CALL FOR PAPERS

Conference Date: Friday, April 2, 2010

Deadline for Abstracts: February 1, 2010

New York University’s English Department will host a graduate student conference exploring the fate of literature in the age of the reproducible image. The nineteenth-century emergence of photography, a medium which Walter Benjamin referred to as “the first truly revolutionary means of reproduction,” coupled with the subsequent development of the motion picture, irrevocably shook not only the art world, but also the literary. This conference aims to uncover the affinities, negotiations, and interrelations between literary texts and visual media like photography, cinema, and the more recent medium of digital imaging and video. Investigating these issues from the perspectives of both literary and visual culture, this one-day event aims to bring together new work being produced by graduate students studying literature, cinema studies, visual culture, the history of media, and social historiography.

We will be focusing on a number of related questions including (but not limited to): How has the development of visual media affected literary aesthetics? In what sense has the vocabulary of film and photography been appropriated from and by literary culture? How do motion and pacing – elements inherent to cinema and the concept of the reproducible image – reveal themselves in creating and staging action, plot, and character development in narrative?

Other possible topics include:

• Photographic representation in literary texts
• Literature as motion: imagery and the mind’s eye, storytelling and motion
• Cinema, literature, fragmentation and non-linear chronology
• Descriptions of photographs within literary works
• The ‘urban’ and its centrality to cross-media works
• Modernist critique/appropriation of visual culture
• Art, the avant-garde, and experimental motion/stop-motion
• The function of written text in a visual medium
• Depictions of movies and movie-going in literary narrative
• Film vs. Literature: ‘high art’ in the era of mass culture

Please send abstracts (400 words) to nyugeo.conference@nyu.edu by FEBRUARY 1, 2010. Abstracts should include your name, contact information, paper title, and a short bio with your institution & department affiliation and year in graduate school. Please specify any audio-visual requirements. Panel proposals are also welcome for panels comprised of 3-4 participants; in your proposals, please include panel title and brief description (limit 500 words) as well as a list of papers with corresponding abstracts and speaker information.

Conference organizers: Yair Solan, Kathryn Bullerdick and Blevin Shelnutt.

This conference is sponsored by the New York University Department of English, with financial support provided by the NYU Graduate School of Arts and Science.

I’ve never really bought into the idea of being your own brand. If you happen to be a celebrity, it’s a logical business brand. But for the rest of us it seems a little pretentious, like we’re packaging ourselves and creating a more marketable image and identity; for whom, our friends and coworkers at the office?  I tend to think other folks don’t view us as brands, they view us as people.

The celebrity elite is another story, as personal branding is the key to success with those icons in sports and entertainment whose lives we follow on television, gossip magazines and Twitter. After all, inquiring minds want to know.  Many are a flash in the pan and most are not able to sustain for any length of time. Personal brands are far more perishable than product or company brands, susceptible to the short attention span of a fickle consumer public, or to self-destruction. Even major brands like Martha Stewart can be taken down by a single incident or breach of trust. We’ll see how Tiger does now that his brand has strayed off the fairway.

One of the biggest and most enduring personal brands in the past decade is Oprah Winfrey, who has clearly taken hers to an enterprise level. Now she will attempt to transcend the brand beyond the person as she trades in her show for a cable network: the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Her brand has grown bigger than CBS.

This will be an interesting test of brand extensibility.

The odds are not with her as this kind of play has not been successful very often. But Oprah is not just any brand, having achieved cultural icon status, largely because of The Oprah Winfrey Show over the past 24 years. It is a brand built on her personality, emotion and empathy — a real person talking to people about real-life issues. She has been successful in extending her brand to the movies (Color Purple), a Magazine (O) and a multitude of business ventures, amassing a wealth of $2.3 billion. But she’s always had the show to continually fuel the brand.

Now she is killing off the show, leaving her loyal fans hanging while she spreads herself out over an entire network, and coming to rely on the name more than the person.

Whatever the risk, it’s necessary as Oprah’s show is clearly in the mature end of its cycle, with viewership declining steadily from 14 million in 1998 to only 7 million today.  No doubt she will create a media splash, but can she deliver content that will sustain the brand once unplugged from its primary energy source in an ultra-competitive and ever-changing world of media?

We’ll see how strong the O brand really is.

I’m reading the introduction to Henry Jenkins’ Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, which is about “the relationship between three concepts–media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence” (2).   For Jenkins, “convergence” refers to “the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want” (2).  This brought to mind a book I read for my Ph.D. research back in the early 1990s by Marsha Kinder called Playing with Power in Movies, Television, and Video Games:  From Muppet Babies to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  She used a phrase called “transmedia intertextuality” that I never forgot; this referred to the new strategy of deploying a story and its characters in multiple media formats.  The example I recall was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with which my young sons at the time were fascinated.  This was a movie, a cartoon, books, toys, even plastic plates!  And probably much more that I’m not mentioning here…

Between then and now the phenomenon of social networking has exploded, becoming much more widespread, thereby allowing the participatory and collective nature of Jenkins’ concept to emerge.  As Jenkins notes,

Convergence does not occur through media appliances, however sophisticated they may become.  Convergence occurs within the brains of individual consumers and through their social interactions with others. . . Because there is more information on any given topic than anyone can store in their head, there is an added incentive for us to talk among ourselves about the media we consume.  This conversation creates buzz that is increasingly valued by the media industry.  Consumption has become a collective process–and that’s what this book means by collective intelligence, a term coined by French cybertheorist Pierre Levy.  None of us know everything; each of us knows something; and we can put the pieces together if we pool our resources and combine our skills.  Collective intelligence can be seen as an alternative source of media power.  We are learning how to use that power through our day-to-day interactions within convergence culture.  Right now, we are mostly using this collective power through our recreational life, but soon we will be deploying those skills for more ’serious’ purposes. (3-4)

