitiesâ sense of belonging, cultural and creative power, and improving territorial identity.openDjalali, A., Gianfrate, V., Danila Longo, Elena VaiDjalali, A., Gianfrate, V., Danila Longo, Elena Va
Patterns of Participation and Motivation in Folding@home: The Contribution of Hardware Enthusiasts and Overclockers
Folding@home is a distributed computing project in which participants run protein folding simulations on their computers. Participants complete work units and are awarded points for their contribution. An investigation into motivations to participate and patterns of participation revealed the significant contribution of a sub-community composed of individuals who custom-build computers to maximise their processing power. These individuals, known as âoverclockersâ or âhardware enthusiasts,â use distributed computing projects such as Folding@home to benchmark their modified computers and to compete with one another to see who can process the greatest number of project work units. Many are initially drawn to the project to learn about computer hardware from other overclockers and to compete for points. However, once they learn more about the scientific outputs of Folding@home, some participants become more motivated by the desire to contribute to scientific research. Overclockers form numerous online communities where members collaborate and help each other maximise their computing output. They invest heavily in their computers and process the majority of Folding@homeâs simulations, thus providing an invaluable (and free) resource
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Playing With Science: Exploring How Game Activity Motivates Users Participation on an Online Citizen Science Platform
Purpose â This paper examines intrinsic forms of motivation and particular incidents of play, socialisation, fun and amusement on an online crowdsourced citizen science platform. The paper also investigates gamised activity (Greenhill et al., 2014) as a form of intrinsic motivation adding a sense of play to work and tasks (Xu et al., 2012). These concepts are explored through close scrutiny of the online citizen science platform Zooniverse.org.
Design/methodology/approach â Qualitative techniques with an interpretivist approach are used to analyse online content found within citizen science platforms, related forums and social media by examining incidents of play, socialisation, fun and amusement to investigate how these aspects are applied as a form of user motivation.
Findings â We find that when users classify crowdsourced tasks voluntarily it does not matter how users are classifying as long as it is accurately. However, what does matter is why they are doing it particularly because of the complex processes that build relationships between users and the platform. We present a conceptual model to enable deeper understandings of how forms of social interaction and play are motivating users contributing to citizen science projects to participate in the online processes.
Practical implications â The findings of this paper provide practical implications for how citizen science, and also other crowdsourcing platforms, can engage with notions of play and gamification to motivate participation.
Originality/value â Using detailed examples of online content, we reveal how participants of the Zooniverse.org demonstrate aspects of âgamisedâ behaviour. We argue that the exploration of gaming as well as play provides evidence that contributing to citizen science projects can be both utilitarian and hedonic