Author: sunilagni

Creativity

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Henry Jenkins interviewed David Gauntlett, author of Making is Connecting: The Social Meaning of Creativity, from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Full interview can be found here.

Regarding the importance of the internet to creativity:

Having easy access to people who share their passions means that individuals can be inspired by each other’s work and ideas – which can lead to a positive spiral of people doing better and better things and inspiring more and more activity by others. This could happen before the internet, in clubs and societies, but it would tend to be slower, and the inspiring inputs would most likely be fewer, and less diverse.

MACT Project Update

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I’ve used my third elective to work on my literature review, which will be used in my final MACT research project. You can find my application form here [PDF]. This includes my list of readings and assignments approved by the MACT program.

I started with an initial reading list, with the work of Henry Jenkins and Axel Bruns as foundational concepts. After assessing this initial list, I conducted a systematic search for literature to understand what has been done on my research topic.

In terms of sports fans and participatory culture, the initial readings I came across fell into three categories:

  1. Research that examined the consumption of sports by fans. This would look into what and how much they were consuming.
  2. Research that examined why sports fans behaved the way they did. This is where the psychology theories would be applied. Why do fans get aggressive? Why and how do they identify with teams and players? That kind of stuff.
  3. Research that examined how fans engage with sports. Video games, fantasy sports and activity on message boards are examples of fan engagement.

Based on these three categories, I think fan engagement is the one closely related to what I’m pursuing. Plus, not much has been done on it.

Then I did a systematic search of all the literature available to explore fan engagement even further. It will be these readings, along with Jenkins’ and Bruns’ work, that will make up the bulk of the final literature review due in August.

NHL Needs to Provide More Data

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It would be in the best interest of the NHL to begin generating and providing more advanced data for fans to work with.

The amount of hockey statistics has come a long way. Along with goals, assists, points and penalties, the league now provides even greater details, breaking down results by period, by division, arena, etc.

Fans have demonstrated a high demand of statistics which are used in debates with other fans, their own blogs/commentary, fantasy leagues and gambling. Some have even used statistics to create visual representation of the game. For example, TimeOnIce (ex. game number 30311) shows which players were playing with and against  to give fans an idea of who the coaches tried to match up.

To really stay relevant and remain a valuable source for information, the NHL needs to join the community of fans who use stats regularly for their own purposes. Two things need to be done:

1. Expand the amount of data being captured. For example, tracking player mistakes, similar to what the Cult of Hockey does, could be done. For an example of advanced hockey analytics, see BehindTheNet.

2. Make the data easy to work with and share. Provide the statistics, but also tutorials on what it is and how to use and share it. Anyone with basic computer skills should be able to learn some export and embedding functions to use the information on their blogs.

The object of these statistics should be to encourage fans to do something with it. Hockey fans are more than just consumers. Blogs and fan videos demonstrate the creativity of a community passionate about their sport. Sport fantasy social clubs show us that fans are involved and committed. Some even bet on sports! Look at this, CompareTheBets’ List of Promo Codes. From that, we can all deduce that lots of people do it!  It’s also imperative to reach out to new fans and teach them about the game. The best way learn is to be active and engaged with the material available.

If the NHL doesn’t provide the content fans need to create their own material, it won’t matter. Fans will find a way to get things done. The league can either be a part of the community’s movement towards active fandom or a spectator of creative content.

Social Media and the Vancouver Riot

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Source: Vancouver Sun

After losing to the Boston Bruins in game seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, people took to the streets of Vancouver and began a riot. Stories and photos can be found here:

Globe and Mail

Vancouver Sun

CBC News

Mashable

BBC News

While watching the CTV News live feed, as well as seeing images on Twitter and Google Realtime, I couldn’t help but notice how many people stood around the madness and took pictures with their smart phones. One can assume that these were used to share over social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) but also to send to friends who weren’t there.

Social media tools are higly personable. In an attempt to capture that personal experience of an event such as these post-game riots, people stood in the masses and risked their well being. To let people know that they were there, people slowed down police efforts and contributed to the escalation of violence and chaos.

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Social Media Manager in Professional Sports

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Professional sports has really embraced social media to promote its product, connect with fans and release news and updates regarding teams and players. Of course there’s a trade-off to the information that they, being the league, teams, and players release online. Professional sports entities also use the online fan community to gather information about their clients and keep tabs on what’s being said and done.

Realizing how important it is to interact with fans and utilize the information available, professional sports teams want to maximixe the opportunity.

The Edmonton Oilers are looking for a manager of social media. Job description and requirements are below:

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Vancouver Canucks Fans & Punjabi Boliyan

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Not a Canucks fan but appreciate sports fans and convergence culture.

After the Canucks won game 5 of the conference final against the Sharks, celebrations broke out across the west coast. Around Scott Road, where there’s a huge Punjabi population, a Canucks fan broke out into boliyan, a Punjabi folk verse to celebrate.

Boliyan are prominent around celebrations, such as weddings. Here, the fan decided to blend his culture with hockey and came out with this medley.

Translation of what he said…..

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Fan Experience of Indian Premier League Cricket

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In April 2011, Sportsnet began airing live Indian Premier League cricket games. I had heard of the IPL and thought I’d give it a chance. The cricket league runs for a couple months and has rules designed to complete games faster and make the game more entertaining. Teams are made up of players from around the world, giving the league an international flair.

The first thing that stuck out to me was the high quality of production. The games were available in high-definition with a lot of detailed graphics and information during games. The camera angles gave the viewer a full perspective of the physical pitch and the players. Statictics were presented throughout, giving viewers a ton of data to work with and think about. For example, the “wagon wheel” would animate where shots have been made and what the general tendencies of players are. Games were fast paced with lots of storylines, both on and off the pitch.

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Convergence Culture

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Dr. Henry Jenkins’ book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide is a must read for anyone studying fans and participatory culture. Here’s a summary from ConvergenceCulture.org.

CONVERGENCE CULTURE explores the ways relations between media producers and consumers are changing. Right now, it is assumed that consumers will participate in the flow of media but there is wide disagreement about the terms of that participation. As a result of digital media, consumers are acting as communities – what Pierre Levy calls “collective intelligence” – rather than simply as individuals. In this way, media consumption becomes a profoundly social process.

Ultimately, Jenkins argues that the debate over convergence will redefine the face of American popular culture. Industry leaders see opportunities to direct content across many channels to increase revenue and broaden markets. At the same time, consumers envision a liberated public sphere, free of network controls, in a decentralized media environment. Sometimes corporate and grassroots efforts reinforce each other, creating closer, more rewarding relations between media producers and consumers. Sometimes these two forces are at war.