From ‘Spiral Scratch’ to PledgeMusic: The Birth & Rebirth of Punk Culture’s Entrepreneurial Spirit

Punk has come a long way from its prematurely declared death in the early-1980s to being not-so-dead after all in the 1990s to still being ‘alive, loud and kicking' today. This paper examines how punk culture's inherent entrepreneurial DIY spirit has kept it alive after returning to its underground origins. While much has been made in the recent literature about social media and the digital revolution's role in democratising the access to the marketplace, (self-)branding, entrepreneurship, crowdsourcing and co-creation of products and meaning have been at the heart of punk culture since its beginning - and long before people ever dreamed of digitalisation. Buzzcocks' self-funded EP ‘Spiral Scratch' is widely credited with being the first independent and crowdfunded record ever to hit the marketplace. Although most classic punk bands were actually signed by major record labels, numerous independent record labels have followed the ‘Spiral Scratch' business model ever since. In recent years, after being dropped by their labels, many of those bands have moved to PledgeMusic, not only to crowdfund and sell their new albums, but also to revive the entrepreneurial spirit of the past that has truly 'democratised' the marketplace. Interestingly, PledgeMusic's most popular music format is vinyl

Modelling the User: How design for sustainable behaviour can reveal different stakeholder perspectives on human nature

Copyright @ 2010 TU DelftInfluencing more environmentally friendly and sustainable behaviour is a current focus of many projects, ranging from government social marketing campaigns, education and tax structures to designers’ work on interactive products, services and environments. There is a wide variety of techniques and methods used—we have identified over 100 design patterns in our Design with Intent toolkit—each intended to work via a particular set of cognitive and environmental principles. These approaches make different assumptions about ‘what people are like’: how users will respond to behavioural interventions, and why, and in the process reveal some of the assumptions that designers and other stakeholders, such as clients commissioning a project, make about human nature. In this paper, we discuss three simple models of user behaviour—the Pinball, the Shortcut and the Thoughtful—which emerge from user experience designers’ statements about users while focused on designing for behaviour change. We characterise these models using systems terminology and examine the application of each model to design for sustainable behaviour via a series of examples

VR/Urban: spread.gun - design process and challenges in developing a shared encounter for media façades

Designing novel interaction concepts for urban environments is not only a technical challenge in terms of scale, safety, portability and deployment, but also a challenge of designing for social configurations and spatial settings. To outline what it takes to create a consistent and interactive experience in urban space, we describe the concept and multidisciplinary design process of VR/Urban's media intervention tool called Spread.gun, which was created for the Media Façade Festival 2008 in Berlin. Main design aims were the anticipation of urban space, situational system configuration and embodied interaction. This case study also reflects on the specific technical, organizational and infrastructural challenges encountered when developing media façade installations

El valor percibido en webs de social commerce: Efectos sobre la lealtad del consumidor.

El estudio del comportamiento del consumidor en webs de social commerce está en auge, debido al gran crecimiento del sector en los últimos años. A pesar de ello, su comprensión se encuentra en su infancia, debido a la multitud de factores influyentes. Esta investigación, a través de la metodología del estímulo-organismo-respuesta, estudia qué papel tiene el valor percibido (O) por el consumidor, mediante el análisis de dos de sus principales antecedentes (calidad del sistema y del servicio) (S), así como de sus efectos sobre la lealtad (R). Los resultados obtenidos a partir de la aplicación de la técnica PLS a una muestra de 272 consumidores habituales de estas webs ponen de manifiesto la gran importancia que la calidad de la web tiene en la generación de valor en el consumidor, así como el rol clave de éste sobre las intenciones del consumidor tanto para volver a comprar como para recomendar.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A digital library of language learning exercises

Recent years have seen widespread adoption of the Internet for language teaching and learning. Interactive systems on the World-Wide Web provide useful alternatives to face-to-face tuition, and both teachers and learners can benefit from the exercises available. However, although there is a wealth of suitable material, it is hard to find because it is scattered around the web. Moreover, teachers are restricted by the material that is available, and cannot provide their own. To tackle these problems we have constructed a digital library of language learning exercises that presents students with different kinds of exercise, and also lets teachers contribute new material. We first reviewed existing language learning systems on the web in order to develop a taxonomy of exercise types used for language activity. A prototype, ELLE, based on this taxonomy, provides various kinds of interactive exercises using material that teachers submit. The system has been evaluated by practicing language teachers

