This document summarizes a 1-year empirical study of user-generated content funded by the National Science Foundation. The study included online surveys of 411 video game players and 46 industry professionals, as well as content analysis of 3,300 pieces of UGC across various platforms. Key findings include: 1) The majority of gamers create and enjoy UGC but only half share it online, 2) Motivations for UGC differ based on demographics, 3) Most UGC is original rather than referencing existing works, and 4) More flexible creative tools correlate with higher copyright issues in UGC while constrained tools produce less referential works.
1) The document discusses how the rise of user-generated content and digital networks has distributed creative authorship powers widely, challenging traditional copyright industry business models.
2) It analyzes different approaches copyright law and online platforms have taken in response, such as expanding rights and enforcement, regulating technology, or contracting away user copyright interests.
3) The document argues that in a world of widespread distributed authorship, copyright law should focus on attribution, clear notice requirements, shorter terms, and funding creative works as a commons.
The document discusses the benefits of meditation for reducing stress and anxiety. Regular meditation practice can help calm the mind and body by lowering heart rate and blood pressure. Making meditation a part of a daily routine, even if just 10-15 minutes per day, can have mental and physical health benefits over time by helping people feel more relaxed and focused.
Africa offers a variety of unique holiday destinations, from coastal resorts in Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa to wildlife reserves in Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and South Africa that provide opportunities to see iconic African animals in their natural habitats. Cultural experiences abound, including learning about ancient civilizations in Egypt, experiencing local music, art, and cuisine in Senegal and Morocco, or joining celebrations for holidays and festivals across the diverse continent.
SSO refers to Single Sign-On, which allows a user to access multiple applications and systems with a single set of login credentials. It authenticates users through an authentication system that stores credentials in a centralized directory. SSO simplifies access for users while improving security by reducing the number of usernames and passwords that must be stored and remembered.
This short note expresses gratitude and love for close friends and best friends who are always supportive and caring. The writer thanks them for being there and for their love, saying they mean the world. They promise their love and friendship will last always and forever.
1) The document discusses how the rise of user-generated content and digital networks has distributed creative authorship powers widely, challenging traditional copyright industry business models.
2) It analyzes different approaches copyright law and online platforms have taken in response, such as expanding rights and enforcement, regulating technology, or contracting away user copyright interests.
3) The document argues that in a world of widespread distributed authorship, copyright law should focus on attribution, clear notice requirements, shorter terms, and funding creative works as a commons.
The document discusses the benefits of meditation for reducing stress and anxiety. Regular meditation practice can help calm the mind and body by lowering heart rate and blood pressure. Making meditation a part of a daily routine, even if just 10-15 minutes per day, can have mental and physical health benefits over time by helping people feel more relaxed and focused.
Africa offers a variety of unique holiday destinations, from coastal resorts in Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa to wildlife reserves in Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and South Africa that provide opportunities to see iconic African animals in their natural habitats. Cultural experiences abound, including learning about ancient civilizations in Egypt, experiencing local music, art, and cuisine in Senegal and Morocco, or joining celebrations for holidays and festivals across the diverse continent.
SSO refers to Single Sign-On, which allows a user to access multiple applications and systems with a single set of login credentials. It authenticates users through an authentication system that stores credentials in a centralized directory. SSO simplifies access for users while improving security by reducing the number of usernames and passwords that must be stored and remembered.
This short note expresses gratitude and love for close friends and best friends who are always supportive and caring. The writer thanks them for being there and for their love, saying they mean the world. They promise their love and friendship will last always and forever.
2014-15 regular season free throws statistics of all NBA players w.docxfelicidaddinwoodie
2014-15 regular season free throws statistics of all NBA players with at least 10 free throw attempted
http://www.nbaminer.com/shooting-ability-and-size/
Sheet1GBA334 Group ProjectGroup- Points awardedRequirementsDescription54321MissingIntroductionExplained the projectExplained the purposeIntegrated core value of excellencePresented main research questionsPreviewed main pointsDataDescribed data sourceDescribed time frameProperly referenced sourcesIdentified all independent variablesIdentified all dependent variablesDescriptive Stats - 30 points totalnThe stats you report will vary withmeanyour analysis method. Include your standard deviationQM data printout and tell me what in Minthe data you are analyzing for yourQ1results. This is 15 points of this Mediansection. See regression exampleQ3below.MaxSkewnessRegression stats neededregression equation(This area is 15 points of the 30coefficient of determination-r²point section total.)F testMethodologyTests described adequatelyResults properly discussed.ConclusionWrap-upTakeaways discussedScore= /100 = /200
Sheet2
Sheet3
A better question may be “Is there a relationship between height and free throw statistics?” You could then use height as the dependent variable. Your three categories can be the independent variable 1. sum of free throws attempted, 2. sum of free throws made, 3. average free throw percentage as three different independent variables. This will determine if there is a relationship between various free throw stats and height.
You will want to run an individual regression model on each independent variable and then one combined multiple regression model.
THIS IS A GROUP PROJECT AND YOUR’RE RESPONSIBLE FOR GIBBONS PART OF THE PROJECT. THIS IS A VERY BIG PART OF MY GRADE AND I HAVE NO ROOM FOR ERROR.
Assignments-http://www.nbaminer.com/shooting-ability-and-size/
Please refer to this link as a general guideline for written summary examples.Williams- gather all data for each height range category, and position category using the data source- write one page paper on findings- make sure your data answers the questions on the data portion of the grading rubix found in the email. Data Source: http://stats.nba.com/Gibbons- Position vs. Free Throw Shooting Percentage; use the data to run an individual regression model on independent variable and then one combined multiple regression model- write two page paper on findings.
Grant- use the data to run an individual regression model on independent variable and then one combined multiple regression model- write two page paper on findings.
Rios- Use the data to find the mean, standard deviation, etc (use data description found in grading rubix)-write two page paper on findings
DeNovo- Introduction, Take-aways, incorporate Saint Leo Core Values-5 pages
Please remember that we must evaluate each group member and turn in the forms with our final project. The forms are in the email with the subject: group evalu ...
Collective Intelligence Meets the Political AgendaEDV Project
The Web is changing the way citizens engage with the political agenda. Following the emergence of social media, political events are now surrounded by real-time reactions and analyses from viewers, political actors, mainstream media and other social organisations.
We anticipate a future in which events such as election debates will be enriched by an unpredictable range of additional information streams from individuals and organisations, from additional live reaction as events unfold, to retrospectively added resources which can be more reflective, and hence possibly higher quality. The EPSRC Election Debate Visualisation (EDV)
Project is aimed at developing an online video replay platform during the 2015 UK General
Election, in which party leadership debates are linked to customisable visualisation channels to enhance viewers’ experience and hopefully encourage citizen engagement.
In this talk we will introduce serious games as games which purpose is not only amusement and can be effectively used for educational or training purposes. This kind of games are also frequently named as educational games or even as game-like simulations. We will describe the general characteristics of serious games and how they are used in several domains (e.g. military, medicine), describing their main advantages (e.g. engagement, student motivation) and some of the shortcomings that prevent a wider generalization in educational settings (e.g. cost, deployment). We will also describe new emerging trends in the field of serious games such as gaming for solving scientific problems or how the application of learning analytics techniques can improve and simplify serious games application in different domains.
This document provides an overview of digital media research being conducted in the Interdisciplinary Computing and Digital Media Lab at International Communications. It introduces four faculty members and summarizes some of their key research projects. Philip Ramsey's research focuses on civic engagement online. Barry Ip conducts longitudinal analyses of video game reviews and studies realistic human characters in games. Bjarke Liboriussen interviews Chinese industry professionals and studies casual online gaming and representations in digital games. Paul Martin's work centers around interpretation and spectatorship in digital games.
The document discusses copyright law and fair use guidelines for educators. It provides a brief history of US copyright law and recent developments. Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted works for educational purposes without permission, but the analysis is complex. The amount used and potential market impact are particularly important. The TEACH Act expanded fair use for online education. The document analyzes several case studies and provides guidance on determining fair use for classroom activities, reserves, and online materials. Users are advised to consult Carroll University's copyright policy and get help from the library to avoid infringement.
Mining the Social Web - Lecture 1 - T61.6020 lecture-01-slidesMichael Mathioudakis
This document provides an introduction to mining data from the social web. It discusses various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Flickr that enable users to produce, consume and interact with content. The document explores what insights can be gained from analyzing the large amounts of social data, such as understanding social behavior, political sentiment, how cities are experienced, and career trends. It outlines existing research on analyzing data from Twitter and photos to detect events, trends, opinions and more. The document concludes by discussing potential student project ideas involving hypothesis testing, exploring questions, solving problems, or analyzing interesting datasets.
Social Network Analysis: applications for education researchChristian Bokhove
What is your talk about?
This seminar will illustrate various social network analysis (SNA) techniques and measures and their applications to research problems in education. These applications will be illustrated from our own research utilising a range of SNA techniques.
What are the key messages of your talk?
We will cover some of the ways in which network data can be collected and utilised with other research data to examine the relationships between network measures and other attributes of individuals and organisations, and how it can be linked to other approaches in multiple methods studies.
What are the implications for practice or research from your talk?
SNA is an approach that draws from theories of social capital to study the relational ties that exist between actors or institutions in a specific context. Such ties might include learning exchanges or advice-seeking interactions. SNA techniques allow researchers to incorporate the interdependence of participants within their research questions, whereas many traditional techniques assume our participants, and their responses to our questions, are independent of one another.
The Hidden Data of Social Media Rearch_CSS-winter-symposiumKatrin Weller
This document summarizes preliminary results from interviews with 40 social media researchers from different disciplines and regions. The interviews explored their methods, practices, perspectives and challenges conducting social media research. Key findings included that researchers valued interdisciplinary collaboration but faced internal and external barriers. Researchers also discussed issues around research ethics like privacy, consent and guidelines, as well as desires for better data access, tools and environments to facilitate social media research.
The document describes "The Publishing Trap", an educational board game created by Chris Morrison and Jane Secker to help academics understand the complexities of scholarly publishing and copyright. The game has been played by over 2,500 people worldwide since 2015. Feedback indicates it effectively conveys the challenges researchers face in navigating publishing options. Suggested improvements include shortening game length, adding options for spending money, and highlighting conflicts between research and teaching. Future plans include new language versions and mechanics updates based on player feedback.
Tutorial: Context-awareness In Information Retrieval and Recommender SystemsYONG ZHENG
The document provides an overview of a tutorial on context-awareness in information retrieval and recommender systems. It discusses topics such as information overload, solutions like information retrieval (e.g. search engines) and recommender systems (e.g. movie recommendations). It then covers context and context-awareness, giving examples like how recommendations may change based on location, time, user intent, etc. It also discusses incorporating context-awareness into information retrieval and recommender systems to improve recommendations.
Using Digital Technology to Assess Quality in the ArtsCultureMetrics
This document summarizes a meeting about developing the Culture Metrics project, which aims to create a digital platform for assessing the quality of arts and culture. The project tests metrics across various artforms and organizations to measure quality, experience, engagement, and organizational health. Research will explore how the data can help organizations make creative and commercial decisions and will test whether larger data sources like social media can improve insights. Initial findings suggest co-production of metrics brings value but challenges of peer assessment remain, while interest exists in integrating bigger data but capacity is currently low.
This document discusses establishing a bridge between the free and open source software (FLOSS) community and FLOSS researchers through a website called ResearchFriendly.org. It aims to create win-win situations by addressing researchers' needs for survey responses and data access, while minimizing interruptions to developers. The site would coordinate periodic surveys, data requests, and feedback to build trust between the two groups and encourage collaboration. Researchers and developers would both benefit through improved understanding and validated tools. Open governance and outreach are needed to involve relevant institutions and projects.
This document discusses big data in the context of the web. It covers topics such as the characteristics of big data including volume, variety, velocity, veracity, and value. It discusses how the web represents a large source of diverse public data for analysis. It also discusses challenges related to big data like scalability, noise, bias, sparsity, and privacy. Examples are provided of analyzing large web data sources like Flickr photos, Wikipedia, and search engine query logs to gain insights.
This document discusses big data in the context of the web. It covers topics such as the characteristics of big data including volume, variety, velocity, veracity, and value. It discusses how the web represents a large source of diverse public data for analysis. It also discusses challenges related to big data like scalability, noise, bias, sparsity, and privacy. Examples are provided of analyzing large web data sources like Flickr photos, Wikipedia, and search engine query logs to gain insights.
This document discusses big data in the context of the web. It covers topics such as the volume, variety, and velocity of big data; how the wisdom of crowds can be leveraged through data aggregation; challenges like sparsity, noise, and privacy; and examples of mining web data through techniques like clustering pictures on Flickr and analyzing click distributions. The document emphasizes that data must address important problems and proposes focusing on problem-driven approaches to analyzing large, diverse web data.
