Stephanie O'Donnell
- @StephODonnell
- | She / Her
WILDLABS
Topic: Internet of Elephants - Gaming for massive conservation impact
Date: Thursday, 29th September
Time: 10-12 (talk and discussion from 10:30)
Location: Room 3.41, The David Attenborough Building, Cambridge
Our next gathering of the informal Cambridge Conservation Tech Coffee + Cake group is going to be this Thursday 29th September, from 10am -12 noon in room 3.41 of the David Attenborough Building. Anyone is welcome to join us!
The first 20 minutes or so will be fairly informal, a chance to mingle and meet other people who are working in the conservation tech space here in Cambridge. We'll then gather and hear from Chris Sandbrook (@csandbrook) and Rafael Mares about a project they're both involved in: Internet of Elephants.
For those who were at our very first meetup back in January, you might remember Chris Sandbrook sharing his interest in gaming for conservation, and specifically asking for help bringing to life a long held idea (shared with Bill Adams) about using live animal movement data to power an app or game in which players could race wild animals. As it turned out, another WILDLABS.NET member Gautam Shah (@mygshah) had been hard at work on a similar idea with Internet of Elephants.
Chris, Bill and Gautam are now collaborating and have been joined by a growing team which now includes Raff, who is responsible for managing the wildlife movement data that underpins the game. They are currently building the first versions of their prototypes, and are looking to invite early users to play and provide feedback.
Chris and Raff are going to share with us the background to the project, where they are now at with the prototype, what they are planning in the next stages of the project, and how you can help. I also imagine the discussion will touch on the question of how games can result in conservation impact on the ground, and it will be interesting to hear Raff and Chris' thoughts on this.
If you are going to come along, it would be helpful for planning purposes if you send me an rsvp – just reply to thread or drop me an email at [email protected].
I look forward to hearing more from Chris and Raff, and to catching up with everyone later this week!
Steph
28 September 2016 7:31pm
Only just found out about the meetup, so a little too late to join you in person sadly. However I'd been keen to look at how our We are the Rangers Minecraft experience could absorb the same data sets you're playing with to recreate the animals in-game. We're experimenting with similar concepts, but let's see what's possible. Will you be recording the meetup?
Twitter: @al2ka
29 September 2016 1:41pm
Hi Al,
I'm sorry, I should have dropped you an invite - I'd assumed that Cambridge would be a little too far to come for you. In any case, it was a really interesting meetup, with a lively discussion about the possibilities and practicalities of using wildlife data to power games. Our group had a variety of backgrounds including wildlife tracking, remote sensing, social science, game software design, and gaming graphic design, so there was a real diversity of experience and perspectives in the room, which made for a really interesting, practical discussion. There was a lot of enthusasim for the idea of using real data, and we were particularly interested in whether the data needed to be live to be effective - coming to the agreement there were benefits and difficulties with using live datasets vs delayed but complete datasets.
We were able to have a look at some of the prototypes IoE have developed so far, and we're really excited to get a chance to play with the early versions of the games when they need early users. @mygshah - you guys are going to be looking for early users very soon, is that right?
There wasn't a recording of the discussion, but IoE are going to be writing at least one (hopefully more!) articles for our resources area, so I imagine these piece(s) will cover off a lot of the points we discussed.
Al - perhaps we could organise a London based meetup or another Cambridge based one about gaming for conservation in the near future if you were interested? Alex and Katy (the two developers who joined us, both of whom are connected into the larger cambridge gaming/tech scene) are keen to connect with conservation organisations who are interested in gaming, as are @mygshah , @csandbrook and Raff from internet of elephants. I can definitely see some complimentary interests between what @Peter+Jacobs and you have been working on and lots of folks in the wildlabs network, and it would be great to get you all in the same room together. I'm happy to help facilitate this if you are all interested?
Cheers,
Steph
10 October 2016 9:09am
Thanks, Stephanie! We're really excited to invite you and everyone else interested in innovative solutions for wildlife conservation to play with the early versions of our game. Indeed, Internet of Elephants is now seeking test users.
We are in the process of designing and building the first prototype of online games to bring 20 million people all over the world closer to real wild animals. Not only will players connect to animals in a completely new way - playing the game will generate meaningful revenue that is directed back to participating wildlife conservation organizations.
If you want to help us co-create the prototype over the next few months, we would love to have your participation, input and help to make this mission a reality. Whether you are a wildlife conservationist, gamer, technologist, or entrepreneur, become a test user by signing up at http://www.internetofelephants.com/humans-wanted
Cheers,
Corinna
Alasdair Davies
Arribada Initiative
10 October 2016 9:23am
Hi Corinna / Steph,
That sounds great. Perhaps we actually have a small get together at our place (ZSL London Zoo) with the Conservation Tech team to test the game, chat over coffee and get things started and we can plan the larger event you described Steph. I've signed up to the alpha test list so will get started.
Thanks for sharing Corinno,
Alasdair
Alasdair Davies
Arribada Initiative