Digital Literacy & Me

I can't believe I'm actually on this blog!  It was a titanic struggle against technology; but creating a virgin gmail account coupled by a new invite from Jess finally tamed the blog monster. Best get assignment #1 posted.

The video tutorials on YouTube make creating a podcast sound so easy. Indeed, iMovie and Garage Band were surprisingly user-friendly to a neophyte. It's clear why the digital generation chose these tools and this medium to tell their stories.

Unfortunately for me, the tools' ease of use does not automatically translate into product quality, as evidenced by my very first, and very wince-worthy, podcast. Please forgive the mumbling, strange intonations, choppy transitions, uneven sound quality, and all the other areas for improvement on this podcast. Though I have to say, the tool are such that there is an allure to continue the exploration.  Hmm...do a Christmas podcast instead of the annual letter? Hmm....

I've always loathed seeing myself on film - my exuberant expressions looks like caricatures, and we won't even talk about the magic 10 pound weight gain.  So the podcast is composed of photos only, which is  not what I saw in my mind's eye when I first mulled over this assignment.  Popular media provides the example and the measure for professionals and amateurs alike. When I first thought through the podcast, what I saw and heard in my head was drawn from the visual styles of multi-million dollar Hollywood productions, and this first attempt falls way, way, way short of my mental visuals.  In doing this assignment, I realized how many factors are at play in creating a good product, right from the script to vocals and sound, visuals, colour, editing...the list goes on. Will having these skills be something that is expected of my kids' generation, much like typing is for us today? Will they be expected to create and submit "professional" quality hyperlinked video CV's for judgement by their prospective employer, even for entry-level administrative jobs?  Will immersion in new media mean mandatory expertise as well? Who determines expertise? Is expertise arrived at by consensus: more thumbs-up than downs?

Doing this podcast brought home the depth and breadth of knowledge a digital native may be expected to have. The world is at your fingertips, but you are obligated in turn to build the world. Will that be paralyzing or liberating for my kids? I hope it's the latter.

New Media Writing Forum

Andy Campbell of Dreaming Methods (guest lecturing later on in the term!) has invited you all to participate in the newly established New Media Writing forum!

Here is his DM tweet:

Click here to access the hub.

HiBrow: Art for the Masses

I thought this would be of interest to you in light of our recent conversations and discussions on curated content and "classical" narrative structure:

HiBrow Launches its curated video platform, giving users a “backstage pass to the arts”

27TH JANUARY 2012 by PAUL SAWERS

A new platform called HiBrow has launched this week, tapping digital technology and the expertise of professional film producers and directors to bring HD video arts programming to the masses.

Curated by some well-known names from the UK creative industries, such as Gary Kemp, Ruby Wax, Sir Richard Eyre, Franc Roddam, Dave Calhoun and Simon Callow, HiBrow promises to give viewers a ‘back stage pass’ to the arts.

HiBrow kicked-off proceedings with 10 hours of original programming, streaming new plays, concerts, exhibitions, dance, literary events and festivals. A further 10 hours of new material will be available on the site from February 1.

Every month, at least 7 hours of fresh content will be added to the site, ranging from interviews with authors, actors, directors, artists, conductors and musicians, to films of rehearsals and behind the scenes documentaries which will complement the professionally produced primary content.

Founded by UK-based film-maker Don Boyd, and curated by a team of high-profile professionals from the creative Industries, HiBrow offers users a direct link to professional productions from across the arts world. Moreover, to extend its service beyond professionally curated work, HiBrow has also linked up with NODA (National Operatic and Dramatic Association) – Britain’s institution representing over 2,500 amateur companies.

“For many years I have been aware of a gap in the broadcasting environment for exceptional arts programming,” said Boyd. “The advent of the Internet and broadband provides the means by which this gap can be filled. Over the past three years I have worked single-mindedly, but not without help from a diverse and predominantly youthful group of talented experts in the fields of the arts and digital technology, to create Hibrow.tv, a comprehensive international platform giving audiences an intimate insight into the creative process they would never have seen anywhere else.”

HiBrow is like a YouTube for the arts, and given that it’s free to use and curated for quality, it could prove to be a hit amongst culture vultures. Amongst other features, the website will also offer an arts-focused social network – through which a community of so-called ‘HiBrowsers’ can talk about a performance they have seen, or discuss their favourite art form from a range of subjects.

➤ HiBrow

JOIN TNW UK ON:   OR  RSS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Sawers is UK & Media Editor at The Next Web. Follow Paul on Twitter: @TGW_Paul, or email him at paul(at)thenextweb.com.

