Love this: Geographic Information Systems & Data Viz Help Scholars See History - NYTimes.com

Now historians have a new tool that can help. Advanced technology similar to Google Earth, MapQuest and the GPS systems used in millions of cars has made it possible to recreate a vanished landscape. This new generation of digital maps has given rise to an academic field known as spatial humanities. Historians, literary theorists, archaeologists and others are using Geographic Information Systems — software that displays and analyzes information related to a physical location — to re-examine real and fictional places like the villages around Salem, Mass., at the time of the witch trials; the Dust Bowl region devastated during the Great Depression; and the Eastcheap taverns where Shakespeare’s Falstaff and Prince Hal caroused.

Like the crew on the starship Enterprise, humanists are exploring a new frontier of the scholarly universe: space.

Mapping spatial information reveals part of human history that otherwise we couldn’t possibly know,” said Anne Kelly Knowles, a geographer at Middlebury College in Vermont. “It enables you to see patterns and information that are literally invisible.” It adds layers of information to a map that can be added or taken off at will in various combinations; the same location can also be viewed back and forth over time at the click of a mouse.

read the full article on the NY Times

Grazie Cody Shotwell for the Post! MediaShift Idea Lab . Prototypes, Visualizations Take Shape in Knight-Mozilla Learning Lab | PBS

So, as a tribute to the prototyping/brainstorming theme of the first week's lectures, here's a rundown of some prototypes and visualizations that emerged in the first "thinking out loud" blog assignment. Help grow the community by checking out these thought experiments, offering your feedback, or adding onto them with your own twist:

Youth Get Creative with Digital Storytelling Project | Good News Toronto (older story - bookmarking!)

2011-05-05

Luminato and Manifesto work with students in Regent Park and St. Jamestown to explore contemporary forms of storytelling, and create short film narratives to be screened as part of the Luminato Festival in June

The Luminato Festival happens once a year in Toronto for 10 very special days in June, filling our city’s streets with arts, culture, and creativity. Celebrating its fifth anniversary this upcoming June, Luminato will once again flood the downtown core with a wide range of cutting-edge, interdisciplinary arts experiences. Programming ranges everywhere from free outdoor music concerts, theatre world premiers, magic shows, movies, fashion, food, and much more — with new surprises each year to keep the Festival exciting. Luminato aims to provide something for everyone, but not just during those ten days in June. In fact, a lot goes on at Luminato during the pre-Festival season. The Luminato Education and Community Outreach department, led by Jessica Dargo Caplan, partners with a multitude of community organizations and offers free pre-Festival workshops for children and youth living in Regent Park, St. Jamestown, and Parkdale. These workshops are facilitated by local and international artists and aim to equip participants with unique arts experiences that tie directly to the Festival’s program; this year, Luminato is exploring the idea of adaptation and contemporary storytelling.

Selected youth participants from Pathways to Education and UforChange have been taking part in Luminato’s Youth Digital Storytelling Project. Participants have been working with world-renowned spoken-word artist, Boonaa Mohammed to learn the art and the technical craft of telling stories in new, innovative ways. Dubbed the “voice of a generation,” Boonaa is no stranger to workshop facilitation. He often conducts community writing workshops and seminars, and through his process helps youth discover and tell their own stories. “I’m not a fan of sideline education; I feel like people have to have a hands-on experience,” said Boonaa, who designed the interactive 10-week workshop program with the Luminato team and Manifesto Community Projects, a non-profit grassroots organization working to unite, energize, support, and celebrate Toronto’s vibrant and diverse music and arts community.

From the Big Screen to the Flat Screen (and vice versa) | Jinni Blog

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nice overview post!

The Smurfs movie is coming out in theaters this week joining a long line of TV series that were turned into movies (Transformers, The A-Team, Sex and the City) and vice versa (Nikita, Friday Night Lights, Are We There Yet?). So we’ve made a wish list of additional TV series we want to be turned into movies and movies we want to be made into TV series. Studio’s and networks, for your attention (and commission…):

Projector Films - DIY Twitter Movie - Kristi Barnett's advice if you want to do it.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Great Interview on ProjectorFilms blog with Kristi Barnett:

"How did you find the interactive element of the story? Did people get involved? Or were they passive?

It was great. I chose to make the interactivity simply people’s reactions to her tweets and their replies to her on twitter (and Facebook). I used my phone to reply back because I was normally away from my PC when the story was rolling out. I had females and males interacting and replying to her and loving the story. They were really getting into it and I could definitely see she had a core group of fans. What was interesting was that even when people knew she was a character and this was a story, they would still interact and try to warn her or ask her how she was feeling. I loved that people were “playing” along with it. You can see some of the reactions to the story and her character here. I also got the sense that people did want to have a say in what Karen did and how she reacted, so it would’ve been nice if I’d had more money and time to give them a chance to dictate the story more. I wanted to shoot alternative scenes with the actors and alternative endings. Then guide the audience into choosing what Karen and Darren should do via the tweets. Then based on the majority I would choose a scene. Like one of those “Pick a Path” books. I also thought about running another Twitter account from the perspective of Darren or even the Other Darren at the same time. My God, I don’t want to think how I would’ve made that happen, lol. ...."

