Galactic Wormhole Template

An email and forum roleplay by Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan and Marie Jasinski

In the spirit of reusable learning designs, please acknowledge the authors when you use this role play and send any template adaptations to Marie Jasinski at design.planet@bigpond.com   This helps us to keep improving our templates.

Overview

Purpose: To explore how stakeholder groups could influence positive or negative outcomes.

Outcomes: Analysis and understanding of factors that influence specific positive and negative consequences.

Flow of the game: In this role play game, players participate in a time travel scenario to explore an issue relevant to their context – eg The outcome of an E-Business  strategy. Unknown to each other, players are randomly assigned to either a UTOPIAN or a DYSTOPIAN scenario projected some time in the future and given a stakeholder role from which to view the issue in question – eg executive, business development manager, client etc.  

They are then asked to submit a 150-word story to the facilitator that outlines how their designated stakeholder contributed to either this utopian or dystopian future.  

The facilitator collates the stories and then sends out the results by email or posts them on a bulletin board under the stakeholder role.  After reviewing all optimistic and pessimistic postings, players submit their five top ideas for ensuring the utopian future.  

Players then vote on the top five issues to be addressed.

They then join in a facilitated discussion using a bulletin board or chat.

Facilitator Instructions
Replace everything which is red and underlined with your own content.  Make any other appropriate changes.

Checklist
1.	Customize your template:
a.	Choose your scenario headline
b.	Identify the relevant roles
c.	Prepare templates for both dystopian and utopian positions.
2.	Allocate roles to players.  For each role you need a dystopian version and utopian version of the role play.  So if you have 6 roles, you’ll need to prepare 12 separate emails. 
3.	Round 1: Send out individual templates to players including deadline for story submission.
4.	Collate stories under different roles for DYSTOPIAN and UTOPIAN.  
5.	* Round 2: Email to participants and Invite them to:
a.	 read all Utopian and Dystopian stakeholder stories
b.	email top 5 issues to address to ensure a utopian future.
6.	Collate and send out issues under appropriate headings.  Record all input including names for winning round.
7.	 Round 3: Ask participants to vote for TOP FIVE issues or other relevant categories.
8.	Collate results, announce winners and email results to participants
9.	Round 4: Conduct debrief in forum.  
* These can also be posted on a web page or in a bulletin board.

Template
 (UTOPIAN)

You’ve just returned to your desk after an E-BUSINESS WORKSHOP. Good grief, what an experience! So XXXXX want us to re-invent ourselves to become first class players in this world market.  They want a vision for the future.  And they don’t want it to be tunnel vision either!  More like multi-focals! 

Anyway, your head is spinning and you need a break.  You decide to do some mindless surfing on the Internet.  Maybe check out the latest stock market reports or check out special holiday deals or find some game to play.  So, you start your surfing and are right in the middle of catching a few cyber waves. 

All of a sudden, an article seems to just pop up from nowhere.  It is intriguing but complex and you are compelled to have a read.  It says:
TRAVEL IN TIME THROUGH GALACTIC WORM HOLES – connecting past and future

It is theoretically possible to build a wormhole between two points in space. 
A wormhole has two mouths connected by a "throat," and provides a path that a traveller can follow to a distant point.  If the path through the wormhole is shorter than the light path between the two points, and if the two ends of the wormhole are moving, one end will be in the past and one end in the future. 

Galactic wormholes?  Time Travel? YOU HAVE NO CLUE how you reached this page and you are completely perplexed. You decide to go down the street for a cup of coffee and a newspaper.  You go outside and WOW!  You’re dazzled by the bright sunlight as you step outside. When your eyes adapt, you see that a new fangled machine has replaced the newspaper stand. Strange. The machine has what looks like a video screen with a single large button that says "News". You press the button. 

A headline appears: 
UTOPIA IS HERE: E-BUSINESS STRATEGY A WINNER AS XXXXXX LEAPS TO INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS 
Strange again.  You didn't know that we were THAT far ahead of the others in this field.  And so soon!

THEN YOU SEE THE DATELINE and freeze. It is August 18, 2007, more than 5 years in the future!  You look around, and see a few people walking around.  Their clothes seem a bit odd, and there’s a few strange hair styles about, but nothing too extreme.  That Wormhole stuff really works.  You’re in the future.  So this is what happened.

YOUR TURN NOW!  Join us in writing a piece of interactive science fiction. 
YOU ARE THE HERO OR HEROINE projected into the future via the GALACTIC WORMHOLE.