Week 4: Temporality and Cruising

What is narrative and how is it affected by new media developments. The focus will be on time-based narratives with a close reading of Cruising by Ingrid Ankerson and Megan Sapnar.

Basing our discussion on the week’s readings we’ll critique these main ideas:

• feminism
• nonlinearity
• temporality
• transiency
• rhizomatic
• time-based narrative
• multimodality

Discussion Questions:

Q1. How can we define nonsequentiality/multi-linearity, interactivity, narrative?
Q2. To what extent are these aspects determined by the text, the reader, the digital format?
Q3. What kinds of narratives are especially suited for a multi-linear/interactive format? Are there stories that can only be told in an online format?
Q4. Read Cruising. Analyse the structure of the narrative (is it non-linear, multi-linear?). How does it engage the reader? What are the textual mechanisms by which the text achieves engagement?

Required Readings:
Espen Aarseth, “Nonlinearity and Literary Theory,” Bill Marsh, "Reading Time: For a Poetics of Hypermedia Writing," Ingrid Ankerson and Megan Sapnar, Cruising, Jessica Laccetti, "Where to Begin? Multiple Narrative Paths in Web Fiction."

Recommended Readings:
Ingrid Ankerson and Megan Sapnar, “Author Description, Cruising.”

Audio Books

Image and podcast from here.

I thought you might find this discussion interesting - authors discussing audio books, especially in light of your digital literacy and me assignment.

Mr Gaiman and Mr Hodgman continue their conversation about Audio Books. Here they talk about the upcoming audiobook release of Robert Sheckley’s DIMENSION OF MIRACLES and why it sometimes feels like a strange cross betweenHitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy AND Mad Men at the same time.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

The Artist (and The Editor)!

The popularity of The Artist and Hugo in this year's crop of Oscar-nominated films struck me in a new way, thanks to the lens provided by Shillingsburg in From Gutenberg to Google. That book is slow going for me, but some of what he argues sticks. And, while he talks about books and print, I sense that much of his analysis can be transferred to cinema. 

"...I am declaring that new texts cannot be identical to old texts nor fully represent them and that an editor's responsibility is to be as self-aware as possible about the effects of editorial intervention and to be as explicit and articulate as possible about those effects..." (pp.19-20) 

These words, this sensibility echoed when I read  "Is Cinema Facing a Digital Dark Age?", an article from the star.com that found me this morning.

The argument, from Paola Cherchi Usai (learn more about him in this YT video ), is that the process of digitally preserving classic silent picture era films -- a seemingly noble aim that also escapes from the cost of traditional photomechanical methods -- actually betrays the original work of art. 

This is a good example, or, at least, one that I can understand, of the seen and unseen ways that technology may intrude on a text, altering it in the very act of preserving it. 

What is a book?

I have been so immersed in a book culture that even the notion of defining the book at first struck me as a ridiculous question when I first started thinking about it a few years ago. A book is a book. It’s printed. It exists between two covers. It’s static. Yet we are all becoming involved in the redefinition of the book. 

The question of what the book is transforms into a question of what we need it to be, and then, what can a book be? I think some of the ‘games’ that my children ‘read/play’ should be marketed to parents as the new form of the book, because that’s really what they have become – game series like Assassin’s Creed and The Elder Scrolls. They await the new releases just as I await the latest books from my favorite authors. They immerse themselves in the plot, unlock the narrative and experience the story through film, text, music and by creating the action with their playing. 

Literature – fiction and non-fiction -  is how we tell each other stories and create a shared experience and understanding. As our reading moves online, and we explore the text plus world to enhance our reading experience, it is going to become richer. But as Glenn’s son said, the experience of moving through text and following new information can take you places that you didn’t expect to reach. One thing about the 19^th century book, you could always return to your earlier experience and relive it;Chapter three stayed put and you could go back to it. I find myself longing for a way to put an electronic lock on my online experiences so I can readily re-access them. Like the Hotel project that Coover describes, it can be disconcerting to find that your favorite character has left the digital world, never to be found again. It reminds me of a Zen haiku bit of internet humor that circulated a while back – positing that Microsoft Error messages should be replaced with haiku:

With searching comes loss

And the presence of absence:

"My Novel" not found.

So the answer to what a book is and what it will become also depends on where and what its purpose is – is it an electronic textbook, an e-art book (and wow, does that definition change from the old coffee table book notion of an artbook), a novel for mass consumption, or a game-like experience? There’s still a mass market, and I wonder if readers will become exhausted by the new opportunities. 

I went down a Peter Robinson rabbit hole while reading Jared Jenisch. Robinson writes in WHERE WE ARE WITH ELECTRONIC SCHOLARLY EDITIONS, AND WHERE WE WANT TO BE and would just end with a quote from him on scholary texts and how hypertext transforms us from readers into editors:

“Scholarly editing has for centuries distinguished between editors and readers: we, the editors, are gifted with special access to the materials, and we are licensed by the academy to make editions which you, the readers, accept. This [hyperlinked] approach attacks this distinction. All readers may become editors too, and all editors are readers before they are editors. This does not propose that all readers should become editors all the time: most of us will be content to accept, most of the time, what Gabler tells us about Ulysses, or Werner tells us about Dickinson. But any good reader must sometimes be an editor. Gaps may also appear in other barriers, long present within the academy: that between documentary and critical editing, that between textual scholarship and literary scholarship. We are all engaged in the business of understanding: distributed editions fashioned collaboratively may become the ground of our mutual enterprise.”

Hypermedia and Books

I just finished cleaning up from a belated birthday party for my mother. My stepfather who is 80 years young, keeps up with things, and is on his second e-reader. I can’t remember what his complaint was with the first one (my Mom has it now), but he was mentioning that you can purchase books  for it now with different endings to the same book.
So if a printed book is from start to finish, a full story with the usual structure of a novel, you know, progressing in a linear fashion, then you take that same book and publish for an e-reader, then nothing really changes, right?  The pages even look the same… at least they do on my e-reader. 

Unlike the hypertextual book/narrative where each click on a hyperlink takes you on another loop – a lexia of story and content – that builds over time in a unique way.
So this bit of information from my stepfather leads me to believe that the e-reader is capable of something in between the two. Not random – like the hypertext “book”, but not fully fixed either like the printed novel.

As far as storytelling goes, however, the chronological, the orderly progression of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement, whether delivered electronically or on a printed page, is the most suitable device, in full or in part because it mimics the logical/linear progression of time and life.  Whereas the looped book via hypertext can deliver snippets of information, the lexia, that combine and build in a unique order that can change the ultimate cumulative effect.

I was interested to note that Inanimate Alice, though a new media narrative, continued to use the same plot structure as above, simply because there is no other way to tell a story. On the other hand, the Book after the Book is not such a story.  I would call it abstract art.

This is hypertext.

I took a look at Bieguelman's, "The Book After the Book" site before doing any of the readings for this week. I found the site to be confusing and with a number of broken links, I suspected that it was out of date. Ultimately, I was looking to find a starting point and then a listing of the different sections, so I would know that I had read the whole book. I left again in frustration.

After that experience I read "The End of Books" article by Robert Coover which discusses a class Coover lead in hyperfiction. The reading was quite compelling. Coover did a very good job of positioning hypermedia as something different from books - more over, something different even than e-books. As Coover says, "hypertext provides multiple paths between text segments" and so the reader is able to create their own narrative, which will be different from the narrative created by other readers and of course different from the narrative envisioned by the author (Something that Bush discussed when he talked about the Memex).

I revisited the Bieguelman site and it all became clear. This time, as I clicked the links I found myself relishing the experience of discovery as opposed to being frustrated about missing the story. I now knew that I had to create the narrative for myself and I had to be comfortable with creating a loop or with missing pieces of text entirely. This is hypertext.

I finished my exploration today by watching the Jay-Z Decoded video that Hillary had posted and the power of hypertext and the way in which it transformed reading and books was abundantly clear.

In the end, hypertext will not destroy or replace books. It truly is a new media. But, that does not mean that it will replace the old media of books. They will still have their place and their audience. Choose-your-own-adventure books were fascinating to read and disturbed the regular process of reading, yet many people still enjoyed to read narratives created by an author. This will continue to be the case. New media has the impact of segmenting audiences or segmenting spans of attention rather than displacing and killing old media.

Transforming books

Books will continue to exist, but the possibilities for their transformation are astounding. Although many of us still enjoy the tactile experience of reading books and flipping pages, I think that we may attribute more nostalgia to the physical book than they deserve.

For example, can you not enjoy an inexpensive copy of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as much as a leather-bound printing? Is a dog-eared copy of Pride and Prejudice less dramatic? I don’t think so.

If we compare books to other forms of communication such as photography, is a digital picture worth less than a printed one? Is an online video less valuable than a DVD? I would argue that we value them both equally. But by removing the notion that we must publish books on paper and bind them together, we open up a world of possibilities.

