BREMENSeptember 19-21, 2011
European Commission Information Society and Media
GaLAGame and Learning Alliance
The European Network of Excellence on Serious Games
WP8 Support and Services
Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, BIBARiccardo Berta, Francesco Belotti, UniGe
Yulia Bachvarova, Cyntelix
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Objectives
• Provide support and services for the different research, integrating and outreach activities- two major categories of services: collaboration and dissemination
• Offer tools and services for collaboration between internal and external partners reducing the fragmentation
• Set-up, implement and maintain Virtual Research Environment (VRE) able to support effective international and multi-disciplinary
• Set-up of a pan-European SG Living Lab Network (SGLLN).
• SGLLN will support the innovation within the development and application of SG.
• Application of different social network analysis tools
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BREMENSeptember 19-21, 2011
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Time tables
Task 8.1
Task 8.3 WP8
START END
M6 Gala Social Network analysisapproach
M8: GaLA VRE Requirements M12: LL
RequirementsM12 GaLA VRE Release
» 3 tasks, 8 deliverables
M24 Community metrics report
Task 8.2
BREMENSeptember 19-21, 2011
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GaLAGame and Learning Alliance
The European Network of Excellence on Serious Games
Virtual Research Environment (VRE)
ELIOS Lab – DIBE – University of Genoa
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2 VRE deliverables
• D8.1 VRE requirements– Objectives– Background– State of the art– GaLA User Needs– VRE requirements– Towards system specifications
• D8.3 VRE release– Design– Implementation
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Objectives
• The VRE is the technological platform of the GaLA Virtual Research Center (VRC), a major long-term target of the project– Close collaboration and integration among the actors that
represent excellence in Serious Game (SG) research in Europe• Open to cooperation also by third parties.
• Basic requirements:– facilitate the sharing of knowledge, methodologies, data and
tools– Collaborative collection, manipulation and management of data,
as well as collaborative knowledge creation• Effective and seamless access to distributed research resources
(applications, data, grid computing, web 2.0 style collaboration tools, etc)
• High user friendliness, modularity and interoperability
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Background
• A sample definition– “A system to provide researchers with the tools and services
they need to do research of any type as efficiently and effectively as possible” [Borda, 2006]
• Other similar terms– CVE (Collaborative Virtual Environment), Cyberinfrastructure/e-
Infrastructure, Collaborative e-Research Communities, VRC (Virtual Research Community), VO (Virtual Organisation), Collaboratory, Science Gateway
• Challenges:– Long-term sustainability
• Provide a service meeting the needs of the community, exploit. plan– Barriers
• Critical mass of users, multidisciplinary
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State of the art (I)
• Scientific workflow management– Probably the most important application for scientific VREs
• Typical domains: climate modeling, structural biology, chemistry, disaster recovery simulation
– Kepler, Galaxy, OpenWetWare, NanoHub• Thematic VREs
– TextGrid, ArcheoGrid, Esad, MemRE, VeRSI
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State of the art (II)
• Tools and systems for VREs– MyExperiment
• Scientific workflows, repository, tailored social website, open source community, auctioning research
– Microsoft Research Information Center (RIC)• Publications, sub-sites, project resource management, collaboration
tools– eSciDoc (Max Planck Institute)
• Support for publications and research (metadata)– Sakai
• Oriented to the e-learning field– Enterprise Content Management (ECM) / Knowledge
Management Engineering (KME) systems• IBM FileNet Content Management, HP TRIM, Microsoft SharePoint,
Open Text ECM, Oracle Universal Content Management, EMC Documentum ECM, Alfresco Software (Open source)
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State of the art
• Basic approaches to support de-fragmentation
• Classification of SGs– Djaouti, Alvarez, Jessel– serious.gameclassification.com (2289 featured games)
• Design Patterns– Design Patterns in Serious Games: A Blue Print for Combining
Fun and Learning, Huynh-Kim-Bang et Al, Univ P&M Curie, Paris
– K. Killi, Call for Learning-Game Design Patterns• Ontologies
– Zagal et al., Game Ontology Project• Blogging to understand games
– Zagal et Al., GameLog project
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Serious Game Classification
• A collaborative classification of SGs• Classification according:
– Gameplay• Game-based, Play-based• Core rules represented by bricks
– Purpose• Edu, info, marketing, subjective msg broadcast, training, goods trading, storytelling
– Market• Entertainment, State&Govern, Milit&Defence, Healthcare, Educ, Corporate, Relig,
Culture&Art, Ecology, Politics, Humanit& Carit, Media, Advert, Sci Res– Audience
• Age groups• Type (General Public, Professionals, Students)
– User-contributed keywords 11
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Game Ontology Project (GOP)
• GOP is a framework for describing, analyzing and studying games. It is a hierarchy of concepts abstracted from an analysis of many specific games
• The GOP's approach is to develop a game ontology that identifies the important structural elements of games and the relationships between them
• Tree hierarchy– Inheritance and part-of relationships
• Top branches: interfaces, rules, entity manipulation, goals
• Nodes = game components– Definition– Strong examples– Weak examples
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GaLA user requirements survey
• Survey organized along the VRE’s three major modules:– Project Management tools– Collaboration tools– Social networking.
