Incorporating game culture into community driven knowledge networks.
I’m applying to another post-doc position, this summary shook out from that.
In today’s complex, rapidly evolving world, vast amounts of data exist in isolated silos, shared for corporate gain through polarizing algorithms. It is a democratic imperative to make this data become interoperable technically, and more importantly, culturally. Community-driven knowledge networks emerge as a solution, yet face unique social hurdles, particularly when tackling politically charged topics or crossing disciplinary boundaries. While these networks should foster engaging experiences, they often fall short.
MetaGaming acknowledges that gaming is a multifaceted phenomenon that extends into media and everyday life. Considering these metagaming ecologies, similarities emerge between games and community-driven knowledge networks. Both are groups of voluntary actors within the game or community network, as well as their ecosystems comprising broader communities, online forums, social media groups, and content creators producing secondary content. Both game and knowledge ecologies struggle to control how their content is used and engaged with by external parties.
The rapid digital shift in knowledge ecologies is redefining expertise as traditional authority is challenged by the democratization of information. The transition from broadcast to participatory media has enabled users to form new connections and gain insights, but also allowed actors to spread misinformation and manipulation. Scholars must recognize that expertise is no longer exclusive to us, and that the new knowledge landscape is characterized by fluid, dynamic communities. Rather than considering knowledge as a rigorous cornerstone, we need to adapt and can learn from how game culture maintains community. In order to balance structure and freedom, accountability must accompany this evolution of knowledge alliances.
In this project I will focus on one component of this emerging community-knowledge ecology: how incorporating elements of game culture and relevant social sciences into digital knowledge infrastructures can cultivate curiosity, enabling individuals to engage critically with information. The development of integrated and interoperable knowledge infrastructures to provide the responsive information interface is a core component but beyond my expertise, and hence will rely on collaborative efforts, outlined in the Industry of Integrations (IOI) approach and implemented in the related AquaSavvy project.
In the application I spend the next two pages talking about Sci-Curious. Then I explain what IOI is a bit more, and finish with some thoughts towards acquiring additional and continuing research funding, as requested by the application. I add some bits of that here.
Integrated knowledge infrastructures
The Industry of Integrations (IOI) approach was designed to provide an interoperable system, in the context of integrating virtual worlds. IOI aims to transform gaming by, rather than waiting for corporations to integrate their virtual worlds, establish a player-driven ecosystem, where anyone with API knowledge of a system can build and monetize their integrations, bridging diverse platforms and dissolving sandbox boundaries. IOI shifts interoperability from corporate control to communities, fostering a grassroots industry of user-generated content (UGC) integrations that amplify creativity across gaming landscapes. IOI’s decentralized approach empowers players, modders, and small developers to connect UGC-supporting systems—linking characters, assets, or tools across games. This drives inclusivity, digital transformation, and sustainable innovation in gaming culture.
In a similar way, an industry of integrations is applicable to physical world related Open Data Infrastructures (ODIs) and Collaborative Data Platforms (CDPs). For ODIs, this would be at high levels, or knowledge infrastructures more broadly, and for CDPs, at more local levels e.g. through civic technoscience .The combination of IOI and civic technoscience enables a citizen-driven ecosystem where people can build integrations, bridging scientific databases between different disciplines, and more innovatively bridge scientific databases and game platforms, allowing the incorporation of physical world elements into virtual environments, be they serious games, casual games, virtual worlds or simulations. By implementing the required software infrastructure and pushing for an industry of integrations related to science, it is possible to bridge science and creativity, dissolving the boundaries between laypeople and experts, and building new knowledge alliances. This is what my collaborators and I understand as the Metaverse.
Looking forward:
This project is part of a larger humanities and technology approach. While this MetaCulture project encompasses the humanities approach, the technology infrastructure itself is a separate project inspired by OpenStreetMap, to become a kind of people-centric “OpenResourceMap” that integrates and interoperates with existing knowledge infrastructures.
Ultimately, my vision is to provide a rigorous social understanding to ground the design of pervasive games. My big objective is to fundamentally change the ways people interact with each other and with the natural environment. I hope to extend the games culture perspective to include the metagaming part, perhaps laying the foundations for an emergent game culture field. This would address topics including digital-human-nature interactions, people-centric digital twins and physical world elements in casual games. Building on the EU Green Data directive towards green and digital transformation for effective environmental data sharing in Europe, there’s potential to develop large-scale data projects that integrate game culture and social science perspectives on data use and interoperability. Examples of potential applications include the EU’s Digital Twin Earth (DESTIN-E) and the Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTOs), among others. This approach responds to the need of research projects to become more interdisciplinary, while addressing concerns raised by hyperreality, at actionable levels. One current application is the informal development of a broad concept around bioregions inspired by the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere network by an international group of collaborators (working googledoc).