01_Dial Elbarrio, Stephanie Owens, Parsons

DIALelbarrio is an “embedded” documentary in the streets of Spanish Harlem. By making the stories, images, and videos accessible to anyone with a cell phone, the project seeks to establish an ongoing, street-accessible narrative of its people and history. DIALelbarrio makes contributing information about the neighborhood, its people, places and histories as convenient as making a phone call.

—how it works—

‘SUBSCRIBE

Send a text message to “24442″ with the word “startDIAL” or comienzaDIAL as the message. The message “comienzaDIAL” will send information in Spanish and “startDIAL” will send information in English.

REQUEST CONTENT BASED ON YOUR LOCATION

Start by standing in front of the James de la Vega mural on 106th street, between Lexington and 3rd Avenues. Text “24442″ with this message: “mural lex.106.3″ (without the quotation marks). You will receive an MMS message in your phone inbox that includes an image of the mural and related information. If there is more than one mural in the nearby area, you will receive multiple MMS messages.

RETRIEVE CONTENT ON YOUR COMPUTER (OPTIONAL)

Once the mural image is retrieved, you can view a larger image and read more detailed information about the mural from your desktop computer later. Enter your mobile phone number at the top of the website and all the images that you saw on your phone as thumbnails will be displayed in large format. You can also contribute to what is known about the murals in this section. ‘ More…

02_Dial A chawl, Mobile Geographies@Parsons, Charles Broskoski,Eric Nunez,Emilia Wiles

This is a mobile audio-blog develloped in the Mobile Geographies Collaboration studio for the Girangaon Mil area in Mumbai.(see earlier posts) Following a voice menu, users can upload a story, listen to other entries, answer questions about their neighborhood and vote for the best entry so far. Here is a user test

Good and FREE technologies to use, are

gabcast or g-cast are free podcasting services that allow you to upload recordings from your mobile phone to a podcast and embed that in your blog and so on.

cafe bevocal – voice xml service

03_Call a diva, Zoe Irvine

To be part of DIAL-A-DIVA all you need to do is sing or talk into a telephone, or use your phone as a microphone wherever singing or vocal performance happens. Dial-a-Diva call centre will link as many different types of singing, from as many locations as possible to a wide international audience of telephone listeners. Whether at home, in a concert hall or bar, whether professionally or just for fun, whether accompanied or solo, whatever the vocal performace Dial-a-Diva would love to have you taking part. Sign up, we’ll arrange a slot in the schedule and call you at the time of your concert wherever you are – world wide participation is free.more…

Crickets, by Mitchel Resnick Natalie Rusk Brian Silverman Robbie Berg

Crickets are small programmable devices that can make things spin, light up, and play music. You can plug lights, motors, and sensors into a Cricket, then write computer programs to tell them how to react and behave. With Crickets, you can create musical sculptures, interactive jewelry, dancing creatures, and other artistic inventions — and learn important math, science, and engineering ideas in the process.

Crickets are based on more than a decade of NSF-funded educational research. Lifelong Kindergarten researchers collaborated with the LEGO company to create the first “programmable bricks,” squeezing computational power into LEGO bricks. This research led to the LEGO MindStorms robotics kits, now used by millions of people around the world. While LEGO MindStorms is designed especially for making robots, Crickets are designed especially for making artistic creations. Crickets were refined in collaboration with the Playful Invention and Exploration (PIE) museum network, and are now sold as a product through the Playful Invention Company (PICO).’ More…

Scratch is a new (open source) programming language, by the LifeLong Kindergarden@MIT media lab, that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web. Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design, more…

Here are two projects by Newish media, Scoot-team in Australia, to be launched 2007

01_ Cipher Cities

This is a Digital Social Network with simple web tools for individuals and groups to create their own mobile events and event journals. More…

02_MiLK

Inspired by SCOOT,(see previous post) the MiLK system is custom made for schools. MiLK is basically a set of simple web interfaces that enable individuals (teachers and students) to design and populate there very own mobile games. The milk-building interfaces are designed to work like a simple series of storyboards with areas to upload images and write SMS text. Once the game designers have submitted their final designs, the storyboard content is dynamically sent to registered users mobile phones in a sequence and style the designers have planned. All communications are then stored and displayed on the students milk-journal for later reflection. The milk-journal is a web page generated by the Milk system and password protected. Students can add comments, upload images, send it SMS and MMS messages and share it with other group members. The teachers are also able to track these activities and set some specific assessment tasks.

