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The annual Games for Change Festival is the leading global event that brings together funders, NGOs, corporations, government agencies and educators seeking to leverage entertainment and engagement for social good with leading game developers from the independent and commercial sector. Previous keynote speakers include Former Vice President Al Gore, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and the U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra. Join Our Community
Games for Change (G4C) -- home
www.culturalcognition.net - home
The Cultural Cognition Project is a group of scholars interested in studying how cultural values shape public risk perceptions and related policy beliefs. Cultural cognition refers to the tendency of individuals to conform their beliefs about disputed matters of fact (e.g., whether global warming is a serious threat; whether the death penalty deters murder; whether gun control makes society more safe or less) to values that define their cultural identities. Project members are using the methods of various disciplines -- including social psychology, anthropology, communications, and political science -- to chart the impact of this phenomenon and to identify the mechanisms through which it operates.
An urban sustainability, green building, and alternative transportation community | Sustainable Cities Collective
Image courtesy of author's blog Pedestrians and cyclists can breathe easier on Washington, DC’s streets, according to Mayor Vincent Gray, because of what he describes as a plan to “cover the entire city” with traffic cameras. Cameras slow down traffic, and slower cars would make it safer to walk and bike around the capital.In many ways, DC is already leading the... [read more]
Improving Usability with Fitts’ Law
Back in 1954, psychologist Paul Fitts published an article the detailed his theory on human mechanics as it pertained to aimed movement. It was Fitts’ observation that the action of pointing to or tapping an target object could be measured and predicted mathematically. Fitts stated that the size of the target object along with its distance from the starting location could be directly measured, allowing him to model the ease at which a person could perform the same action with a different target object. In 1954, this theory had no application for computers yet; however, it shouldn’t take a modern designer long to discover the powerful meaning this formula has in the context of user interfaces.
Digital Strategy Books | www.amusingourselves.com
Someone recently asked me if there’s one really good book about digital strategy. After a little thought, I explained that I didn’t think there is, but mentioned a few books I really liked or found useful. You’ll find an expanded version of the list below.
www.ocwconsortium.org/en/courses
An OpenCourseWare(OCW) is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials for colleges and universities. These materials are organized as courses, and often include course planning materials and evaluation tools as well as thematic content. OCW Consortium members from all over the world are publishing OCW in a variety of formats, subjects, and languages.
Why We Buy: How to Avoid 10 Costly Cognitive Biases — PsyBlog
But many of these mistakes are avoidable if we can understand how we think about money. Here are 10 biases that psychological research has shown affect our judgement...and how to avoid them. 1. Status quo bias One of the biggest reason people lose out financially is they stick with what they know, despite much better options being available.
Consumers behave differently when they suspect staff will stereotype them
Organisations recognise that people respond to stereotypes, and make merry use of them in their marketing strategies and advertising schemes. But we also respond to being stereotyped by others, an experience called ‘stereotype threat’ which can affect our feelings and behaviour. Do organisations recognise this too? If not, they’d be advised to check out an upcoming article in the Journal of Consumer Research, where Kyoungmi Lee and colleagues explore the phenomenon. Their series of experiments asked male and female participants to evaluate hypothetical purchases of technical services and goods, reasoning that these purchases could be influenced by the stereotype that women fare poorly in the so-called STEM domains: science, technology, engineering and maths.350 Free Online Courses from Top Universities | Open Culture
Get free online courses from the world’s leading universities. This collection includes over 400 free courses in the liberal arts and sciences. Download these audio & video courses straight to your computer or mp3 player. Early Modern England: Politics, Religion, and Society under the Tudors and Stuarts – YouTube - iTunes Video - iTunes Audio - Web Site – Keith E. Wrightson, Yale
The New Humanism - NYTimes.com
We had a financial regime based on the notion that bankers are rational creatures who wouldn’t do anything stupid en masse. For the past 30 years we’ve tried many different ways to restructure our educational system — trying big schools and little schools, charters and vouchers — that, for years, skirted the core issue: the relationship between a teacher and a student. I’ve come to believe that these failures spring from a single failure: reliance on an overly simplistic view of human nature. We have a prevailing view in our society — not only in the policy world, but in many spheres — that we are divided creatures. Reason, which is trustworthy, is separate from the emotions, which are suspect.
I've spent a great deal of time investigating and using a multitude of tools for web based data and project management, communication, authoring, and collaboration. It's amazing the amount of attention this type of software receives from developers and designers. Of all the software I have surveyed, Basecamp from Chicago based 37signals , gets by far the most press. Deservedly so, as the quality they deliver far exceeds their marketing acumen. But as you might expect, there are alternatives, and considering the amount of time you will spend using the software, and your own unique needs, it's useful to try as many alternatives as time will allow. Redmine - Redmine is a flexible project management web application.