Thank you for your engagement and many serious and sometimes humorous points. OK, here we try to answer some of the questions:
IS THIS GENIUS DESIGN? We know that a good and realistic prototype of a system with all the background research etc. can't be done in two days. Therefore we will provide a framework with a specific conflict with context, User research with Personas etc. We will also provide you contact with real users and experts in the domain. Still, it is a hard task to make a successfull system in 2 days, but you are among the best in the world aren't you? THIS IS NAIVE. REALISM PLEASE! A Facebook for peace? An online game to get Palestinians and the Israeli to become friends? To be honest, we really don't know if it's possible, but at least we turned the question around: could this work? We don't think we can make something that actually stops an ongoing war. But, can we make the reconciliation process easier and make it less probable that a new conflict will escalate? WHY WEB? The web is a perfect medium for communicating across borders. People in a conflict area would probably not like to meet face to face, but could they interact through the web? The costs of a web solution could be quite low compared to the possible importance of the outcome. CONFERENCE OR COMPETITION? It is both. We have B.J Fogg, Jesse James Garrett, Todd Zaki Warfel and others giving inspirational talks and guiding you during the making of the prototype. The participants will learn a lot from how the other groups solved the task and the results they came forward with. The competition is to make people extra motivated. ALL the solutions will we published afterwards and discussed so every team will have their chance to show off their work. WHY THE LOCATION? We believe that something completely different from the normal conference location could inspire people to think out of the box. PRICING: Many conferences in the US cost 2000 and upwards. F.ex User interface 13, UXweek etc. At Arctic UX Challenge, dinners and one event is included. The cost of transport will of course be higher than from San Fran to New York, but think about the rest of the world that always have to go to your country to attend conferences ;) Hotel is actually cheaper than most US conference-hotels. We think it is a real pity if great UX Professional can't afford to join us. What about trying to get your team sponsored by one or more companies? We expect a lot of media-buzz on this event, and it will be a unique chance for the sponsoring companies to get their names connected to world-wide-peace, as all the teams and their solutions will be published. IxD VS IA AND OTHER EXTINCT CONFLICTS We are done with this, aren't we? POLAR BEARS We won't harm any polar bears, and we are not going to let them harm you either :) ARE WE INSANE? The last time we looked at a Rorschach inkblot we saw 200 people having the time of their life at the Island of Spitsbergen. They felt they made a difference, they learned a lot AND they had a great time. Best regards, For The UX Challenge team Jostein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38434 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
