Xbox: Gaming and Communities

In 2001, Microsoft launched Xbox Live, and gamers around the globe began building their own online community. By 2004, there were more than 2,000 members, mostly males. Or so we thought.

Christa Phillips (aka TriXie), community editor at Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox.com and author of the weekly "Community Confidential" column and TriXieblog.com, said women have always been there. Maybe in small numbers, and usually very discreet, sometimes adopting gender neutral names or masculine names, but there nonetheless.

As the number of members grew, female gamers started banding together, creating mini sororities online. Unfortunately, they also started getting catty and elitist with each other. Phillips saw this downward trend, and stepped in to change the culture for female gamers. She and two other female gamers formed gamerchiX--an open and supportive online community for female gamers. They created a gamerchiX "manifesta" that outlined a code of conduct to ensure a welcoming and safe environment for all female gamers.

Phillips, who called herself the "cruise director" of Xbox live, spends much of her time working on building communities of gamers, tending to their needs, and resolving problems between gamers or small communities of gamers. In the process, she's identified some unique characteristics between female and male gamers.

Some of those differences include:
--Women tend to gravitate toward more collaborative, team-based games.
--Women tend to be more supportive to new gamers and teach these gamers the ropes by walking them through various games
--Women use a variety of consoles (Xbox 360, PlayStation3, Wii, etc.) and accept gamers from other console traditions


Phillips is hoping to encourage the number and involvement in female gamers in the Xbox environment. She currently has 4,500 gamerchiX members who range in age from 4 to 85. She alluded to studies that show gamers are more likely to stay interested in math and science, and so she hopes the young female gamers will remain interested in science, technology, and math and feel empowered to become game developers or other professionals in the gaming industry. Females only make up 12 percent of the gaming industry, as Phillips can attest to as she's often the only female in the room at work.


Phillips also tries to recruit new members and retain current gamers through a variety of special online events such as Family Game Night, gamerchiX Ladies' Night, Xbox All Nighter, Game with Fame, and Game with Developer.

"These get great response from gamers," she said. "Being able to play and possibly beat the game developer is like winning an Oscar for these people."

Collaboration in iSchools

From the moment a baby is born, it said that he recognizes his father's voice. "The fundamental human condition is to experience and collaborate," Professor Mike Nilan said. "Human beings help each other address uncertainty."

Nilan and Professor Michael D'Eredita suggested in their presentation on Friday at the 2008 iConference that iSchools are unique as field because they can drive technology development to help people solve problems. They examined how the Internet changed the way people communicate and work together, and how iSchool researchers can realize the Internet and all the related technologies' full potential.

"We're a fragmented field--information systems, library science, telecommunications, computer science, social sciences, and many others," he said. "What brings us all together? What are our researchers interested in?"

Nilan said one of the challenges for iSchools is that they need to collaborate more effectively with each other in order to understand collaborating as a human response to a changing environment.

"This is the source of our utility as a field," Nilan said, "the extent to which we can help other people collaborate."

Trends in Faculty Hiring at iSchools

In the 1980s, 20 library schools closed their doors due to a variety of reasons--loss of accreditation, waning enrollment, and the emergence of a broader field of information science. Those who didn't evolve, closed their doors. Today, more than half of the schools who call themselves iSchools have roots as library schools, accordin to doctoral student Andrea Wiggins, who presented during the opening day of the 2008 iConference on faculty hiring in iSchools and the broader implications of those hires on the iField.

She pointed out one of the most striking features about iSchool faculty is the diversity of academic training they have. For instance, faculty members from the 19 iSchools who are members of the iCaucus represent 172 unique areas of study. She combined similar areas to reach a total of 13 categories of study, ranging from computer science and library science to psychology and political science.

Based on U.S. News Rankings of other academic fields, such as computer science and engineering, the highest ranked schools have the least diversity in faculty degrees. However, the opposite appears to be true for iSchools. "Diversity accrues rewards in their reputation," she said.

Wiggins ended her presentation by asking what iSchools could lose if they try to define themselves too narrowly or if they establish a common identity, like what the iCaucus is setting out to do. Will iSchools end up hiring only graduates of iSchools on their faculty? How will that affect the nature of iSchools?

"Diversity in faculty pedigree may be part of the 'special sauce' of an iSchool," she said.

Information Credibility

Is wikipedia as credible as Encyclopedia Britannica? What factors do people consider when determining whether a web site or other information source is credible? Professor Scott Nicholson helped to lead a discussion of these and other issues of the credibility of information.

"Google thinks that popularity and credibility are the same," Nicholson said. "In some disciplines, they may be. In others, not." Should we trust the wisdom of the crowd? Will the best information bubble up?

