CIL2008: Gaming, Learning & the Information World

Day 3 keynote by Elizabeth Lane Lawley

Keys to Happiness

• Satisfying Work to do
• Experience of being good at something
• Time spent with people we like
• The chance to be part of something bigger

Are you in the happiness business?
Maybe not yet, but you will be

In terms of perceived quality of life - virtuality is beating reality

Showed a clip of "A Spoon Full of Sugar" from Mary Poppins. Make it fun

In gaming, people willingly do repetitive tasks because they get rewarded through points, recognition, etc.

Putting the Fun in Functional

1. Collecting
2. Points
3. Feedback
4. Exchanges
5. Customization

New term - Productive Play

How can we harness the power of gaming?

Games that blur the boundaries:

• Chore wars - do chores in real life to get points online for look in the real world
• Seriosity's Attent - Company gives each person "money" called Serios that they can spend on email. Makes people think before sending email.
• Social Genius (URL not working) - Matching game to help people learn to recognize the people they work with. Get points for the more people you know. - This could be great for branches and the system as a whole to learn who they work with.
• Passively Multiplayer Online Gaming - Currently in beta, users download a Firefox extension that gets them points as they surf the web. They can use the points for armor, etc. How can library's use? - Users can create missions (i.e. PATHFINDERS!) to guide people through the web. Something to watch and maybe try out.

Games as gateway drugs (good thing)

• Guitar Hero is encouraging many people to learn the guitar - for real
• Online Rebound - People going from real to virtual and back again. E.g. - Taking picture, uploading to Flickr, then ordering cards from moo.com
• Etsy.com - People selling handcrafts online

How does your library make people feel happy, playful & productive?

Bring the virtual back intot he real and make tangible connections.

Libraries as happiness engines.