• Early feedback on the existing GaLA collaboration area– Early release less than one month before (january 2011)
• Online survey online– 36 respondents
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User requirements results
• Functionalities for PM– High importance of document repository and of contact management
• Collaboration tools– The 3 most rated items are similar and specifically dedicated to SG:
• Databases for games and related research, ordered repository of SGs and use cases of SGs
– This suggests the importance of the availability of a tool specifically dedicated to support SG research
• Social networking– Group management is the most favorite feature– Items of interest:
• interest management and sharing, support for online events, support for presence and exchange and showcasing
• Surprisingly, those parameters that are sold as major features of dedicated social VRE (e.g., reputation management, IP management and ownership, crediting, attribution) are rated the lowest
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Overall GaLA VRE requirements
• Sources:– literature survey, VRE questionnaire, EU indications, experience
from GaLA works and meetings• Major requirements
– Address fragmentation– A common language across the Multiple disciplines, background
and interests involved in the world of SG applications– A deeper understanding of SGs (need for a specific support to
collaborative research on SGs)– Need for a cooperation between business and academia– Need for supporting a community of practice of heterogeneous
stakeholders– High usability– Support for social networking (Del. 8.8)
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Towards system specifications
• The SG field is too in an early stage to have as a priority the support for workflow management
• Researches in the field have to work to shape the field in order to understand and design new workflows
• Focus on the creation of a common vocabulary (e.g. taxonomies, data, standards and metadata) that allows researchers from different fields (pedagogy, psychology, computer science, game design, etc.) to understand each other and develop a common understanding
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Overall need
• Build an operationally exploitable network of knowledge– Link among games, mechanisms, pedagogical theories,
assessment methods, deployment modes, development tools, business models, research papers, etc.
• Several VREs very efficient to support PM, general remote collaboration and social networking, none of them is able to meet the need for supporting a harmonized view on the complex world of SGs– (including research, development, marketing, deployment)– Addressing fragmentation and becoming a reference point for
R&D in the world.• This requires exploiting lower-level tools and systems to
build key specific modules for a SG VRE.
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High-level view of the VRE (I)
• 3 major modules– Support for collaboration and project management
• Joomla-based GaLA website (Del 9.3)– Shared calendar, definition of WPs, tasks and milestone, assignment
of responsibilities to users (e.g. WP coordination); definition of timing (e.g. WP deadlines); shared repository of documents; communication channel (e.g. forum and news feed on call for papers, projects and publications); list of contacts; support for collaborative writing of deliverable and papers with versioning and credentials (e.g. wiki support); online surveys; meeting management.
– The wiki and forums comply with the UGC requirements for Social Networking, as requested in Del. 8.8.
– Additional tools are taken off-the-shelf from widely spread, excellence packages/services, such as Skype for call-conference and Mendeley for reference management
» Standard choices in GaLA, in order to avoid confusion when carrying-out collaborative activities that may be implemented through several different instruments. This homogeneity was a clear requirement by partners.
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High-level of the VRE (II)
• Support for communities– This part of the VRE is developed in the context of the Young
Academy (YA) network – Del 5.1• Elgg technology• Database of people with profile; possibility of friendship and
following;– Smart presence on popular SNs (WP9, Del 8.8)
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High-level view of the VRE (III)
• Support for SG field definition– The most innovative and important part of VRE, developed to
support the community of researchers– A repository of SGs described in a multidisciplinary way– Enabling technology: Knowledge Management Engineering
(KME)• Alfresco seems a good solution, providing the standard features for
repository and search functionalities in a low-cost, open source and small footprint ECM solution
• Strength in core document management and content services, provides a unified repository, and excels in extensibility
– Build a system as a network of entities• Organization in hierarchical ontologies with descriptions and
examples (strong and weak)– Texts, keywords and other multimedia assets deemed as useful
» Links among entities
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6 knowledge areas
• Description/classification of SGs– Similar to serious.gameclassification.com, with which content interoperability will
be studied and implemented– Other synergies could be set-up with the GameLog project
• Analysis of game components (UI, rules, goals, entity manipulation, assessment)
– Game Ontology Project reference• Pedagogy (TC pedag)
– The GaLA ontology may be organized in Learning goals (Blooms?) and pedagogical paradigms (GEL):
• Deployment (WP6 and WP7)– Target users– Types of use (e.g., curricular, corporate training, leisure time)
• Application domains (TCs)– E.g., Business & finance, cultural heritage, health, manufacturing, etc.