Most agreed that credibility is a very subjective experience, and design often plays a role. If a web site is designed well, people generally trust it more. Also, one theory also suggests that trust is developed when the information seems plausible and fits with an individual's value system.

They are also asking whether user-generated comments on such sites as Amazon.com helpful in assessing credibility or is it just an extra layer of work for the users. The participants discussed identifying classes of users on the scale of credibility. On a medical information site, for example, a doctor's postings on treatment would have more credibility than a lay person; but a patient may be more reliable in describing the effects of chemotherapy.

The group offered several questions that present interesting areas for further research and exploration. Some of those include:

How does language and translations affect credibility?
Is there a way to measure credibility?
Can iSchool researchers create a metric to determine the credibility?
What's the relationship between credibility versus believability; credibility versus validity; credibility and convenience; and credibility and trust or skepticism?

Medical Informatics

Professor Carsten Osterlund and doctoral student Saira Naim Haque led a conversation to explore the state of medical informatics in iSchools. Carsten and Haque and others who participated in the session investigate such areas as:

--integrate information systems to ensure cohesive and comprehensive patient care

--errors as an information issue, not a medical issue

--medical versus health informatics

--re-engineering process to alleviate overcrowing issues in ERs (as opposed to building larger hospitals or hiring more doctors)

--patient online support groups and how they can employ new technologies such as wikis

--use of information communication and technologies to improve healthcare in third world countries

--privacy and patients' rights



The group also discussed why iSchools are the appropriate place for this type of research and what unique skills they bring to medical informatics research. A few qualities that stood out were the interdisciplinary nature of iSchools and an outsider's perspective that can build theories from the applied nature of this research.



Researchers from iSchools are removed from the clinical aspects of the field, and yet they are focused on the information needs of both patients and doctors. They can help bridge the MD world and the Ph.D. world by focusing on the social implications of technology.



Several iSchools are launching medical informatics courses or programs within the school or partnering with other programs within their universities. What should those courses and programs look like? Participants suggested that courses should be based in applied work.

Whose Turn Is It? Research on Gaming in the iSchools

Professors Scott Nicholson and Ian MacInnes discussed the role of gaming in teaching skills and content in information schools, and also what role information schools can have in the theory and development of games more generally.

"We got trapped in a bad model of educational game where you roll a die and move a piece and answer a question and 'oh look, we're learning,'" Nicholson said. He'd like to see how new games and their design can expand the possibilities of learning and enjoyment for participants.

He discussed a game he expects to release in October called Tulipmania that teaches students about the bubble stock market. Gamers get to play the wily investors who are all trying to get wealthy when a virus begins wiping out the tulip population. He emphasized the role of games in motivating people to learn.

Marisa Cohn from UC-Irvine pointed out that a rewards system is often part of the motivation equation as well. She said she wouldn't play Free Rice to increase her vocabulary, but rather she plays because the site gives free rice to hungry people based on the number of people playing the word game.

Nicholson flipped that idea to say that many games also "punish" or penalize players who don't follow the game's intended rules. For example, in some virtual military games, if you shoot a friendly soldier because it would be fun, you are penalized.

The workshop participants also discussed the need to look at the interplay between designers and users in gaming. How does that affect a teacher-student relationship, for example? Would teachers play along with their students in the learning game, or are they monitoring or assisting the play of the students?

What's the role of theory in the development and use of games in various settings? Should games be in libraries? Nicholson and MacInnes are currently doing research in gaming to uncover the answers to some of these questions.

Information: The Power to Transform Our World

A group of communications professionals from iSchools across the country led a session Friday morning for faculty and doctoral students at the iConference 2008 and provided sevearl tips on how to improve their presentational, writing, and media relations skills. Here's a quick summary of their presentation.

Charlie DuBois, communications manager at the iSchool at Penn State, discussed iSchools' identity development--the merging of several disciplines computer science, library science, information, telecommunications, and many others in the common study of the intersection of people, information, and technology--and the iCaucus communications plan.

He pointed to the iCaucus web site--ischools.org--as a resource for all people to learn who we are and what we do. He presented the iCaucus' new logo, which all 19 member schools have begun adopting and using on their web sites and in their recruitment/promotional materials. We are building a common nomenclature--iPro and iField. "It's time we get ourselves on people's mental maps," he said.

Ron Dietal from UCLA's National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) offered some presentation tips on the design, delivery, and environment of content.

Design Tips

Tip 1--Don't overwhelm listeners with too much information, especially in a visual format. Focus your content.