A First Amendment for Second Life: What Virtual Worlds Mean for the Law of Video Games

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, video games have finally taken their place alongside movies, comic books, and drawings as a form of protected First Amendment speech. Since the Seventh Circuit\u27s 2001 decision in American Amusement Machine Association v. Kendrick, court after court has struck down ordinances and statutes aimed at restricting violent video games--on the grounds that such violate game designers\u27 and players\u27 First Amendment speech rights. This series of rulings marks a stark change from courts\u27 previous stance on video games, which consigned them to the same realm of unprotected non-speech conduct as games like tennis, chess, or checkers. Video games were able to escape from this unprotected realm--and become First Amendment expression--largely because advances in computer graphics and design made them more and more like interactive movies and television shows, and less and less like digitized board games and pinball machines. But instead of simply forging ahead in this jurisprudential evolution, as video games evolve from personal forms of recreation to virtual worlds, this Article suggests that virtual worlds should make us rethink the First Amendment theory that got us to this point. This is because, while video games may have become First Amendment speech by becoming intricate movie-like stories, many virtual worlds are decidedly not scripted stories. They are rather stages for a multitude of expressive activity, some of which is an electronic analogue of the chess-playing, tennis-playing, car racing, or aimless lounging and wandering, that the courts excluded from the realm of First Amendment speech in an earlier era. This Article argues that this exclusion was a mistake. Virtual worlds are realms of First Amendment expression not because of the stories and role play they make possible, but rather because they provide a setting for giving form to imagination in sounds and imagery, a setting that can be walled off from the business of civil government and thus reserved for more unconstrained exercises of individual freedom. Stories and messages are an optional part of this setting and are not a necessary ingredient of First Amendment speech. This is not to say that government has no role to play in regulating virtual worlds: where individuals bring harm-threatening activity into virtual worlds involving acts that abuse others\u27 money or reputation, for example, government might have to regulate such worlds. But such regulation must take place alongside of, and not simply displace, the First Amendment\u27s application to virtual worlds

The Effectiveness of Mega Influencers, Macro Influencers, and Micro Influencers in Forming Brand Evangelists

Purpose – The aim of this research is to determine the order of effectiveness of each type of influencer, namely mega, macro and micro influencers, in the formation of people who will become brand evangelists for culinary MSMEs in the city of Batam. Design/methodology/approach – The research method used in this research is a descriptive qualitative research method, using interview techniques and literature study. Findings – The number of followers affects the level of trust and the content influences the level of interaction. Research limitations/implications – This research did not take interview data from informants who are influencers, but only interview data from social media users and culinary MSMEs. Practical implications – Content becomes the 'bridge' between influencers and their followers. Collaboration and promotion of a brand is displayed through content and researchers found that each type of influencer has different levels of effectiveness, but not only based on the number of followers. Originality/value – Researchers found 1 unique finding, namely the behavior of followers who recommend products promoted by an influencer without ever buying, trying or experiencing the product first. This behavior is included in the brand evangelism section.Tujuan – Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui urutan efektivitas masing-masing jenis influencer yaitu mega, makro, dan mikro influencer dalam pembentukan orang-orang yang akan menjadi brand evangelist UMKM kuliner di kota Batam. Desian/metodolog/pendekatan – Metode penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode penelitian deskriptif kualitatif, dengan menggunakan teknik wawancara dan studi literatur. Temuan Penelitian – Jumlah pengikut mempengaruhi tingkat kepercayaan dan konten mempengaruhi tingkat interaksi. Keterbatasan Penelitian – Penelitian ini tidak mengambil data wawancara dari informan yang merupakan influencer, namun hanya data wawancara dari pengguna media sosial dan UMKM kuliner. Implikasi Praktis – Konten menjadi 'jembatan' antara influencer dan pengikutnya. Kolaborasi dan promosi suatu brand ditampilkan melalui konten dan peneliti menemukan bahwa setiap jenis influencer memiliki tingkat efektivitas yang berbeda-beda, namun tidak hanya berdasarkan jumlah pengikutnya saja. Orisinalitas/nilai – Peneliti menemukan 1 temuan unik yaitu perilaku follower yang merekomendasikan produk yang dipromosikan oleh seorang influencer tanpa pernah membeli, mencoba atau merasakan produk tersebut terlebih dahulu. Perilaku ini termasuk dalam bagian Brand Evangelist

