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Why Silicon Valley May Warm to Trump

November 18, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, wrote “Why Silicon Valley May Warm to Trump” for The Atlantic.

Excerpt:

A memorable image from Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign showed the future president, reclined on a couch. His chief campaign strategist David Axelrod appears in the foreground, and “Change we can believe in” signs rest casually in the back. In then-Senator Obama’s left hand, he holds a sheet of paper. In his right, a BlackBerry.

Obama was famously attached to the device. (Back in 2008, the iPhone was a year old, and the BlackBerry was hardly outmoded or uncool.) Just after the election, The New York Times reported that recordkeeping requirements might force Obama to relinquish his beloved device. Eventually, a compromise allowed him to “keep his cherished gadget.”

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Atlantic
How Pokemon Go Can Save Lives in a Hurricane

November 15, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was referenced in “How Pokemon Go Can Save Lives in a Hurricane” by Smithsonian Magazine.

Excerpt:

Author and game designer Jane McGonigal popularized the notion of gamification, in which players can get points, badges, or other rewards for ordinarily mundane tasks. According to McGonigal and others like Ian Bogost, gamification can motivate us to recover from personal setbacks including injury, depression, or distress, and improve our lives by forming new habits or skills. For example, Duolingo allows people to learn a language online while translating online documents and websites. Students earn skill points as they complete lessons or translate web content, and the complexity of sentences increases as the user progresses. Other games use competition and peer pressure among neighbors to reduce electricity consumption when appeals to saving money and the environment don’t work.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Smithsonian Magazine
Home Monitoring Will Soon Monitor You

November 11, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, wrote “Home Monitoring Will Soon Monitor You” for The Atlantic.

Excerpt:

I worry. About my family. My house. My dumb possessions, and my treasured ones. Doesn’t everyone? “Happiness,” Don Draper opines in Mad Men’s pilot, “is the freedom from fear.” Companies sell people solutions to those fears—even if they are contrived ones. Listerine, invented to cure a made-up condition called halitosis. Nike, whose kicks are used for sloth more than athleticism. Apple, whose modernist, glass-and-aluminum shields hide compulsion.

Just as people originally bought mobile phones to protect against hypothetical emergencies, so internet-connected smart devices now often sell comfort from fear. Motion cameras that deter evil babysitters. Recording doorbells that stave off solicitors and burglars. Propane scales that avert cook-out disaster. Sensor-tentacled boxes that warn against flooding.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Atlantic
Comfort Goes Beyond Basics in Language Learning

November 7, 2016

Kelly Comfort, associate professor in the School of Modern Languages, was featured in “Comfort Goes Beyond Basics in Language Learning” by The Whistle.

Excerpt:

Associate Professor of Spanish Kelly Comfort went to college with plans to become a broadcast journalist. But, like many students, she found that the reality didn’t meet her expectations, and she just didn’t like what she was studying. Taking her first class in comparative literature changed her life.

“The professor was incredible,” she said. “I was rather shy in the classroom, and he had a way of getting me to talk. He would play devil’s advocate and really draw the students in.”

In some ways, it was that professor — Eric Downing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — who inspired Comfort and made her interested in the field of literature.

“I realized that being a literature professor allowed me to do the same things that had drawn me to journalism — public speaking, writing, and having knowledge of the world and applying it in certain ways,” she said.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Whistle
Predicting Scientific Success

November 3, 2016

John Walsh, professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in “Predicting Scientific Success” by The Scientist.

Excerpt:

The stability of a given scientist’s Q value means that papers published early in a career can predict the success of those published later. Such early Q values could also predict subsequent Nobel Prize-winners, Sinatra and colleagues showed.

“This constant level of quality [Q]. . . is a fairly profound finding,” said John Walsh of Georgia Tech who did not participate in the study. “It basically argues that there is no learning. You’re just as good as you are.”

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Scientist
Do Ads for Young Egg Donors Go Too Far?

November 2, 2016

Aaron Levine, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in “Do Ads for Young Egg Donors Go Too Far?” by WSB-TV.

Excerpt:

Georgia Tech professor Aaron Levine researched compensation, and risk disclosures in ads, recruiting egg donors.

"I've personally seen ads in the $50,000 to $75,000 range," Levine told Choi.

Levine said compensation limits and advertising are self-regulated by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. They said if a benefit is mentioned in an ad, risks, like potential side effects, must also be disclosed.

In a 2014 study that looked at more than 400 recruitment ads, Levine found only 16 percent of them mentioned risks.

“We looked at whether or not those risks were really being disclosed in the advertisement. And by and large, they weren't," Levine said.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: WSB-TV
A Cheat Sheet Guide to Who Controls the Internet

November 1, 2016

Milton Mueller, professor in the Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy, was referenced in "A Cheat Sheet Guide to Who Controls the Internet" by Slate.

Excerpt:

Göran Marby: Marby serves as president and CEO of ICANN, a role that has him overseeing the organization’s separation from its former relationship with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Rebecca MacKinnon: MacKinnon, a co-founder of Global Voices Online, has challenged the entanglement of corporate interests and national politics in internet governance.

Milton Mueller: A professor of public policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Mueller co-founded the Internet Governance Project, which aims to democratize internet policy and protect net neutrality.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Slate
Ignore Mary Poppins. Find Fun in the Medicine

October 28, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was interviewed about the his new book, Play Anything, in “Ignore Mary Popins. Find Fun in the Medicine” by Science Friday.

Excerpt:

“Gamification” is a popular buzz word that describes the process of making boring or difficult things fun. Need to train for that marathon? Download an app and turn your workout into a zombie chase. Have a ton of chores? Use your smartphone to turn your to-do list into an adventure quest. Gamification apps suggest you can have the best of both worlds: You can play games and be productive. In other words, they promise to make life more fun.

