Cognitive Labs

Here's the press release, link, and full text.

Also, for the first time, we're disclosing our role in financing eUniverse, the parent co. of myspace during the tech doldrum year of 2003, when we walked/emailed the deal around to a small handful of VCs (less than 5 firms) who know who they are...most passed, but VantagePoint did not. The 'unsure/no response' firm eventually chipped in after VantagePoint to acquire a majority stake.

We started the Cognitive Labs project when the media eye had not yet fallen on the MySpace/Intermix/Euniverse saga, which should be called just that...a mythical saga involving crossing the great sea in a longship. That's why the Internet ultimately can change the future of people on this planet and beyond, in every way imaginable.

Getting kicked out of your own startup and having people steal your work is no fun, that's for sure, that happened to me in my first company at the direction of a well known Silicon Valley firm...the so-called founder's haircut. But we move on.

Full text...


October 08, 2008 - (Washington, D.C. and Atherton, CA) Cognitive Labs has won Ashoka's changemaker healthy games initiative in the area of brain training, joining other health category winners including Wil Wright's Spore (EA), Konami's Dance Dance Revolution, Hope Labs' Remission, and Nintendo BrainAge.

Ashoka, a non-profit global social entrepreneuring foundation established in 1981 and based in Washington, D.C., drives change through innovative social programs that target the biggest world issues, such as poverty, emerging world healthcare, and resource consumption. It's changemaker initiative seeks to identify individuals and programs through open-source competition that are making a difference in addressing these major issues and striving to make the world a better place.

"We're delighted to receive the recognition for our work in addressing the global challenge of maintaining cognitive fitness and averting decline through early awareness," said Michael Addicott, who heads Neurogamer Studios and Cognitive Labs. "Following the passing of former President Ronald Reagan, tens of millions of people have been focused on the challenge of Alzheimer's Disease and maintaining brain fitness, impacting everyone from moguls and tech titans to everyday folks."

Neurogamer Studios researches and designs cognitive games based on neuropsychological research published at institutions such as Stanford University and University of California, Irvine through a web of Ph.D.-level scientists, aiming to make world-class science available to all.

"Anyone can put our games on their site or blog and advocate brain fitness," said Mr. Addicott, an Internet and media entrepreneur, a driving force in the financing of MySpace.com by brokering over $20 million in financing for the social network's parent company, eUniverse and its Founder and CEO, Brad Greenspan, in the dotcom gulf of 2003 that ultimately became a majority stake. News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch recently remarked that MySpace was worth $6 billion, while analysts such as RBC's Jordan Rohan have valued the co. at $10 to $20 billion. Earlier, Mr. Addicott launched UPS Online in web 1.0.

Cognitive Labs, a website and network featuring the scientifically-validated games, reaches over 600,000 users per month in the 4th Quarter of 2008.


Press release Business Contact: neurogamer@cognitivelabs.com

Labels: ashoka, euniverse, myspace, redpoint, vpvp, walden

Cognitive Labs and its game development division - Neurogamer Studios - that hall of wired, sleep-deprived pierced and tatooed creatives surrounded with surreal wall-to-wall E3 type plasma screens, has won Ashoka's global changemarker competition in the area of Cognitive games. Since this was a worldwide, bottom-up, grassroots competition we're pretty excited.

Other game category winners include Wil Wright's Spore and Konami's Dance Dance Revolution. Since this pits us (me) against entire studios backed with tens of millions of dollars in financing, we'll call our 'game development' persona neurogamer studios. It's like a guy with a handheld camera making a feature film by himself and then outwitting a legion of studio execs and other Hollywood hacks, flacks, slackers, and sharks and tripping up 20th Century Fox (trumpet fanfare)

Labels: ashoka

Cognitive Labs is highlighted by Ashoka's Changemakers' mosaic....along with Dance Dance revolution, Sim City, Second Life, Re-Mission, BrainAge, Darfur is Dying, and other breakthrough games and projects. The common thread is games that promote positive change in people's lives.

From their site:

Games are an ideal way to engage people in activities that promote healthy lifestyles and tackle their health problems head-on. Accessing these activities through games can make them more attractive and effective because games are designed to be fun, easy to access, and give players a sense of control and safety that is sometimes lacking in more traditional health services and products. The field of Games for Health is at a take-off point. We present this mosaic of solutions for Games for Health at this critical time to promote such innovative approaches that improve health.

Consider what’s in a game: A strong interactive computer or video game provides a serious challenge that players must overcome to reach a goal, usually with fun and some learning along the way. At their best, games for health create experiential scenarios that channel what players learn during the game into smarter choices outside the game. Superb graphics and clever storytelling, applied to high-stakes issues such as cancer remission and natural disaster preparedness, make games for health anything but kids’ play. Though games for health are serious, they only work when they’re fun. Sometimes, they surprise you without intending to, like the calorie-burning benefits of playing Nintendo’s Wii or Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution.

Games for health, like the best social enterprises, have tremendous potential for profit and behavior change. Additional research into games for health can only prime and improve the marketplace for the next generation of ideas and products.

This mosaic highlights some important dimensions of games for health, and we hope it inspires new ideas and new research about play that improves health.

Labels: ashoka, brainage, changemakers, dance, sim