WP 8: Support and services

1. WP 8: Support and services Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge

2. Objectives Provide support and services for the different research, integrating and outreach activities 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). Application of different social network analysis tools

3. Achievements Result: VRE(14) and LL requirements (14) Gala Social Network analysis approach(9) Main result: MS 28- VRE release ( (T8.1) 14): Task 8.2 M6 Gala Social Network analysis approach M8:GaLA VRE Requirements M12GaLA VRE Release M12: LL Requirements

4. Virtual Research Environment (VRE) Requirements (Del. 8.1) ELIOS Lab – DIBE – University of Genoa

5. 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

6. State of the art (I) • Thematic VREs • TextGrid, ArcheoGrid, Esad, MemRE, VeRSI • 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

7. SoA (II) - Tools and systems for VREs

8. SoA (III) - Tools for research on SGs • Basic approaches to support de-fragmentation • 1- Classification of SGs • serious.gameclassification.com (2300+ featured games) • Imagine and Engage Learning EU databases • 2- Design Patterns • Design Patterns in SGs: a problem-oriented design approach • Stellar’s GEL Theme team • Integration, cognition, presentation, social, teaching, engagement • 3- Ontologies • Zagal et al., Game Ontology Project • Top branches: interfaces, rules, entity manipulation, goals • 4- Blogging to understand games • Game Set Watch (Gamasutra), Semionaut’s Notebook, Terranova • Zagal et Al., GameLog project

9. GaLA user requirements survey • Early feedback on the existing GaLA collaboration area • Early release less than one month before (january 2011) • Limited features • WP and Task management • Document repository • Mailing lists • Forum for WPs and tasks • Calendar • Researchers’ contacts with pictures • Online survey • 36 respondents

10. User requirements results (I) • Project management • Key functionalities: document repository and contact management • Assessment of the first release (January 2011) • Useful system • Not high assessment • System not complete and low user familiarity • Features suggested (and implemented) • Collaborative editing (Wiki) • Support for surveys • Meeting management • Support for social networking (included in the Young Academy)

11. User requirements results (II) • Collaboration tools • Need for tools for specific SG research (definition of the SG field) • Databases for games and related research, ordered repository of SGs and use cases • Social networking • Key functionality • Group management • Other important • Interest management and sharing, support for online events, support for presence and exchange and, finally, showcasing • Low rating for parameteres typical of social VREs • reputation management, IP management and ownership, crediting, attribution

12. Overall need • Researches in the SG field have to work to shape the knolwedge in a young and complex field • Need to 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 • Build an operationally exploitable network of knowledge • Link among games, mechanisms, pedagogical theories, assessment methods, deployment modes, development tools, business models, research papers, etc. • This requires exploiting lower-level tools and systems to build key specific modules for a SG VRE

13. 1- Project management • Joomla-based GaLA website • 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; online surveys; meeting management. • Additional tools are taken off-the-shelf • Skype for call-conference and Mendeley for reference management • Standard choices in GaLA, in order to avoid confusion across tasks, as required by partners

14. 2- Support for communities • The wiki and forums comply with the UGC requirements for Social Networking, as requested in Del. 8.8 • The SN 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 Social Media (WP9) • Integrated in the GaLA website • Tools for cross-posting

15. 3- Support for SG field definition • The most innovative and important part of VRE, developed to support the community of SG researchers • A repository of SGs described in a multidisciplinary way • Implemented through the WikiMedia engine • Knowledge structured according to the WPs, functional to the partners’ needs • Upgrade: Knowledge Management Engineering (KME) • Knowledge Management System • Off-the-shelf or ad-hoc • Semantic MediaWiki • Build a system as a network of entities • Hierarchical ontologies with descriptions and examples • Texts, keywords and other multimedia assets deemed as useful • Links among entities

16. Six views on the world of SG research • Description/classification of SGs • Analysis of game components (TC Mechanics) • Pedagogy (TC pedagogy and WP1 Metrics) • Deployment (WP6 and WP7) • Application domains (WP3 SIGs) • Technologies and tools (WP2 TCs)

17. GALA VRE Release Riccardo Berta, Francesco Bellotti, Alessandro De Gloria ELIOS Lab, DIBE, University of Genoa www.elios.dibe.unige.it

18. GALA Web Site Structure According to the D8.1(VRE Requirements) document, the VRE has been organized in three parts: Login User Profile and Connections Support for communities GALA VRE Young Academy Social Net Integration Collaborative knowledge (Wiki) Project Management Events Management • Work in progress: knowledge engineering system Survey Support Support for collaborationand project management Support for SG field definition

19. A mash-up approach Project Management User Profiles Voting System Wiki Engine CMS GALA VRE Events management Core Technologies Social Network Engine Form editor Extensions

20. Project Management • The Project Management (PM) section offers a complete set of tools for the management of the project activities, with the following main features: • work packages and tasks support • milestones • time tracking • file management • discussion • calendar

21. Events Management • In the context of GALA, several events will be realized • project meetings, alignment schools, summer schools, etc. • To support the management of these types of events, the VRE features a generic booking system for events • The booking system provides the user with the possibility of • watching the current events • his booking status • publishing new events as well • subscribed GALA users only

