In the News

• Super Bowl First: Social media command center (msnbc.com)
  Excerpt:

  It’s the first time any facility like this has been built to manage social media for such a large event,” Jackson said. “We were outgrowing our second office in 18 months at the same time the Host Committee asked for our help, so we designed and built the space with the express intention of using it as the Super Bowl Social Media Command Center, then taking over the space afterwards.”

  The team — which includes about 50 people, led by Raidious’ staff of 16 and students and journalism/telecommunications students from Ball State University, Butler University and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis — will work in the command center 15 hours a day. (Not all at once!)

  One team will focus on social media management and moderation, while the other (most likely the students) will work on content development for posts on all the events and activities that surround the game, as well as things to do in Indianapolis since a big part of the team’s mandate will be promoting the city to newcomers. “It’s Hoosier hospitality for the 21st century,” Jackson said.

• Super Bowl gets social media command center (CNN Tech/Mashable)
  Excerpt:

  Researchers from nearby Ball State University’s Center for Media Design will conduct a study of the command center, analyzing its strengths and weaknesses. Michael Holmes, director of the center’s Insight & Research Unit, wrote in an email that the command center is an example of the “the ubiquity of social media and the absolute necessity for companies, organizations and communities to use these tools to improve their relations with their customer, audiences and citizens.”

  Both Holmes and Jackson said they would not be surprised if the Super Bowl’s first designated social-media war room sets a precedent for other major events.

Additional mentions:

• Social media to play big role in Super Bowl (IBJ News)
• Super Bowl 46 gets its own Social Media Command Center (Fox59.com)

On Campus

• January 27: Emerging Media Digital Feed, hosted by the Emerging Media Initiative, featured presentations by Deborah Middleton (Architecture) and Junfeng Jiao (EM Faculty Fellow, Urban Planning).
• January 27: Miller College of Business Research Colloquium, featured the presentation, “Self-Disclosure at Social Networking Sites: An Exploration through Relational Capitals” by Sushil Sharma, chair of the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management and Rui Chen, Assistant Professor of Information Systems.
• January 30: University Libraries offered the half-hour workshop, “Mobile Technology: Library Research in the Cloud,” demonstrating how the campus community can utilize the Libraries’ mobile services and applications such as Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Docs. Also offered on February 2, 11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Bracken Library 009. Registration is available online.

On the Road

• December: Rich Edwards (Integrated Learning Institute) had two publications in December. His book, The Maltese Touch of Evil: Film Noir and Potential Criticism (co-written by Shannon Clute) was published by University Press of New England/Dartmouth University Press. His chapter, “Flip the Script: Political Mashups as Transgressive Texts” was published in Ted Gournelos and David Gunkel’s Transgression 2.0: Media, Culture, and the Politics of a Digital Age.
• December: Michael Hanley (Institute for Mobile Media Research) was lead author of the article, “How the Smartphone is Changing College Student Mobile Content Usage and Advertising Acceptance: An IMC Perspective,” published in the Fall 2011 issues of the International Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications.
• December 5: Ronald Morris (History) and Paul Gestwicki (Computer Science) were presented with the Outstanding Project of the Year award at the Indiana Historical Society’s Annual Founders Day Dinner and Awards celebration for their historical video game, Morgan’s Raid. Dean Michael Maggiotto from the College of Sciences and Humanities also attended the event. The project was funded by Provost Initiative for Immersive Learning and supported by the departments of History and Computer Science and the Honors College. According to Gestwicki, the faculty members received the award on behalf of their “awesome student team.”
• December 20: Paul Gestwicki presented “Fun, Learning, Games and Responsible Design (in under 20 minutes) at the Indianapolis International Game Developers Association’s fundraiser for Riley and Manning Children’s Hospitals.
• January: Morgan Higby-Flower’s (Art) computer-assisted digital imagery is featured in the exhibition, “Flowers – Tom, Mark, Morgan: Three Generations of Art,” at the Pickens County Museum of Art & History, South Carolina. The exhibition runs through February 9.
• January 6-8: IDIA/HDT showcased dis|PLACE, a Kinect-based interactive installation at the Indian Institute of Technology’s 14th annual TechFest in Bombay, India. The international festival is the largest of its kind in Asia with over 70,000 attendees and past emerging technology showcases by CERN, Oxford, Nissan, Airbus and Google.
• January 28: Brandon Waite (Political Science) gave a presentation about social media at the Political Campaigns Workshop hosted by the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at the Kennedy Branch of the Muncie Public Library. Participants learned the best practices in campaign management including tips on advertising, social networking, filing the proper paperwork, and public polling.
• February 1: Digital Learning Day, hosted by Ball State’s Teacher’s College. The event featured the presentation “Teaching in a Virtual School” by teachers and administrators from the Hoosier Academies Virtual School. Special guest panelists also included Dr. John Keller, assistant superintendent for technology, Indiana Department of Education and Monica Cougan, former teacher and K-12 outreach, Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration; 3:00-5:00 p.m in AJ 175.
• February 1: Unified Technology Support (UTS) hosted the Tech Center Open House, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Bracken Library 101. The event included refreshments, technology demos and giveaways.

Up Next

• February 9: “Highway Coda,” a lit-digital interface combining the poetry and images of Matt Mullins (Former EM Faculty Fellow, English) and the music of Michael Pounds (Music Technology), will be presented in a concert at the national conference of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the US.
• February 24: Emerging Media Digital Feed, hosted by the Emerging Media Initiative, will feature presentations on the topic of simulation by Bo Chang (EM Faculty Fellow, Educational Studies) and Kay Hodson-Carlton (Nursing); 12:15 – 1:30 p.m., Schwartz Complex. RSVP with Erin Moore.
• March 1: Ball State’s Electronic Art and Animation program will host a special presentation by Mark Kennedy, long-time Disney animator and storyboard artist. 7:30 – 9:30 pm, AJ 225. RSVP on Facebook.
• March 12-13: John Fillwalk (IDIA/HDT) will be a keynote presenter at the Blur 2012 Conference on human-computer interaction in Orlando, FL.
• March 26-29: John Fillwalk (IDIA/HDT) will co-present, “The Digital Hadrian’s Villa Project: Virtual World Technology as an Aid to Finding Alignments between Built and Celestial Features” at the “Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Roundtable hosted by the Archaeological Computing Research Group at the University of Southampton, UK.
• May 10-12: Bo Chang (EM Faculty Fellow, Educational Studies) will present her project, Integrating the “Tool of Simulation into the Teaching of Adult Education” at the Fifth Living Learning Knowledge conference in Bonn, Germany.