This point about entertainment being the locus of emergent collective intelligence resonates with Ulmer’s “pop-cycle,” a heuretic, generative tool for electrate thinking that requires consideration of four institutional discourses (family, community, entertainment, career) and how these have influenced our identity formation.  Crossing over among these “popcycle institutions” allows us to employ images and modes of reasoning from one realm in order to solve problems in another.  For Ulmer, entertainment discourse has dominated since the late 20th century and therefore provides “the beginnings of explicitly electrate reasoning” (Internet Invention 126).  While school (the primary vehicle for community discourse) continues to privilege literate modes of thinking and knowing, those who experience these new media on a regular basis, as Jenkins suggests, are learning how to engage in the processes of collective intelligence as consumers of 21st century entertainment.

I was lucky enough to be one of the journalists who received funding from the Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund for a reporting project this year.

A few weeks ago I traveled to Kenya and Uganda. Going by road from Nairobi to Entebbe I reported on people who keep bees for a series of stories focused on food security.

I traveled alone with a backpack full of equipment: video camera, digital camera and lenses, audio recorder, plenty of tapes and leads and of course paper and pen. The aim was to come back with a multimedia project similar to a series I also did for RTE called Global Classroom.

Today, the first part of the series, The Humble Bee, went live on RTE.ie. It focuses on beekeeping as a means of improving food security on a macro and micro level. It looks at a family who keeps bees to make an income and a farmer who uses bees to improve pollination on his farm. There are videos and photos (more hopefully on the way) and an accompanying radio report, which was broadcast on RTE Radio One on World Report.

The rest of the series will look at other aspects of bee keeping in east Africa including women who keep bees, the environmental impact and the challenges some people face.

This has been a wonderful and challenging series to work on – I hope you enjoy it.

Check it out here
-B

I begin Saturday morning with a healthy dose of advertisements; today started with Episode 58 of the Best Ads on TV podcast.

It was then that I saw the “Crowd Rider” commercial for Subaru by Leo Burnett, Sydney. It goes like this:

Now, the commercial is not what you would call exceptionally brilliant (we’ve all seen so many of these ads where million of people come together to form something of some sorts or just to add that larger-than-life feel to it (remember, “It’s a Big Ad” or “Man-made Machine“?)), but that’s just the advertiser talking – the “Been There, Seen That” jaded nonsense that doesn’t mean squat to the regular guy. So it may not be exceptionally brilliant, but it is exceptional in its own little way. Because Subaru went out there to say that when you or you or you or you go out for drive, there’s a whole company at work for you, and the “All for the Driver” pay-off ties in well with this, without trying too hard.

By contrast, I’d like to mention what India witnessed for another automotive brand on the fateful day of November 11, 2oo9. This was the day when Volkswagen was launched commercially in India. And it was no secret.

For starters, the first thing you saw when you woke up that Wednesday morning was the front page of the TOI screaming at you about how innovation at Volkswagen always makes the headlines. Nice thought, I’d say, if what were to follow were actually backed up by the statement.

But what followed instead was a roadblock, that did everything to tell India that Volkswagen had launched (including telling them how to pronounce it in so many languages)…  did everything, that is, except make it something truly memorable. Notice I stress on “truly” because, although it got everyone to sit up and notice, it did nothing to be remembered past 10:00 a.m. that day. Not for the regular Joe who probably wasn’t thinking of buying a car that morning at least.  Because this is what all the ads looked like.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

This goes on for another 10 pages. 13 ads in one newspaper on one day and not one that makes you even say “Ah”. If you missed them, let me know and I’ll mail across a folder of the ads to you. But I really don’t see the point in doing that either.

And that’s precisely the problem I have with these roadblocks. Because, as someone I know said to me at work the other day, “It’s a full page, front page ad in the Times of India. You could put anything there and people will notice it.” Yes, well… then why wouldn’t you put just anything over there?! There’ve been so many painful occasions when we’ve all had to hear “It’s too creative, no one will get it” or “We don’t have enough space to say what we want, so forget all the brilliance you had planned and just lay down the facts as is” or “We’re a small brand, no one know us… we don’t want to take these risks just yet” and here’s a brand that’s a force to reckon with, that’s laid out enough money on day one of its communication campaign to buy at least two of its cars and there wasn’t scope for one, tiny “Ah” moment? I’m not even asking for an “Ah-ha!” moment. I mean, you’ve got to give me something. Just not this.

Oh and the TVC, not very inspiring either. “German Engineering. Made for India.” they say. I’m sorry, but it said nothing about its either being German or being Indian.

Perhaps I’m asking for too much and perhaps the ads did what they had to. But I’m just not convinced.

By: A National Acrobat

Por fin la semana pasada, después de un par de meses de trabajo, registramos el guión ‘Panzer Chocolate‘ en Barcelona. Esperamos poder abrir la web en un par de semanas. Seguimos trabajando en la estructura de los otros formatos. Siendo optimistas, nuestra idea sería filmar y estrenar el año que viene.

Storyline (género Terror): ’En 2010, un grupo de jóvenes arqueólogos es brutalmente masacrado cuando descubren el secreto más oscuro de los Nazis’.

Ahora estamos preparando el rodaje de un teaser que saldrá en la web, y estamos buscando las siguientes personas en Barcelona o alrededores, para el 25 de Noviembre (2 días):

1. Una Actriz que tiene una escena de guión que requiere desnudo, pero no es escena de sexo ni besos. Chica de complexión delgada, rubia o peliroja, con melena o media melena. Emails con CV y fotos a: mail@filmutea.com Poner en asunto: ‘Actriz Sangre’ Etnia caucásica, 22 – 28 años, sueldo a convenir.

2. Otra Actriz que tiene una escena de guión que requiere que sepa llorar. Chica de complexión delgada, rubia o peliroja, con melena o media melena. Emails con CV y fotos a: mail@filmutea.com Poner en asunto: ‘Actriz Llorar’ Etnia caucásica, 22 – 28 años, sueldo a convenir.

3. 3 Voces en Alemán y 3 voces en Hebreo. Hombres, mujeres o niños. Emails con CV (y si puede ser muestra de voz) a: mail@filmutea.com Poner en asunto: ‘Voces Alemán’ o ‘Voces Hebreo’. Sueldo a convenir.

4. Voz grave y profunda. Parecida a las utilizadas en trailers de película de Terror Americana. Masculina. De 40 a 65 años. Sueldo a convenir. Emails con CV (y si puede ser muestra de voz) a: mail@filmutea.com Poner en asunto: ‘Voz Profunda’.

También tenemos el anuncio publicado en Filmutea, por si te es más fácil.

Semana 9: Además del guión, la semana pasada nos reunimos con la primera posible empresa productora, con la que inicialmente estuvimos hablando sobre el modelo de negocio, posibles inversores, copyright, etc. Esperamos poder programar más reuniones con otras productoras, y ojalá podamos ejecutar las estrategias que tenemos para los distintos departamentos.

Duisburg ruft: “cross media!” Die berichtete Wirklichkeit in den Tageszeitungen weicht von der wahrgenommen Wirklichkeit der Leser ab. So verliert die WAZ (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung in Essen) seit etlichen Jahren mehr als sechs Prozent per anno bei ihrer Zeitungsauflage.

„Die Leser sind zu blöd! Das ist Abo-Verdrossenheit.“, raunt der Ruhrgebiet-sozialisierte Journalist und zieht dabei nicht rechtzeitig beim Hieb der geschwungen WAZ-Axt seinen Kopf ein. Die WAZ macht Revier-Migger (YADOM), die Menschen laufen weg. NRW, das bevölkerungsreichste Bundesland, hat ein massives eMigranten-Problem.

Der oberste WAZ-Axt-Redaktionist Ulrich Reitz hat nur ein untaugliches Mission-Statement für seine Journalisten, seine Tageszeitung und sein Auflagenverbreitungsgebiet. Reitz erscheint in vielen Augen als ein abgetäufter Revier-Publizist als letzter Vollstrecker eines untergehenden Madenwerks von Systemfuzzies.

Duisburg. Wir sind das Gespräch – selbst wenn wir nur tratschen. Damit begann das Stadtteil-Blogging.

Den publizistischen WAZ-Schwachsinn der gespaltenen Wirklichkeit bei Bürgerwort und Zeitungsschrift machen die Bürger nicht mehr mit. Das wurde zur Wahlscheu und Abo-Scheu gegen jene, die Demokratie und Tageszeitung nur im Format änderten als Abwicklung der Republik.

Die zunehmende Verdrossenheit der Journalisten wird eines Tages zur Verweigerung – shunning. Wir sind das Volk – und historisch schneller; denn wir sind das Leben. Das ist unsere Zuversicht: ‘Spe salvi’ errettet von der publizistischen Weicheihaft eines Ulrich Reitz (WAZ).

(Kultur: Herr Rolf K. nahe Duisburg hat einen Übersetzungsentwurf des Science-Artikels über die Psychologie der Moral.)

Der Stumpfsinn des täglich gedruckten Geschreibsels muss enden. Fluss Ruhr sucht einen neuen Namen! Der Pott kocht nicht mehr, es brodelt die neue Hölle. Das ist REITZ 2 – so oder so.

Vor fünf Jahren lasen wir uns über Abo-Sharing. Reitz kann Moral. Erweckt ihn! – so ein Einwurf des St. Homberg News Funds.

Ignite Technologies, Inc., http://www.ignitetech.com, the leader in providing secure and Enterprise Content Delivery Solutions enabling customers to efficiently publish, deliver and manage digital assets, today announced version 7.10 for the Ignite Content Delivery Solution, supporting live streaming video and on demand downloads. The new release further underscores Ignite’s ability to deliver any content, anywhere, at any time with new features enriching the use of both live and pre-recorded content.

Ignite’s Enterprise Content Delivery Solution

Ignite v7.10 establishes the Ignite Content Delivery Solution as a comprehensive delivery platform that supports live streaming video, on demand download or instant view, and targeted push delivery. These delivery methods are demanded by today’s enterprises to securely and efficiently deliver video and rich media for corporate communications, e-learning, and sales.

“To successfully leverage video in the enterprise, large organizations need a comprehensive delivery platform that can integrate with their new and existing corporate communications technologies and devices,” said Melissa Webster, program vice president, content & digital media technologies at IDC. “As our research shows, more than three quarters of large organizations are delivering video on demand to employee desktops today, and by the end of 2010, that will rise to more than 90%, with 80% also delivering live streaming video to the desktop.”

In v7.10, Ignite enhanced its Enterprise Streaming solution to include the ability for viewers of live events to submit questions to the presenter directly from the end user interface. Moderators or event producers can view submitted questions in real-time along with context information about the employee who submitted the question such as geographic location, department and other imported information from the company’s user directory.

The moderator can filter questions using custom criteria, prioritize, edit and submit notes concerning the questions to assist the presenter. Presenters can view the questions forwarded by the moderator and choose which questions to address. Following the live event, all the questions are archived to be accessed later in reports, and answers can be pushed to users or made available via on-demand.

