Avatopia: a cross-media community for societal action

  • Authors:

  • Ylva Gislén;Jonas Löwgren;Ulf Myrestam

  • Affiliations:

  • Malmö University, Arts and Communication, 205 06, Malmö, Sweden;Malmö University, Arts and Communication, 205 06, Malmö, Sweden;Swedish Television, 350 33, Växjö, Sweden

  • Venue:
  • Personal and Ubiquitous Computing - Special Issue: Implications of the socio-physical contexts when interacting with mobile media
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

A cross-media platform was designed for a community of young teenagers oriented towards societal change. The platform involved an interactive web-forum featuring creative and communicative collaborative tools in a 3D avatar environment, and a weekly show in national public-service television. Informal assessment of the work indicated that (1) an integrated spiral of production and consumption across the two media channels involved is a viable design concept to support community building, (2) off-the-shelf avatar technology and consumer-grade Internet connectivity can form a feasible infrastructure for collaborative storytelling tools, and (3) a participatory design process wherein participants transition into the role of mentors and norm carriers upon deployment can be a feasible way to support subcultural community building towards “difficult” topics, even though it entails considerable resource demands. All of these findings are potentially transferable to other design domains and audiences.