AAPOR - comparing found data from social media and made data from surveysCliff Lampe
This presentation was for the 2014 AAPOR conference, and deals with specific components of how "big data" from social media is different from data acquired through surveys.
Being an Open Scholar in a Connected WorldStian Håklev
This document discusses the benefits of open scholarship in a connected world. It argues that open access to research articles makes information more accessible to broader audiences, including the general public and students. When data and research notes are openly shared online, it can enable unexpected reuse and collaboration. However, the current academic publishing and reward systems may not fully incentivize open scholarship. The document calls for exploring new models of peer review, metrics of impact, and ways of publishing research to make the scholarly process more transparent and collaborative.
2014-15 regular season free throws statistics of all NBA players w.docxfelicidaddinwoodie
2014-15 regular season free throws statistics of all NBA players with at least 10 free throw attempted
http://www.nbaminer.com/shooting-ability-and-size/
Sheet1GBA334 Group ProjectGroup- Points awardedRequirementsDescription54321MissingIntroductionExplained the projectExplained the purposeIntegrated core value of excellencePresented main research questionsPreviewed main pointsDataDescribed data sourceDescribed time frameProperly referenced sourcesIdentified all independent variablesIdentified all dependent variablesDescriptive Stats - 30 points totalnThe stats you report will vary withmeanyour analysis method. Include your standard deviationQM data printout and tell me what in Minthe data you are analyzing for yourQ1results. This is 15 points of this Mediansection. See regression exampleQ3below.MaxSkewnessRegression stats neededregression equation(This area is 15 points of the 30coefficient of determination-r²point section total.)F testMethodologyTests described adequatelyResults properly discussed.ConclusionWrap-upTakeaways discussedScore= /100 = /200
Sheet2
Sheet3
A better question may be “Is there a relationship between height and free throw statistics?” You could then use height as the dependent variable. Your three categories can be the independent variable 1. sum of free throws attempted, 2. sum of free throws made, 3. average free throw percentage as three different independent variables. This will determine if there is a relationship between various free throw stats and height.
You will want to run an individual regression model on each independent variable and then one combined multiple regression model.
THIS IS A GROUP PROJECT AND YOUR’RE RESPONSIBLE FOR GIBBONS PART OF THE PROJECT. THIS IS A VERY BIG PART OF MY GRADE AND I HAVE NO ROOM FOR ERROR.
Assignments-http://www.nbaminer.com/shooting-ability-and-size/
Please refer to this link as a general guideline for written summary examples.Williams- gather all data for each height range category, and position category using the data source- write one page paper on findings- make sure your data answers the questions on the data portion of the grading rubix found in the email. Data Source: http://stats.nba.com/Gibbons- Position vs. Free Throw Shooting Percentage; use the data to run an individual regression model on independent variable and then one combined multiple regression model- write two page paper on findings.
Grant- use the data to run an individual regression model on independent variable and then one combined multiple regression model- write two page paper on findings.
Rios- Use the data to find the mean, standard deviation, etc (use data description found in grading rubix)-write two page paper on findings
DeNovo- Introduction, Take-aways, incorporate Saint Leo Core Values-5 pages
Please remember that we must evaluate each group member and turn in the forms with our final project. The forms are in the email with the subject: group evalu ...
Collective Intelligence Meets the Political AgendaEDV Project
The Web is changing the way citizens engage with the political agenda. Following the emergence of social media, political events are now surrounded by real-time reactions and analyses from viewers, political actors, mainstream media and other social organisations.
We anticipate a future in which events such as election debates will be enriched by an unpredictable range of additional information streams from individuals and organisations, from additional live reaction as events unfold, to retrospectively added resources which can be more reflective, and hence possibly higher quality. The EPSRC Election Debate Visualisation (EDV)
Project is aimed at developing an online video replay platform during the 2015 UK General
Election, in which party leadership debates are linked to customisable visualisation channels to enhance viewers’ experience and hopefully encourage citizen engagement.
In this talk we will introduce serious games as games which purpose is not only amusement and can be effectively used for educational or training purposes. This kind of games are also frequently named as educational games or even as game-like simulations. We will describe the general characteristics of serious games and how they are used in several domains (e.g. military, medicine), describing their main advantages (e.g. engagement, student motivation) and some of the shortcomings that prevent a wider generalization in educational settings (e.g. cost, deployment). We will also describe new emerging trends in the field of serious games such as gaming for solving scientific problems or how the application of learning analytics techniques can improve and simplify serious games application in different domains.
