Many consider Beijing 2008 as the first digital Olympics; I agree as it was the first Olympics after the launch of YouTube, Facebook and the iPhone. At a time Beijing was the most-watched Games in history, thanks to YouTube which generated 16.5 million views through IOC’s digital channel (International Olympic Committee).
In the past 4 years digital media has evolved significantly; that surely will make London 2012 take the digital sports experience to another level and make it the first mobile digital Olympics. Smartphones and tablets now outsell desktop and laptops. Today there are more than 800 million people on Facebook, 200 million on Twitter and 10 million on Foursquare (Source: Management Today) and more than 35 hours of video is uploaded every minute on YouTube (Source: Infographic: OneLily) , which makes YouTube the second most visited search engine after Google. Mobile, social media and Internet interaction have become essentials embedded into our daily behaviour and as such will play a vital role in London 2012’s success.
There is a lot that business can learn from the gaming industry and the floodgates are about to open. Make sure you watch this amazing trend!
Being an avid gamer myself, I’m very excited about how gaming is moving from play into work. This fall, Cisco took our worldwide sales conference from an event where we used to fly 20,000 people into Vegas to hosting it online. This virtual environment was a great place for us to use video, web sharing, badges and quizzes to inspire, collaborate and teach.
In this video, I join Stanford University communications professor Byron Reeves and Mary Jo Kim, CEO of “Shufflebrain”, to discuss this exciting new world of gaming. Here is the video.
“Mixing work and play”
I also want to share this week’s Wall Street Journal piece about “mixing work and play.” Can you really play on the job? The article describes what is happening in some large companies like IBM and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.
Many of the same motivations and tactics used in your kid’s Xbox game are being used in management training, data entry and just plain old brainstorming. Show up for a meeting on time or complete an assignment? You get a badge.
“The diversity of the workforce at the London Olympics will be “unprecedented” and will be part of the lasting legacy left by the games”, Stephen Frost, head of diversity and inclusion at Locog (the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. Read More »
Don’t worry I am not trying to assimilate you! This post is about a technology while not new in any way has re-caught my attention as of late. Yes I am talking about Brain-Computer Interfaces or BCIs for short.
What is a BCI you ask? Well according to Wikipedia:
A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain–machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a brain and an external device. BCIs are often aimed at assisting, augmenting or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions.
BCIs research began in the 1970s and the focus quickly shifted to neuroprosthetics applications. The first implant of a neuroprosthetics application in a human was in the mid-90s. However neuroprosthetics applications are not the same as BCIs as neuroprosthetics usually attaches a device to the nervous system and BCIs connect the brain (nervous system) directly to a computer. Neuroprosthetics can be attached to any part of the nervous system including peripheral nerves but BCIs are focused on attachment to the central nervous system specifically. The two terms are interchangeable as they focus on similar effects such as restoring sight, movement, hearing, etc.
The work that has been done with BCIs to restore capabilities to people is admirable. However what recently got me re-interested in BCIs is their integration with more common tasks such as typing, playing a game and navigating a virtual world.
In March of this year a team of researchers from IMEC, the Holst Center and the lab of neuro- and psychophysiology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven introduced Mind Speller, a thought-to-text device. I am all ready an active user of speech-to-text tools such as Dragon Naturally Speak so thought-to-text is very intriguing to me. Read More »
I recently read a fascinating story about a Minecraft enthusiast who is pushing the limits of the game world. By gathering elements that hold special properties in the game, known as Redstone, and then pulverizing it into Redstone Dust, players are able to then create wires and simple circuits. Some players have taken to these circuits, and have begun creating larger and larger boards. Then, some have gone further still.
