AppCamp 2018 Recap
[highlight]Archived content below:[/highlight]
A three-day meeting exploring the “dust” and the “magic of the latest children’s interactive media
WHAT TO BRING: Family members, kids, relaxed, casual clothing (layers are best); and items to demonstrate.
DEMOS: If you plan on doing a 8 minute demo, read this for suggestions on format and feedback.
SHARE, BUT DON’T SELL: Dust or Magic is a commercial free zone. It is self-funded with no affiliation with sponsors. A “swag table” is provided for flyers, white papers or business cards. This is a free-exchange area for participants to share such things as promo codes, white papers, book announcements or other promotional items. Anyone is welcome to send products, even if they are not attending the event. Send or bring about 50 copies.
Friday June 1, 2018
1:00 Room check-in (Phoebe Snow Social Hall)
3:00 Check into Dust or Magic (Scripps Hall)
Find the desk to pick up your materials. It will contain your name tag, handouts and so on.
5:00 State of the App, 2018
We’ll set the stage for our next 36 hours together. We’ll name trend setting products and discuss lessons learned from the 2018 KAPis and the BolognaRagazzi Digital Award. Leading the discussion this year: Pierre Abel, Daren Carstens, Barry O’Neill, and Barbara Chamberlin. Topics will include:
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Art by Peter Reynolds
Nintendo Labo’s recipe for magic. We’ll have some kits ready to build.
- The Fortnite phenomena. Three magical ingredients.
- Ready or not, here comes Audio. Amazon Echo Kids and the new audio pipeline.
- Exploiting the Growing Chrome/Android. How do you do it, and what’s the best practice?
- Making apps for pros — Schools/Libraries and Speech Therapists. What do they want? How do you market to them? What is an SLP, and why should you care? (It’s a Speech-Language pathologist).
- Nosy Crow has flown… and the number of ethical children’s app publishers continues to drop. Is there an option for paid content? (Answer probably not in the short term. But we’ll explore the options).
- Exploring mixed reality. AR and VR is so 2017. The new term is “mixed reality.” Get your hands on a Merge Cube, talk with other publishers about which hardware and software combinations work the best for sandwiching digital layers in between a child’s retina and the real world. We’ll also have the award winning Carlton books on hand for you to demo.
- Children’s App & Robot News. We’ll look at the recent awards (KAPi and BolognaRagazzi) and take nominations for the most magical work from 2017 and 2018.
- Famous Train Wrecks Learn from the mistakes of others.
6:00 PM Dinner & Visit to the Pacific Beach
8:00 After dinner — Caroline Ingeborn, Toca Boca
Caroline Ingeborn is the President and COO of Toca Boca. She joined the company in 2013 when she moved from Sweden to the U.S. to help open the company’s San Francisco office. Since that time she has been instrumental in growing the company into one of the most influential play studios globally.
Founded in 2010, Toca Boca believes in the undeniable, irresistible power of open-ended play. It uses traditional play patterns to create what it calls digital toys, rather than games, and it broke the mold of gender stereotyping in kids products. Today, Toca Boca is part of Spin Master, with Ingeborn leading all day-to-day operations of Toca Boca and Sago Mini.
Before joining Toca Boca, Ingeborn helped build corporate development and M&A at Bonnier, the leading media conglomerate in Scandinavia, where she met Toca Boca co-founders Emil Ovemar and Björn Jeffery.
Lights out… and perhaps a moonlight walk…
Saturday June 2, 2018
7:00-8:15 am Breakfast Buffet (dining hall)
8:30 New: The Interactive Designers Cookbook 2.0
- A good cook knows how to blend ingredients to make a wonderful dish. The results can be magic, or terribly bad. What are the specific ingredients of effective interactive media project? We’ll boil down a one semester TCNJ course on the psychology of interactive design into one hour. This presentation is short, sweet and to the point; and it’s based on the continually updated ibook Child Development 101 for the Designers of Children’s Interactive Media by Warren Buckleitner (Dust or Magic participants get a free download code; and a hard copy is in your handout packet).
9:30 “Nice Touch”
Short demonstrations of children’s apps that every designer or research needs to know about, for a variety of platforms.
