[game_preservation] The Library of Congress project, upcoming plans

[Henry Lowood]

Andrew,

First, about the early GDC, it's a pain for us too in terms of the 
academic calendar.  I'm positive this had to do with the difficulty 
of booking the venue in San Francisco.  I'm probably a minority of 
one (and possibly jaded by living near San Francisco), but I prefer 
the San Jose venue to the spread-out San Francisco affair.   So, I'm 
a grognard when it comes to this.

About the project, it's not a requirement that partners be in the 
United States, as far as I know.  We hope to attract interest in 
Japan and Europe, for starters.  Funds can't flow to those countries, 
but that's not really an option anyway in terms of the 
budget.  Again, I would say if anyone is interested in helping with 
the project, just get in touch and we can go from there.

It turns out the IGDA-GDC relationship is a little different this 
year, but it looks like a roundtable is certain.  We'll have to apply 
for both the Digital Canon event (i.e., offer it in one of the tracks 
other than IGDA) and the workshop.

State of Play.  Have a look here: http://www.nyls.edu/pages/2396.asp 
and click on the archives button below right.  The time capsules from 
SoP I, II, and III are interesting.

Henry


At 09:35 AM 9/9/2007, Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>Hey Henry,

>

>Reading all the information, the project sounds good. Looks some 

>really good aims, and hopefully some form of accessible archive will 

>come from it - so I hope it goes well from January! I can't help 

>directly, but let the group know if we can do any specific task that 

>doesn't involve living in the USA and being an academic archiver :-)

>

>I put the PDF you attached to your email on the IGDA wiki here: 

><http://www.igda.org/wiki/images/8/81/About_preserving_virtual_worlds_2.pdf>http://www.igda.org/wiki/images/8/81/About_preserving_virtual_worlds_2.pdf 

>so anyone not on this list could obtain it.

>

>Its a shame the GDC 2008 is earlier then GDC 2007, means if I was 

>able to go (maybe should apply for the IGDA's Scholarships), it'd be 

>a week out of my University term (although saying that, GDC 2007 

>would have been too, if I was at University at the time), but I 

>would so love to go (I'm not likely going to get praise from you, a 

>University professor, for wanting to miss part of my University year 

>though :) ).

>

>So it is great to know you'll be trying to get some roundtables and 

>another Digital Game Canon session. The workshop, I presume, is not 

>something I'd get anything out of since I'm not the intended 

>audience, but if it helped the IP holders even in the slightest and 

>urged them to help with donations, and on how they should store 

>their own archives, it'd likely be highly worthwhile (especially 

>with the UT Videogame archive starting, giving another location for 

>a physical archive collection that needs donations).

>

>Also, what is the State of Play event? Searching the net only turned 

>up dates for State of Play 2007, and no real info on what it entailed :)

>

>Andrew

>

>Henry Lowood wrote:

>>All,

>>

>>Well, as you know, the Library of Congress has funded the project, 

>>called "Preserving Virtual Worlds," to be undertaken by Stanford, 

>>U. Maryland, U. Illinois, and Rochester Inst. of Technology.   It 

>>will start on Jan. 1, 2008 and end at the end of 2009, a two-year 

>>project.  There are three foci: e-literature (historically, closely 

>>related to text games), digital games, and virtual worlds.  But 

>>rather than get into all of that in e-mail, I'm attaching a 

>>description of the project; there are no restrictions on 

>>distributing this. So please have a look and let's discuss it.

>>

>>A few points relating to the project and some launch plans:

>>

>>1. There are many project partners and there is room for more.  I'm 

>>happy to speak with anyone who feels they can contribute 

>>substantially to the project goals.  We have several options in 

>>terms of how we would recognize such efforts.

>>

>>2. There will be some launch events just before and during GDC next 

>>year.   It's possible you heard it here first, but right now it 

>>looks like we will be hosting State of Play VI the weekend before 

>>GDC on the Stanford campus.   Our plan is that issues relating to 

>>the project will be in the program, e.g., legal issues around 

>>preservation of virtual world content.  Also, I will propose 

>>through GDC that we have a couple of roundtables and (hopefully, 

>>this will be approved) a Digital Game Canon session to add another 

>>ten games to the list.  Last, and this is still in flux a bit, we 

>>might try to offer a workshop on game preservation that speaks more 

>>to industry-related education, outreach, and interests.  Let me 

>>know if you have ideas on that or would like to help put a proposal together.

>>

>>Please, feel free to discuss the project; I'm happy to answer 

>>questions.  It's out in the open now, no turning back, we're really 

>>going to do it!

>>

>>Henry

>>

>>Henry Lowood, Ph.D.

>>Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections

>>Curator for Germanic Collections; Film & Media Collections

>>HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall

>>Stanford University Libraries

>>Stanford CA 94305-6004

>>650-723-4602; <mailto:lowood at stanford.edu>lowood at stanford.edu; 

>>http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

>>

>>

>>

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Henry Lowood, Ph.D.
Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections
Curator for Germanic Collections; Film & Media Collections
HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford CA 94305-6004
650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood 
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