The Creative and Reflexive Realms of Gamaturgy

This article introduces the synergy between theatre, games, and social activism that I have coined “Gamaturgy.” Gamaturgy, in both the creative and reflexive realms, as I describe them, is derived from theatrical dramaturgy and provides new ideas for creating and critically analyzing serious videogames, especially social issue games. First, I sketch out the formative dramaturgical influences from Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre, Paulo Friere's transitive pedagogy, and Victor Turner's concepts of the liminoid and social justice. I then expand this unique way of play-making into the realm of creative gamaturgy as a way of creating experiential interactions and constructing meanings in the design and creation of serious videogames. As for the aim of finding a new form of thematic analysis for videogames, I use my original case study The Pipeline Pinball Energy Thrill Ride Game to demonstrate a method of recovering meanings from games through the implementation of reflexive gamaturgy

From 'Spiral Scratch' to PledgeMusic: The Birth and Rebirth of Punk Culture's Entrepreneurial Spirit

Punk has come a long way from its prematurely declared death in the early-1980s to being not-so-dead after all in the 1990s to still being ‘alive, loud and kicking’ today. This conceptual paper examines how punk culture’s inherent entrepreneurial DIY spirit has kept it alive after punk’s return to its underground origins. While much has been made in the recent literature of social media and the digital revolution’s supposed role in democratising consumers’ access to the marketplace, (self-)branding, entrepreneurship, crowdsourcing and co-creation of products and meaning have been at the heart of punk culture from its beginning – and long before people ever dreamed of digitalisation. Buzzcocks’ self-funded EP ‘Spiral Scratch’ is widely credited with being the first independent and crowdfunded record ever to hit the marketplace. Although most classic punk bands were actually signed by major record labels, numerous independent record labels have followed the ‘Spiral Scratch’ business model ever since. In recent years, after being dropped by their labels, many of those bands have moved to PledgeMusic; not only to crowdfund and sell their new albums, but also to revive the entrepreneurial spirit of the past that has truly ‘democratised’ the marketplace. Interestingly, PledgeMusic’s most popular music format is vinyl

Análisis de la intención de realizar comercio social en webs con herramientas sociales

El comercio social, o comercio a través de los medios sociales (también conocido como social commerce) es una de las modalidades de comercio electrónico con mayor potencial de crecimiento. Sin embargo, su estudio aún es limitado, por lo que las dinámicas y elementos que afectan a la intención de realizar comercio social requieren de una mayor investigación. La bibliografía existente principalmente analiza la intención de los usuarios de practicar comercio social en una red social, pero no en una web de comercio electrónico que tenga sus propias herramientas sociales (p. ej. foros, valoraciones de productos, etc.). Por lo tanto, la presente investigación tiene como objetivo identificar los antecedentes de la intención de comercio social en webs de comercio electrónico en las que se emplean herramientas sociales. A partir de la revisión de la literatura, se desarrolla un modelo para analizar la influencia de cinco posibles antecedentes de la intención de comercio social: calidad de la web, apoyo social emocional, apoyo social informativo, presencia social e inmersión o flow. Para ello, se realizó un estudio empírico entre los usuarios de una web de comercio electrónico que cuenta con un sistema de valoración, comentarios de productos y foros. Los datos se obtuvieron a partir de una encuesta realizada a 200 compradores, y fueron analizados mediante la técnica PLS. Los resultados indican que los elementos más racionales y emocionales de la experiencia del usuario, como son la calidad del sitio web, flow y el apoyo social emocional, son los que motivan la compra; mientras que la presencia social y el apoyo social informativo, no son significativos. Este estudio contribuye a la teoría del comportamiento del consumidor al aplicar variables predictivas de la intención de comercio social a webs con herramientas sociales. Además, los resultados ayudan a los profesionales del comercio electrónico a mejorar el uso que hacen de las herramientas sociales.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech