Jane McGonigal is something of a wunderkind in the games world. I don’t pretend to understand everything she does, but two things I like are the underwriting ethic of ‘meaningful play’, and the idea of ubiquitous games that are embedded in ‘real world’ spaces. She recently finished her PhD (in her spare time) and this is her next project:

Can a game developer be nominated for a Nobel Prize in one of the sciences by the year 2032? That’s my plan, which I presented this past weekend at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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My goal over the next decade is to support the development of a massively multi-citizen science through massively collaborative games (think: alternate reality games with real-world data embedded inside.)

I think that this kind of unashamedly immodest ambition for intellectual work is just what we need. It makes me want to play already.

Anne Galloway on Nigel Thrift on affect, forms of communication and the mobilisation of publics. Includes gorgeous religious paintings that even a Protestant like me can appreciate.

And via Danny’s comment at Mel’s blog, here’s a video of Sir Ken Robinson in action, apparently delivering the final address at a conference.

You can also download the video here. Sir Ken is the special guest star at this week’s Digital Literacies symposium at one of Brisbane’s newest Shiny Buildings, the State Library of Queensland. I’m speaking at it (about Flickr and ludic literacies) along with most of the other researchers here at the Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation.