christy

Assholes, Dinosaurs, Cables & Entrepreneurialism as Activism

I’ve known as few nasty people in my life. Who hasn’t? I have always been surprised, however, at how many people in positions of power (leadership?) are actually not nice people. Indeed, I have actually found that in many situations people are leaders of companies or organisations because they believe/assume they should be rather than being the best person for the job, and because they bully, intimidate and manipulate people into supporting them. Fear is the oily rag that keeps these people going — both their own and that of those around them. But is this the only reason why these people stay in power? Are there business reasons? In other words, do they do good with their bad?

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BarCampSydney v0.1: Conference for Initiates

An ‘initiate’ (noun) is a person who begins, creates, invents things. They initiate (verb) rather than (ironically) being ‘initiated’ by others. Yesterday, after a few years, I was once again in the company of initiates. Sure, I’ve met plenty of wonderful initiates over the last few years, but I have not been in a situation where the majority of people are initiates. Where was I? BarCampSydney. Why was BarCampSydney brimming with such self-driven people?

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BarCampSydney happening tomorrow!

Oh my. It was six months ago that I put my name down to organise the first BarCamp in Sydney, in Australia. I wasn’t alone for long, within a couple months a mighty team came on board: Russ Weakley, Jason Yip, Mick Liubinskas and Rich Buggy. We’ve got Microsoft, Google, Linux etc sponsoring us and about 200 people from major corporations, startups and individuals coming. It is going to be big and exciting and fun. But what am I talking about when I say ‘BarCamp’?

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Transliteracies blog launched: PART

De Montfort University have launched another initiative (they have so many!): Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms and tools from orality through print, TV, radio and film, to networked digital media. The PART (Production and Research in Transliteracy) Group is led by Professor Sue Thomas at De … Read moreTransliteracies blog launched: PART

CFP: Interactive Entertainment 2007

I’m on the Conference Management Committee of this wonderful event. I hope to see alot of you there… The Fourth Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment, 2007 3-5 December 2007 Storey Hall, RMIT University Melbourne, Australia http://www.ie.rmit.edu.au/ SUBMISSION DEADLINES: *Proposals for panels and abstract for individual papers: 30th May 2007 Full Papers (max 8 pages): 15th … Read moreCFP: Interactive Entertainment 2007

TV of Tomorrow, next month

TV of Tomorrow logo

 

Tracey Swedlow, the lady behind the ultra informative [itvt] is holding an industry conference, TV of Tomorrow Show. I have mentioned this before, but thought a reminder post was due since it is being held on March 13-14th in San Francisco, California. The event will include the announcement of the winners of the inaugural Awards for Corporate Achievement in Interactive and Multiplatform Television. I am interested to see who receives an award, hopefully it will be a work that is truly innovative and is quality. Interesting sessions include:

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My Talk at De Montfort University

Recently I gave a talk for the Online MA in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University, Leicester. It is “designed for writers interested in experimenting with new formats and exploring the potential of new technologies in their writing” and run by “Professor Sue Thomas, writer and former Artistic Director of the trAce Online Writing Centre, … Read moreMy Talk at De Montfort University

Cross-Media: Virtual Worlds and Podcasts > "The Shadow Falls Experience"

 

Shadow Falls title in video

 

I completely missed this one when it was happening (my defence is that I was travelling at the time), but you really should know about this if you don’t already. In July last year an audio drama began, Shadow Falls. It is a scary tale with high production standards, nice careful attention to the writing, and anagram clues that are issued in the audio fan forum…and so gathered alot of fans very quickly. The season one finale was in early November and fans were hanging out for more tales. And so, the writer Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff, got together with some experts of another artform and added something new on the 22nd of November. On that day they launched “The Shadow Falls Experience“.

What they did was create the fictional world of Shadow Falls in the online virtual world Second Life. And then, over the next few weeks, released audio clues in the podcast. The listeners then logged into SL and sought out the information, based on the clues. Just like the ARG I Love Bees, the players had to solve a puzzle and go to a (virtual) place to retrieve an audio component of the story. The players do this, but for those who do not participate in the experience, the total story is podcast at the end. This story is the season two prologue, a podnovel/audio novel. Here is what Mark said about the experience in the “interactive fan forum”, companion #5 podcast (17/11/06) prior to it commencing: 

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