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March 24, 2009
Omnibus Ada Lovelace Day 09 Post [with an update*]
tag: ALD09post
I pledged to post an entry about a woman in science and technology on Ada Lovelace Day. I have previously published some links to women who I admire on P4Games.org/blog. These posts harmonize with values of Ada Lovelace Day in that they were meant to showcase role models in game development and game studies for all audiences. I repost them here to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day
People whom I admire for their accomplishments in Game Development and Game Studies, who happen to be women:
Jane McGonical and Avant Game
Jane McGonigal is a game designer, a games researcher, and a future forecaster.- MIT Technology Review named her one of the top 35 innovators changing the world through technology, for her role in pioneering the field of alternate reality gaming.
- Harvard Business Review called her theory of "alternate reality business" one of the "Top 20 Breakthrough Ideas of 2008."
- Her alternate reality games have received the Innovation Award from the International Game Developers Association, the Gaming Award from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and Year in Review honors from The New York Times
- She has a PhD from UC Berkeley in performance studies, and is an expert on applying game design and game theory to real work and real business. She has consulted and developed internal game workshops for leading technology companies in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., as well as more than a dozen Fortune Global 500 Companies.
Celia Pearce
Celia Pearce is a game designer, author, researcher, teacher, curator and artist, specializing in multiplayer gaming and virtual worlds, independent, art, and alternative game genres, as well as games and gender. She began designing interactive attractions and exhibitions in 1983, and has held academic appointments since 1998. She received her Ph.D. in 2006 from SMARTLab Centre, then at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London. She currently is Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at Georgia Tech, where she also directs the Experimental Game Lab and the Emergent Game Group. Her game designs include the award-winning virtual reality attraction Virtual Adventures (for Iwerks and Evans & Sutherland) and the Purple Moon Friendship Adventure Cards for Girls. She is the author or co-author of numerous papers and book chapters, as well as The Interactive Book (Macmillan 1997). She has also curated new media, virtual reality, and game exhibitions and is currently Festival Chair for IndieCade, an international independent games festival and showcase series. She is a co-founder of the Ludica women’s game collective. Find out more about Dr. Celia Pearce at her website: http://cpandfriends.com/?p=54Mary Flanagan
Mary Flanagan holds MFA and MA degrees from the University of Iowa, a BA in Film from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Ph.D. in Computational Media focusing on activist game design from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, UK.Cindy Poremba
Cindy Poremba is a digital media theorist, producer and curator researching documentary and videogames through Concordia University's Doctoral Humanities program. She holds a Master of Applied Science degree in Interactive Arts from Simon Fraser University, as well as a Hon. BA from the University of Waterloo in Rhetoric & Professional Writing. Her work focuses on rhetoric, feminist and documentary theory as it intersects with cultural memory, recombinant poetics, creative constructionism and aesthetics through digital practice - particularly in the context of games and robotics. Find out more about Cindy Poremba at her website: http://www.shinyspinning.com/Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen* and That Game Company
That Game Company was founded in 2006 by Jenova Chen* and Kellee Santiago. In that short time it has already published*[UPDATE: Brinstar at http://www.acidforblood.net/about.html kindly pointed out that I am suffering from gender confusion and have inadvertently reassigned Jenova Chen's gender from male to female. For the record, Jenova Chen is male. I apologize to Jenova Chen and to the readers of this post for the confusion. It is not my intention to diminish either the Ada Lovelace Day celebration, nor the accomplishments of That Game Company. Thank you to Brinstar for pointing out my error.
More luminaries to cover
In reviewing last year's posts I find that two standouts - who also happen to be women - were missing: Katie Salen and Tracy Fullerton. Their accomplishments are too significant to do any kind of justice in such a small amount of space. I pledge to devote an entry to each in the near future.Lady Ada Lovelace Day on the web:
- http://findingada.com
- ttp://www.pledgebank.com/AdaLovelaceDay
- http://twitter.com/FindingAda
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/findingada
- http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=47550446005
Posted by Rafael Fajardo at March 24, 2009 12:00 PM