Wildfire “Project”and Learning: An Ethnographic Study in a Project for Developing a Nanosatellite as Media

Abstract

 The purpose of this paper is exploring potential for new learning through an ethno-
graphic study in a nanosatellite-developing project generated from among “Nico-
TECH:.”“Nico-TECH:”is a makers’community spreading like wildfire mainly medi-
ated by NiconicoVideos. “Nico-TECH:”has no institutional organization. It is “ Social
Media Satellite Development Project”(SOMESAT) which is the project for developing
a nanosatellite on which “Hachune Miku”(Hatsune Miku) does performance in the
space.
  From the result of the ethnographic study, SOMESAT was able to be taken as a goal-
oriented project, and also a zone of human development such as a distributed, mobile
and multidirectional pulsation. Activities which realized such a human development
were partially mediated by architecture of NiconicoVideos to stimulate emergence of
contents and ideas, and by a boundary crossing body of Hatsune Miku’s character.
This paper must show potential for new learning and give some kind of suggestions
about school education in the future.