Recent Press Coverage

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Murray Interviewed on Marketplace Tech

October 20, 2016

Janet Murray, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication and the Associate Dean of Research in the Ivan Allen College, was interviewed about the future of television on the October 20, 2016 episode of Marketplace Tech for American Public Media.

Listen to the full episode here.

Published in: American Public Media
Death of the Gamer: Why the Term ‘Gamer’ Matters

October 6, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was quoted in “Death of the Gamer: Why the Term ‘Gamer’ Matters” by Forbes.

Excerpt:

Ian Bogost, in the conclusion to his book How to do Things with Videogames, remarks that “we must face a humbling and perhaps even disturbing conclusion about the media forms we love: they’re just not that special” (pg. 148). It seems a strange conclusion for someone whose career is largely built on videogame studies. Why bother with all that research for a medium you don’t think is all that special? And yet, Bogost makes a crucial point.

It is part of a process he calls demystification. All mediums begin in the form of some innovative, strange, captivating technology. You can use a machine to print endless copies of exactly the same text?! You can use a device to instantly paint a highly-realistic image of whatever it’s pointed at?! You can takes thousands of these images and play them in quick succession?! You can use a joystick to control and change what happens on-screen?! As a bewildering progression of technology, the newest step carries a degree of intrinsic wonder. The act of playing a videogame is in itself just a really cool, interesting thing to be able to do.

For the full article, read here

Published in: Forbes
U.S. to Give Up Control of the Internet's ‘Address Book’ After Years of Debate

October 4, 2016

Milton Mueller, professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in “U.S. to Give Up Control of the Internet's ‘Address Book’ After Years of Debate” by The Guardian.

Excerpt:

Milton Mueller, professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy and a principal of the Internet Governance Project, said that the real story of the Iana transition is that it provides a great example of how to create a global governance model.

“The overall positive outcome is that we’re creating a global governance regime that matches the global scope of the internet and we can extract ourselves from all the existing arrangements that are related to nation states,” he said. “We don’t want to put it into the intergovernmental politics of the UN.”

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Guardian
Science, Technology, and the Future of Warfare

October 2, 2016

Margaret Kosal, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, wrote "Science, Technology, and the Future of Warfare" for the Modern War Institute blog.

Excerpt:

We know that emerging innovations within cutting-edge science and technology (S&T) areas carry the potential to revolutionize governmental structures, economies, and life as we know it. Yet, others have argued that such technologies could yield doomsday scenarios and that military applications of such technologies have even greater potential than nuclear weapons to radically change the balance of power. These S&T areas include robotics and autonomous unmanned system; artificial intelligence; biotechnology, including synthetic and systems biology; the cognitive neurosciences; nanotechnology, including stealth meta-materials; additive manufacturing (aka 3D printing); and the intersection of each with information and computing technologies, i.e., cyber-everything. These concepts and the underlying strategic importance were articulated at the multi-national level in NATO’s May 2010 New Strategic Concept paper: “Less predictable is the possibility that research breakthroughs will transform the technological battlefield…. The most destructive periods of history tend to be those when the means of aggression have gained the upper hand in the art of waging war.”

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Modern War Institute
More Evidence Cars Will Never Be Sexy Again

September 30, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, wrote "More Evidence Cars Will Never Be Sexy Again" for The Atlantic.

Excerpt:

The automobile has become the enemy of progress. It’s an unlikely outcome, from the vantage point of the 20th century. Not that long ago, cars were still unequivocal symbols of personal power—especially in America, where basic mobility is often impossible without one.

But now cars are increasingly uncool. For one part, they’re a major source of carbon emissions, and thereby a principal cause of global warming. For another part, they’re expensive to own and operate, especially in big cities. The high-status technology, media, and finance professionals who live in cities like New York and San Francisco and the like can get around by public transit, on foot, and by bike. Elsewhere, the recession stifled car purchases and use among all demographics. Millennials just entering the workforce, who might have started buying cars had the economy been better, are more likely to have found and then acclimated to other options—including ride-hailing services like Uber.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Atlantic
Games People Play: Three Books on What's Behind the Fun

September 29, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, had his new book, Play Anything, reviewed in “Games People Play: Three Books on What's Behind the Fun” by The New York Times.