Take for example, the creative ways for distributing a book that evolved when rapper Jay-Z partnered with the Microsoft search engine, Bing, back in October 2010. In a project that was two parts marketing and one part social experiment, Jay-Z and Bing released every page of the rapper’s upcoming book, Decoded, by strategically placing them across the United States and the world. 

For one month prior to the book’s release, they would publish five to ten pages in odd formats and venues that were determined by the content on the page. For example, pages were printed on billboards, on hamburger wrappers and even printed inside limited edition Gucci jackets.

Watch a recap of the amazing marketing and strategic publishing event:

You can read more about it here:
http://bing.decodejay-z.com/home/map?fbid=RrGro4BTA_9&wom=true

By publishing his book in nontraditional ways, it added value to the book, instead of taking away from it. Readers were now everywhere and often snapped pictures of the book and became involved in the story as opposed to passively reading it. 

Don Tapscott hosts ReCivilisation on CBC

CBC Radio One has started a new series hosted by Don Tapscott that should be of interest to students in the class. The website for the show describes it as "a five-part series that examines some of the the biggest challenges facing our world. It charts a path to the future enabled by the revolutions underway in communications, innovation and learning in this new, post-industrial, digital age."

I missed the first episode, which looked at how media is moving from the mass production model to one based on collaboration and citizen publishing, but I am planning to listen to it right away. The second episode, looking at the transformation of education and science, airs tomorrow at 11 on Radio One.

What's your type?

While we're considering Gutenberg and Google and textuality and whether it's the end of books or what is the end of books, maybe we should let the books speak for themselves?! You may have already seen this, but it's fun! Have a nice weekend.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYcSrIkVpzM

The end of books?

I keep reading and my reflections keep changing.  Robert Coover's article about a class in writing novels using hypertext in the 1990s suggests that e-books that use hypertext can't be read in print.  The non-linear format does not fit the linear format of what many of us recognize as a book.  It's interesting that he does refer to my concern about technology changes: " its hardware and software seem to be fragile and short-lived; whole new generations of equipment and programs arrive before we can finish reading the instructions of the old." para 19. 

An interesting question he raises is one of closure. When does the story end and if an author writes a hypertext novel, are they obligated to keep the story going?

I recall a History of the Novel class I studied in university where we looked at how stories were told in the beginning and how that has changed.

Perhaps hypertext novels are a new genre. We're not just talking about taking a 'print' novel and putting it into electronic format, although that has been my limited  understanding until now. 

Books and libraries and publishers

I've just finished the link to Bobbi Newman's slides about libraries changing to meet the transliteracy needs of their patrons. I don't have the answers but I am glad to see the likes of Macmillan CEO John Sargent at least attempting to get discussing the future.

I really liked the one slide of Newman's that says anything that is invented when we are born is the normal way of doing things, anything invented when we are between the ages of 15 and 35 is new and innovative and exciting, and anything invented after that is viewed as against the natural order of things.  Printed books are the natural order of things for me, but if printed books were reduced (eliminated all together?) and one could only access a book on an e-reader,  could that be the normal for my grandchildren? (Newman's slides are thought provoking and worth looking at)

The industries involved in this debate - libraries, publishers, booksellers, authors - need to be engaged and thinking of how they will adapt to the future. There's nothing new about industries disappearing from our landscape because they didn't adapt.  But this is so important to society - it's not only how we communicate our values, fears, etc, it is how we leave a record for future generations.

Can books exist only in print media?

I have thought a lot about the question of whether books can only exist in paper-printed media. This is an important question as Sara Lloyd reflects in "A book publisher's manifesto for the 21st century." 

I've always felt a relationship with books - a connection that was real between me and the printed words on the paper.  I have fond memories of going to the library as a child - I lived in a small town and didn't have to be taken by my parents. I found my own way there. The idea of writing my own book has been a deeply held goal of mine for many years. 

 This past Christmas I got my first e-reader and I am enjoying it, despite the fact I really do enjoy the feel of a 'real' book in my hands. My use of the adjective 'real' suggests the book isn't real if it is on the e-reader - I'm not sure that is correct.  I think the 'book' can still exist online.

The idea that I could publish a book online without having to find a publisher to accept my effort is appealing, although I believe that publishers offer invaluable services like professional editors (every writer needs an editor) and marketing - services that many writer's are happy to accept.

Still, I am concerned about the idea of losing the printed version of the book.  And here's why.

