Academic Network 07 Conference (1)

Yesterday I wrote about the e-book reader Kindle of Amazon.com. It was Amazon’s gift to me as I was going to give a presentation about digital paper to the Academic network at their conference in Graz (Austria). The conference is held at the FH Joanneum, a college of applied science, which has been very successful in yielding digital media experts. Every year students of this college enter the EUROPRIX Top Talent Award competition and have a list of nominees and winners.

It is my first time in Graz. So far the conferences of the Academic network have taken place in Vienna (Austria) and even the predecessors have taken place in Tampere (Finland). I have not seen much of Graz yet as I arrived last night. We had a welcome reception last night with the participants of the EUROPRIX Top Talent Award 07. This took place in a typical Austrian environment. The Karmelieterplatz had been turned into a ski slope with a make-shift tent to have the après-ski. Without skiing, we had drinks and finger food.

The Academic network has been going since 1999, when the first one was held under the name of the Scholars’ Network Conference in Tampere (Finland), during the MindTrek 99 conference. My friend Cai made an overview of the last five years. His conclusion: the participation in the conferences has been increased as well as the participants from different countries. In total 158 participants from 22 European countries have been present. The conference has always been connected to the EUROPRIX Top Talent Award, attracting also the professors, lecturers and instructors of nominees. The intention is to build out the conference to a larger event.


Friday, 23. November

9:00 -9:30 Opening Prof. Peter A. Bruck (ICNM), Jak Boumans (EADiM)

Moderator: Cai Melakoski, TAMK University of Applied Sciences (Tampere) FI

9:30 – 10:45 Panel 1 “Augmented Realities and Smart Interfaces”
Panel leader Alexander K. Nischelwitzer, FH Joanneum, Graz, AT, LOCAL HOST
9:30-09:45 Stephan Setscheny, FH Joanneum AT : Tangible Cubes: Implementation of tangible user interfaces through the usage of the microcontroller and sensor technology.
9:45-10:00 Kye, Bokyung, Korea Education & Research Info Service, KR: Investigation on the Relationships among Media Characteristics, Presence, Flow and Learning Effects in Augmented Reality Based Learning
10:00-10:15 Christoph Perhab, FH Joanneum AT: Visualization of machine-aided measurement of people counts in different infrastructures
10:15-10:30 Christophe Cotin Valois, Digitas, FR : User Universal Navigation Language
10:30-10:45 Discussion

10:45-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Panel 2 “Mobile Location Based Applications”
Panel leader Chris Bennewith, UK
11:00- 11:20 Andreas Jakl, FH Hagenberg, AT: Pushing location based games further – How to gain end-user suitability
11:20- 11:40 Sandra Schadenbauer, FH Joanneum, AT: Mobile Game based Learning – Designing a Mobile Location Based Game
11:40-12:00 Niki Theodorou, GR: Thessaloniki’s Tourist Guide: A tourist site for handheld devices
12:00-12:30 Discussion

12:30-14:00 Lunch Break

14:00-15:00 Panel 3 “The Mobile Paradigm for content development”:
Panel leader Richard Vickers, UK
14:00-14:30 Chris Bennewith / Richard Vickers, UK: Mobile Paradigm for Content development: Interface is key
14:30-14:45 Richard Hancock, Staffordshire University, UK: The complexities of developing accessible web content for mobile devices
14:45-15:00 Sohvi Sirkesalo, FI: Multichannel production for multichannel distribution -.case: Eurovision Song Contest
15:00-15:15 Discussion

15:15-15:30 Coffee Break

15:30-17:30 Panel 4 “Current Mega Trends”: Panel leader Rodica Mocan, RO
15:30-15:45 Christina Handford, UK Teen Appeal – Touching the moving point
15:45-16:00 Jak Boumans, NL: e-papers
16:00-16:15 Rodica Mocan, RO: Happines and the Family 2.0 paradigm
16:15-16:30 Raphael Kominis, GR: Aesthetics as an attribute to usability
16:30-16:45 Joanna Skoczkowska, PL: To poke or not to poke
16:45-17:00 Kieran O’Hea, IRE: Implications of Social Networking Websites for the Non-Profit Sector
17:00-17:30 Discussion

17:30 End of Day


Saturday, 24. November

9:30 – 10:45 Panel 5 “Teaching Models”:
Panel leader Melissa Lee Price, Staffordshire University, UK
9:30- 9:45 Mauri Kaipainen, University of Tallinn, Estonia: Using the Academic Network to foster collaborative European Projects.
9:45-10:00 Carina Roels, IT Institute, FR: Is it possible to conciliate e-learning, learning by doing and cross cultural approaches when teaching new technologies ?”
10:00-10:15 Tomi Numento, Pekka Uotila, Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences, FI: Events as Organisational Stories: An Event Based Approach for Learning Media Production”
10:15-10:30 Discussion

10:30-10:45 Coffee Break

10:45-11:30 Michael E. Jeppesen / Stanislav Miler, ICNM
Teaching interactive story authoring: The INSCAPE software suite
Discussion: How effective and valuable could INSCAPE be for teaching?

11:30-12:30 Panel 6 “Expectations to academia and how it can be addressed”:
Panel leader Richard Vickers, UK
11:30-12.00 Korash Sanjideh, Dan Livingstone, UK: How does academia ensure that graduates leaving education match industry expectations?
12:00-12:15 Mik Parsons, Bournemouth University, UK: The Learning Effectiveness of Cross-Discipline Collaborations
12:15-12:30 Discussion


12:30-13:30 Lunch and End of Conference
13:30-16:30 Top Talent Live Presentations at the Kunsthaus Graz
20:00-23:30 EUROPRIX Top Talent Award Gala - Minoritensaal

The EUROPRIX Top Talent Award is in its 10th year now. Tomorrow night the Gala will be held and the winners will be announced. Some of the jury members even from earlier editions will be there, for example Martin Sperka, a professor from Slovakia, Ms Melissa Lee-Price, a professor at Staffordshire University in the UK , Ms Rodica Mocan from Babesj University in Romania, Kieran O’Hea, a private consultant from Dublin (Ireland) and Sohi Sirkosalo of Tampere School of Art and Media (Finland). Again my friend Cai did some research into the jurors’ history. Ovr the 10 years there have been 258 jurors’ positions which have been filed by 158 persons from 25 European countries.

Blog Posting Number: 931

Tags: multimedia competition