Tip 2--Charts and graphs don't necessarily help audience members. Keep them simple. Audience members don't listen well when they're reading or studying a complex slide.

Tip 3--Follow the 666 rule. 6 bullets with 6 or fewer words per bullet, 6 or fewer information points in a graphic.

Delivery Tips

Tip 1--Practice makes perfect.
Tip 2--Learn from effective presenters.
Tip 3--Use eye contact and gestures.
Tip 4--Keep track of time.
Tip 5--Hold the handouts until the end.


Environment Tips

Tip 1--Arrive early to check sound, lighting, technology, furniture layout and temperature.

Kelly Shaffer, director for external relations at the iSchool at University of Pittsburgh, offered guidelines for academic professionals in their presentations and writing.

Writing Tips for Academics

1. Carefully define your question/argument. What is it and why is it important? Then develop thesis statement.
2. Consider your audience, and assess the knowledge level of audience. Journal, conference, grant, student, media. Then use the correct tone and language.
3. Draft an outline and write to it. Know or write your ending first.
4. Proofread your work 24 hours later and/or find someone else to do it.


Marlo Welshons, an assistant dean at the iSchool at University of Illinois, provided general guidelines for handling media relations and responding to media inquiries.

Media Relations Tips

1. Identify your areas of expertise--not necessarily your research interests.
2. Give your communications person a heads up early on research grants or results, upcoming event, or news story.
3. Identify specialized publications in your field. NYTimes will only pick up very few stories. Suggest where the story can be pitched.
4. Justify the newsworthiness of your story. Why should we care or a reporter want to write about it? How is it unusual? Who will benefit and how?
5. Respond promptly to media requests. Ask about their deadlines.
--type of story
--context in which you might be quoted
--reporter's and publication's background
6. Write out your answers/points in advance. You can help direct the interview in this way. Email questions in advance.
7. Assume everything you say will be quoted. Avoid saying "no comment"--don't speak beyond your expertise, but do offer other sources with info for the reporter.
8. Use plain language and use metaphors when helpful.
9. Let your communications person know who interviewed and when the story is scheduled to run.

Information Assurance and Security

Doctoral students Isabelle Fagnot and Shuyuan Mary Ho shared their perspectives on information security issues and challenges on a panel Friday morning that explored possible areas for future iSchool research.

Ho discussed the use of confidentiality and use of language to protect security. She also suggested the possibility in which researchers create an environment to lure hackers into an information "honeypot" and then track their behaviors in this environment. By gathering this data, researchers might be able to better predict hackers' modes of attacks. With this knowledge, researchers could then develop more secure systems.

Professor Kevin DeSouza from the University of Washington's iSchool said there are lots of opportunities for iSchools to research in information security and assurance. "We have an edge to do more than other professional fields in explanatory and predictive models," he said.

Use of Games in Virtual Worlds for Online Education

Professor Martha Garcia-Murillo likes teaching lessons through hands-on projects and group work. But in teaching courses online in an asynchronous learning environmeng, she found it difficult to have a rich interaction with her students in this way. So she ventured into the virtual world and gaming.

In her information policy class, she created a game in the children's virtual world of Habbo Hotel. She assigned a certain role to each student, ranging from a state governor and a university chancellor to a director at AT&T and a marketing professional. Each had to develop their position on a given piece of legislation such as the Spy Act and then argue and negotiate their position in order to pass the legislation.

Through this exercise, she discovered that the virtual world allowed students to learn in a variety of styles and approach the subject matter in a more pleasing manner to them. This forum also encouraged to be risk-takers in a safe environment. Students commented that they were more aggressive in their defense of their position and were less intimidated by their peers in the virtual world.

They also liked the challenge of having to "learn on their feet" in this fast-paced virtual world.

Based on her initial results, Garcia-Murillo said this seemed to be an effective way to increase interaction of online students while still getting the course content across. One downside, however, was the time and energy it took her to develop the game and policymaking scenario, the space, and the instructions for students.

Arts in iSchool Education

How can iSchools incorporate studio-based learning to improve the education offered to their students? Is there a way to incorporate the creative process into information science curricula? How can we balance scientific and artistic knowing?

These are the questions Professor Robert Heckman and doctoral student Jaime Snyder explored in a discussion of their academic paper with a crowd of iSchool faculty and students at the iConference 2008.

Fine arts offer ambiguous content that allows people to comment and build their communications skills, said Snyder, who earned a fine arts degree in painting. She outlined a four-step process used in an art studio that they intend to incorporate in such classes as IST 444 Information Reporting and Presentation. This process includes:

• production




• performance




• interpretation




• critique

This process challenges students to fully defend their opinions and their work. Several other iSchools are interested in this proposal and are also exploring how they can incorporate a similar fine arts-based learning enviornment in their programs.