Books are a reflection of our society and our culture.  They also are a record of our history. If we want to preserve that, if we want to leave a history of our time for future generations, I think it needs to be in print.  Technology changes.  What if the Dead Sea Scrolls were left on a Memex (Bush - As We May Think p. 44), imagining such a machine could be created in that time,  would we be able to read them today? 

Digital Literacy & Me

When I first read the instructions for Assignment # 1, I felt that drop in the pit of my stomach that comes when I think I am into something I can’t accomplish.  A podcast? The idea that I might have to quit this course and signup for another elective did cross my mind. 

But after a skype call with a group of classmates who have been more instrumental in getting me through this program than they may realize, I felt re-nourished and challenged in a good way.  

So I spent one weekend teaching myself i-movie on my Mac.  And figuring out how to load it to YouTube.  To digital natives, that is not such a big deal, but it was for me. In fact, this assignment has helped me to break through another digital barrier.

So, I present this with some trepidation as well as apologies to any professional videographers out there. I remember when computers first gave people access to different fonts, styles and colours and they produced horrid-looking publications. I have done just that but with i-movie.  There are some cheesy moments but I decided to go over the top a bit in lieu of having fined tuned professional skills.  I will have to wait for my next production to fine-tune the editing skills – I can see the errors in this one and hope you can forgive this was produced early in my learning curve. 

In the end, I hope the message about my transliteracy life (which I thought was a joke at first but after finishing this, perhaps I am more transliterate than I realized) is clear to those who watch.

My Transliteracy Life

Hi folks,

I too encountered some difficulties with audioboo - but rapidly learned how to use garage band to make a podcast (but not too well just yet!). There are a few audio VOLUME issues - but hey - that will just keep it interesting or REALLY show my learning nature in my digital learning journey.

I see my digital literary pathway as one that springs wide but has gaps - I just can't keep up with all the tools.

COMM 597 - Digital Literacy and me

It just kinda takes you places!

I wanted to share with you this quick conversation I had tonight with our son, Michael, who is 17 and who reads and learns through links. From the mouths of babes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGvsmpwZnSk

Digital Literacy & Me

Technology Narratives?

Digital Literacy & Me: Making connections from across the pond to right next door

For the past 16 years, I've been creating connections using the Internet while I've built my digital identity. Although it started with the passion of a curious teenager, I've used my digital literacy to get through some life challenges and I'm still using it today. People have many different reasons for blogging, tweeting and using social media and I hope to give you some insight into mine.

While creating the podcast, I realized how few photos I have from pre-2006 because they had to be printed. It was a bit of a challenge creating visuals and sadly, there is no music in my podcast. I did include humour to show my personality but also to balance out one of the sadder stories in the mix.

On a personal level, I realized that I connect sentences without pausing and that I pepper all my thoughts with "um". It was a great learning experience and next time I'll aim for a shorter podcast.

Thank you for watching.

Hillary's video podcast on YouTube
 

Snakes and Ladders

Digital Literacy and Me

I chose to do an audio podcast. It's the podcast medium I'm most familiar with and Jessica did suggest Audioboo.fm, so I thought, "That will work." 

My first roll of the dice and I moved four spaces and went up the ladder to 14. 

Rolled a 3. Wouldn't you know it, Audioboo only allows a three minute podcast and my script was going over that unless I wanted to edit it more than I was willing.

 Back to square 7, so I recorded my first version using the Voicememo app on my iPhone and dubbed in the background music by playing it on my computer. Okay, it sounded amateurish but was legible and I thought if I was unable to figure out a better way, I'd go with that. 

Read some info at Top 5 Pieces of Free Podcasting Software | Richard Farrar's Blog recommended to me and decided to download Audacity and use the Logitech microphone on my desktop. That gave me a roll of 2 and an advance to 31. 

 After another roll, I figured out how to save the recorded in an MP3 format by downloading Lame1, which described how I was feeling.

 So far so good, though, until I tried to copy and paste the MP3 file into my post. I landed on 34 and found myself back at 24. More reading and downloading, first Filezilla - too complicated - and then FileDen, which was a whole lot easier. 

I was stuck on the bottom half of the gameboard when I couldn't figure out how to embed the link to the MP3 file into the image of the gameboard, but I figure I'll be on 61 facing two snakes until I've posted this. 

The experience of creating my podcast and its subject matter are eerily similar...


With apologies for the sound quality, but really, it's apt, rather like shooting a movie about the Great Depression in black and white.