This document provides an overview of digital media research being conducted in the Interdisciplinary Computing and Digital Media Lab at International Communications. It introduces four faculty members and summarizes some of their key research projects. Philip Ramsey's research focuses on civic engagement online. Barry Ip conducts longitudinal analyses of video game reviews and studies realistic human characters in games. Bjarke Liboriussen interviews Chinese industry professionals and studies casual online gaming and representations in digital games. Paul Martin's work centers around interpretation and spectatorship in digital games.
The document discusses copyright law and fair use guidelines for educators. It provides a brief history of US copyright law and recent developments. Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted works for educational purposes without permission, but the analysis is complex. The amount used and potential market impact are particularly important. The TEACH Act expanded fair use for online education. The document analyzes several case studies and provides guidance on determining fair use for classroom activities, reserves, and online materials. Users are advised to consult Carroll University's copyright policy and get help from the library to avoid infringement.
Mining the Social Web - Lecture 1 - T61.6020 lecture-01-slidesMichael Mathioudakis
This document provides an introduction to mining data from the social web. It discusses various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Flickr that enable users to produce, consume and interact with content. The document explores what insights can be gained from analyzing the large amounts of social data, such as understanding social behavior, political sentiment, how cities are experienced, and career trends. It outlines existing research on analyzing data from Twitter and photos to detect events, trends, opinions and more. The document concludes by discussing potential student project ideas involving hypothesis testing, exploring questions, solving problems, or analyzing interesting datasets.
Social Network Analysis: applications for education researchChristian Bokhove
What is your talk about?
This seminar will illustrate various social network analysis (SNA) techniques and measures and their applications to research problems in education. These applications will be illustrated from our own research utilising a range of SNA techniques.
What are the key messages of your talk?
We will cover some of the ways in which network data can be collected and utilised with other research data to examine the relationships between network measures and other attributes of individuals and organisations, and how it can be linked to other approaches in multiple methods studies.
What are the implications for practice or research from your talk?
SNA is an approach that draws from theories of social capital to study the relational ties that exist between actors or institutions in a specific context. Such ties might include learning exchanges or advice-seeking interactions. SNA techniques allow researchers to incorporate the interdependence of participants within their research questions, whereas many traditional techniques assume our participants, and their responses to our questions, are independent of one another.
The Hidden Data of Social Media Rearch_CSS-winter-symposiumKatrin Weller
This document summarizes preliminary results from interviews with 40 social media researchers from different disciplines and regions. The interviews explored their methods, practices, perspectives and challenges conducting social media research. Key findings included that researchers valued interdisciplinary collaboration but faced internal and external barriers. Researchers also discussed issues around research ethics like privacy, consent and guidelines, as well as desires for better data access, tools and environments to facilitate social media research.
The document describes "The Publishing Trap", an educational board game created by Chris Morrison and Jane Secker to help academics understand the complexities of scholarly publishing and copyright. The game has been played by over 2,500 people worldwide since 2015. Feedback indicates it effectively conveys the challenges researchers face in navigating publishing options. Suggested improvements include shortening game length, adding options for spending money, and highlighting conflicts between research and teaching. Future plans include new language versions and mechanics updates based on player feedback.
Tutorial: Context-awareness In Information Retrieval and Recommender SystemsYONG ZHENG
The document provides an overview of a tutorial on context-awareness in information retrieval and recommender systems. It discusses topics such as information overload, solutions like information retrieval (e.g. search engines) and recommender systems (e.g. movie recommendations). It then covers context and context-awareness, giving examples like how recommendations may change based on location, time, user intent, etc. It also discusses incorporating context-awareness into information retrieval and recommender systems to improve recommendations.
Using Digital Technology to Assess Quality in the ArtsCultureMetrics
This document summarizes a meeting about developing the Culture Metrics project, which aims to create a digital platform for assessing the quality of arts and culture. The project tests metrics across various artforms and organizations to measure quality, experience, engagement, and organizational health. Research will explore how the data can help organizations make creative and commercial decisions and will test whether larger data sources like social media can improve insights. Initial findings suggest co-production of metrics brings value but challenges of peer assessment remain, while interest exists in integrating bigger data but capacity is currently low.
