Join In! A Tale to Tell: an illustrated, collaborative storytelling project with new authors & illustrators every week

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A Tale to Tell is an illustrated, collaborative storytelling project where each week a new illustrator/artist will be invited to submit the next part of the story, with a text entry and an illustration to accompany it. Each artist responds to the story as it was left by the previous, taking the story wherever they wish and leaving it open for the next person to continue! Creating an elaborate, imaginative tale from the minds of some of the most creative people around....

do I LOVE her??? Björk's Biophilia Album to be Released as 10 iPad Apps! Scott Snibbe Producing! WOW!. Via The Guardian

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For Björk, technology, nature and art have always been inextricably linked. "In Iceland, everything revolves around nature, 24 hours a day," she told Oor magazine in 1997. "Earthquakes, snowstorms, rain, ice, volcanic eruptions, geysers … very elementary and uncontrollable. But on the other hand, Iceland is incredibly modern; everything is hi-tech." The Modern Things, a track from 1995's Post, playfully posits the theory that technology has always existed, waiting in mountains for humans to catch up. In fact, Björk has always seemed like an artist who's been waiting for technology to catch up with her. Finally, it seems to have done so.

When Apple announced details of its iPad early last year, it acted as a catalyst for what would become Biophilia, Björk's seventh and most elaborate album, the title of which means "love of life or living systems". Along with a conventional album release, complete with music videos – at least one of which has been directed by Eternal Sunshine's Michel Gondry – Biophilia will also be released as an "app album" and premiered as a multimedia live extravaganza at MIF.

Biophilia for iPad will include around 10 separate apps, all housed within one "mother" app. Each of the smaller apps will relate to a different track from the album, allowing people to explore and interact with the song's themes or even make a completely new version. It will also be an evolving entity that will grow as and when the album's release schedule dictates, with new elements added. Scott Snibbe, an interactive artist who was commissioned by Björk last summer to produce the app, as well as the images for the live shows (which will combine his visuals with National Geographic imagery, mixed live from iPads on the stage), describes how Björk saw the possibilities of using apps, not as separate to the music, but as a vital component of the whole project. "Björk's put herself way at the forefront here by saying, 'We'll release this album and these apps at the same time and they're all part of the same story.' The app is an expression of the music, the story and the idea."

For one song, Virus, the app will feature a close-up study of cells being attacked by a virus to represent what Snibbe calls: "A kind of a love story between a virus and a cell. And of course the virus loves the cell so much that it destroys it." The interactive game challenges the user to halt the attack of the virus, although the result is that the song will stop if you succeed. In order to hear the rest of the song, you have to let the virus take its course. Using some artistic license, the cells will also mouth along to the chorus. It's this determination to fuse different elements together – be it juxtaposing a female choir from Greenland with the bleeps and glitches of electronic music pioneers Matmos during the Vespertine tour, or meshing soaring strings and jagged beats on the Homogenic album – that helps explain the power and success of Björk's collaborations.....

Must Read: Little Bets, How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries @rosspruden

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by Erick Schonfeld

Apr 18, 2011

"Google, Pixar, Twitter. All of them started as side projects or experiments which only later turned into big ideas. In a world of lean startups, the mantra is to get a product out there in the hands of consumers and keep making changes until something clicks. TechCrunch contributor Peter Sims (@petersims) has a new book out hat explains why little bets are more likely to lead to big ideas than big bets. It is called, appropriately enough, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries, and it is just hitting Amazon and the book stores this week.

Sims, who is a recovering venture capitalist, recently offered TechCrunch readers a preview of his thinking in a guest post which turned out to be very popular. He wrote:

The truth is, most entrepreneurs launch their companies without an brilliant idea and proceed to discover one, or if they do start with what they think is a superb idea, they quickly discover that it’s flawed and then rapidly adapt...."

USA Creates A New #Multiplatform ‘Social’ Storytelling Initiative For Smash Hit Series “Covert Affairs” | TVbytheNumbers

via TVbytheNumbers

USA CREATES A NEW MULTIPLATFORM ‘SOCIAL’ STORYTELLING INITIATIVE FOR SMASH HIT SERIES “COVERT AFFAIRS”

Highly Interactive Six-Week Digital Episode Features Extensive Original Content

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 2, 2011 USA Network today announced the launch of the COVERT AFFAIRS Tweetcast: Mission Budapest, an interactive, multiplatform digital narrative designed to enrich the Covert Affairs audience experience and offer fans an exclusive, expanded look into the inner workings of the CIA. Developed by the creators and writers behind the series, the Tweetcast will star COVERT AFFAIRS’ Christopher Gorham as Auggie Anderson, and will unfold over six weeks in real-time on TWEETCAST.USANETWORK.COM and via the COVERT AFFAIRS series Facebook page. By harnessing the power of social media, the episodic adventure will create a unique ongoing storytelling experience through daily tweets, original videos, photos, audio streams, and classified documents. In addition to an engaging storyline, the new media platform will provide unprecedented interactivity opportunities, offering fans the unique ability to influence the mission and weigh in on the final resolution of the story, which will be unveiled during the third all-new episode of COVERT AFFAIRS on Tuesday, July 12.

 

“At USA, we are always looking for innovative ways to engage audiences and expand the series’ narrative beyond the weekly telecast,” said Alexandra Shapiro, senior vice president brand marketing and digital for USA. “We believe the social landscape is the new frontier in storytelling and offers unlimited possibilities for creating organic and complimentary extensions to our hit franchises.”

 

The Tweetcast will immerse fans in the world of COVERT AFFAIRS by centering on CIA Tech Operative-In-Charge Auggie (Christopher Gorham), offering a glimpse into what he does when he’s not “running” Annie Walker. The story will center on Auggie’s management of CIA operatives on a top-secret mission in Budapest, Hungary. When a simple intelligence-gathering exercise hits a dangerous snag, the assignment becomes a complex, high-stakes mission. As the story proceeds, audiences will get a taste of spycraft and will be given the opportunity to participate in the action by retweeting and responding to specific story points.

 

This project was a perfect opportunity to dive even deeper into the world of COVERT AFFAIRS and provide fans with an experience that puts them right in the center of the action” said executive producer Doug Liman.  “I always strive to create immersive stories, and with this Tweetcast we were able to push that concept in a new direction by creating an experience that allows the player to not just watch the story unfold, but actually shape it.”

read the full post:

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com

Great Post from Scott Walker on Co-Creating Value with Customers | Digital Book World

By Scott Walker, President, Brain Candy, LLC

Multimedia. Crossmedia. Social media. Transmedia.

Our increasingly mediated world is playing havoc with the old analog rules but has yet to fully reveal the new digital ones. Digital piracy and changing consumer behaviors aren’t helping as companies attempt to construct long-term strategy with limited short-term visibility. Having seen the music and movie industries struggle (and ultimately fail) to cope with disintermediation (cutting out the “middle man,” so to speak), e-piracy, and shifts in consumer expectations, how can publishers negotiate their way to new revenue streams without sacrificing existing ones?

The good news, in my humble opinion, is there’s more than one answer to that question. Some are already here, while others have yet to be discovered, but the answers are emerging.

Here’s the bad news: the way forward isn’t going to be a one-size-fits-all silver bullet. Publishers – indeed, writers and agents, too – have multiple challenges facing them today. Further, solutions will require time to identify and implement them and even more time to have their benefits realized.

Over a series of posts, I’m going to explore one of those opportunities to create new, long-term, and sometimes sustainable revenue streams: value co-creation with customers.

read the full post:

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2011/co-creating-value-with-customers/