Annenberg Innovation Lab


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	The Lab's approach to research is pragmatic and experimental. It sponsors work on topics of concern to industry, government and consumers. The Lab seeks to broaden the audience for scholarship created at USC Annenberg while encouraging the development of new ways to present this work to the public.

Research Topics


	Business Models


	Geolocation


	Social Media


	Privacy


	Net Policy


	Future of E-Books


	Transmedia Research

New Research

Building & Analyzing Collective Intelligence \ Francois Bar

The interaction of many individuals through social networks generates vast amounts of data. The Lab is exploring innovative ways to facilitate the creation, sharing, and analysis of this collective knowledge, to enhance its potential for shared understanding of its value to the community and collective action. Collective Intelligence activities at the Lab are currently focusing on two related tracks:

Semantic, sentiment and content analysis of publicly available "big-data" from social networks such as twitter and facebook, and
Design of inclusive collaborative environments that facilitate the thoughtful creation of shared data and its mapping to support public debate and collective action.

Public Interactives: Anne Balsamo, research coordinator \ Anne Balsamo

The Lab is developing a number of PUBLIC INTERACTIVES --significant cultural technologies that subtly shape the technological literacies of the future. PUBLIC INTERACTIVES are devices that serve as the stage for interactive experiences in public settings such as museums, theme parks, outdoor art spaces, civic plazas, and urban streets. PUBLIC INTERACTIVES are an emergent form of public communication designed to engage people in conversations with digital media for the purposes of information exchange, education, entertainment, and cultural memory. PUBLIC INTERACTIVES are an art form that evokes new experiences and perceptions through experiments with scale, mobility, built space, and modes of human engagement in public spaces.

For more information contact: annebalsamo@gmail.com

Current Public Interactives Projects

The Future of Journalism \ Gabriel Kahn

Technology is enhancing how we report, distribute and understand the news. The Lab is at the forefront of finding innovative ways to both gather information and consume it. It is launching projects that help the public to better engage with the news through curation, data-mining and geo-location. It is also developing tools for journalists to report and tell stories across different platforms. The Lab's research will help the news organizations of the future to support and sustain high-quality journalism.

Children, Youth & Media Research-Design Track \ Erin Reilly

Young people participate in the creation and circulation of media content within social networks that extend from their circle of face-to-face friends to a larger virtual community around the world. Being able to participate fully in this rich media landscape requires access to opportunities and mentorship in new media literacies. Using the value of play as the guiding principle, the Children, Youth and Media Research-Design Track @ USC's Annenberg Innovation Lab seeks to develop projects that gain new perspectives on ways participatory practices and transmedia storytelling can catalyze learning-rich experiences for children, youth, educators and parents and in the process, extend the affordances of interacting with the technologies that are becoming more prevalent in their lives.

Key Projects include:

PLAY! (Participatory Learning and You!)

Enhanced Media Technologies Research Design Track \ Jon Taplin

As media has moved from analog to digital and content moves across platforms, new processes and technologies need to be explored. Projects in this track examine the possibilities that come with the integration of social media applications, mobile devices and television and music content. The Lab has developed interactive TV applications that experiment with new modes of interactivity between television hardware and tablets. The Lab is also collaborating with industry and creative partners to develop new codices for sound that will enable a higher quality of audio and music experience.

For more information on how to participate in the below projects or learning more about incubation funds for projects that align with this research-design track, please contact:

Jon Taplin - Research Director
Adam Kahn - Research Assistant

Key Projects:

Interactive TV-How can we tie the TV and the Tablet together to provide seamless interactivity. While I watch the Lakers game, can the Tablet provide me synced up stats of the game, instant replays and e-commerce opportunities? Can the Tablet help control the TV experience? Can the standard interactive TV user guide be improved? Researchers will work with DirecTV and Verizon executives and engineers.

High Fidelity Audio-The MP3 digital audio format was invented in 1993 when the average modem speed was 34 KBPS. Why are we still saddled with a low quality audio format in an age of wired and wireless broadband. This project seeks to create a new Hi-Fi audio format for Cloud music services.In addition we will explore how the mobile device may be the center of the connected home. Researchers will work with Grammy winning Producer T-Bone Burnett as well as engineers from Verizon, Qualcomm and Sony.