School of Information – University of Texas at Austin
7 Budget Justification
Video Games and Preserving the Cultural Record
Megan Winget, PI
Salaries and Wages (Faculty / Staff: IMLS) = $ 71,855
Megan Winget will serve as the Primary Investigator for this project. She will be responsible for leading the
research agenda, as well as oversight, and project reporting to IMLS. We are asking IMLS to fund two months of
her summer salary for both years of the project, in order to complete the artist observations and interviews, and to
ensure the timely completion and reporting of the project.
We are also asking IMLS for funds to fund a full-time (20 hours per week) Graduate Research Assistant (GRA),
who will help with research duties. We believe that this would be a tremendously valuable experience for a
doctoral student interested in new media, preservation, archival issues, or representation.
Salaries and Wages (Faculty / Staff: Cost Share) = $ 42,551
Professor Winget will contribute 20% of her time to the project.
Brenda Gunn, the Center for American History’s Associate Director for Research and Collections, and Video
Game Archive’s Project Manager, will be the archival manager for this research project, ensuring the
development of viable and dependable models of collection, preservation, and access.
Linda Newland the Center for American History’s web producer will serve as institutional technical support and
network administration for this project, helping to set up the GRA’s computer, facilitating the use of server space
and networking issues, assisting with software and hardware needs during the data collection phase of the project,
and helping train the students as needed.
Fringe Benefits (Faculty / Staff: IMLS) = $ 27,304.90
Fringe Benefits (Faculty / Staff: Cost Share) = $16,169.38
Fringe benefits have been calculated based on historical data. Actual costs for fringe benefits are charged (billed)
to the sponsored project at the time the cost is incurred, based on salary, selected benefits package, and other
variables applicable to the individual employee.
Consultant Fees (IMLS) = $3,000
Evaluator: $3,000
An evaluator trained in Outcomes Based Evaluation will come to Austin for a three-day (@ $1,000 / per day)
evaluation during the last quarter of the second year.
Travel (IMLS) = $36,938
Travel for Interviewing: $8,275
One of the main goals of this grant is to conduct observations and interviews of video game artists and developers
in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. While in these cities, in addition to talking with artists and game
developers, we will meet with local representatives from new media and preservation institutions (like rhizome in
New York, The Long Now Foundation in San Francisco). These visits will enable discussion with leaders in the
field, and act as an advertisement for the project.
Conference Travel: $12,875
11/13/2007 4:01:00 PM
School of Information – University of Texas at Austin
We are asking IMLS to fund travel to and from, and subsistence allowances for conferences for both the PI and
the GRA. We believe that it is of utmost importance for graduate students, particularly doctoral students, to have
experience presenting and networking at scholarly conferences. We have budgeted travel for two conferences per
year for the PI, and one conference per year for the GRA.
IMLS Evaluation Institute: $4,000
IMLS requests that $2,000 per year of the grant (in this case two years) be budgeted to attend special training
sessions at their headquarters in Washington, DC.
Advisory Board Travel: $11,788
The advisory board serves a very important evaluative purpose for this project, and we are asking IMLS to help
cover travel expenses for the board to come once per year to Austin to evaluate project methods and outcomes.
The board we have assembled have extensive experience in both industry and research, and their physical
presence in Austin will have a significant impact on the positive outcome of this project. We have calculated the
costs by looking for airfares from their home cities (Champaign, IL; Palo Alto, CA; Boston, MA; Quebec, ON;
Los Angeles, CA); and using the Texas reimbursement schedule for their $220 / day allowance for food and
lodging. For the second year, we added 5% to the first year’s number as an approximation of the cost.
Supplies and Materials (IMLS) = $2,700
Student Laptops: $900. We will buy the student worker a medium-grade PC laptop on which to conduct
qualitative analysis on the interview and observational transcripts. We have priced Dell Inspiron laptops at $900.
Qualitative Analysis Software: $900. We will purchase Qualitative Analysis Software to carry out the content
analysis of the observations and interviews. There are two leading brands, and both cost approximately $900 for a
single user.
Services (IMLS) = $6,750
At the end of the first year of the project, we will pay a e-scriptionist.com, a professional transcription service, to
transcribe the digital interviews. This service charges $1.50 for each minute of one-on-one interviews, and we
have estimated that we will conduct 50 interviews, at 90 minutes each.
Tuition & Fees (IMLS) : $21,442
Tuition and Fees are based on out-of-state tuition because the majority, if not all, of the doctoral students are
expected to be non-resident. The tuition/fee calculations are based on the 2006-2007 rate, with 5% increases
calculated for each year of the budget.
Year 1 of Budget: Fall 2008, Spring / Summer 2009 =
Year 2 of Budget: Fall 2009, Spring / Summer 2010 =
$10,530
$10,912
$21,442
Other Costs (IMLS) = $3,950
Conference Fees: $3950
In each year of the project, we have budgeted money for both the GRA and the PI to attend and present at
professional conferences. For the first year, we are asking IMLS to fund $1,850 for fees to three conferences for
the PI (one is the annual Austin game developers conference, and does not require travel), and one for the GRA.
For the second year, we are asking for $2,100 to cover a 5% increase in fees for the same number of conferences.
11/13/2007 4:01:00 PM