MIT Announces The Future of Entertainment Conference

Officials from MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program have announced that the university is to stage a conference entitled The Future of Entertainment, to be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts on November 17th and 18th. The conference aims to bring together key industry leaders from the interactive media industries in order to discuss topics not only about gaming's role, but user-generated content, transmedia, storytelling, the rise of mobile media and the emergence of social networking. A draft program for the event currently includes talks from doctoral student Danah Boyd; Jason Mittell, assistant professor of American civilization and film and media culture at Middlebury College; Big Spaceship co-founder Michael Lebowitz; DC Comics president Paul Levitz; The Long Tail author Chris Anderson; Caterina Fake from photography website Flickr; and Diana Nelson from Warner Bros. Unconfirmed speakers are also expected from MTV, Cartoon Network and BioWare Corp. The conference is free and open to the public, although registration is now open to guarantee places. Further information can be found at the official MIT website.