WHO ARE YOU?
You are a member of the EXECUTIVE TEAM from 5 years in the past, so you are motivated by curiosity about what lead to this current status of international recognition for XXXXX.
You do investigative work and find out how the E-Business Strategy turned out since you attended that workshop back in 2002.  You also do some hard reflection:

AS A MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE TEAM, tell your story in no more than 150 words about what exciting things happened in the last five years to create this Utopia.  How did XXXXX become one of the most sought after Institutes in the world? What happened?
What was your role as a member of the EXECUTIVE TEAM in contributing to this?

EMAIL YOUR STORY TO MARIE JASINSKI at design.planet@bigpond.com  by 11.59pm on August 18

Your input is ANONYMOUS to the other players, so pour out those issues and tell it how it is from your role-play position.

THEN STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT INSTALMENT OF THIS EXCITING ROLE PLAY!
THE PLOT UNFOLDS!

© An email game by Sivasailam Thiagarajan and facilitated by Marie Jasinski.  In the spirit of open source design, if you use this game, please acknowledge its source and return any modifications to design.planet@bigpond.com

Template
(DYSTOPIAN)
You’ve just returned to your desk after an E-BUSINESS WORKSHOP. Good grief, what an experience! So XXXXX wants us to re-invent ourselves to become first class players in this world market.  They want a vision for the future.  And they don’t want it to be tunnel vision either!  More like multi-focals! 

Anyway, your head is spinning and you need a break.  You decide to do some mindless surfing on the Internet.  Maybe check out the latest stock market reports or check out special holiday deals or find some game to play.  So, you start your surfing and are right in the middle of catching a few cyber waves. 

All of a sudden, an article seems to just pop up from nowhere.  It is intriguing but complex and you are compelled to have a read.  It says:

TRAVEL IN TIME THROUGH GALACTIC WORM HOLES – connecting past and future
It is theoretically possible to build a wormhole between two points in space. 
A wormhole has two mouths connected by a "throat," and provides a path that a traveller can follow to a distant point.  If the path through the wormhole is shorter than the light path between the two points, and if the two ends of the wormhole are moving, one end will be in the past and one end in the future. 

Galactic wormholes?  Time Travel? YOU HAVE NO CLUE how you reached this page and you are completely perplexed. You decide to go down the street for a cup of coffee and a newspaper.  You go outside and WOW!  You’re dazzled by the bright sunlight as you step outside. When your eyes adapt, you see that a new fangled machine has replaced the newspaper stand. Strange. The machine has what looks like a video screen with a single large button that says "News". You press the button. A headline appears:

DYSTOPIA IS HERE: MISDIRECTED E-BUSINESS STRATEGY XXXXX  TO FOLD – DOORS TO CLOSE IN TWO MONTHS.

Strange again, you didn't know that we were in such a dire position.  And so soon!

THEN YOU SEE THE dateline and freeze.  It is August 18, 2007, more than 7 years in the future.  You look around, and see a few people walking around.  Their clothes seem a bit odd, but nothing too extreme. 
…
YOUR TURN NOW!  Join us in writing a piece of interactive science fiction. 
YOU ARE THE HERO OR HEROINE projected into the future via the GALACTIC WORMHOLE.

WHO ARE YOU?
You are a member of the EXECUTIVE TEAM from 5 years in the past, so you are motivated by curiosity about what lead to this current status of doom for XXXXX.  You never thought it would go down the gurgler so fast.

You do investigative work and find out how the E-BUSINESS STRATEGY turned out since you attended that workshop back in 2001.  You also do some hard reflection:

AS A MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE TEAM, tell your story in no more than 150 words about what things happened in the last five years to create this Dystopia.  How did XXXXX reach such a sad and sorry position?  What happened?
What was your role as a member of the EXECUTIVE TEAM in contributing to this?

EMAIL YOUR STORY TO MARIE JASINSKI at design.planet@bigpond.com  by 11.59pm August  18th

Your input is ANONYMOUS to the other players, so pour out those issues and tell it how it is from your role-play position.

THEN STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT INSTALMENT OF THIS EXCITING ROLE-PLAY!

THE PLOT UNFOLDS!

© An email game by Sivasailam Thiagarajan and facilitated by Marie Jasinski.  In the spirit of open source design, if you use this game, please acknowledge its source and return any modifications to design.planet@bigpond.com