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PUNK TO FUNK
How ICT can help to build inclusive communities

Aim of this talk
To analyse the current web 2.0 paradigm, its strengths
and limitations within the context of migrant users
To present a future scenario which may help to bypass
current limitations

Why Punk to Funk?

Punk
Do It Yourself mentality
Horizontal way or organising work
Anti-autoritarian
Easy, intuitive

Funk
Emotional
Community grounding
Entertaining

The Web 2.0 Paradigm

Web 1.0 versus Web 2.0
Web 1.0 Web 2.0
- The portal - Social Networks
- Interactivity - Friend of a Friend
- Artificial intelligence - Wisdom of crowds

Punk/Funk elements
in Web 1.0
Everybody can become a generator of content
Intermediaries are no longer needed
Total control of a project, from beginning to end
Interactivity transforms the experience of accessing
information

Limitations of the web 1.0
paradigm
Ability to post content was limited. Portals were
designed for consumers, not for creators
Interactivity didnt meet the user’s expectations
Technology wasn’t ready to deliver expected content at
the speed and reliability desired

Punk/Funk elements
in Web 2.0
Collective construction of data (the user as a co-
developer)
Collective Intelligence
Data Remix
Simplicity in design
The virtuous circle

Limitations of the web 2.0
paradigm
Are social networks really social?
Is it really open to everybody?
What happened to interactivity?

When instrumental
knowledge is not enough

A bunch of links to “friends”
is not equivalent to a culture

Social Networks and
migrants
Formal access is granted but access to the culture
lifeform behind it is not.
Much content delivered by social networks doesn’t
make sense to people coming from developing
countries, with a whole other set of needs and wants.
Common social networks tend to be exclusive
They might become too formal and therefore too
abstract to understand

Individual versus community
Enlightment: individual quest for liberty
Romanticism: artistic genius
Science: methodological individualism
Ethics: Negative concept of freedom

The inmunitary paradigm
Biopolitics
Roberto Esposito

Hobbes’ Leviathan
All citizens united in the body of the king
Nation is now inmune to violence, and the state is the
only one allowed to use it

Immunological paradigm
Communitas versus immunitas. Common root -->
munus
munus= the gift that has to be returned to the
community
The immune= The one that doesn’t need to return the
munus

Immunological paradigm II
Modernity requires subjectivity
Subjectivity requires immunology
Every state, every community is build around a munus
and ways to get immune to it. Even virtual ones.

Globaimmunization
Globalitzation offers formal access to the world, but
makes certain cultural contexts immune to the migrants

Immunologic alternatives
Establishing inclusive immunologic processess: How
mothers passes their immunity to their sons.
(re)construction of individuals in different immunisation
processes

Building communities that
Are inclusive and systemic
Have a proper lifeform, content, not just formal
Allow multiple identity roles
There is no tension between being an individual and a
member of the community
Facilitate intercultural dialogue

What is the more feasible
scenario for that?

What is the more feasible
scenario for that?
Video Games

Why Videogames?
Sense of community
Flow
Embodiment through simulation
Continuous immediate feedback
Empathy
Multiple identities

An Example: World of
Warcraft

An Example: World of
Warcraft
World of Warcraft (WOW) can be used
To teach how to work in group
To develop a sense of responsibility
To create empathy

Flow
A mental state in which times freezes, and only present
matters
Subjects under flow are deeply focused and remenber
things better
Flow facilitates empathy
Flow is easily achieved with video-games

Embodiment
Any community, to make sense is grounded in specific
time and space. Formal communities lack that type of
embodiment and therefore are quite limited
By means of simulations, videogames can give the
impression of full embodiment, therefore facilitating the
construction of full-fledged communities.

Multiple identities
Videogames facilitate the construction of multiple
identities. Which helps
To promote more than one role
To make communities more inclusive
To create empathy by means of role changing

Empathy
What happens in movie or a book, happens to
someone else
What happens in a videogame, happens to me

The future of education is a
game
Thank you for your attention
QUESTIONS?