Good Distinction: Transmedia vs Multi-screen Distractions - via Michael Matthews - The Mobile Culture - Forbes

Excerpt from Jul. 8 2011 post:

"...According to a Harris Interactive survey, 56 percent of Americans watching TV concurrently surf the Internet and 40 percent visit a social networking site. Thirty-seven percent of viewers are also busy texting on their mobile phones while the TV rumbles on.

Another study, put together by Room 214 and Crimson Hexagon, called Digital Shifts: How New Media is Changing TV, shows 52 percent of communication on Facebook from users watching TV offered facts like “I’m watching,” followed by the name of the program. It also shows 19 percent of studied viewers started conversations about the show. And when they do update their social media channels, the study showed Facebook encourages more conversation while Twitter serves more as a broadcast medium.

In a recent IPG Media Lab and YuMe study, it was stated that smart phones present a real threat to attention and is considered distraction media. The results concluded that smartphones accounted for 60 percent of TV distractions. The reason is mainly that marketers have been slow to embrace the opportunity of phones, among other devices, being used as a tool for supplemental or enhanced consumer engagement. When they do, these devices move from being a distraction to an opportunity...."

'How to Write A Transmedia Production Bible' (free!) by Gary Hayes via Screen Australia - Digital Resources

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From the site:

"Screen Australia has commissioned Gary P Hayes to write this resource as a best-practice guide to the thinking, planning, documentation and supporting materials required when developing a property across multiple platforms.

The guide is highly recommended reading for producers, in particular those planning a submission to the All Media Program or seeking multi-platform funding for digital extensions as part of an application for production investment in a film or TV project.

The bible that this document will guide you towards is not a production bible
in the traditional sense – a format document for franchising a TV property
into other markets – but rather a catch-all that covers key components of a
complex multi-platform service. Your bible may be extended to a full production reference document as the sections it contains become more detailed.

The Transmedia Production Bible is a document that captures key
story and design IP elements, rules of engagement, functionality and technical issues across multiple platforms, and provides an overview of the business/marketing plan. Each of the five main sections requires specialist members of the project team to be responsible for its development as the service goes from conception to production and the document becomes a fully detailed production bible."

Logic+Emotion: The Social Layer: Six Thoughts On Where Google Plus Is Going

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I've pulled David Armano's Six Thoughts - read the full post for details:

"I've been deeply immersed in Google Plus for the last week or so, not only following what's being said about the service but actually using it, kicking the tires and making observations along the way. For what it's worth, I think Google Plus has an incredible amount of potential for a number of reasons. Here's a few thoughts or more accurately opinions. Everyone has a take, so the only thing can offer here is that I've had these thoughts in my head while using the service but wanted to give it some time before putting it into writing.

1. Google Plus Isn't A Social Network, It's A Social Layer
2. Google Plus Isn't A Facebook Killer And Doesn't Need To Be
3. Journalists, Public Relations Professionals & The Media Will Eventually Flock To G+
4. Businesses With Employee "Ambassador" Models Will Activate & Deploy Them
5. Big And Small Business Gets A Second Chance With Google+
6. Google Will Bring Search & Social Together"

GLOBAL BEAT FUSION, the #transmedia experience by Spectral Alchemy — Kickstarter

"ABOUT THIS PROJECT

GlobalBeatFusion.com, Facebook.com/Global.Beat.Fusion, SpectralAlchemy.com

The Global Beat Fusion Project explores today's converging world culture through music. Based on Derek Beres’s 2005 book, Global Beat Fusion: The History of the Future of Music, the project travels to Brazil, India, Morocco, Romania, and across the US, talking with some of the most creative and loved musicians from each culture. Asking the artists why they make music, what that music means to them personally and collectively, and how collaborations between musicians from different parts of the world bring humanity closer together.

Thematically, Global Beat Fusion suggests that by listening to a culture’s music you gain direct access to the soul of that culture. We tend to learn about other nations predominantly through major media sources, which tend to focus more on tragedies in those countries through an almost exclusively comparative lens. While politics, social philosophy, and religious ideology must be considered, the heart of a culture resides in its arts. Global Beat Fusion gets to the heart of the matter.

Another important theme looks at the computer as the world’s first global folk instrument. Never before have human beings around the globe created, distributed, and shared music on the same instrument. Considered commonplace today, from a sociological and mythological perspective, the speed and ease of technology offers a fresh and innovative trend, and has extensive consequences for how we communicate and relate to one another as a people.

We plan to produce a feature documentary, but more importantly, build a transmedia portal for international music that continually offers new videos, music and news. Global Beat Fusion’s transmedia experience utilizes traditional motion pictures, print/eBooks, the Internet and the physical world of music events/performances. We’d like to share our process and journey with our audience along the way, and create a strong, active community that thrives in the future...."