• Technologies (SIGs)– Platforms, tools, algorithms
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VRE design (I)
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- SG Descr. & Classifi.- Apps- Deploy- Tech.s
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VRE design (II)
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D8.3 VRE release
• Structure will be ready by the time of the review• Contents not yet filled, but a lot of them is available (in
electronic) on the GaLA wiki (as reported in the TC/SIG deliverables)
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GaLAGame and Learning Alliance
The European Network of Excellence on Serious Games
Task 8.2: D8.4 Serious Games Living Lab Requirements
WP 8
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The living lab concept
• “Living Labs are environments for innovation and development where users are exposed to new ICT solutions in (semi)realistic contexts, as part of medium- and long-term studies targeting evaluation of new ICT solutions and discovery of innovation opportunities” Folstad
(2008, p 116) .
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Pan-European SG Living Lab Network (SGLLN)
Objective– support the innovation within the development and application of
SG. – offer researchers the possibility to test and evaluate their games
on a larger scale as well as to support collaborative research.– increase the joint multi-disciplinary research– focusing on the integration of research activities – Supporting collaboration among stakeholders– targeted at bringing the developers and application users
together.• Various methods and approaches will be used, building
on the successful example of the Serious Games Institute at Coventry University
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SGLL Configuration
• Two possible different configurations:– designed to utilize context simulations. The conditions in these
Living Labs are used for the specific research goal. – real world Living Labs allow users in the “real” world to
experience and experiment with ICT solutions. Vary strongly in terms of size and geographical distribution.
– The decision for one of the two concepts depends on variables like available resources and the parameters of the ICT solution to be tested
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Why LL in GALA?
The task is to catalyze, organize and attract regional stakeholders for innovating SGs.
Various methods and approaches will be used, building on the successful example of the Serious Games Institute at Coventry University
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Contribution of LL to defragmentation
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• Two parts: Local and Virtual• NODES: UK (managed by UniCov), Iberian node
(managed by INESC-ID), a central European node (BIBA), South Europe node (DIBE)
• virtual living lab supports collaboration among the geographically distributed stakeholder as well as several local established living labs
• The Gala Living labs are multidisciplinary. Should cover the topics of the TCs and SIGs
• Will serve two large groups – will provide users an access to several different games in an
easy way. – large test bed in which the developers can test and collect
feedback on their games
BREMENSeptember 19-21, 2011
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GaLAGame and Learning Alliance
The European Network of Excellence on Serious Games
Community Nurturing (Task 8.3)Social Network Analysis Approach (D8.8)
WP 8
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Outline
• Theory for online communication – Communities of Practice Conditions for establishing communities of practice
• Social Network AnalysisSNA measuresSNA enhanced techniques
• Approach for SNA in GaLA
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Communities of Practice
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• “Communities of Practice (CoP) are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” (Wenger, 2008)
• A CoP is an activity system in which individuals are united in action and the meaning that the actions have for them (Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2003).
• CoP provide a foundation for production and sharing of knowledge
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Establishing Communities of Practice
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• Identification of stakeholders People with experience and knowledge on
the topic have to be present 20:80 rule - peripheral participants, the
long-tail (Anderson, 2003)• Common recognized and shared needs and a
belief in long term profitability of stakeholders
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Establishing Communities of Practice
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• Engagement Very challenging, but crucial for success (allows
the exchange of tacit knowledge)• Conditions for promotion and stimulation of
engagement Self-reflection and self-observation Promote sharing of knowledge as a public good Effect of recommendations from influential
contacts Trust in the way knowledge is used or
disseminated by procedures of knowledge or trusted members
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Establishing Communities of Practice
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• Network management Stimulate sharing Instigate agreement
Need for leadership: especially important in the early stages of community development. If no leader is appointed the community itself will set out and find one (Laghos & Zaphiris, 2006)
Balance between support (guidelines and regulations) and freedom ( evolving interests and circumstances that help the community to develop)
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Social Network Analysis
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• SNA Measures Clustering Connectivity Centrality
• Network characteristics Strength of the weak ties Small world; six degrees of separation
• Enhanced SNA techniques Recommender systems
Collaborative filtering Content based recommendation
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Approach for SNA in GaLA
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Community lifecycle
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Approach for SNA in GaLA
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• SNA for the Potential Stage Connect people with similar interests (look at the
profile information) Check how the different stakeholders are
represented and take adequate measures Support engagement by motivating sharing
• SNA for the Coalescing Stage Detect clustering and subgroups and the level of
communication between these Use collaborative filtering and content-based
recommendation to enhance engagement by recommending suitable contacts and content
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Approach for SNA in GaLA
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• SNA for the Active Stage Measure engagement by keeping track of the
quantity of members’ contributions (blog posts, comments, rating) and the rate of information flow
Detect the ‘central’ people and support them in case the burden of managing the network increases
Use content analysis to study the relation between the content generated and the relation between content authors
• Data neededUser profile:
information about interests and roles (e.g. researcher in a private company)
Common anagraphic data (age, gender)
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Approach for SNA in GaLA
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Data needed• User profile:
information about interests and roles (e.g. researcher in a private company)
Common anagraphic data (age, gender)Role and affiliation to detect belonging to a particular
stakeholder groupInterest to suggest similar community member
• The social links (friend/follower) • All user-generated content
Blog posts Comments Rating Tagging