“In today’s environment immediate feedback after town hall meetings or quarterly updates is critical in helping to gauge the reactions and concerns of employees,” said Brian Jensen, managing director of global communications for Cushman & Wakefield. “Our executives want employees to be able to submit questions during the live event providing a more engaging, face-to-face experience for the employees.”

In v7.10, Ignite also introduces an Ignite ‘clientless’ capability that greatly extends the reach for Ignite’s audience by providing the ability to view content from devices without requiring the Ignite native client application. For example, when a user requests to view content from a corporate website, if the Ignite client is detected, the user has the option to either download and view the high-quality version or immediately view a lower-quality version online. The viewing option is ideal for enterprises’ partners, customers or employees that often need access to video or rich content from non-enterprise standard computers such as Macintosh, Linux, home and personal computers or mobile devices.

Companies can also leverage this new feature to offer a short preview or trailer of the content to enable the user to determine if they want to download the high-quality version.

“The “YouTube-like’ experience where immediate viewing of the video online from a company’s internet or intranet portals, Microsoft’s SharePoint sites or other media portals further expands on Ignite’s ability to deliver rich media corporate communications anywhere, at any time to any device,” said Vasu Avadhanula, vice president of product management at Ignite.

More information about the Ignite Content Delivery Solution and a multi-media presentation of v7.10 new features is available at www.ignitetech.com.

It’s not everyday that you get to see good advertising for juice. Nothing beyond the “100% natural. All fruit.” kind of messaging. Which is why when I saw the TVC for the new brand of Saint Juice, an uninterested “Ho-hum” was all I could manage. This, despite the fact that the execution was quite neat.

Directed by Prakash Varma, Nirvana Films, Bangalore

However, a chance discussion at work about the TVC got someone to share Saint’s print ads. I haven’t actually seen them in print, but I have to say it’s been long since I saw copy-based advertising that made me feel like there’s still hope for us copywriters.

I particularly like this last one. And just for that, Mr. Raj Kurup and team at Creativeland Asia, thank you.

Ogni tanto vado a curiosare nei forum, soprattutto nei topic dedicati ai libri in lettura. Mi colpisce sempre molto quando vengono postate le informazioni sulla pagina a cui si è arrivati leggendo un determinato romanzo, sulle sensazioni suscitate, sulla eventuale noia o sull’eventuale entusiasmo.
Un tempo ci veniva detto che la lettura e la scrittura erano attività solitarie. Un tempo eravamo abituati a pensare al lettore o allo scrittore come a creature del buio, o al massimo confortati dalla candela che sgocciola cera, o dalla lampada che diffonde la luce appena sufficiente per decifrare la pagina. Un tempo chi leggeva e scriveva apparteneva a  un gruppo ristretto. Poi quel gruppo ha cominciato ad allargarsi, sono arrivati i romanzi popolari, e poi ancora i best-seller. Ora c’è la rete. E molti dicono che, be’, siamo diventati tutti più ignoranti.
Stamattina, scaldandomi al sole e cercando di uscire dalla cupezza che mi accompagna da settimane, pensavo che esiste l’altra faccia della medaglia: e cioè che è stata cambiata una modalità che durava da secoli. Leggere e scrivere rimangono un’attività solitaria, ma la luce della lampada è meno fioca, ed esiste la possibilità di rendere tutto questo una condivisione.
Magari serve a poco. Magari per il famigerato scrittore professionista le questioni sono e restano altre, e sono sicuramente più serie, più urgenti, più nobili.
Però ho letto di questo libro, che mi procurerò, e nella presentazione mi ha colpito questa frase: “le nuove narrazioni sono come i pollini, sono dovunque”.
Non servirà a nulla, ma mi ha fatto sentire un po’ meglio.

Ps. Mi permetto di linkare questo articolo uscito su Carmilla. Gregorio Magini e Vanni Santoni riescono a dire quel che penso in modo molto più efficace.

Si encontraste mi post sobre ARGs de Steve Peters interesante, esta ponencia te va a gustar también. Martin Elricsson es Productor y Director Creativo de la empresa The Company P, de Suecia (país en el que los juegos de rol con centenares de personas por el bosque… son una práctica muy habitual); desarrolladores de ‘The truth about Marika’ para la televisión del país; una serie + ARG en la que todos los espectadores podían participar. Después de nuestra película, me encantaría poder hacer una así para nuestras TVs!

En esta web se podía ir siguiendo el juego, pero se congeló en el tiempo cuando se solucionó el secreto, y está en Sueco. En cualquier caso, os dejo la promo de la serie + ARG:

————————————————————–

Y las notas que tomé en directo en el Workshop del día después a la conferencia:

Interactingarts.org tienen un pequeño libro que explica la cultura de la participación, en contraste con la cultura de escuchar.

Acuerdos con la audiencia:

a) audiencia pasiva (comic): lee e interpreta, identifica los personajes, los eventos pueden ser o no reales, A escribe para B.

