Find the Future report from the NYPL

In May of 2011, the New York Public Library hosted a big game run by Jane McGonigal called "Find the Future".  Over 5000 people applied to be one of the 500 who would go to the NYPL and participate in writing a book in one evening.  The game ran from 8pm until 6am.

I was one of those 500 people, so I thought I would share my experiences.

We reported to the NYPL before 8pm to get checked in and get our smartphones working with the game interface.  (You can still see the online game through http://game.nypl.org and get the "Find the Future" game in the App store or Android marketplace ).  There were quite a few technical problems due to password issues, so the game start was delayed as too few people tried to resolve the issues.

They then split us into two groups based upon our choice of "Patience" or "Fortitude," which are the names of the lions outside the front of NYPL.   We were each sent to one of the great reading rooms and given our first instructions.  (You can see some of the video I took live from this portion of the event at http://www.ustream.tv/user/scottnicholson/videos)

The basic idea was that 100 artifacts had been identified throughout the library.  You were placed on a team, and members of the team would go out with smart phones to locate items.  The items had a scannable QR Code (and a key word, if you couldn't get the code to scan).  You would scan the code, and then stay in front of the item for about a minute while "the energy was absorbed."  The idea was that during this time, you were to absorb and reflect upon the item.   {this was a clever idea to keep people from gaming the system, just running from item to item.}

You could then continue to hunt for more items or return to the reading room to check in to the Web site.   The site would then show you the items that your team had located.  You could then select and item, and be given a writing task inspired by the item.

I was drawn to a board game, so the task was to design a game that demonstrated some aspect of your life that most people don't know about.  I decided to create a choose-your-own-adventure, so created the "Quest for Tenure" (which you can read at Google Docs ).  As the night wore on, I wrote three other contributions (but as I don't work well late at night, none were as good as the Quest for Tenure).

There was a side event where each of us got a postcard from "The Future" that was hand-written to another participant reflecting upon how they changed the future (which was part of the application process).  We had to work to locate the person whose card we have, so this had people walking around both of the reading rooms calling out the names of others and cheers when a match was made.

As we wrote our reflections, they were sent to editors and then printed.  There was a bookbinder working away binding the writings into a book.   While the book wasn't finished by the morning, it has since been completed and is now a part of the NYPL's permanent collection. 

The online portal and smartphone games were available while the 100 Items exhibit was still running at the NYPL, so people could engage with the game after the fact.

One impact that I could see from the game was to raise awareness of the variety of things the NYPL has (and to continue to help people to learn that libraries are a lot more than books.)  I could also see it having an impact upon the individual participants, as they got to experience the NYPL in a new way to make it a meaningful place in their memories.  I haven't seen a digital version of the final book (and I imagine the quality of the writings in the book was pretty low, given the situation).  There were cameras around, and I don't know if a documentary is in the works, but that would certainly increase the impact of the project.

Oh, and I learned that I can't stay up all night!