Sebastian Deterding, M. A.
Associate Researcher of the Hans Bredow Institute
Sebastian Deterding, M.A., studied Comparative Literature, Communication, Psychology, and Philosophy at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University Münster and Brown University, Providence, USA. After finishing his studies, he worked several years as program manager and online editor-in-chief at the multimedia department of the Federal Agency for Civic Education, Germany. He was the product manager of the e-democracy application "Wahl-O-Mat", project lead of a social networking site for civic youth engagement, and edited several online dossiers on topics including open source, copyright and video games. His stay at the Federal Agency was interrupted by a short commission to the Information Society Division of UNESCO, Paris, where he worked on information policy and internet governance.
Subsequently, Sebastian became a research associate at the GATE Game Research for Training and Entertainment Project at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, where he developed design guidelines for persuasive games, before moving on to become a user experience designer at the publishing company Gruner+Jahr AG & Co KG in Hamburg, where he was UX project lead for the redesign of a major news site.
From October 2009 through March 2010, Sebastian has been a junior researcher at the Hans Bredow Institute and has been working on re-search projects at the intersection of code, governance, persuasion and game design. Since April 2010 he has done his PhD with a scholarship granted by the Hamburg Excellence Initiative at the Graduate School “Media and Communication”, the interdisciplinary PhD Programme of the Research Center for Media and Communication (RCMC) in Hamburg. He is still related to the Institute as a staff member of the Research and Transfer Centre “Digital Games and Online Worlds”.
His research interests include the persuasive design of games and digital media, new media governance, fictional transmedia worlds and their communities, and Goffmanian frame analysis as a theoretical approach to fiction and video games.
Personal web site: http://codingconduct.cc
Latest publications
Deterding, S. (2010): Social Game Studies: A Workshop Report. With contributions by S. Björk, S. Dreyer, A. Järvinen, B. Kirman, J. Kücklich, J. Paavilainen, V. Rao & J. Schmidt. Hamburg: Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research. Available at http://socialgamestudies.org/report.
Hasebrink, U.; Schulz, W.; Deterding, S.; Schmidt, J.-H.; Schröder, H.-D.; Sprenger, R. (2010): Leitmedium Internet? Mögliche Auswirkungen des Aufstiegs des Internets zum Leitmedium für das deutsche Mediensystem [Key Medium Internet? Potential Effects of the Rise of the Internet as “Key Medium” in the German Media System]. Expert Opinion submitted to the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Parliament (TAB) in April 2010 (unpublished).
Latest lectures
"Was geht hier eigentlich vor sich? Rahmen als Medienkompetenz und Mediensozialisation" [What Is Going On Here? Frames as Media Competence and Media Socialisation], lecture by S. Deterding in the context of the lecture series "Die konstitutive Macht der Medien" [The Constituent Power of Media] at the Otto-von-Guericke-University in Magdeburg on 2 December 2009.
"Gaming it? Was User Experience Designer von Game Designern lernen können" [Gaming it? What User Experience Designers Can Learn from Game Designers], lecture by S. Deterding at the World Usability Day in Hamburg on 12 November 2009.
"You Can Do Better – Lessons Learned from Government Meets SNS", Keynote by S. Deterding at the E-Democracy Unconference in Berlin on 15 October 2009.
"The Game Frame. Systemizing a Goffmanian Approach to Video Game Theory", lecture by S. Deterding at theDiGRA 2009 "Breaking New Grounds: Innovations in Games, Play, Practice and Theory" in Uxbridge on 1 September 2009.
"Fiction as Play. Reassessing the Relation of Games, Play, and Fiction", lecture by S. Deterding at the Fourth Philosophy of Computer Games Conference in Oslo on 14 August 2009.
"Persuasive Design, or: The Fine Art of Separating Users from Their Bad Behaviours - online", lecture by S. Deterding auf der reboot11, "Action" in Copenhagen on 26 June 2009.
"Lektionen in Suche: On-Site-Suche für Nachrichtensites: Paradigmen, Elemente, Tracking und Testing" [Lessons in Search: On-Site Search for News Sites. Paradigms, Elements, Tracking and Testing], lecture by S. Deterding at the UXcamp Berlin ‘09 on 24 May 2009.
"Persuasives Webdesign: Jenseits von Konversion und Usability" [Persuasive Web Design: Beyond Convention and Usability], lecture by S. Deterding at the IA Conference 2009 "IA in Business und Praxis" in Hamburg on 16 May 2009.
"Join Our Benign Commercial Dictatorship Now! Metaphern und Herausforderungen der Regulierung Virtueller Welten" [Join Our Benign Commercial Dictatorship Now! Metaphors and Challenges of Regulating Virtual Worlds], lecture by S. Deterding at the MD.H Mediadesign Hochschule für Design und Informatik in Berlin on 6 April 2009.
"Verhaltensänderung speichern? Wie persuasives Webdesign Meinungen, Entscheidungen und Handlungen beeinflusst" [Save Behavioural Change? How Persuasive Web Design Influences Opinions, Decisions and Actions], lecture by S. Deterding at the re:publica’09 "Shift Happens" in Berlin on 2 April 2009.
Contact
Sebastian Deterding, M. A.
Graduate School Media and Communication
Universität Hamburg
Mittelweg 177
20148 Hamburg