Gamifying Know-Your-Rights Information (Open Data Week)

Presenter: Ray Brescia (Albany Law School)

This presentation will explore the power of gamification and then describe one current work in progress, an online game, “Haunted Housing,” that is designed in partnership with community-based advocacy organizations in New York City to educate youth, particularly from immigrant communities, about housing rights.  Gamification can be utilized in many other contexts–from immigrants’ rights to school discipline–and I will describe our ground-up method for developing this tool and encourage others to explore similar initiatives in other contexts.

Bio: Professor Brescia combines his experience as a public interest attorney in New York City with his scholarly interests to address economic and social inequality, the legal and policy implications of financial crises, how innovative legal and regulatory approaches can improve economic and community development efforts, and the need to expand access to justice for people of low and moderate income.  He is the author of “The Future of Change: How Technology Shapes Social Revolutions” (Cornell University Press, 2020), which examines the intersection of technology and social movements, from the American Revolution, to the present day.  His forthcoming work, “Lawyer Nation: The Past, Present, and Future of the American Legal Profession,” due out in late 2023, will be published by New York University Press.