I interrupt my regular blogging for a commercial message. Next week (September 9 in Amsterdam), I’ll do an Emerce Expert Session, or what some would call a workshop, on social media (in general) and the Obama 08 campaign’s use of social media (in particular). In an interactive setting we’ll talk about the latest trends in social media, participatory culture, a bit about games, hybrid campaigns, social politics, Facebook, Twitter, and much, much more.

If you’re interested, there are a couple of seats left. Head over to the Emerce page if you want more information. Or drop me an email (david @ gamespace . nl), or contact Tessa Sterkenburg on: (+31) 020-820 21 31 / tessa @ thenextspeaker . com. The session will be in Dutch and can be summarized as:

De lessen van Obama – De winnende combinatie van online & offline

De verkiezingscampagne van Obama was de eerste echte geïntegreerde digitale campagne, en een zeer succesvolle. Als geen ander wist hij online enthousiasme om te zetten in offline actie. De spontane fysieke en virtuele acties van fans, aanhangers en vrijwilligers werden slim geïntegreerd in een strak geleide campagne. Tegelijkertijd werden de sterke punten van oude media (TV, radio en kranten) gecombineerd met de kracht van social media. Obama was maandenlang altijd, overal te vinden.

Niet voor niets beginnen multinationals als Domino’s Pizza, Ikea, Pepsi en Ben & Jerry’s, verzekeraars, uitgevers, non-profits, overheden, en politieke partijen langzaam maar zeker de lessen van Obama te integreren in hun eigen campagnes. Ze bewijzen zo zowel de universele kracht van Obama’s campagne, gebaseerd op openheid, interactie en communicatie, als de inzetbaarheid buiten het politieke domein.

In deze Emerce Expert Sessie wordt gekeken hoe een geïntegreerde campagne op te zetten op een manier zodat oude en nieuwe media elkaar versterken. De killer app van de Obama campagne was de “ouderwetse” nieuwsbrief. De Expert Sessie stelt hierbij niet de techniek maar de gebruiker centraal. Oftewel, wat doen gebruikers, consumenten, fans, of kiezers precies met social media, nu, vandaag? En, hoe verhoudt dat zich tot het gebruik van oude media?

Has been a while, so here’s a round-up of what I did last month (of May). For starters, I have been busy working on my PhD (and will continue to do so for the coming months). Next to that there were some cool projects I participated in. For example, May 3 I did the opening talk for Upload Cinema. The 18th edition focused on games (titled “All play and no work”) and I was a guest-curator to select the most hilarious and fascinating web clips (to be shown in Theater De Uitkijk). We had a record of 270+ submissions and 32 clips made it to the final selection. Here’s the entire list which represent (a selection of) the best web clips on games and game culture.

This month I also participated in the Bashers.nl podcast. We talked about the iPad (yes, I haz one), Little Big Planet and User Created Content, and about the book “Nintendo Magic”.

And, to top it all off, I did two talks this week:
- 2010 (May 20). “Journalistiek & Social Media”. Talk at Kringcongres 2010 at Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen (HAN), Nijmegen.
- 2010 (May 21). “Blurring Boundaries: War & Games”. Talk at ‘(new) Media and the United States’ event organized by the Netherlands American Studies Association (NASA), Utrecht.

For the coming months I will be less busy with talks and the like. There are some interviews I did last week which will be published the coming weeks, but other than that, expect more sporadic updates on this site as I am slowly getting into crunch mode with my PhD.

November of last year I gave a talk on money and social (i.e. new media &) politics for students of the Hogeschool van Utrecht. My talk was part of a larger project, they also talked with a lot of other stakeholders in this debate (e.g. campaign managers, politicians, etc) and the end result of their work is a collection of essays and debate summaries called “Mes in de Democratie – Over partijpolitiek en burgerparticipatie”. The 14-paged booklet (.pdf 1.8mb) can be downloaded here.

Thursday March 11 I will give a talk, “De visuele taal van virtuele oorlogsvoering”, at Nest for the Texture Maps exhibit. In my presentation I will dig deeper into the blurring boundaries between physical violence (war) and virtual warfare (games), the never-ending rise of the military-entertainment complex and, of course, wargames (particularly America’s Army and other First Person Shooters). Recently read this book “War 2.0 – Irregular Warfare in the Information Age“, which offered an insightful perspective on these themes, so I’ll try to incorporate their argument into mine. See you there!

Time: 8pm
Location: The Hague
Entrance: Free

It will be one of the last events I will undertake before I go into ‘crunch-mode’ the coming (six) months to finish my PhD. Tuesday March 2 I will moderate an evening of Pecha Kucha style presentations titled “FAQ Masteravond Media- en Cultuurwetenschappen”. Utrecht University scholars, students and alumni will talk (fast and to the point) about their research and it will be my duty to host the event. I will open the evening with a short keynote on the ins and outs (or the good, bad and ugly side) of media studies related scholarship, titled “de zin en onzin van Media- en Cultuurwetenschappen”.