This document discusses establishing a bridge between the free and open source software (FLOSS) community and FLOSS researchers through a website called ResearchFriendly.org. It aims to create win-win situations by addressing researchers' needs for survey responses and data access, while minimizing interruptions to developers. The site would coordinate periodic surveys, data requests, and feedback to build trust between the two groups and encourage collaboration. Researchers and developers would both benefit through improved understanding and validated tools. Open governance and outreach are needed to involve relevant institutions and projects.
This document discusses big data in the context of the web. It covers topics such as the characteristics of big data including volume, variety, velocity, veracity, and value. It discusses how the web represents a large source of diverse public data for analysis. It also discusses challenges related to big data like scalability, noise, bias, sparsity, and privacy. Examples are provided of analyzing large web data sources like Flickr photos, Wikipedia, and search engine query logs to gain insights.
This document discusses big data in the context of the web. It covers topics such as the characteristics of big data including volume, variety, velocity, veracity, and value. It discusses how the web represents a large source of diverse public data for analysis. It also discusses challenges related to big data like scalability, noise, bias, sparsity, and privacy. Examples are provided of analyzing large web data sources like Flickr photos, Wikipedia, and search engine query logs to gain insights.
This document discusses big data in the context of the web. It covers topics such as the volume, variety, and velocity of big data; how the wisdom of crowds can be leveraged through data aggregation; challenges like sparsity, noise, and privacy; and examples of mining web data through techniques like clustering pictures on Flickr and analyzing click distributions. The document emphasizes that data must address important problems and proposes focusing on problem-driven approaches to analyzing large, diverse web data.
AAPOR - comparing found data from social media and made data from surveysCliff Lampe
This presentation was for the 2014 AAPOR conference, and deals with specific components of how "big data" from social media is different from data acquired through surveys.
Being an Open Scholar in a Connected WorldStian Håklev
This document discusses the benefits of open scholarship in a connected world. It argues that open access to research articles makes information more accessible to broader audiences, including the general public and students. When data and research notes are openly shared online, it can enable unexpected reuse and collaboration. However, the current academic publishing and reward systems may not fully incentivize open scholarship. The document calls for exploring new models of peer review, metrics of impact, and ways of publishing research to make the scholarly process more transparent and collaborative.
2. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 2
A 1-year empirical investigation of UGC funded by the NSF
• Started Sept. 1, 2012
• Report submitted Nov 30, 2013
– About 160 pages
• Download PDF at:
– http://playerauthors.rutgers.edu
– Or SSRN
• “Principal Investigator” = me
– About 10 law students worked
on the project
– Assisted by 1 graduate
student from Rutgers School
of Communication,
Nadav Lipkin
3. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 3
Motivations
• Many people have written about UGC
– 100’s of articles in law reviews and elsewhere, many books
– Here’s B-F in my bibliography…
4. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 4
Motivations
• Divergent policy evaluations of UGC
– Pro: productive, democratic, diverse, authentic collaborative
– Con: piratical, poor quality, parasitic, exploitative
• Divergent characterizations of the general nature of UGC.
– Industry story: UGC is primarily piracy
• Braverman & Southwick (2009) state: “The threat is that a good
percentage of the most heavily-viewed user-posted content is
infringing.”
– Remix story: UGC is primarily amateur parody, mashup, remix
• Lessig (2008); Jenkins (2006)
– Wikipedia: UGC is primarily altruistic (original) peer-production:
• Bruns (2008) and Benkler (2006)
• But where is the data? Who is right?
• What are the dominant practices on UGC platforms?
• Are Braverman & Southwick right that piracy = popularity?
5. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 5
Project Design: Two Components
• 1. Online surveys:
– Group One: 411 video game players
• Demographics
• Nature of UGC practices
• Motivations for UGC practices
– Group Two: 46 video game industry professionals
• Demographics
• Perceptions of UGC’s value
• 2. Content analysis:
– Random sampling of UGC production in thirty content populations.
– Coding for:
•
•
•
•
Copyright Implications
Other IP implications
Popularity and related metrics
Other (ad hoc) characteristics
6. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 6
Methodology: Choice of Platforms
• EAGER Grant philosophy = exploratory work
• Our approach:
– Sample a wide variety of UGC platforms
– Go for broad and thin rather than thick description of specific cultures
• N=100 (creates 10% margin of error with 95% confidence)
• A “rough cut” approach (much better than no data!)