‘ISAAC Caret SHOW HOAX’(Caret Drones en Youtube)

Hace 3 años hubo fotos de UFOs en la zona de Los Ángeles. Tardaron 2 años en descubrir que era falso. Todavía no se sabe la persona que está detrás. Si era promocional, no funcionó, porque no se sabe nada de los que lo hicieron. En este caso, no hay ningún acuerdo.

b) audiencia pasiva (teatro, película): se sientan y lo ven, se identifican con los personajes, los eventos no son reales, A hace el rol de B para C.

c) audiencia engaged (deportes): celebrar y discutir, apoyar equipo, eventos son reales a veces, A contra B por el placer de C

(Youtube: momentum iperg)

d) gameist participation (competition-based online gaming): objetivo es ser el master, todo vale para ganar, permanecer a un clan o equipo, events considered real, y consecuencias pasan al mundo no virtual, A contra B.

e) dramatic participation (hard core roleplaying): habla y actúa como tu personaje 24/7, identificación con el personaje, eventos considerados reales, A hace papel de B junto a C que hace D… Ex: Socienty of the Ancients. La audiencia aquí es el productor y el jugador mismo. Se suele hacer en lugares especiales, sin otra gente que no juegue, aunque a veces van a lugares concurridos, pero la norma es no involucrarles. Por eso las historias de este tipos suelen ser de: espías, personajes sobrenaturales…

ARGs

TINAG (This is not a Game)

Juegas pero sabes que estás en un mundo de juego con la motivación de solucionar unos puzzles, eventos tratados como reales siempre y cuando haya material, A cree que B es real, todos saben que es un juego, pero tú intentas que parezca real. Si haces algo como Orson Welles, tienes el peligro de que te pillen, por eso es bueno un par de días después, decir que sí, que es falso, y que es un juego, que somos muy buenos haciendo parecer que es real.

También puedes añadir a la web: ‘Sólo hay una norma, sigue pretendiendo que es real’

Otras posibilidades: la opción mística (Agabadan), pretende que es real (Dollplay), el falso juego como comienzo (The Game), Comenzó como juego, pero resulta que era real (Prosopopeia), basado en historia real (the truth about Marika), Es sólo un juego… prometemos, quiero creer (religión), Esto es un juego, competición, falséalo hasta que lo consigas.

Si encontraste mi post sobre ARGs de Steve Peters interesante, esta ponencia te va a gustar también. Martin Elricsson es Productor y Director Creativo de la empresa The Company P, de Suecia (país en el que los juegos de rol con centenares de personas por el bosque… son una práctica muy habitual); desarrolladores de ‘The truth about Marika’ para la televisión del país; una serie + ARG en la que todos los espectadores podían participar. Después de nuestra película, me encantaría poder hacer una así para nuestras TVs!

En esta web se podía ir siguiendo el juego, pero se congeló en el tiempo cuando se solucionó el secreto, y está en Sueco. En cualquier caso, os dejo la promo de la serie + ARG:

————————————————————–

Y las notas que tomé en directo en el Workshop del día después a la conferencia:

Interactingarts.org tienen un pequeño libro que explica la cultura de la participación, en contraste con la cultura de escuchar.

Acuerdos con la audiencia:

a) audiencia pasiva (comic): lee e interpreta, identifica los personajes, los eventos pueden ser o no reales, A escribe para B.

‘ISAAC Caret SHOW HOAX’(Caret Drones en Youtube)

Hace 3 años hubo fotos de UFOs en la zona de Los Ángeles. Tardaron 2 años en descubrir que era falso. Todavía no se sabe la persona que está detrás. Si era promocional, no funcionó, porque no se sabe nada de los que lo hicieron. En este caso, no hay ningún acuerdo.

b) audiencia pasiva (teatro, película): se sientan y lo ven, se identifican con los personajes, los eventos no son reales, A hace el rol de B para C.

c) audiencia engaged (deportes): celebrar y discutir, apoyar equipo, eventos son reales a veces, A contra B por el placer de C

(Youtube: momentum iperg)

d) gameist participation (competition-based online gaming): objetivo es ser el master, todo vale para ganar, permanecer a un clan o equipo, events considered real, y consecuencias pasan al mundo no virtual, A contra B.

e) dramatic participation (hard core roleplaying): habla y actúa como tu personaje 24/7, identificación con el personaje, eventos considerados reales, A hace papel de B junto a C que hace D… Ex: Socienty of the Ancients. La audiencia aquí es el productor y el jugador mismo. Se suele hacer en lugares especiales, sin otra gente que no juegue, aunque a veces van a lugares concurridos, pero la norma es no involucrarles. Por eso las historias de este tipos suelen ser de: espías, personajes sobrenaturales…

ARGs

TINAG (This is not a Game)

Juegas pero sabes que estás en un mundo de juego con la motivación de solucionar unos puzzles, eventos tratados como reales siempre y cuando haya material, A cree que B es real, todos saben que es un juego, pero tú intentas que parezca real. Si haces algo como Orson Welles, tienes el peligro de que te pillen, por eso es bueno un par de días después, decir que sí, que es falso, y que es un juego, que somos muy buenos haciendo parecer que es real.

También puedes añadir a la web: ‘Sólo hay una norma, sigue pretendiendo que es real’

Otras posibilidades: la opción mística (Agabadan), pretende que es real (Dollplay), el falso juego como comienzo (The Game), Comenzó como juego, pero resulta que era real (Prosopopeia), basado en historia real (the truth about Marika), Es sólo un juego… prometemos, quiero creer (religión), Esto es un juego, competición, falséalo hasta que lo consigas.

By: tanakawho

Acabamos de pasar un cuello de botella de trabajo que teníamos concentrado en las dos últimas semanas, y las cosas van por muy buen camino.

Hemos terminado una segunda versión del guión, y la verdad es que estamos muy contentos. El desenlace final es mucho mejor, y ahora contiene un twist, uno de los elementos que queríamos cuando empezamos. Además, contiene un doble final mucho más inesperado, algo que no se ha hecho nunca hasta ahora que sepa el equipo, pero no puedo desvelar nada más. Tendréis que ver la película .

Ya tenemos cerrado el diseño de la web, y se ha iniciado la maquetación. Muy pronto podremos abrirla, anunciar el título de la película, explicar en más detalle como funcionará todo, etc.