Excerpt:

In “Play Anything: The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games,” Ian Bogost takes the widest angle view, promising to “upset the deep and intuitive beliefs you hold about seemingly simple concepts like play and its supposed result, fun.” Bogost, who also wrote “How to Talk About Videogames,” is a philosopher, professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and video game designer. Proposing an aesthetic of play, he draws on myriad examples, from golf to the task of watering his lawn to his daughter’s self-directed rules of “step on a crack, break your mother’s back.”

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The New York Times
An Online Education Breakthrough? A Master's Degree for a Mere $7,000

September 28, 2016

Julia Melkers, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, was referenced in "An An Online Education Breakthrough? A Master's Degree for a Mere $7,000" by The New York Times with regards to her research on Georgia Tech's online master's program in computer science.

Excerpt:

The on-campus program enrolls only 300 students or so, nearly all top students from other countries. It isn’t easy to find room for more. Lecture halls and classrooms are expensive, and competition between departments for space is fierce. The online program has nearly 4,000 students, the large majority American. Many have organized study groups in their home cities. At that scale, there is almost always someone else online, day or night, to talk to about a thorny problem in machine learning.

The combination of a prestigious department, traditional degree and drastically lower price was something new in American higher education. Joshua Goodman, an economist at Harvard, decided to study the program, along with Julia Melkers from Georgia Tech and Amanda Pallais from Harvard. They were interested in whether Georgia Tech was simply recruiting students who would have enrolled elsewhere — or if the program was creating something new.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The New York Times
How to Review a Paper

September 27, 2016

John Walsh, professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in "How to Review a Paper" by Science.

Excerpt:

I usually consider first the relevance to my own expertise. I will turn down requests if the paper is too far removed from my own research areas, since I may not be able to provide an informed review. Having said that, I tend to define my expertise fairly broadly for reviewing purposes. I also consider the journal. I am more willing to review for journals that I read or publish in. Before I became an editor, I used to be fairly eclectic in the journals I reviewed for, but now I tend to be more discerning, since my editing duties take up much of my reviewing time.

- John P. Walsh, professor of public policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Science
How Donald Trump's Internet Policy Could Benefit Russia

September 27, 2016

Milton Mueller, professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in "How Donald Trump's Internet Policy Could Benefit Russia" by Science.

Excerpt:

In short, policy experts are coming out of the woodwork to say that Cruz and Trump are wrong. The pair's argument earned them three Pinocchios from Glenn Kessler, who writes the Post's Fact Checker column.

According to critics, Trump's call to stop the transition would actually wind up helping Putin rather than undermining the Russian leader.

"If the U.S. is forced to abort the transition now it would play right into the hands of authoritarian states," said Milton Mueller, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "'Look,' they will say, 'the U.S. wants to control the Internet. Why can’t we?'"

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Washington Post
Sam Nunn Talks Nuclear Weapons and Terror Prevention

September 27, 2016

Sam Nunn, distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was interviewed in "Sam Nunn Talks Nuclear Weapons and Terror Prevention" by WABE.

Excerpt:

Former Georgia Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn is a co-founder of the NTI. Georgia Tech named its Sam Nunn School of International Affairs after him. Last week, it hosted a policy forum on addressing the underlying causes of international extremism.

One point the military and academic experts brought up: the causes of extremism are at the grass roots, in things like education systems in many countries. So, many solutions must be at the grass roots, too.

In a conversation on "Morning Edition," host Denis O’Hayer began by asking Nunn whether people-to-people terror prevention efforts could be jeopardized by the war against ISIS — if the war makes it easier for terrorists to radicalize young people in the region.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: WABE
Why a Silicon Valley Founder is Funding a Factory for Trump Memes

September 23, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, wrote "Why a Silicon Valley Founder is Funding a Factory for Trump Memes" for The Atlantic.

Excerpt:

The classic battle between nerds and brutes is one of brains versus brawn. In the geek films of the 1980s that introduced and immortalized this conflict—Revenge of the Nerds, Weird Science, Ghostbusters, Sixteen Candles—the nerds are always outcasts and misfits. And these fables all end the same way. Through a combination of smarts and good fortune, the nerds demonstrate some unique prowess, by means of which they join the ranks of normals. The outcasts aren’t so different, after all. Everyone hugs, cue music, roll credits.

It always should have been obvious that life doesn’t work this way. Real outcasts and misfits don’t enter the mainstream through quirky self-effacement turned tender sympathy. Misfits often stay misfits, even when fortune, power, and influence comes their way. And when it does, an outcast never forgets that he (yes, of course, he) was once cast out. If able, he takes revenge—preferably by burning down the institution of popularity itself.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Atlantic
Why the World Can't Quit Dots, the Brilliantly Designed Non-Game

September 21, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was quoted in "Why the World Can't Quit Dots, the Brilliantly Designed Non-Game" by Wired.