The evening will start at 7pm and will officially last till 10:30 (drinks afterwards of course). The venue is Studio T (downtown Utrecht) and the programme looks promising (very diverse!). Entrance is free, but Studio T is small so if you’re coming, send an email to blik.tijdschrift[at]gmail.com (NB Im not part of the organization). The event is in Dutch. More information about the event (and the programme) are to be found here. Hope to see you there!

Read the rest of this entry »

Last Tuesday (January 26), I participated in a debate on “Individu 2.0”. The debate was hosted by Christian student organizations to prepare for their Easter gathering where they will tackle religious and societal issues. As an outsider/expert I was asked to share my thoughts on the mediatization of everyday life, together with Jan van der Stoep (affiliated with the Christelijke Hogeschool Ede). It was an insightful debate. Jan and I agreed on many counts which made the debate a little bit less spectacular, but for me it was good to have some outsider conformation on some deep felt thoughts and opinions on new media.

What I did not expect was that the debate would spark the interest of two attending journalists of the two leading Dutch Christian newspapers. At the end of the debate the students asked about my views on (Dutch) politics and new media, as well as the rise of the Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders. In a nutshell, I think social networks (Youtube, Facebook, Hyves, Twitter etc), could be a valuable (additional!) avenue to discuss politics and to voice one’s concerns about the deep seated fear (and sometimes hatred) towards “others” (i.e. non-native Dutch citizens). I might be hopelessly naive here, but I think engaging in a debate in this particular case (through movies, pictures, blogs, etc), and taking the concerns of those-who-fear very seriously (instead of trivializing the Wilders supports’ genuinely felt fear-of-others) could be one way out of a xenophobic, divided political future. There’s way more to this issue, and my argument is much more nuanced, but this is one of the points I made during the debate.

The debate’s media fallout was illustrative and focused on my views on social networks and politics and used my quotes in their headlines. The best article ended up in the newspaper (first link). The two other articles surfaced immediately after the debates on the newspapers’s websites.

- ‘Gebruikers netwerksites zijn machthebbers’. Nederlands Dagblad. January 28, 2010, page 6.
- „Twitter en Facebook zijn machtige wapens”. Reformatorisch Dagblad. January 27, 2010.
- ‘Netwerksites gaan Wilders stemmen kosten’. Nederlands Dagblad. January 27, 2010.

Last week’s Media van Morgen symposium, organized by two Utrecht University MA students, turned out to be a huge success. There was even a waiting list, but, luckily the event has been recorded by LectureNet.

You can access all talks here, video and slides are included. And here’s the direct link to my talk “Mediawetenschappers en de Media van Morgen“.

In my talk I argue that journalists, politicians, consultants, entrepreneurs, and fans dominate the debate (and discourse) on (new) media (i.e. its meaning, effects, future etc). Instead, students and scholars should have a much bigger stake in many such discussions (for example on media literacy, Second Life, social politics, games, etc, etc). Given the radical decentralization of the means of cultural production and the decline in professional journalism, there is a huge opportunity for media scholars to get their hands dirty by engaging in debates in traditional media (newspapers, TV, radio), as well as setting up their own platforms for discussion and dissemination of thoughtful analysis. I think that today’s (new) media students can (and should) be tomorrow’s experts.

*Update* (30/01) – Here’s a good summary of my talk (and the others) at MindNote.nl: “Symposium Media van Morgen (deel 1)“.

Yesterday I went to Doetinchem to give a talk at Reed Business on social politics (the ins & outs of the Obama 08 campaign). Had a great time there and got lots of positive feedback.

This month I will take part in the following events:

- January 21. “Mediawetenschappers en de Media van Morgen“. I will do a TED-like talk sharing my thoughts on the media scholar of the future for an event organized by Universiteit Utrecht’s MA (media) students. The symposium is called “Media van Morgen” and has a couple of interesting speakers (many of my fellow UU alumni).

- January 26. “Debat Individu 2.0“. For a debate on the mediatization of everyday life I will participate in a roundtable discussion in the Tituskapel (Amsterdam).

- January 28. “Yes we can? Nieuwe media gebruik in “the age of Obama”. After two successful masterclasses (hosted by KREM), we will do a third masterclass on social politics in The Hague. There are still seats available! There’s more information at KREM’s website.

Does game journalism exist? (My answer: Yes!). And if so, what should it look and feel like? Last Wednesday Dutch game journalists gathered to discuss the ins and outs of contemporary game criticism. I opened the evening with a presentation (titled: “Mijn naam is David en ik ben gamejournalist”), followed by a roundtable discussion. For those who did not attend, there is/was a liveblog (which is still accesible) and there is still a lively discussion going on at Bashers.

Update (14/12): another review of the debate (with pics) at G4M3.nl.
Update (18/12): Gezocht: ondernemende gamejournalisten, m/v. Further reflections on Bashers.nl
Update (18/12): Special Podcast: opname van het gamejournalistiekdebat. Audiofeed.
Update (18/12): Xi/Bashers-debat – 9 december 2009 @ CREA. Some notes on Mindnote.nl.

Today I did a talk on social politics at the Landelijk Psychologie Symposium in Utrecht. Because of that I was invited to do a short radio interview for Radio 1′s BNN Today. If you’re interested, there’s a download link at their website.