Kristen Baumlier

NEWS

Kicked Out! – A Social Online Game for Teens About Using Money

Posted on July 3, 2012July 3, 2012 by Kbaumlier

When I was at the Games for Change Conference last month, I got a chance to talk to Anna Mostetschnig, who is Head of Research and Development of the game Kicked Out!, which is a game that teaches financial literacy in the increasingly popular game space of Facebook. The game explores how can you handle your money responsibly, and what are the consequences of your financial decisions.

Currently many young people in their twenties already hold an average debt of about $45,000. Katharina Norden, founder of Kicked Out! recently remarked that, “…Research supports the fact that if people don’t learn financial literacy skills before the age of 19, then spending patterns become internalized to the point where they’re extremely difficult to change.” The game was created in collaboration with psychologists, debt counselors and behavioral economists. The team behind the game come from Vienna, Austria and they have partnered with the game developers at ‘Team Vienna’ who have worked with Rockstar games on Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, other games.

So how do you play? In order to win at Kicked Out!, players must do well at navigating real-life financial situations, managing their daily finances and making long-term decisions while avoiding debt traps. The game is explored through trial and error, and you learn through the experience.

When I talked to Mostetschnig at G4C, she told me that this is the first Facebook that focuses on knowledge of financial decisions rather than focusing on “teaching.” She explained that knowledge does not lead to the experience, so the game approach is to be fun and a interesting experience. Issues like what does life really cost, what are the most common debt traps, are explored in the narrative of the game.

For the game you start out leaving your parents and getting your own apartment. You then have to decide how to decorate the apartment. You can invite your Facebook friends and have parties. If your party is successful you might have paty crashers like Lady Gaga or Justin Beiber. You can take pictures and post them in Facebook. Next day. Uh-oh. Your car just broke down and needs a $600 repair. Will you make it through the rest of the month?

Kicked Out! is currently working to develop this game independently and is using Kickstarter to get funds for the game. You can read more on the Kickstarter project website or at kicked-out.com

Image Source:
www.kicked-out.com

Links:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kicked-out/kicked-out

www.kicked-out.com

Is Your boat going in circles? You might be where you are supposed to be.

Posted on July 3, 2012July 3, 2012 by Kbaumlier

This past weekend I attended Bhakti Fest in Madison, WI. The event was a mix of yoga classes, workshops and music. It was my first yoga festival that I went to and it was a great experience.

There were a few things that I have been thinking about since I left which have me thinking about the idea that “you are exactly where you are supposed to be.”

Here are some of the things I heard this weekend:

1. There are no boundaries.

In one of the yoga classes, the instructor told us to approach going into the yoga pose not with the idea of trying to stretch into it as far as we could but to think of it as though there was no boundary. Nothing was there that would keep you back.

2. Your boat is going exactly where it needs to go.

In another class, the instructor led us through a story/guided meditation where we imagined we were laying in a boat and drifting at sea.. He shared the story of some monks who lived in Ireland called the Peregrini in the fifth and sixth centuries who left the monasteries and got into a small boat off the shores of Ireland. The boat had no rudder and no oars. They put up a sail and trusted that the winds would take them where they were supposed to go.

3. Where are you rushing off to? All there is in the end is a hole in the ground.

In a aromatherapy yin yoga workshop where you hold poses for a long time, the teacher reminded us that we all end at the same spot in the end, so why focus on the getting there so much instead of where you are.

Right now we are driving back home, and I have to admit that I am thinking about my broken computer, our ride and navigation home but maybe with a little less focus on what I can’t control at this moment. Ultimately I know that my boat is headed where it is supposed to go.

Links:

www.bhaktifest.com

Workshop Weekend: Learn to Pick a Lock, Make Ricotta, or Solder

Posted on July 1, 2012July 3, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Want to learn to pick a lock, make your own ricotta or make a camp stove out of two soda cans? If you live in Oakland, California you might have attended Workshop Weekend this past weekend and now can do some of these things. The two-day event was organized by two MIT-schooled brothers, Gil and J.D. Zamfirescu who helped organize the weekend of learning and sharing.

Participants paid $30 as an admission fee to take one class or to attend as many as they wanted during the whole weekend. On the website, the event is described as a “community-centered weekend buffet of low-cost, low-commitment mini classes to discover something that you are passionate about.”. The short, hands-on workshops ranged from crafting to engineering to gardening, and were taught by local, instructors with years of passion and experience in might craft. Some of the classes from the May workshop weekend included a 10-minute bread workshop, How to solder, a Distillation workshop, PCB layout design, and Sewing with Electronics.

The event was designed to be as hands-on as possible, and many of the participants tried soldering, making felt, reading astrology, and other skills for the first time. In total, a few hundred participants attended the Workshop Weekend.

The format of the event seems to be inspired by “unconferences” or “barcamps,” which have short presentations where anyone can present. I increasingly am interested in this short workshop/presentaiton model and I plan to see if we can do something like this where I live. If you are interested in working on creating a open workshop/unconference event in Cleveland,OH that focuses on art, Open source technology, DIY culture, collaboration, and innovation, let me know.

Image Source:
workshopweekend.net

Links:
workshopweekend.net

Food Font – New Website and Two Upcoming Food Font Events

Posted on June 28, 2012July 10, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Ok. I usually wait until everything is done and perfect to launch anything. Since I will be doing a Kickstarter campaign started in mid-July for part of the project – it is recommended that I start to get the word out about the project early. (This also gives me a chance to get over some of my perfection issues. )

My new project Food Font has a new website that I will be continuing to build this summer. Food Font is a project comprised of design workshops, font making activities and the use of the interactive online design tool FoodFont. The project supports education, interaction, and communication about food, health, and design. With the Food Font project, people make alphabets out of food and later are able to use these and other food alphabets in a fun, free, interactive online design tool.

For the project, people make an alphabet (also called letterforms) out of any kind of food. A set of letters could be made out of one kind of food, or several types of food. Some Food fonts that have been made include a kale font, holiday dinner font (made of food from a Christmas dinner), a French fry font, a vending machine food font, a packed lunch food font , and a chopped vegetable font. The letter making activity is a great way for individuals and groups to have fun and to interact and talk about food.

At the Food Font event, each letter created is photographed. These are later edited and loaded into the online Food Font interactive design tool. With this tool, individuals can load up the food alphabet that they helped create as well as use the other food alphabets in the system. You can type in words, choose backgrounds, resize and rotate elements, and do basic layout techniques to make images that can be saved, shared electronically, and also printed. The tool can be used to make images, posters, signs, greeting cards, and other printed materials.

The project is meant for anyone to do, which includes community members at Farmer’s market or at a community garden, teachers and students in a classroom or by a restaurant, by “foodies” and people who love food , or by you with your friends and family. It is a fun, creative activity that anyone can do of any age, and in any size group.

To get the word out about my project I am currently scheduling a number of Food Font events during Summer and Fall of 2012. With the events, I hope to get the word out about the project and to inspire others to make their own food alphabets. So far I have a event scheduled in Buffalo, NY on July 28^th, and one that is being finalized for the Lakewood Farmer’s market in Lakewood near Cleveland, OH. If you have ideas about where a Food Font event should happen let me know. I am booking gigs now.

Links:

http://foodfont.com/

Food Font – New Website and Two Upcoming Food Font Events

Posted on June 27, 2012July 31, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Links:

http://foodfont.com/