Mobile app developer network openMIC – the Mobile Innovation Camp – will be running its next barcamp on Gamification on Thursday 19th May 2011 in Dundee, Scotland. 

May 11th 2011 - Mobile app developer network openMIC – the Mobile Innovation Camp – will be running its next barcamp on Gamification on Thursday 19th May 2011 in Dundee, Scotland.

Confirmed speakers include:
- Greg Merten, Head of Developer Relations at Nokia;
- Bill Ray of The Register, Kate Ho, MD of Interface3,
- Simone O’Callaghan of the University of Dundee and
- Katja Haferburg of the University of Bath’s Centre for Digital Entertainment.

The event will be chaired by Chris Book, @bookmeister.

“When Apple released its league table of the best-selling iPhone apps from its first 10 billion downloads earlier this year, 8 out of 10 were games. Clearly games on mobile make money,” said Simon Bond of openMIC.

“However game play techniques could turn out to be too important to be left only for play time. The growing buzz around gamification - using game-like mechanics for non-game applications – is catching the interest of investors, starts-ups, corporates and analysts. We’re delighted to bring the openMIC barcamp formula to Dundee, the ‘Capital of games’, and look forward to discussing how mobile app developers can tap into the Gamification opportunity.”

Examples of gamification include the Department for Work and Pensions’ innovation game, ‘Idea Street’, which was used to generate ideas from its 120,000 staff and featured game mechanics, including points, leader boards and a buzz index. Other gamification advocates include U.S. military with its ‘America’s Army’ recruiting video game and the World Bank which sponsored ‘Evoke’, a game which crowdsources ideas from players globally to solve social challenges.

Delegates can sign up for this openMIC event for free thanks to sponsorships from the ICT Knowledge Transfer Network and Nokia. Registration: www.open-mic.org.uk

openMIC – the Mobile Innovation Camp – is the mobile app developer network work of the Bath Ventures Innovation Centre. www.bath.ac.uk/bathventures/forbusiness/innovationcentre.html