Dean Elizabeth D. Liddy's Keynote Address

Today, the biggest challenge to people is not finding access to information, but rather it is filtering an ever-increasing abundance of information. "We're facing a serious problem of too much information," Elzabeth D. Liddy, dean of the iSchool at Syracuse, said in her keynote address February 28 at the iConference 2008 on the UCLA campus. "In this world, it takes too much time and attention to find the right information." Liddy described how her research in natural language processing at Syracuse University is helping to make search engines and similar technologies smarter.

The most common nouns in the English language each have approximately seven different meanings, and a verb typically has 11 possible senses. How then can a search engine know which meaning of the word we're seeking to find? How do we find an unbiased way to tag or filter information to yield better search results?

Liddy and her fellow researchers at Syracuse are investigating multiple ways to answers those questions by improving access to, and the retrieval of, information. Some of these include:

• Search


• Question answering


• Information extraction


• Text mining


• Summarization


• Automatic metadata generation


• Content analysis in the humanities and social sciences

Liddy has led several projects in each of these areas, and is using levels of linguistical analysis to create systems with human-like understanding. Her approach to examining languages ranges from morphological, lexical, and syntactical to semantics, discourse, and pragmatic. She is trying to identify the ways in which our use of language reveals the emotive meanings--whether the text is favorable or unfavorable about a given subject.

Challenges for the future of natural language processing include understanding how social and cultural contexts effect language and word meaning, and how to "read between the lines" and discerning connotative meanings.

iConference 2008 --Day One

Last night, there was pre-conference doctoral colloquium for outstanding Ph.D. students who participated in workshops with faculty from iSchools across the country on the UCLA campus.

Of the 30 doctoral students selected to present posters today, 10 are from the iSchool at Syracuse. Here's a quick overview of their presentations:

“Community Innovativeness”: A New Perspective on Knowledge Creation
Benjamin Addom

Syracuse University; bkaddom@syr.edu
Topics: Community techologies and networking, Information technology and services for under-addressed communities
Keywords: Community Informatics, Innovation, Knowledge Generation


Older Adults and Information Technology: The Current State of Research and Future Directions
Johanna L. H. Birkland and Michelle L. Kaarst-Brown
Syracuse University; jlbirkla@syr.edu
Topics: Information technology and services for under-addressed communities
Other Keywords: older adults, seniors, elderly, information technology

Towards a Data and Workflow Collaboratory for Research on Free and Open Source Software and its Development
James Howison, Kevin Crowston, and Megan Conklin
Syracuse University; Elon University; jhowison@syr.edu
Topics: Information infrastructure development, Preserving digital information
Keywords: cyberinfrastructure, repositories

Towards a Model of Determinants of Web Services Platform Adoption by Complementers
Joseph B. Rubleske
Syracuse University; jrublesk@gmail.com
Topics: Information infrastructure development
Keywords: software platforms, web services, adoption, network effects, complementarities

Stability and Change in Self-organizing Technology-supported Groups: Evidence from Genres of Communication in Free and Open Source Software Development
James Howison
Syracuse University; jhowison@syr.edu
Topics: Community techologies and networking
Other Keywords: genres of online communications, distributed teams, organizational change

Deriving Ontology from Folksonomy and Controlled Vocabulary
Miao Chen and Jian Qin
Syracuse University; mchen14@syr.edu
Topics: information organization
Keywords: Ontology, folksonomy, tag, controlled vocabulary, vector space

Proposal of Document Classification with Word Sense Disambiguation
Xiaozhong Liu
Syracuse University; xliu12@syr.edu
Topics: information organization
Other Keywords: Document classification, WSD, NLP

Group Maintenance Behaviors in Self-organizing Distributed Teams
Na Li, Michael John Scialdone, Robert Heckman, and Kevin Crowston
Syracuse University; nli@syr.edu
Topics: Community techologies and networking
Keywords: Group maintenance, self-organizing distributed team, FLOSS, politeness theory, content analysis

Conversation Repository for Participatory Librarianship
Keisuke Inoue
Syracuse University; kinoue@syr.edu
Topics: Community techologies and networking, information organization
Keywords: information seeking behavior, information retrieval, Web 2.0, discourse analysis, conversation theory

Behavorial Parameters of Trustworthiness for Countering Insider Threats
Shuyuan Mary Ho
Syracuse University; smho@syr.edu
Topics: Information assurance and security
Keywords: trustworthiness, insider threats, personnel anomaly detection