Dust or Magic Fall Institute Background Information

“I always tell people, if you’ve never come to a Dust or Magic before, try to come to Lambertville. It’s the original.” Warren Buckleitner

 

Learn more about this year’s agenda or keep reading for general background information.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Held early November each Fall at a historic Inn on the shore of the Delaware River, just steps from where George Washington made his famous crossing, another group has been meeting — to change a different kind of history. The Fall Dust or Magic Institute has been bringing together people passionate about the potential of children’s interactive media since 2001. And some have been fortunate enough to experience the magic.

Unlike AppCamp and the eBook Retreat, this event takes a global view on children’s interactive media, looking at all forms of hardware and software. This includes toys, virtual worlds, tablets and related hardware, video games…. and of course apps. Our objective is to make sure you leave on Tuesday knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the current year’s products; and you have a good feeling for what the next year will bring.

History

The first Dust or Magic meeting was planned for Sept. 23, 2001, but was actually held in 2002. Today there are three “official” Dust or Magic events — The Institute (each fall in Lambertville), AppCamp (each spring in California) and eBooks (in the Spring in Boyds Mills, PA). The Dust or Magic concept was inspired from the Bologna Children’s Book Fair’s annual Bologna New Media Prize juror “summits” that were held from 1997 – 2002.

Imagine seven technology editors from around the world, each with strong ideas about his or her own set of favorite products— holed-up for a weekend in a single room with over 400 new products to demonstrate. Our goal was to choose seven winners with some attempted degree of external validity. It was hard work and the debate was intense. We each left Bologna each spring with an expanded practical knowledge of the “state of the art,” and we were also able to hear the opinions of other reviewers, each with a completely different cultural and personal point of view. The first Dust or Magic Institute was designed to rekindle this atmosphere, by bringing recent products into a place where they could be freely and critically demonstrated by people who are passionate about the potential of interactive media for children.

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Is it Dust, or is it Magic? And Who Chooses?

Dust or Magic is a rare setting, where individuals “agree to disagree” as the default condition. Diverse opinions are supported and discussion is encouraged, lasers are used to rate products, quickly and objectively. On occasion, the feedback following a demonstration or a talk might seem boldly honest. The thinking is that it is better to get this news about design weaknesses directly, in an honest and supportive way in order to learn and make changes.

Participants are given instructions on how to give this type of feedback in their handout packets. Participants need to know that it is OK to speak up and disagree. It isn’t personal; our end goal is always about building your personal definition of “magic.”

About the Name

In the Spring of 2001, plans for the first Institute were underway. Aleen Stein, then of Scholastic/Organa, had given me a copy of a book by Bob Hughes called Dust or Magic: Secrets of Successful Multimedia Design. Bob’s title was inspired from a quote from Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), as follows: “an idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.” I asked Bob if I could use the title of his book for the type of event I was thinking about and Bob’s reply was ‘Matsuo wouldn’t mind.’ So in the spirit of international cooperation, open source thinking and the desire to make better digital environments for children, we share the Dust or Magic name. You can learn more about Bob’s thinking on interface design and the digital culture in genera, at http://www.dustormagic.net