Excerpt:

Although the game is three years old, it remains popular and has of late appeared in everything from magazines to promotional videos to fashion shows. That’s because Dots,the game and the eponymously named studio that created it, has from the start embraced a design ethos that lends itself to the artistically inclined.

“Playing Dots is like being in the cool lobby bar at the right boutique hotel, while playing Candy Crush is decidedly not like that,” says Ian Bogost, game designer and author of Play Anything. The company is capitalizing on that perception with strategic marketing to establish its reputation as a “game for non-gamers,” and make more games like that.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Wired
Fact Checker: Cruz's Claim That ICANN's Transition Will Empower Foes to Censor the Internet

September 21, 2016

Milton Mueller, professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in "Cruz's Claim That ICANN's Transition Will Empower Foes to Censor the Internet" by The Washington Post.

Excerpt:

ICANN says it is only a technical administrator that does not regulate content on the Internet, and that Cruz is claiming it has power that does not exist. “The U.S. government has never, and has never had the ability to, set the direction of the community’s policy development work based on First Amendment ideas,” the statement said. “Yet that is exactly what Senator Cruz is suggesting. The U.S. government has no decreased role. Other governments have no increased role. There is simply no change to governmental involvement in policy development work in ICANN.”

Experts who favor the ICANN transition are scornful of Cruz’s assertions, saying they are a mash of misinformation and falsehoods. “Simply ending U.S. approval of root zone file changes does not alter the policymaking process in ways that increase the influence of foreign governments or global corporations. In some respects, the reforms associated with the transition reduce the power of GAC by requiring it to have consensus before it can offer advice,” said Milton Mueller, a professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy and author of a book on ICANN.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Washington Post
Don't Believe the Claims That the U.S. is Giving Away the Internet

September 20, 2016

Milton Mueller, professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in "Don't Believe the Claims That the U.S. is Giving Away the Internet" by MIT Technology Review.

Excerpt:

The argument, championed by Cruz, that the transition will cede control to foreign governments is “the opposite of the truth,” according toMilton Mueller, a professor of public policy at Georgia Tech and cofounder and co-director of the Internet Governance Project. The purpose of ICANN, which Mueller helped create, is to keep Internet governance out of the hands of governments, he says.

Mueller adds that if the United States does not honor the agreement to privatize these functions, it could lend weight to arguments from nations such as China and Russia that Internet governance should be nationalized or turned over to the United Nations.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: MIT Technology Review
Games Designer Ian Bogost: 'Play is in Everything'

September 18, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was interviewed in "Games Designer Ian Bogost: 'Play is in Everything'" by The Guardian about his new book, Play Anything.

Excerpt:

Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and an Atlantic contributing editor, Ian Bogost is one of the foremost writers on gaming culture – though he’s probably best known for the Facebook game Cow Clicker, which, despite being a satire, became a viral hit. In his new book, Play Anything,Bogost takes his expertise away from the screen and into the real world, arguing that in the 21st century we’ve lost track of what it really means to “play”.

For the full article, read here

Published in: The Guardian
Ted Cruz is Trying to Sabotage the Internet’s Governance Transition

September 16, 2016

Milton Mueller, professor in the Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy, was quoted in "Ted Cruz is Trying to Sabotage the Internet's Governance Transition" by Vice.

Excerpt:

Internet policy experts say the claims advanced by Cruz and his allies are blatantly false, and amount to political grandstanding that demonstrates a fundamental ignorance about how the internet works, especially when it comes to warnings that Russia, China, or Iran could somehow censor Americans’ speech on the internet.

"There’s no legitimate way for him to get to that conclusion,” Milton Mueller, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy and a leading authority on global internet governance, told PolitiFact, which rated Cruz’s claims asFALSE. “What he’s doing is fear-mongering and trying to create a bogeyman, which is the United Nations.”

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Vice
Mayor Kasim Reed Attends ACP Meeting by Video-Conference from D.C.

September 16, 2016

"Mayor Kasim Reed Attends ACP Meeting by Video-Conference from D.C." by Saporta Report references the "Smart Cities" initiative for Atlanta, which involves a partnership between Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Committee for Progress. Jennifer Clark, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, is one of Georgia Tech's leading smart cities researchers. Learn more at the Center for Urban Innovation website.