Revolution (MIT) is the Education Arcade’s multi-player, American Revolution-themed role-playing game based on historical events in the town of colonial Williamsburg. By allowing role-play from one of seven social perspectives — from an upper class lawyer, to a patriotic blacksmith, to an African American house slave — Revolution places students in a situated learning context about their neighborhood. More…

Scoot, Created by Debra Polson, Melbourne

SCOOT is a treasure hunt using SMS to help guide as you seek out clues, games and creatures across some Melbourne sites. In the (lovely) Scoot world, there are three groups of creatures the s’avatars, the pesky ones and the ghost agents.

The S’Avatars once lived in SCOOT World in peace until the Pesky Ones arrived with their dodgy carnival games. Now the Pesky Ones are planning to come to our World through the Ghost Tunnels. This can only mean trouble. As an Agent of SCOOT, you will collaborate with the S’Avatars to find their carnival games and foil their Pesky plans. Moreover you will have to collaborate with the ghost agents; these are Agents that have helped the Savatars in the past. You may need their help along the way. This is not the first time the Pesky Ones have tried to bring their dodgy Carnival to your World. There is evidence that long ago in the history of your world, others like you have been trapped in the Mid World by the Pesky Ones. This will not happen again as you have improved technologies (your mobile phone) to communicate with us without going into the Ghost tunnels.

Each creature has special features. A reputation, a favorite friend, whereabouts and a special feature, e.g. can be in one or more places in the Mid world. This will influence strategy while you move forward into the game. As an Agent of SCOOT, you will…

1) Play games in SCOOT World (a computer game) where you can also chat with other Agents and customise your own S’Avatar disguise…
2)Go on a SMS treasure hunt that leads you to interactive games in Melbourne Museums and Galleries…
3)Learn lots of interesting facts about the sites and the wonderful treasures there…
4)Encounter stories of SCOOT creatures displayed on lots of screens along the way.

Ghost Tunnels: they are the links between SCOOT World and Your world. The Pesky Ones have used them to travel between worlds. But the tunnels are very unstable and are causing damage to the worlds they connect.

The Mid World: this is the middle place between SCOOT and our world. Some of the Agents are waiting there to help you. But is also where the Pesky Ones are hiding. You will find many windows to the Mid World in your world. They may look like TVs, plasma, computers etc! Watch out for them!

World Windows: Some screens in your world act as windows to the Mid World. In these windows you will find Agents, Pesky Ones, and messages from the Savatars.

Agents of SCOOT: If you register, you will become a special Agent of SCOOT. You may encounter other Agents along the way that have just joined the Mission.

The SBN: the SCOOT Broadband Network. This is the special channel that the Savatars may use to send you informations on various objects… including World Windows, carnival boxes and your mobile phone

….learn more

how to play

creatures

Here are two projects from futurelab (again), that dont have any mobiles or maps,

01_Ecolibrium

Ecolibrium is a vast internet-based virtual world containing an ecosystem of thousands of semi intelligent artificial life forms. Children can create their own creatures and release them into the world to observe their creature’s behaviour and success within the ecosystem. The project is aimed at worldwide school and home use, and investigates cross-curricular activity. Children will be able to create their own creatures and let them loose in this world. They can study their creature’s progress in order to learn about ecology, creature behaviour and other biological topics, while at the same time strengthening their ability to reason scientifically and gaining experience in modern ‘systems’ concepts such as Complexity and Chaos. Children will be able to enter the world in school, as part of a lesson facilitated by a teacher, and at home as a location for play and experimentation. more…

