philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Pokemon GO To Foster Civic Engagement With New Initiative

Niantic and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced a new community initiative aimed at fostering civic engagement throughout the United States with the help of the San Francisco-based studio’s games Pokemon GO and Ingress, as revealed by a press release sent to media outlets earlier this week. The program will be focused on augmented reality (AR) experiences as it will seek to explore ways in which this emerging technology can promote and facilitate public engagement, the new partners revealed, adding that Niantic’s location tracking solutions and games will serve as the backbone of all community events that will be organized as part of the initiative.

The first product of this collaboration will be the Open Streets 704 event that’s taking place in Charlotte, North Carolina tomorrow, May 7. The event will allow players to follow a 2.5-mile route with 16 Poke Stops and two Poke Gyms that will be physically marked in the city in an effort to create a more immersive experience. Niantic Chief Executive Officer John Hanke said that the studio was initially founded with the ambition to drive community change, implying that its new partnership with the Knight Foundation is a natural extension of that endeavor. The initiative is currently set to last for at least a year, though it’s possible that Niantic and the Florida nonprofit will extend it in the future, provided that the initial feedback they receive is a positive one.

See the full story here: https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/05/pokemon-go-to-foster-civic-engagement-with-new-initiative.html