22. Voting System • The management of a network of researchers needs also tools to support the democratic decision making process • The VRE has a tool to manage voting among GALA members: • Creating voting pages • Checking votes and results • Online voting interface

23. Survey support • Several GALA tasks need to collect information from GALA members (e.g. about activities) and from several type of user (e.g. stakeholders opinions). • The VRE feature a tool to support researchers in collecting information through online questionnaires • Create a survey • Connect to a DB table • Publish and online page

24. User Profile • To support GALA users’ involvement and collaboration, the VRE features an extended user management tool by • personalize profiles with personal information (e.g. about research interests). • connect with each other • We are in the starting phase in collaboration with Task 8.3 (CommunityNurturing)

25. Young Academy (YA) network • A social site which provides a support to friendship and following aimed at • promoting SG studies • people interested in SG studies also outside the GALA partnership • Described in the D5.1 (Report on the SG education 1)

26. Collaborative writing (GALA Wiki) • A VRE area that allows the creation and editing of interlinked pages by using the simplified mark-up language used by Wikipedia • It is used by the GALA members to collaboratively write documents • deliverables, working documents and scientific papers • The structure is organized with: • one main page for each WP, TC, SIG • from these top pages, each team can setup pages, links and contents In a collaborative way • a special section with several tools to manage the structures and administrate the growing set of pages.

27. Work in progress: the KES • The VRE has been online since three months after the beginning of the project • incrementally evolved according to the continuous requirements of the GALA partners. • The collaborative editing tool (GALA Wiki ) is functional to GALA members for their cooperation, but of relatively limited impact outside the consortium. • So, our plan is that the final version of the VRE will feature also a Knowledge Engineering System (KES) • a more structured, searchable and machine-readable knowledge environment able to manage a network of semantically defined knowledge entities • The KES will be interoperable with some of the most relevant databases for SG research

28. Work in progress: the KES

29. Conclusion • We have presented the release of the VRE • the technological infrastructure of the Virtual Research Center • The target is to provide an online support to GALA researchers – and also beyond GaLA, in the future. • According to the D8.1 requirement document, the VRE has been organized in three parts: • project management and collaboration tools • support for communities • support for SG field definition • Technical viewpoint: mash-up approach • Future plan: add a Knowledge Engineering System • is a more structured, searchable and machine-readable knowledge environment

30. D8.4 SGLL requirements

31. 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) .

32. Pan-European SG Living Lab Network (SGLLN) Objective • support the innovation within the development and application • offer researchers the possibility to test and evaluate their games on a larger scale as well as to support collaborative research. • bringing the developers and application users together • increase the joint multi-disciplinary research • focusing on the integration • Supporting collaboration

33. Potential stakeholders source: iDATE

34. Living Lab management Source Apollon

35. Requirementslocal SGLL • Project preparationservice • An open result • participative process based on mutual trust • good diversity • governance: rules focused on the process rather than on the result, with a good margin of freedom for the attendees • A transparency of the process • Agreement on the use of specific software, tools and programming language • Prototype creation • Meeting place • Testingandevaluationofgames • Game development • Meeting place • LL methods

36. Requirementsvirtual SGLL • Tools that replace and support • Face to face meetings (aural, visual) (Social media) • Black- or whiteboards • Sheets and pencils • Document sharing • Possibility to show things each other • Versioning tools • Tracking and tracing possibilities • Environment for collaborative development.

37. Social Network Analysis Approach (D8.8) Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, BIBA Yulia Bachvarova, Stefano Bocconi, Cyntelix

38. D8.8 Objectives Describe the theoretical foundation of SNA as well as to explain how SNA can be used in the different stages of the VRE and LL community building. Describes how Social Network Analysis can support the nurturing of the GaLA online community. Serves as input for the requirement analysis of the VRE and LL.

39. Approach for SNA in GaLA Community lifecycle

40. Approach for SNA in GaLA • SNA for the Potential Stage • Connect people with similar interests • 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

41. Approach for SNA in GaLA • 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 needed: • User profile • The social links (friend/follower) • All user-generated content • Blog posts • Comments • Rating • Tagging

42. Work in progress • The VRE is put into operation, with the help of SNA, the use will be analysed in order to find how it can be improved • Analysis carried out at the moment in the VRE based on the user profiles • Riccardo’sTwitter network • TCs relations based on common members (threshold of 5members) • People with common interests (threshold of 9interests) • Mail network (from Riccardo’sGaLAmails)( threshold of 25mails) • Same mechanism will be used in the virtual SGLL, but taking privacy concern into account

43. Next step • The VRE is now established- it needs to be used – depending on users’ feedback, the tools and the VRE will be upgraded so that it can foster the internal collaboration, esp. for co creation and discussion. • More tools are in the pipeline, especially merging different data sources: • For example, mails as sign of activities instead of TC membership for TC connections • Data needs to be meaningful and accessible • Analysis needs to be related to domain experts experience • Launch the SGI SGLL as our first SGLL • Establish the other local living labs • Establish the virtual SGLL • Common plan of events taking the specific needs of each node into account.

44. Deadlines andMilestones 2. year MS29 LL Deployment 21 MS30 Community Metrics 24 D8.9- Community metrics report- metrics and the periodic snapshots of communities

45. Thankyouforlistening