02_Adventure Author,

I was somehow even thinking of this related to a sophie-book map (?) somehow…

Adventure Author has been developed as a means to guide the young people (10-14 year-olds) through a series of steps, via ‘wizards’, which are aimed at supporting thinking about character and storyline development on a scene-by-scene basis. In addition, an overall map easily allows users to arrange and link scenes to support nonlinear storytelling. Having authored their own game, the young people can then play this and share it with others. Through this process of play and critical feedback from peers, young people are offered the opportunity to improve their game design and storytelling techniques.

03_Size Matters- building worlds

The Size Matters prototype was designed to act as an interactive exhibit in science
centres to be used alongside a range of hands-on activities, for children aged 11-
14. The prototype was developed to explore whether an engaging series of simulations, that showed hamsters being enlarged to the size of a moon, and elephants ranging from pocket sized to ‘ginormous’, would trigger children to ask questions about how size affects structure. Rather than ‘telling’ children about how gravity and centrifugal force play a role in these processes, the prototype provides a series of simulations and ‘thought experiments’ intended to trigger discussion amongst users, encouraging further experimentation with other resources along the same themes.

From my old neighborhood , here’s a site for a locative project happening right now in Amsterdam…(thank you Sander)

The Trading Mercator Stories (TMS) project is a place based narrative experience that combines stories and places through a location aware mobile display platform. The aim of the TMS project is to communicate the atmosphere, characters, personality and needs of the Baarsjes, a specific urban neighbourhood of Amsterdam, charcterised by a multicultural population and media reputation. The final goal of the project is the production of audiovisual stories designed to be seen by a mobile audience in the sites in which they are set. More…

Here is the work of HotRocket, its online gaming but easily could involve mobile phones and so on, since the concept is based on collecting locative or online information.

01_C.I.E

This is one of my favorites since it goes one step further than the MIT projects, that focus on the real world recources to solve a problem. In CIE agents, there is a backround narrative that allows gameplay to be somehow unpredictable. More precisely, in the beginning the mission seems simple and the resources available, but as soon as you get deeper into the game you enter new situations and find yourself fighting against something that is not so clear, time.

The Central Institute for Exploration (C.I.E.) follows the inner workings of a secret kids-only agency dedicated to exploring the past, present and future. When four C.I.E. Agents suddenly go missing, it’s up to the audience to work together to unravel a series of clues transmitted via mobile phones, websites, blogs, podcasts, and video.

Five years ago, internal struggles led to the decomissioj of all CIE agents. But, some of the agents remained secretly active, waiting for the right kids who would revive the agency. In time, these kids were identified by the agents to trail online and offline clues that led to the CIE. Among the clues was a set of mysterious packs that bore the eblem of the agency. While the new agents, tested this equipment, something went wrong and four recruits went missing, trapped in a different time.

It is now left to the community, to figure out how to work together to help the lost agents return by uncovering clues, breaking codes, and researching solutions. A set of experts is available to help, including the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Alberta, Canada as well as using online resources like Technosaurs.com.

As the game progress, the initial goal of bringing back to time the four missing agents is replaced by a new mission : locate all rogue agents, explore and restore time. More…

02_Streetsmart

I m writing about this project, because I like the visuals (!) and the idea that you move around the neighbourhood playing mini games.

‘StreetSmarts is an online game featuring a virtual neighborhood where kids could explore, play mini games, earn “Street Cents”, and improve their “StreetWise” character rating by interacting with other characters in the neighborhood. ‘ learn more…

Everything in De Waag started with the Reatime project ( check the geocaching category), and then came Frequency 1550…

01_Frequency 1550

In collaboration with a local school, The Waag Society in Amsterdam has developed a concept for a ‘mobile learning game’.

The game is designed for students in the age of 11-12 and employ mobile phones and GPS-technology to examine whether it’s possible to provide an educational location-based experience.

