GEElabs

GEElabs is an early stage research project partnership between Assoc Prof Steffen Walz, Dr Jussi Holopainen and Research Assistant William Owen at RMIT’s distributed GEElab locations in Karlsruhe, Germany, and in Melbourne, Australia. 



With the GEElabs project, we intend to examine the potential of “gameful” applications to boost open scientific exchange, and to encourage and motivate researchers within the distributed teams of Games and Experimental Entertainment Lab of RMIT and with the GEElab’s many commercial partners to collaborate more effectively and more enjoyably. 



The two teams with 15+ members (PhD researchers, staff, and research associates) on two different continents work with big industry partners across the globe. The scope of GEElab collaborations serves as a prime example of how research is being conducted amongst distributed groups, across continents and institutions, demonstrating how intense open collaboration takes place.



Currently GEElab researchers are using and testing various collaboration tools from wikis through document repository and reference management systems to group communication tools. These tools, however, do not necessarily provide good enough incentives for the collaboration itself. The GEElabs project intends to study the potential of applying “gameful” approaches to distributed collaboration tools to motivate people to collaborate more.