Secrets and Intellectual Property

Just started workingon an idea for a paper using some anthropological sources on secrecyfor talking about intellectual property and trade secrets in thecontext of game development. I'm not really sure if it will all workout, but I've got enough PDF's to choke a horse (if horses will eatPDF's...).

I'm also trying to figure out what to do for two other CFP's...So manydifferent options available. For one on ethics I'm considering:

1.) Ethics of work practices - The IGDA has recently published theirthoughts on work/overtime ("crunching"), but I am planning to linkthese issues to larger issues of (in/off)shoring and componentmanufacturing in other countries.

2.) Ethics of ethical reflection - What best practices ought we asacademics proposing ethical guidelines abide by in making ethicalsuggestions? How much should we know about the context in which gamesare developed prior to intervention?

3.) Ethical dilemmas for game studies - As game studies as a disciplineexpands, what responsibilities do they have? Is game studies simply atraining ground for future game developers? What responsibility dothese programs have to give their students a broader picture of theworld in which game development occurs? Is the goal to make "better"games? Or is the goal to make better scholars whom can engage with (andparticipate in) the world of game development?

The other is for a conference on the culture-generative function ofgames, which also had a topic heading dealing of "methods" which I sent:

I have been working on a paper which i think fits very nicely into the"Methods of Game Research" category. I consider myself anAnthropologist of Video Game Development (or Anthropology of IT as Iuse amongst other anthropologists) and was hoping that I could submit apaper about the utility and under use of Science Studies and TechnologyStudies theories and methods in the emerging discipline of Game Studies(GS). As I have fashioned my research around those theories, it wouldbe an excellent opportunity for me to write/speak about why thatperspective is useful for the future of GS.

So...plenty of work to do!