September 12 2024 GM

The Digital Rights Monopoly: Discussing Gamification as a Tool for Digital Literacy

Glitter Meetups What are Glitter Meetups Notes from Past Glitter Meetups Virtual Events Calendar Join the TCU Mattermost

• Date: Thursday, September 12
• Time: 9am EDT / 1pm UTC
• Who: Taiwo Oreoluwa Sobowale
• Facilitator: Mardiya
• Where: On TCU Mattermost "IF Square" Channel.
  • Don't have an account to the TCU Mattermost? you can request one following the directions here.

Join us on September 12, to hear from Taiwo, currently the business operations manager of Digital Grassroots, creators of the Digital Rights Monopoly, who will be talking about:

• The role of gamification as a tool for Digital Literacy and how games can promote players to reflect on the digital ecosystem and the imbalance in a digital landscape dominated by the global north.
• How the Digital Rights Monopoly provides an interactive simulation of co-created lived experiences and expertise of the Digital Grassroots community.
• The technology tools and processes they used in building the game.

Taiwo Oreoluwa Sobowale is the Business Operations Manager Digital Grassroots. Her experience spans across Human Resources, Operations and Data Analytics. She is passionate about personal development and employability which propelled her to start her podcast "the3phaseconversation".

What is Glitter Meetup?

Glitter Meetup is the weekly town hall of the digital rights and Internet Freedom community at the IF Square on the TCU Mattermost, at 9am EDT / 1pm UTC. It is a text-based chat where digital rights defenders can share regional and project updates, expertise, ask questions, and connect with others from all over the world! Do you need an invite? Learn how to get one here.

Notes

What is the digital monopoly game, and give us an overview of what digital grassroots is as an organization?

• Digital Rights Monopoly Game is an interactive simulation game that prompts players to reflect on the digital ecosystem, co-created through the lived experiences and expertise of the Digital Grassroots global youth community. As an organization, we are a youth and feminist led organization working to increase digital citizenship in underserved communities by building the capacity of future Internet leaders, advocating for a democratic internet and innovating toward feminist technologies.
• https://monopoly.digitalgrassroots.org/

Seems like a very interesting game, What was the initial rational to create the game? i.e why was it created?

• So the Digital Rights Monopoly game was created out of the need to address the inclusion of youth and women from marginalized community in the digital landscape. It started as a board game in 2018 where members of the Digital Grassroots team (Esther Mwema, Uffa Modey and Noha Ashraf created a digital right version of the game.

And can you tell us why you specifically chose the format of a game?

• The game started out as a board game to make digital literacy more interactive. Last year, we got funding to make it a digital game. We wanted to make complex topics on Internet Governance more accessible.
• The original creator of the Monopoly game was a woman who wanted to show the ills of capitalism. So we created a game in the same spirit. To show the ills of monopoly in Internet Governance and the digital ecosystem which is very Western centric with the global south seeming only as 'beneficiaries'.
• Gamification techniques captures people’s attention and it increases motivation and engagement. From a personal experience, when I first played the Digital Rights Monopoly Game, I understood some digital rights terminologies better because the process was all fun and entertaining.

As someone interested in gamification, what frameworks did you use to transform digital rights knowledge to a game?

To create the game, we used several gamification frameworks and practices:

1. AI for Player Personas: AI creates dynamic player personas like "Stable Dreamer" to personalize the gaming experience and enhance engagement.
2. GitHub for Code Repository: GitHub supports collaboration and open-source development, allowing efficient tracking and contributions.
3. Netlify for Web Hosting: Netlify provides scalable, secure hosting to ensure the game is accessible to a global audience.
4. Zoho for Communication: Zoho facilitates effective communication among team members and contributors.
5. Adobe for Accessibility: Adobe tools enhance accessibility, ensuring the game is inclusive for players with diverse needs and abilities.

Do you have pictures of the first game? Which you can share here? What was the general feedback?

• It's been quite challenging to get the game to be digital and right now is still a single computer game. So we are hoping to get it to multiple player on different devicesso folks across the globe can play and learn. There's been a lot of growth. 5 years later. We are actively looking for funding to make that possible.
• We've gotten really positive feedback from players of the game - as it allows the players to determine their own digital future in this fictional setting and wear different personas - which were derived from our community.
• We found it is a powerful way for players to look at the socio-political aspects of the complex topics of Internet Governance in a simple way.

How do you know someone playing the game has been able to advance their knowledge on the topic? Sometimes with games it can be hard to measure, how have you been able to do this?

• The game was created to enable anyone to play the game, whether they are active in the digital ecosystem or not, so anybody can play the game. To test understanding, we collect players feedback at the end of the game to improve user experience.

Usually, what type of funding has supported advance your work?

• Digital Grassroots is youth led, women led and feminist - and we cater to mostly communities on the margins (from rural areas, with limited opportunities, or digital rights activists).
• So far, we have gotten project funding, though not core funding. Last year, we won the CChange creative lab award and that's how we were able to expand on this game.

Currently you are looking for ways expand this type of funding. Do you see yourselves, eventually providing the game as a service of sort?

• We are working to provide services to other grassroots organization that want to use digitization tools or want to make their work accessible to the most marginalized.

Do you still have the physical version?

• Yes, there are only two physical versions in the world. One is with me and the other one is with DIGRAs cofounder Uffa. So it is limited edition
• You can download the blueprint as the game is open source.

How would you like the community to reach you after this? If they want to learn more about how gamification of such tools work?

Esther: [email protected]

Our email: [email protected]

Our Twitter: @digigrassroots

FB and Instagram: @digitalgrassroots