In the Frequency 1550 mobile game, students are transported to the medieval Amsterdam of 1550 via mobile phone. The story goes that De Waag specialists have noted that the Amsterdam UMTS-network is magically interfering with a different time period: the medieval era. A recording is made of the medieval city’s bailiff getting in contact with the here and now: 21st century Amsterdam. Through some technical difficulties and religious misunderstandings he mistakes the intruders to be pilgrims coming to 1550 Amsterdam to visit the special relic: the Holy Host associated with The Miracle of Amsterdam. Because it recently got lost he suggests a deal: he can provide easy access to citizenship if we can help him retrieve the holy relic. The students take up their roles as competing pilgrims and thus step into the game’s story.

For one to two days, they roam through the city in small groups, using GPS to know their own positions as well as other players or objects. The students – or players – will need to demonstrate their knowledge of medieval Amsterdam by doing location-based media-assignments on the city’s history and get to the relic. More…

De Waag is currently develloping their new educational locative game, based on Frequency 1550, called ‘game atelier‘

Here are two projects by the MIT Teacher Education Program, in collaboration with K-12 Education projects.

01_Environmental detectives.

Players are briefed about rash of local health problems that are linked to the environment. They are also provided with background information and budget. Their mission is to reach the source of pollution, that is causing the health problems, by drilling sampling wells and ultimately re-mediate with pumping wells. By using their PDA’s players navigate themselves around the campus, receive and send information to, by other players. Finally, they have to form teams, negotiate and represent differents interests (EpA, industries etc).

similar to this project is mystery at the museum

These projects, require special equipment such as PDA’s or phones that have GPS technology

01_CREATE-A-SCAPE

create-a-scape is a mediascape: A mediascape is composed of sounds and images placed outside in your local area. To see the images and hear the sounds you need a handheld computer (PDA) and a pair of headphones. An optional GPS unit can automatically trigger the images and sounds in the right places.

To create a mediascape, you start with a digital map of your local area. Using special, free software, you can attach digital sounds and pictures to places that you choose on the map. By going outside into the area the map covers, you can experience the mediascape. Using the handheld computer and headphones, you can hear the sounds and see the pictures in the places the author of the mediascape has put them. More…

02_ Space Signpost: Welcome to the Neighbourhood

Space Signpost:Welcome to the Neighbourhood is a new approach to the public understanding of science that allows people to explore the solar system while standing in a city street. Users control a moving signpost that points to objects in the solar system tracking them as they move across the sky, displaying their name and their exact distance from the sign’s location with an electronic display. More…

FutureLab are located in Bristol, UK and are Awesome!*Here are some of their projects, relevant to our goals.

01_Mobimissions (locative)

The MobiMissions project develops a mobile phone experience for young people aged 16-18, which enables them to engage with their environment and community in a new way. Players can create a mission on their mobile phone and can attach information and content to it. The mission can then be dropped from their phone into the local phone cell where it will remain until discovered by another player. The idea of the MobiMissions project is that the players set each other ‘missions’, leaving them in a particular cell. Players wandering into that particular cell are able to see any missions left there and decide whether to accept them.More…

02_Newtoon (making games)

Newtoon is a mobile phone and web activity which aims to embed physics learning in mobile gaming. It enables young people to author, play, edit and share fast-paced microgames for their mobile phones, where game rules are based on a set of Newtonian physics principles.

Newtoon consists of two main parts – the ‘microlab’ allows teachers to demonstrate and explain physics principles, and the ‘microgame’ allows pupils and teachers to create their own games based on these principles. The games can then be downloaded onto mobile phones and shared around the classroom and beyond. Users are encouraged to share their games with others, and add to each other’s games – building on others’ knowledge and practice in an iterative design process. Players in the web application can switch from playing to creating, with the aim of transforming the gaming environment into a construction kit of physics topics. As the online collection of experimental games grows, young people are encouraged to become a community of physics learners. More…

similar project by futurelab is astroversity