10:00 Andy Russell, Google
11:00 Willow Sauermilch — Making Apps for Speech Therapy
Yes, it’s true that speech and language professionals use specialized apps, but they share many of the same goals as media developers. Willow Sauermilch, M.A., CCC-SLP has been a pediatric speech-language pathologist in the public schools for the past 15 years.
This summer she will begin working on her PhD in Media and Technology with a concentration in communication sciences and disorders. Willow is interested in utilizing her expertise in both fields to bridge the gap between mediated learning and educational environments, particularly as it pertains to individuals diagnosed with communication deficits.
She will share data from a school-based SLP (Speech and Language Pathologist) survey, and help us all better understand what kinds of apps SLP want and need.
12:00 Lunch
1:30 Children’s Design Dash with Daren and Barbara
What do you think is most important when it comes to designing for kids? Take a quick tour through issues relevant in children’s media today.
Identify the most important issues in developing for kids, learn from the knowledge in the room. This is your chance to explore and discuss strategies and techniques in developing for kids. With Daren Carstens and Barbara Chamberlin.
2:30 Demos
3:30 Susan Rivers, Emotional Well Being of Adolescents
Dr. Susan Rivers is Executive Director and Chief Scientist at iThrive Games, the nonprofit that aims to intentionally use and design games in the best interests of teens to support their thriving. She uses her expertise in emotional intelligence to create evidence-based digital products. Susan earned her doctorate in social psychology at Yale University where she later served on the research faculty in the Department of Psychology and co-founded the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.
4:30 Barry O’Neill, CEO, Touch Press. What’s new since Bologna? (on working with the Hungry Caterpillar licensor and bringing out the best of AR)
Based in Dublin, Touch Press is an educational games and family app publisher that was formed by the integration of Amplify Games, StoryToys, and Touchpress. Barry is a seasoned digital publishing veteran, creating apps based on both original and licensed IP. These include the StoryToys portfolio (My Very Hungry Caterpillar, Mother Goose Club), Touch Press Games’ library (12 a Dozen, Crafty Cut, World of Lexica), and its renowned portfolio of reference apps including Theodore Gray’s “The Elements”, and The Waste Land. Barry is an active investor in mobile content and games ventures.
5:30 Kid Panel
We take some time to talk to some real experts to see what they’re playing and thinking about. If you are bringing children who would like to be on the panel, please let us know.
6:00-7:30 Dinner & Marshmallow Roast
7:40 PM Group photo (optional)
8:00 Toast to the legacy of Margo Nanny
“What could the new media do in other ways?” That was one of the guiding questions of Margo Nanny, who died this year. We’ll take a moment to remember her contributions to interactive media. Anyone is welcome to drop in for this session. Here’s the video of Margo during AppCamp #1, in 2010, when she spoke on the “Panel of Legends.” See video on YouTube.
Sunday June 3, 2018
7:00-8:15 am Breakfast Buffet (dining hall)
9:00 Dust & Magic — Learn From the Mistakes of Others
Examples of some not-so-good design (yes there’s still plenty of it) best practice (aka Magic) Lessons from this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair.
10:00 Michael Colombo: Exploring the Potential of Location Based VR
Michael Colombo is currently the Technical Content Manager for Nomadic, a location-based VR company that creates free-roaming immersive experiences in walkable playspaces.
Previously, he has created instructional content for Maker Media and Apple, and is a graduate of NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). He also plays music and builds amazing things from wood, sometimes simultaneously.
11:00 Daren Carstens: Putting Yourself Into Your Game
Acclaimed designer Daren Cartens (Math Doodles, Attributes, Math Arena) will demonstrate how he makes interactive media personal, by putting his “voice” into the interactive dynamic.
12:00 Lunch
1:30 Barbara Chamberlin: Update from the NMSU Game Lab
Dr. Barbara Chamberlin has a unique job: she plays computer and video games and actively encourages those who work with her to do the same. It’s all part of the research and development they do at New Mexico State University, finding new and innovative ways to teach and help people learn.
Previously a stand-up comic, Dr. Chamberlin now enjoys speaking to groups about technology and learning and sharing exciting research that is changing the way we think about games.
2:30 Demos
App critiques and more nice touches (as many as possible).
Evaluations, Summary and Conclusion
3;00 Conclusion
2018 Speakers
Dust or Magic AppCamp attracts amazing speakers. Check back frequently; speakers and details can change. The following speakers have confirmed so far.
[speakers presentation_id=5374/]