Como he dicho otras veces, la conferencia del Power to the Pixel 09 nos fue muy bien para terminar de comprender cómo debíamos enlazar todos los elementos Cross-Media, así como la forma de diseñar y presentar el ARG sobre papel para que todas las personas que participen en su desarrollo y financiación puedan entenderlo.

Después de varias reuniones y mucho brainstorming, tenemos una estrategia definida para financiar todo el proyecto, así como para su promoción y distribución. El modelo para calcular los diferentes escenarios ya está en marcha, y las reuniones de las próximas semanas servirán para ajustarlo y dar el OK definitivo a las estrategias. Tenemos preparado un borrador del documento para los posibles inversores, que poco a poco va cogiendo mejor forma.

Hemos trabajado también en el guión del teaser, que mostraremos cuando lanzemos la web, y que vamos a filmar en unos 10 días más o menos.

El seminario que dimos sobre ‘Trabajo y Financiación por Internet’ para la SGAE en BCN y MAD fue todo un éxito, y esperamos poder repetir cosas parecidas pronto.

Muchos de vosotros me habéis pedido últimamente que explique un poco qué significa que nuestro proyecto incluye un ARG. Pues bien, un ARG es un juego de realidad alternativa, que en la práctica, viene a ser como un juego de rol. Era la pieza que nos faltaba entender del todo antes de ir al Power to the Pixel, pero allí nos abrieron los ojos, y ahora tenemos muy clara la forma como debemos estructurarlo y diseñarlo. De momento sólo puedo comentar que va a ser una pasada.

Para que lo entendáis bien, voy a poner un ejemplo que nos hizo a nosotros Steve Peters, uno de los gurús de los ARGs, de la empresa No Mimes Media, que antes trabajó para 42 Enterteinment, que desarrolló el ARG de Batman entre otros. Sí Batman. En EEUU, este tipo de cosas ya se está haciendo para películas de Hollywood, y por eso lo estamos incluyendo, porque más tarde o temprano también llegará en cine a España.

1- El juego comenzó con 4-5 pequeñas cajitas de plástico distribuidas debajo de las butacas de algunos asistentes. En ellas había una tela con un texto escrito, que llevaba a una web: International Mime Academy.

By: International Mime Academy

2- Si visitas la web, no hay mucha información. Para seguir el juego, se debe llamar al número de teléfono de la sección ‘Contact’: 00 44 207 855 02 90; 00 1 310 362 18 05 (UK o EEUU). En este número sale un contestador, con un mensaje que te dirige a un blog personal: A terrible thing to waste.

By: Terrible thing to waste

3- Cuando lo visitamos, aparentemente es un blog de una persona, pero fíjate en las letras en rojo. ¿Un mensaje codificado? Si unes las letras una a una, llegas a Youtube.com/oswaldthemime

4- El video de Youtube esconde otro mensaje. Básicamente el mimo te dice que le están persiguiendo, y que para escapar, necesita que busques información sobre cómo abrir la cerradura, y que se la mandes al email que te indica.

5- Si vamos a Google y buscamos “Kryptonite Evolution 2000”, encontramos en un blog de gadgets, información de cómo abrirla.

By: Engadget

6- Ahora le mandamos un email, y recibimos su contestación en unos segundos, dándonos las gracias (respuesta automática). Le hemos ayudado a escapar!

7- Esto no termina aquí, si sigues estos pasos, verás lo que pasa después. Es una sorpresa, que espero que te guste.

Parfois, il est bon d’appuyer sur le bouton Pause, de respirer un bon coup, d’aller faire quelques longueurs à la piscine ou de prendre un bon bol d’air en forêt.

Histoire de voir  la réalitée différente  (augmentée) pour repartir plus dynamisé que jamais.

C’est ce à quoi ce livre vous invite…

Internet a tout changé. Nous le savons, nous le voyons, nous l’expérimentons dans nos vies rêvées de marketers et de consommateurs.
Mais comment s’y adapter, voir devancer ce courant dans nos pratiques marketing ?

Ce petit livre aux 87 fiches, qui se dévore comme un mille feuilles,  est truffé d’exemples d’entreprises qui sont passées avec succès  d’un  marketing  de Push à celui de Pull, face à des consommateurs plus enclin à créer, partager et influencer leurs pairs,  que d’attendre bien sagement devant leur écran tv la fin d’un tunnel publicitaire qui n’en finit pas…
Ainsi vous lirez pourquoi Zappos s’est fait courtisé, puis acheté par Amazon au début de l’année…

« Vendre des chaussures sur Internet ? Cela ne
marchera jamais ! ». C’est pourtant le pari réussi de
Tony Hsieh fondateur du premier site au monde de
vente de chaussures en ligne…

…vous lirez la suite en page 245.

Soyez les premiers à innover dans ce “Tout- Internet”

et bénéficiez dès aujourd’hui d’un avantage réservé aux lecteurs de ce blog :

les frais de port sont gratuits .

Il vous suffit de taper le code :  KAWA002TAC sur votre e-bon de commande.

Rendez-vous sur la boutique

pour recevoir

ce Boox écrit par
Henri Kaufman & Laurence Faguer,
avec la participation de Mickaël Guillois

et préfacé de Brice Auckenthaler – Edition Kawa.

Je commande le livre  !

Evidentemente esta no es la forma. Nissan y Skoda jamás se unirán para sacar al mercado el nuevo modelo Nisskodan. Pero encontrarme con esta curiosa coincidencia exterior me ha hecho preguntarme de nuevo por qué las marcas no colaboran más entre ellas.

