The Connected Life is at the centre of this Financial Times video which features the smart home, the connected car, mobile health and more.
Reporting from the recent MWC (mobile world congress) in Barcelona, it includes an interview with CCO of GSMA, Michael O’Hara, on what a connected life really means to us.
Some great visuals here. If you have 3 minutes, check it out.
(via futuretechreport)
The term “transmedia” can be a tad intimidating, don’t you think? Transmedia producer John Hartman breaks it down in a keynote presentation at IABC event.
Interesting article by Carolyn Handler Miller, about the origins of digital storytelling. Excerpt:
On the vast timetable of human achievements, computer-based interactive storytelling is a mere infant, only coming into being in the mid-twentieth century with the development of modern electronic computer technology. These narratives are also characterized by attributes rarely found in other forms of storytelling: they are interactive; they are immersive; they are nonlinear; and they are participatory, meaning that the audience not only takes part in them but can make choices that directly impact the story. Furthermore, the fictional characters in these stories commonly breach the fourth wall – the invisible barrier that separates the story world on one side and the real world on the other. In interactive narratives, it is extremely common for the fictional characters and the audience to communicate with each other and even for audience members to step into the story and play a direct role in it.
Given the fact that these narratives are so new and that they differ in so many important regards from other forms of storytelling, one might wonder if they are an entirely modern invention. Did they enter the world like the Greek goddess Athena, who sprung into the world from the head of her father, Zeus, fully formed, dressed and armed? In other words, are these unique types of works that came into existence only because the development of the electronic computer made them possible? Or do the characteristics that make them so different from other forms of narrative possibly have roots in earlier types of storytelling and other human activities?
“It’s not information overload… It’s filter failure.” - Clay Shirky
“We can rightly judge a society by how it treats its eccentrics and deviant geniuses—and by that measure, we have utterly failed.
Tim Wu (in the New Yorker) on “How the Legal System Failed Aaron Swartz—and Us”. This article is spot-on, and goes beyond the Swartz case: innovation always operates at the fringes of the law. In the digital realm, this is even more so:
In an age when our frontiers are digital, the criminal system threatens something intangible but incredibly valuable. It threatens youthful vigor, difference in outlook, the freedom to break some rules and not be condemned or ruined for the rest of your life. Swartz was a passionate eccentric who could have been one of the great innovators and creators of our future. Now we will never know.
Chilling and thought-provoking article. Where do you stand?
The State of Distribution
Excellent short video on how, despite revolutions in technology, old models for funding and distributing media are holding creators back.
From the - highly anticipated - new online distribution platform for creators: VHX.tv
(via explore-blog)
Love this term: The audience of old is now an audience with an audience of audiences.
Great article from Brian Solis, excerpt:
The future of broadcast is social. At the same time, the future of the internet is linked by shared experiences. As such, consumers will bring their mobile phones, tablets, and laptops to the digital living room to watch and share experiences and create a greater conversation and sense of belonging.
Producers will now increasingly create content that includes us in the event and the storyline. Architects of social and hardware platforms will need to rethink how TVs and the internet converge to foster consumption and engagement. And, those brands who subsidize content production, will have to transcend the practice of following attention to captivating it through innovation and experimentation.
The audience is not the audience of old. It’s now an audience with an audience of audiences.
Twitter adds filters, but misses the point
This article is just spot on! It’s about the (visual) storytelling, not the gadgetry, settings or in this case, filters:
Instagram is winning because of the photo-centric community it has built. Instagram created its own medium — a photo stream — that’s easily digestible while exerting minimal brain power. Facebook began with words, and with wall posts, and later evolved to include images. Instagram, on the other hand, was born of a world where people carry smartphones with decent cameras every day and use them to tell stories to friends. Instagram’s success is about a new way to show what you’re up to. It’s about creating a photographic timeline of your life you can flip through as easily as thumbing through a child’s picture book. The filters are just gravy.
(via thisistheverge)
Transmedia Storytelling Cookbook: From Digital to a Multiplatform Approach
Marketers and designers are finally moving into a new era – the era of transmedia. The previous era, which was characterized by a huge platform obsession approach, is over. But what does it all mean?
Sara Bozanic explains:
Transmedia is a storytelling technique, which happens across multiple media platforms, but in a platform appropriate way.
Content is spread across several media simultaneously. It’s not just about digital media, but also a combination of several traditional channels or a combination of both, such as the environment, radio, TV, web, mobile, etc.
But what does this mean in practice? We can divide transmedia development process in 3 main phases: concept development, distribution and growth. Each phase is characterized by emotional investment, social mechanics, participation and care.
Click on the image to read the full story.
(via futureoffilm)
The War For Your Television
TV is dead, long live TV!
From the Verge comes this engrossing article series: Over the top: the new war for TV is just beginning. Highly recommended read, the next few years (or months perhaps) will be decisive for the view in your living room! The digital revolution takes no prisoners.
Over the top. It is a strange phrase with many meanings, the most common of which is that something is excessive: This party is over the top, you might say. A 1980s Stallone movie about arm wrestling turned it into a power play, an expression of dominance: He went over the top! And at its root, the phrase comes from World War I, when soldiers leaping out of trenches to charge the enemy directly were said to be going over the top, almost certainly to their doom. They were crazy. Over the top.
So it’s fitting that the tech industry has chosen over the top as its preferred term for delivering video content to your TV over the internet. What Apple and Microsoft and Amazon and everyone literally mean is that they’re going over the top of traditional cable television by using broadband internet, but their strategies and relative success span the entire rich history of the term, from excessive indulgence to raw power grab to insane gonzo suicide mission.
Your living room is a battlefield that’s killed every would-be conqueror for the past 50 years, and it’s driving the tech industry insane. Over the top.
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