• Our choice of sample platforms:
–
–
–
–
2D artwork: DeviantART, Sketch Club
Photo Sharing: Flickr, Photobucket
3D Printing: Thingiverse
Games: Avatars, Objects, Maps, Modifications, Machinima
• Spore, The Sims, Second Life, LittleBIGPlanet, Minecraft, ModNation,
Civ 5, Garry's Mod, Skyrim
– Fan Fiction Sites
7. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 7
UGC = 3D Printing & Fan Fiction. But why video games?
• UGC in video games is a massively and understudied
phenomenon
• Videogames, as an early form of digital & interactive media,
have a long history of UGC “amateur” production practices
• Minecraft
– Minecraft = Linux + the Matrix
– Minecraft = generativity (like the command line for 1980’s PC hobbyists)
9. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 9
Survey Findings Overview
• The majority of video game players create and enjoy UGC
– But only about half of players shared UGC online
10. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 10
Survey Findings Overview
• Motivations differ substantially according to:
– age, education, and gender
– generally, older and more educated players skew toward intrinsic
factors, whereas younger players skew toward instrumental motivations
11. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 11
Survey Findings Overview
• Gaming platforms appeal to different demographics:
– Wii players are generally younger
– Xbox players are more likely to be in the 25-44 age range.
– Older gamers are more likely to use PCs and mobile
12. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 12
Survey Findings Overview
• Gaming platforms matter a great deal
– The PC is the platform best fit for UGC in gaming.
– The PS3 has a creativity edge over the Xbox 360 and Wii
13. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 13
Survey Findings Overview
• Industry professionals disagree about UGC
– Some love it and value it highly, others hate it
• Most professionals do not appreciate the value of UGC to
players
14. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 14
Platform Samples (3,300 or so items to code)
15. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 15
Platform Sample Findings
• The copyright implications of UGC populations vary from
platform to platform.
– While almost all UGC practices raise some copyright issues, referential
practices on popular platforms vary widely, even within specific genres
of UGC.
16. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 16
Platform Sample Findings
• Avatar platforms had a broad range of IP implications
• E.g. Compare:
– Minecraft = 35% referential, Spore = 4% referential
– Hypothesis: These are communities with norms regarding remixing
17. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 17
Platform Sample Findings
• Most UGC was “original” and not referential
– Populations varied, but on almost all UGC sites, “referential” creativity
was less common than “non-referential” creativity.
– Hypothesis based on data: UGC practices should be understood as
primarily generative of original works of authorship rather than primarily
a form piracy or the creation of derivative works.
18. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 18
Platform Sample Findings
• Piracy and popularity is a bit tricky.
– Within total populations of UGC, we generally observed no statistically
significant correlation between popularity of individual items and their
referential or non-referential status.
– In other words, making a picture of Harry Potter, as opposed to a nonreferential picture, would not result in any more views.
19. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 19
Platform Sample Findings
• However…
– There was a significant power law distribution in UGC popularity
– 20 percent of UGC generally accounted for 80 percent of views and
downloads. (Below = ModNations avatars)
20. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 20
Platform Sample Findings
• An item from the “cream of the crop” (top 1-5%
popularity) was more likely to be referential than a
randomly sampled item from the total population
– See e.g. ModNations for a pronounced divergence
• Popular = 86% ref., General = 33% ref.
21. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 21
Platform Sample Findings
• A surprisingly small fraction of the UGC surveyed
constituted “remix” creativity
– Scholarship on UGC often celebrates parodies, but the majority of fan
works did not criticize the referenced original
– Generally, less than 5% of referential works were clearly critical or
parodic with respect to the work referenced
22. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 22
Platform Sample Findings
• Great power comes with greater infringement possibility
• Simple and less flexible UGC tool sets seem to correlate with
a decrease in copyright issues. Conversely, more flexible
tools and “denser” forms of authorial production correlated
with higher levels of copyright issues.
– When the public is given limited or constrained authorial powers in a
narrow authorial medium (e.g. reconfiguring creature parts in Spore),
the effect seems to be a reduced capacity for referential creativity
• Spore avatars = 4% ref
– When the authorial mode involves audiovisual work with a variety of
components (e.g. machinima), copyright concerns seem to rise
substantially.
• Warcraft machinima = 76% ref
23. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 23
Many other random findings, e.g. this about HP FanFic
24. Rutgers School of Law – Professor Lastowka - Slide 24
Thanks & thanks to the NSF for their generous assistance
• Full Summary Report at:
– http://player-authors.rutgers.edu
– Or SSRN