Y no me refiero a que Nissan pague 1/3 de la valla exterior y Skoda 2/3, para ahorrarse cada una un dinero… Me refiero a que Nike y Apple unan sus fuerzas y creen conjuntamente un producto tan exitoso como Nike+.

Fernando Vega-Olmos, impulsor de Lola (Lowe + Latina), hablaba hace no mucho de esto aventurando qué pasaría si dos marcas de Unilever (Axe + Magnum) se unieran para crear helados con forma de voluptuosa hembra dirigido a los usuarios del desodorante, tan acostumbrados a devorar mujeres. Seguramente no tiene nada que ver, pero el hecho es que Fernando ya no es más director creativo mundial de Unilever. Y poco después salieron unos helados con forma del nuevo y cachas 007…

Siempre me ha gustado el mestizaje y la fusión, me parece que enriquece, que suma, que es un win/win. Y no lo digo porque quede bien decirlo: mi mujer no es de mi país, ni de mi raza, ni de mi religión, y mis hijos son lo más maravilloso del mundo (vale, soy el padre, pero los que los conozcáis sabéis de lo que hablo).

La fusión es la base de la creación. Asocias dos buenas ideas para crear otra idea mejor. Asocias dos cosas separadas para inventar algo nuevo, por ejemplo, escoba + bayeta = fregona. Que por cierto nunca he entendido por qué los argentinos le tienen manía ¿será por qué es un invento “gallego”? El hecho es que no la utilizan, no existe para ellos, prefieren inundar de agua el suelo y luego barrerlo con una bayeta (en los comercios echan ese agua sucia fuera, a la acera o vereda, es un asco de sistema). De la misma forma que no entiendo por qué en España no han triunfado los telos (hotel + picadero) pero bueno me estoy desviando del tema…

Tampoco tengo tiempo ahora para profundizar más en este tema, ni en otro tema primo-hermano de este: el crossmedia o cómo mezclar adecuadamente los medios enriquece una campaña. Y cómo algunos medios tradicionales, como este exterior, utilizan el mismo aburrido patrón… ¿otro día, vale? Tomaros un cocktail bien mezcladito a mi salud.

They definitely do at www.theauteurs.com. An alternative film platform, where you can watch art movies for € 5 and some of them are free. In addition you get a forum, where you can discuss movies, with your peers and have a social community within the platform.

TheAuteurs.com, has a bright future I think. And according to Efe the founder, this is only the beginning. The auteurs was launched in November 2008. After a first year, they have 500K visits a month, and 150K registered members.  As more people are using the platform, the infrastrucuture gets more expensive, the video streams has to be of an excellent quality to not disappoint the viewer, and give them a great experience. Efe works with quality people, excellent developers, no outsourcing to India or other low rate countries, he wants to control, and have the feeling he owns its platform, and wants happy people, who share the same passion.

Theauteurs.com main partner is Celluloid Dreams, among others like The Criterion Collection and Costa Films. According to Efe these partners add tremendous value.  Hengameh Panahi, Celluloid Dreams boss, is today running day-to-day operations with Efe.  Even Martin Scorsese is in for this platform.

While discussing the future, we talk about Mobile, mobile has enormous potential for this platform, not to view films on your mobile, you could do that of course, but mainly new tablets will come out soon, also from Apple, and these tablets you could hang on to your HD television at home, and view your movies relax as you please, within your own time schedule. And if you are on a plane, you can watch it on your tablet, Iphone or Ipodtouch. With WIFI you avoid the expensive data communication in streaming the content to the viewer.

Efe is also a believer of non DRM delivering of movies. You download movies of your choice, for X euros or dollars or whatever currency, and you download them and do with them what you want. This would most probably then stimulate less piracy. I hope we have this soon available. The consumer is ready, but the distributor not yet. They still need to lose more money, and then they will see they have to change their distributing models…., like the music industry did after Apple’s Itunes.

TheAuteurs.com is not a replacement platform for the cinema, but a complementary channel for viewing films. Needless to say that now a days, art films hardly make it into the movie theatre, and thanks to TheAuteurs.com they can find a place, and maybe find the way to movie theathre in a different way or reverse way.

It is about changing the world, give the world a different experience, give the cinefile a new engaging platform. And it is also about passion and being surrounded by good people, Efe has good support from family and friends, and has his health, which is the main important thing!

Dalim Software announced today that Zinio, the world’s leader in digital-content design and distribution, has selected a robust Dalim Software workflow automation solution for its site network of online stores. Integrated by master distributor Blanchard Systems, the Dalim Software solution, based on DALiM TWiST, automatically processes digital data submitted by publishers of magazines and periodicals.

Currently, millions of Zinio customers purchase digital magazines and books from the San Francisco-based company’s global site network of stores, either individually or via subscription. In doing so, readers can enjoy their favorite publications digitally – as well as search, save and share their favorite content in real time – virtually, from anywhere in the world.

The DALiM TWiST-powered solution, designed by Dalim Software – developer of customer facing applications for brands, publishers, advertisers, printers, premedia organizations and converters – plays a key role in Zinio’s workflow, processing publication files into the digital file format required for onscreen reading. Automation makes the process more time- and cost-efficient, and also unlocks new opportunities to automate the customization of digital magazines – for example, with targeted advertising content.

“Beyond being the automation tool of choice for many printers and converters, the Dalim Software workflow engine was also designed with the requirements of tomorrow’s publishing in mind,” comments Dr. Carol Werlé, Dalim Software CEO. “We are thrilled to help our clients reach new readers through various, innovative channels of content distribution efficiently and, above all, automatically. As the world’s largest digital newsstand, Zinio identified, quite early, the need for automation. Because of our shared technology, our mutual customers will reap the benefits of our collaboration much sooner than others.”

