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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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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

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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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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The Heroes 360 Experience: a case for (more) tiering

 

Heroes 360 banner

 

To augment the popular NBC TV series, Heroes, The Heroes 360 Experience was launched on Jan 22 this year. The official press release from NBC says:

Beginning on January 22nd, viewers will be invited to experience Heroes in a whole new way. As they investigate on-air clues and learn new truths about the characters, their involvement will lead them to new platforms, including interaction with unique mobile content; a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) site that one of the characters gives them access to; a special “two screen” application which provides a real-time experience; access to the fictional Primatech Paper company’s phone system; and significantly increased original content on NBC.com including secret files, hidden sites and original commentary from cast members added to each streaming episode.

Now, to a bit of discussion about it…

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