Welcome to the EVOKE Network

This is not a simulation. You are about to tackle real problems. Continue reading this entry…

24 Comments

Manifesto: EVOKE and Beyond

As EVOKE concludes, thoughts on its process and its legacy by our gamerunners. Continue reading this entry…

5 Comments

EVOKE Heroes: Season 1

A week-by-week sampler of the accomplishments of EVOKE’s citizen agents. Continue reading this entry…

No Comments

EVOKE Group Play

Greetings EVOKE agents,

Over the summer we completed another round of EVOKE for almost 40 classrooms with players from Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Morroco, Nepal, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, Uganda, USA, and Zambia.  During this phase players created over 2,000 new blog posts.

Congratulations to all new agents for sharing these ideas on how to change our world.

I’m also writing to inform you that the network will go back into dark site mode, as we look to develop the next phases of EVOKE and the EVOKE network.    Stay tuned to the future.

No Comments

Season 1 Dark Site to re-open for new groups

Greetings EVOKE agents.   Are you ready to re-engage?   Are you ready to welcome new agents to the network?  Due to overwhelming demand from teachers and community leaders, EVOKE – Season 1 dark site will re-open on a three month trial run basis.  New groups of players can now submit a request for access to EVOKE to play the game at your own pace.  At this point, we will only be accepting group applications and not individual applications. Due to the potential high volume of requests expected we will be reviewing and approving applications each week so there may be a 5 day delay in the approval process. For new and existing agents, please be aware of the code of ethics that were developed during the original 10 week run of the game.   As new groups come on we will try to introduce them through blog posts each week, please reach out to them and welcome them to the network.   Happy Evoking….

33 Comments

EVOKE wins #1 Social Game of the Year!

Happy 2011 EVOKE agents!  Great news to kick off the new year – EVOKE received top honors in 2010 from Games for Change, the leading global organization for games designed to have a positive real world impact.  Congrats to the entire development team, and to all of you who contributed to the EVOKE community!

We will soon be accepting new applications from teachers and community leaders to enroll new groups in the EVOKE game.  Watch this space for more details.

6 Comments

World Bank Apps for Development Challenge

Agents,

While we await the next season of EVOKE, I wanted to share with you another challenge brought to you by the World Bank — the apps for development challenge — See link – appsfordevelopment.challengepost.com/

The World Bank launched its Open Data Initiative in April, 2010. This initiative made an array of data sets, including the World Development Indicators, Africa Development Indicators, and Millennium Development Goal Indicators – free for all.

The Apps for Development Competition aims to bring together the best ideas from both the software developer and the development practitioner communities to create innovative apps using World Bank data.

Please share with fellow agents and participate if you see an opportunity to create an app with this data.

1 Comment

EVOKE Certificates for Class of 2010 — Last Call

Greetings agents,

After distributing certificates for all of those agents that qualified, we have had some inquiries from agents who did not receive a certificate but completed the necessary number of missions and quests to be considered.  If there are any agents who did not receive a certificate but feel that they should have, please send an email to me at rhawkins at worldbank dot org by October 31, 2010. Please send me your first and last name as you would like it to appear on the certificate, a link to your player profile, your email address, your gender and age.  You will then be sent an electronic certificate if you indeed qualify.  If you would like to have hard copy certificate sent to you, please also include your physical address in the email to me.  The week of November 1, we will do a final run of certificates for this past season of EVOKE.  Any requests that come in after October 31, 2010 for consideration will not be reviewed and will not be granted a certificate for this past season.

Thanks again for an incredible season!

2 Comments

EVOKE challenge on Global Giving Raises almost $30,000

Congratulations to all of the EVOKE agents who participated in the August EVOKE challenge on Global Giving.  In one month, these 25 projects raised nearly $30,000 and engaged 597 unique donors!  Six EVOKE agents also met the Global Giving threshold of 50 unique donors and $3,000 raised to remain on the Global Giving site and continue raising funds for their projects.  Congrats to Paul Holze, Reid Falconer, David Dewane, Aseel Honein, Koshy Varghese and Geoffrey Matheson!  Paul Holze raised the most money for his project — “A documentary on happiness and women in South Africa”  at just over $7,000 with bonuses and David Dewane generated the most individual donors and comments during the challenge with his project — “Libraries Across Africa“.  Congrats again to all agents for converting their original ideas and visions into concrete projects and raising those initial few dollars  to go forth and make your difference in the world!

2 Comments

EVOKE Challenge has started

Greetings Agents,

The EVOKE challenge has begun!  Please visit the EVOKE challenge on Global Giving at www.globalgiving.org/evoke to support 25 fellow agents in their quest to raise resources and donors for their EVOKATIONS.   The challenge will run for the month of August — ending 23:59 EST on August 31, 2010.  Bonus resources will be available to those agents who reach a minimum target for funds raised, unique donors who contribute and comments on their project site.  So if you are not able to support these EVOKE agents financially, you can still reach out with a word of support for their effort.

Join me in congratulating and supporting all of these agents for putting their ideas into action!

No Comments

What will happen in Season 2?

At the end of the first season of EVOKE, players proposed ideas for the future of the game.

At our post-game meeting today, the lead team read through every suggestion posted to the site, and pulled our favorite suggestions and ideas for the future of EVOKE.

Here are some of the great ideas that have inspired us, and that we’re going to be working hard to implement in the future:

Continue reading this entry…

No Comments

What and where will EVOKE be in 5 years?

As part of our Post-Vita for Season 1 of EVOKE, we brainstormed our best-case scenario futures for where EVOKE might be in 5 years. Here are some of our favorite ideas. What are yours?

Continue reading this entry…

1 Comment

What Went Right, What Went Wrong: Lessons from Season 1 of EVOKE.

The EVOKE Post-Vita: What Went Right and What Went Wrong

For the next 3 days, we’re holding our Post-Vita meeting for the first season of EVOKE here in San Francisco. The lead team has gathered together to assess the first season and power up for future seasons and translations. We wanted to share with you our thoughts and ideas as we go, so we’re creating documents on the fly and live blogging them. We want to be as transparent as possible to help other social good games learn from our EVOKE experiences.

So first up: Here’s our top list of things that went right during EVOKE (and why – so we can do it again!) and things that went wrong (with at least one good idea for how we could improve next time.) In the great tradition of Game Developer Magazine, each lead team member made their own list of Top What Went Rights and Top What Went Wrongs. Please know: The solutions/recommendations aren’t necessarily locked in for future EVOKE seasons or experiences; we will continue to discuss and brainstorm, so please feel free to add your feedback and ideas in the comments.

Continue reading this entry…

9 Comments