Digital Stories... in search of the form

CHECK OUT - http://www.sixtostart.com/we-tell-stories/

An interesting mix of digital stories - and ideas for digital story forms - by Penguin.

Stories range from 'choose your own adventure' to tales told through multiple blogs and micro-blogs to 'live online' tellings and a mystery grafted onto google maps.

Personally, I found the google map project the most engaging - short, concise text that reads easily online - as well as a dirty big narrative hook (always helps)... the map aspect was novel, but under-explored - the constant ariel view kept me at a distance - at odds with the intimate nature of first person narratives. In this story, I think audio would have worked better in the places the author had text. 

I find 'choose your own adventure' stories a bit lame - I lose the 'suspended disbelief' you need to get wrapped up in the text - it also seems like too much work (it it requires this much effort I may as well be writing my own story rather than colouring in between the lines of someone else's) - and then there is the nut at the end you don't really get... the thing narrative structure is designed to do... the author makes some kind of point or has something to say...

I didn't give the multiple-blog  or online performance story much time - the approach was confusing as I didn't know where to start or a sense of what I was getting into - and the whole thing was quite old by the time I got to it for the first time... so it felt like picking over cold, half eaten fish and chips wrapped in yesterdays newspaper.
at 30.3.09 0 comments
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Social Media Research - Wave 3

Universal Mccann International Social Media Research Wave 3
I recommend this slide show research presentation for any interested in social media "online applications, platforms and media which aim to facilitate interaction, collaboration and the sharing of content."


It's the third Universal Mccann global study into the impacts of digital media and technology - 17,000 active internet users from 29 countries were surveyed.


The study encompasses the key platforms: blogging, microblogging, RSS, widgets, social networking, chat rooms, message boards, podcasts, video and photo sharing.


... a rich tub of interesting facts, observations, trends, summaries and recommendations - which concludes with the idea that social media "has to be considered for all advertisers, marketers and content producers as a core part of their communications" p.76


at 30.3.09 1 comments
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ABC Radio National Features Conference

Went to Sydney to give a paper at the Features Conference - and go to my cousin's wedding.

The paper is about broadcast programs improving online presence and developing online projects – how distribution via a computer screen rather than a radio changes what we do and how we prioritizes things as program makers.

The shift from radio to online as a primary delivery platform is huge. Time and linearity, the two pillars grounding how radio content works, are completely unhinged in a networked environment – which is both timeless and nonlinear… And then there is negotiating this business of the screen – radio has always had a tricky relationship with vision…

Online functions differently to radio – it’s a multifunctional receptive outlet used as…

  • a portable media delivery/distributor - where we pick up our freshly baked media...
  • an information resource - search, find, surf... dig around research interests and news
  • an audio and multi-media player - engage with immersive and often interactive media objects
  • as an outlet for self-expression and social interaction - expression through participation and social media and group allegiances

We have to incorporate all think in our thinking about making and delivering programs… So, in a nutshell – the paper looks at…

(Before anything else) making sure our primary media object is spreadable – that the podcast’s ID3 tags are in order - ensuring we have the basics covered. It’s important to understand and work with how our programs live as digital bits in the world

Approaches to developing online features:

  • Delivery – developing features out of different ways to find and sort through archive material
  • Multimedia –creating media –enriched programs
  • Interactivity - developing participatory initiatives


at 23.3.09 1 comments
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Is technology the message?

“Understanding several media simultaneously is the best way of approaching any one of them. Any study of one medium helps us to understand all others.”
Is technology the message?
at 19.3.09 0 comments
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the traditional media sprawl into the digital landscape

One of the things I'm being asked to think about - in both my jobs, actually - is how traditional media producers/distributors, like the national broadcaster, (can) enhance their product and reach though the employment digital media networks and platforms.

We chatted about it in class the other day - and I've put together a little bullet point list for my students...

Additions to the (broadcast radio or TV) program...
  • on demand or as podcast
  • blog
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • mobile phone feeds
  • digg
  • extended versions of program material - or extended previews - or extended summaries of past episodes...
  • extra material... including online only material like slideshows and what's being called 'digital features'
  • discussion boards, forums and guest books
  • participation or user generated content initiatives/call-outs (also called crowd-sourcing)
  • links and delicious tag-lists
The tricky thing, of course, is using these platforms in a sophisticated and interesting way (as opposed to simply trying to feed the program publicity through these avenues)

Anyway, beyond (my non-exhaustive list) vague platform categories... it's good to think about how broadcasters are actually using these spaces - why they are using them - and what it adds to the user experience or the quality of the core media object... 
For example 'a blog'... is it a faux-blog - written in the voice of a fictional character - being used as an extension of the core story or fictional universe?... a non-fiction blog written by a star presenter giving background stories or links to further information about this weeks show (and developing their profile and audience connection)?... is the blog attached to a show or just generally connected to a network (and able do riskier stuff outside the network firewall - like speechification.com)?... is it a group-written blog (which 'they' say is hard to pull off)?... or is it a project-based transient blog that helps promote the forthcoming project while it's in production?... 
After examining what broadcasters are doing - and trying to figure out why they are doing it - and evaluating how successful these attempts are... it's good to get down into a deeper, dirtier level of analysis and start asking... for what sort of 'program plus audience' would a facebook group 'work' for... what sort of programs would a twitter account not be appropriate for... how are successful UGC initiatives (on Pool, for example) framed and why do you think the unpopular initiatives are... ah, unpopular?

The ABC is having a play with different ways to use digital media... students might like to check out the following links - compare and contrast them to digital initiatives they are familiar with... what works, what doesn't and why...
I'll end there - not because I've run out of stuff to talk about - but because I'm getting link-fatigue


at 9.3.09 0 comments
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