So it will come as a surprise that popular game developer Ian Bogost is staunchly against gamification. Bogost argues that these apps employ a trope used by “that renowned philosopher of fun,” Mary Poppins: They add a little sugar to something that is otherwise distasteful, like sitting in traffic or cleaning house. Instead Bogost suggests we approach these tasks for what they are, study them, and discover the mechanism by which we can “play” with them, like an instrument. Making your morning coffee doesn’t have to be a slog if you experiment with different roasts, experiment with the ratio of water to coffee grounds, and learn what makes a particular brew bitter or sweet.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Science Friday
The Trump-Clinton Twitter War: Bludgeon vs. Stiletto

October 26, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was quoted in "The Trump-Clinton Twitter War: Bludgeon vs. Stiletto" by The Associated Press.

Excerpt:

When the Clinton camp goes on the attack, by contrast, it uses Twitter more as a stiletto than a club. "Delete your account" is a popular internet meme, an arch putdown that suggests someone just said something so embarrassingly stupid that they should just slink away and disappear. The response was an immediate hit that ricocheted around blogs and news sites for days; it's been retweeted more than half a million times.

Trump is "that rough individual who will say anything," a stance that his supporters find "very refreshing," says Ian Bogost, a communications professor at Georgia Tech. Clinton's tweet, by contrast, "signals to her base that she's with-it on the internet," he noted in an earlier piece in the Atlantic.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Associated Press
The Critical IoT Reading List

October 26, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was referenced in "The Critical IoT Reading List" by Wired.

Excerpt:

Our first post on the blog was a compilation of writings about the IoT that provide a critical lens on the IoT and its social and cultural impacts. We’ve put that list here so it can grow and become a dynamic resource over time. Feel free to suggest additions.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Wired
A Pocket Guide to the Robot Revolution

October 26, 2016

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, wrote "A Pocket Guide to the Robot Revolution" for the November 2016 issue of The Atlantic.

Excerpt:

Paro (2003)
This therapeutic baby-seal robot makes eye contact and responds to a person’s touch and speech.

Furby (1998)
A hamsterlike toy robot that could gradually learn to speak English. Tens of millions of them were sold in the late ’90s.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Atlantic
Internet Transition Can't Be Reversed, NTIA Chief Says

October 26, 2016

An event hosted by the Internet Governance Project (IGP) at the School of Public Policy was referenced in “Internet Transition Can't Be Reversed, NTIA Chief Says” by Bloomberg BNA.

Excerpt:

The recently completed transition of internet technical function oversight can’t be reversed, Assistant Commerce Secretary Lawrence E. Strickling said Oct. 26.

“That contract is expired and can’t be brought back in this point of time,” Strickling, chief of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, said at an internet governance event hosted by the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

Strickling's remarks signalled that transition opponents can't roll back the move.

The U.S. Commerce Department allowed its oversight contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the non-profit that coordinates the domain name system, to expire Oct. 1, under a plan that the global internet community spent two years developing. In September, GOP lawmakers attempted to insert language in a stopgap government funding bill to block the transition. Four state attorney generals filed a last-minute lawsuit, which they later dropped after a federal judge refused to halt the transition.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Bloomberg BNA
Express Lanes Take Toll on Driver Behavior

October 25, 2016

Patrick McCarthy, professor in the School of Economics, was quoted in “Express Lanes Take Toll on Driver Behavior” by Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Excerpt:

Pat McCarthy studies transportation economics at Georgia Tech. He said the rising demand for the lanes speaks to drivers’ priorities.

“What it fundamentally says is that the value of that trip to those individuals is worth the cost,” he said.

McCarthy explained that road space is a fixed resource. Eventually drivers will decide the costs of using that resource--either paying the toll or sitting in traffic--are too high and change their behavior.

“Not everyone buys a Rolls-Royce,” he said. “Some people buy less expensive cars. We figure out based upon our incomes what choices we want to make.”

For the full article, read here.

Published in: Georgia Public Broadcasting
Only Hillary Clinton is Prepared for the Nuclear Threat

October 23, 2016

Sam Nunn, distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, wrote "Only Hillary Clinton is Prepared for the Nuclear Threat" for The Wall Street Journal.

Excerpt:

America’s Founding Fathers were determined to avoid a concentration of power in any one person or branch of government. When it comes to the authority to launch nuclear weapons, however, there are no checks or balances. Millions of lives and perhaps the fate of the planet rests on the judgment of a single person, the commander in chief. When voters choose America’s next president on Nov. 8, this is what’s at stake.

Nine nations possess nuclear weapons. In a military confrontation, leaders will have little warning of a potential nuclear attack and only minutes to respond. Sophisticated hackers could deceive warning systems or disrupt command-and-control processes. Moscow and Washington still posture their nuclear forces so that they can be ordered to fire in minutes, a dangerously outdated strategy from the Cold War. Once a missile is in the air, even if fired by mistake, there is no way to order it back.

For the full article, read here.

Published in: The Wall Street Journal
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

Recent Press Coverage

Why Silicon Valley May Warm to Trump

How Pokemon Go Can Save Lives in a Hurricane

Home Monitoring Will Soon Monitor You

Comfort Goes Beyond Basics in Language Learning

Predicting Scientific Success

Do Ads for Young Egg Donors Go Too Far?

A Cheat Sheet Guide to Who Controls the Internet

Ignore Mary Poppins. Find Fun in the Medicine

The Trump-Clinton Twitter War: Bludgeon vs. Stiletto

The Critical IoT Reading List

A Pocket Guide to the Robot Revolution

Internet Transition Can't Be Reversed, NTIA Chief Says

Express Lanes Take Toll on Driver Behavior

Only Hillary Clinton is Prepared for the Nuclear Threat

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

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Georgia Institute of Technology

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