Au congrès de la DMA, un maître mot : Intégration.

Ou comment, dans le mix canal, chaque canal a une influence sur les autres.

On sait par exemple qu’une campagne de Search fonctionne mieux quand elle est couplée à une campagne de Display (bannières publicitaires).

C’est un peu la revanche du Display. On le limitait  jusqu’alors dans un rôle de promotion des marques. Il va de plus en plus aider  à augmenter le taux de conversion des marchands en ligne, avec la montée en puissance du ciblage comportementale. Cette technique qui  permet d’exposer une publicité aux internautes selon leur profil et leur comportement, représentera 15 % des investissements Display en 2010, en hausse de 30 % par rapport à 2009.

 (source Winterberry Group, Octobre 2009).

Il Nokia signpost è un’installazione alta 50 metri, con una grande freccia che contiene uno schermo LED. Lo schermo si popola ogni volta di indicazioni su nuove Cose Belle, segnalate dagli utenti di tutto il mondo attraverso il sito e le mappe di Ovi. E la freccia, ovviamente, si sposta in direzione del luogo in cui quanto segnalato si trova.

Come funziona il Nokia Signpost

Un modo semplicissimo di comunicare il concetto: Nokia ti aiuta a scoprire e condividere (o, semplicemente, ti “indica”) tutto ciò che di bello c’è al mondo.

Naturalmente, il Nokia Signpost e le sue dritte possono essere seguiti anche su Facebook e su Twitter.

Digi Cafe, seria de evenimente organizate de F5, regia de Neconventional si Cross Media a Grupului Realitatea-Catavencu, a continuat aseara (Joi 29.10.09) cu o sesiune dedicata Mobile 2.0. O tema secundara interesanta a dezbaterii a fost masurarea efectului campaniilor din mediul mobil.

Discutia a abordat teme care acopereau toata nisa, iar majoritatea replicilor importante le puteti gasi aici.

Pe rand, fiecare dintre vorbitori a subliniat importanta imbunatatirii atitudinii clientilor fata de acest canal, care continua sa creasca la nivel global, chiar in contextul crizei. E mare nevoie nu doar de deschidere in directia utilizarii unei astfel de comunicari ci si in directia cunoasterii avansate a platformelor.

In prezent baza tehnica, indiferent ca e vorba de SMS, Internet Mobil sau Bluetooth, permite dezvoltarea de solutii tehnice complexe. Nu exista insa adesea creatie specializata pentru un astfel de canal, iar de foarte multe ori nu exista nici comenzi clare din partea clientilor.

Un alt subiect interesant dezvoltat pe marginea unei intrebari a unui jurnalist de la Business Standard a fost legat de implicarea marilor operatori de telefonie mobila in dezvoltarea de solutii Mobile. Concluzia care s-a desprins in acest caz a fost ca aceasta nisa de comunicare implica inca cercetare, cu alte cuvinte costuri necontrolate 100%, deoarece discutam inca de o zona de pionierat la nivel global.

In plus, un operator de telefonie mobila va putea dezvolta platforme de comunicare doar pentru segmentul de piata in care opereaza. Deci, nici unui advertiser nu i-ar conveni sa promoveze Mobile doar catre clientii Vodafone sau Orange sau Cosmote.

Cu toate ca seara a fost monopolizata de teme din zona de Client Service si de Suport Tehnic, am reusit sa strecor ideea originala MVcom pe care am purtat-o in gand pentru aceasta dezbatere. In viitorul apropiat comunicarea de tot felul, prin urmare si cea Mobile va trebui sa tina cont de emotionalul publicului tinta, fie el natural sau indus.

Deoarece exista o multitudine de variante si tehnici (vizuale, olfactive etc) prin care un context emotional poate fi indus si controlat, este recomandat sa nisam astfel suplimentar consumatorul, in spiritul atingerii tintelor de audienta, memorabilitate, etc..

Cat priveste organizarea, F5 a reusit ca intr-o atmosfera relaxata, decenta, sa adune un public interesat, confirmand pozitia de trendsetter in consolidarea noilor nise de comunicare.

La confiance des marketers dans les tactiques traditionnelles est en berne.

La tendance est claire – les marketers considèrent que la  panoplie de nouveaux canaux marketing dont se sont emparés les consommateurs  (social media, blogs, Search, email marketing, ect.) est le futur.

Selon les chiffres présentés par l’institut Forrester Research à la DMA, les tactiques de marketing traditionnelles ne vont pas mourir, mais elles n’attirent plus les investissements marketing et elles ne tirent plus le ROI vers le haut.

En un mot, les marketers s’en détachent pour épouser les canaux numériques.

Rien de nouveau, mais le graphique ci-dessous a le mérite de la clarté.

Not a lot to report really – the site is getting updated more and more regularly, and we’ve gone and got a Twitter account, which is nice to see. We’ve registered a domain name, but as yet haven’t been able to transfer the hosting (or something complicated like that) so at the moment it’s not in use.

In other news, yesterday was Cross Media Day – in theory, a day when students from all four pathways (online, print, radio and television) work together to try and get a feel for what it’s really like out there in the big, wide world of journalism.

Unfortunately, most students decided that they didn’t really need to bother with it, so the day was nowhere near as beneficial as it could have been. Us online students, in particular, failed to really get much out of the day, as the other groups chose to base their work around the theme of our site. This meant that, on the whole, there wasn’t really a lot for us to do – ordinarily we would have been repurposing work that the other groups had done, but as they were basing nearly all their work on things we had done already there wasn’t a lot of repurposing we could do. I managed to use one story, which has since been removed from the site as it wasn’t really relevant to the overall theme.