“Humans are habit­ual problem-​​solvers, so obsessed with puz­zles and pat­terns that for mil­len­nia we’ve posed rid­dles and cre­ated games to fill our “idle time.” But these obses­sive problem-​​solving habits are tra­di­tion­ally seen as a dis­trac­tion from the “real work” of busi­ness, schol­ar­ship and pub­lic policy.

That is no longer true… if it ever was.

This is the first of a series of three open-​​format work­shops sched­uled for 2009 & 2010, where we’ll gather to explore the new ways game play is becom­ing “use­ful” work—useful for peo­ple and institutions.”