Excerpt:

ACP members did support a “Smart Cities” initiative for Atlanta as a priority. AT&T will offer expertise for the effort, but it will include other key partners, including Georgia Tech.

“We want to get ACP aligned on what is possible,” said Duriya Farooqui, ACP’s executive director, adding the effort would be anchored at Georgia Tech. “It’s an opportunity to that shouldn’t be lost, and the goal is to really make a seismic leap in making Atlanta a smarter city.”

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Saporta Report
Mike Mullen and Sam Nunn: How to Deal with North Korea

September 15, 2016

Sam Nunn,distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, co-authored "Mike Mullen and Sam Nunn: How to Deal with North Korea" for The Washington Post.
Excerpt:
North Korea’s accelerating nuclear and missile programs, including its recent nuclear test, pose a grave and expanding threat to security, stability and peace in Asia and the rest of the world. This threat affects close U.S. allies — South Korea and Japan — and U.S. personnel and facilities in the region. In the coming months and years, it will create increasing danger for the United States. It is likely that the next president will face a North Korea that has gained the capability to strike the United States with nuclear weapons.
The Obama administration has succeeded in strengthening U.S. alliances in Asia and deterring a war, but, like its predecessors, has failed to change Pyongyang’s assessment that defiance is preferable to conciliation. It is clear that the next president will have to sharpen Pyongyang’s choice: offer greater benefits for cooperation and promise greater costs for continued defiance.
For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Washington Post
How to Play Your Way to a Fun Life

September 14, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, had his new book, Play Anything, reviewed in "How to Play Your Way to a Fun Life'" by Slate.

Excerpt:

The real value of philosopher and game designer Ian Bogost’s new book, Play Anything, didn’t hit me until I made several failed attempts to write this review. Since the central theme is play, I felt compelled to offer readers something fun—to fashion what Bogost describes as a playground.

It did not go well.

My first inspiration was drawn from Bogost’s account of an artistic school known as Oulipo, which crafts its products according to arbitrary constraints. Using a constraint that found popularity through Oulipo, I would try to dash off a manuscript without using our most common symbol (as I am in this paragraph, starting with My) and wax rhapsodic about how imposing random limits is actually magical, to show how Bogost’s approach in Play Anything can transform boring forms of writing into fun!

For the full article, read here

Published in: Slate
Ted Cruz Incorrect About Obama Giving Control of Internet to UN-like Body

September 14, 2016

Milton Mueller, professor in the Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy, was quoted in "Ted Cruz Incorrect About Obama Giving Control of Internet to UN-like Body" by PolitiFact.

Excerpt:

By "root zone file," Novack was referring to the nonprofit’s coordination of the domain name system, meaning a text file of the top-level domains that form part of web addresses. Contrary to Novack's characterization, though, the root zone file is not the "master address book" of the Internet, Milton Mueller, a professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy and author of a book on ICANN’s creation, cautioned when we asked. Rather, Mueller said by email, the root zone file "is just a list of top level domain names (like .COM, .ORG or .EDU)." Mueller presents a longer description in this September 2015 blog post.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: PolitiFact

Recent Press Coverage

Murray Interviewed on Marketplace Tech

Death of the Gamer: Why the Term ‘Gamer’ Matters

U.S. to Give Up Control of the Internet's ‘Address Book’ After Years of Debate

Science, Technology, and the Future of Warfare

More Evidence Cars Will Never Be Sexy Again

Games People Play: Three Books on What's Behind the Fun

An Online Education Breakthrough? A Master's Degree for a Mere $7,000

How to Review a Paper

How Donald Trump's Internet Policy Could Benefit Russia

Sam Nunn Talks Nuclear Weapons and Terror Prevention

Why a Silicon Valley Founder is Funding a Factory for Trump Memes

Why the World Can't Quit Dots, the Brilliantly Designed Non-Game

Fact Checker: Cruz's Claim That ICANN's Transition Will Empower Foes to Censor the Internet

Don't Believe the Claims That the U.S. is Giving Away the Internet

Games Designer Ian Bogost: 'Play is in Everything'

Ted Cruz is Trying to Sabotage the Internet’s Governance Transition

Mayor Kasim Reed Attends ACP Meeting by Video-Conference from D.C.

Mike Mullen and Sam Nunn: How to Deal with North Korea

How to Play Your Way to a Fun Life

Ted Cruz Incorrect About Obama Giving Control of Internet to UN-like Body

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Georgia Institute of Technology

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