STORYCODE AND “GAME OF THRONES”- Steve Coulson Gives Deets on the Campfire Campaign| The Filmmaker Magazine Blog

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By Randy Astle in News
on Friday, January 27th, 2012

Excerpt:

"...All of this greatly expanded HBO’s audience for the new season, which reached 8.7 million viewers, and along the way hardcore fans were also offered a series of puzzles, embedded in each phase, that allowed them to advance along the “Maester’s Path” and unlock footage from the shows. The site is still live at http://themaesterspath.com and is well worth exploring. Social media was included throughout the campaign, and one important component of mastering the Maester’s Path was recruiting five other users.

Along the way Coulson learned several lessons he shared with us. Some include:

* In an increasingly digital world, physical objects can surprise and delight.

* Nothing creates story more evocatively than great actors.

* When world-building, define the experience as a story and you will find the story in the experience.

* Use live events to congregate communities.

* Use the community you’ve created to reach out and expand the community; deputize them by allowing them a creative role.

* Be like “old Lego,” which let users determine what to create out of their blocks, rather than “new Lego,” which predetermines what each set is designed to build. Create the materials and give users free range.

And finally:

* Everything you need to know about marketing you can learn from magicians, the technique they use to tell a story/perform a trick...."

Read the full post here for more details:

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/news/2012/01/storycode-and-game-of-thrones/

Facebook and Transmediale - your face is ours - Art Projects Critique Social Networks | 2010LAB

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Excerpt from:

http://www.2010lab.tv/en/video/facebook-and-transmediale-your-face-ours

"...Online identities and social structures

But Facebook has also considerable downsides: the danger of abuse of power, be it in the area of data protection or be it regarding manipulation attempts, is immanent – there is a lot of discussion about it.

At the Transmediale, the artists Heath Bunting, Tobias Leingruber, Ursula Endlicher, and Christin Lahr have a critical look on Facebook, raising questions regarding our online identity, our motivation, and a changing social structure. Allen Gunn deliberately doesn’t provide real data to social networks. Kristoffer Gansing, the future artistic director of the Transmediale, deliberately has no Facebook profile at all.

Media critic Alessandro Ludovico has approximately 800 friends on Facebook. For him, it is crucial how much you can control your data in the future – his art project Face to Facebook is based on 1 million stolen Facebook profiles… Let's have a party!..."

The Top 10 Smart Cities On The Planet: Toronto is #2! | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

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Read the full top 10 list here:

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679127/the-top-10-smart-cities-on-the-planet

"2.) Toronto. The highest rated smart city in North America, Toronto also scores pretty well across the board. Recognizing its importance in the movement, IBM recently opened a Business Analytics Solutions Center in Toronto. Toronto is also an active member of the Clinton 40 (C40) megacities, which seek to transition to the low-carbon economy. The private sector in Toronto is collaborating too, creating a Smart Commute Toronto initiative in the hopes of increasing transit efficiency in the metro area. Toronto also recently began using natural gas from landfills to power the city’s garbage trucks. That’s smart closed-loop thinking..."

Love it! MakerBot Replicator!: The Pirate Bay file-sharing site offers 3D printing with Physibles!

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Excerpt:

post by: Jacob Aron, technology reporter

"The MakerBot Replicator is the kind of personal 3D printer that could help with the Pirate Bay's plans (Image: MakerBot Industries)

The Pirate Bay, one of the internet's most well-known sites for downloading copyrighted material such as music, films and ebooks, has launched a new category of digital downloads: physical objects.

"Writing on the site's blog, a Pirate Bayer calling himself WinstonQ2038 explained the thinking behind the new category: "We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical."

"...Objects currently listed in the Physibles category include a 3D version of the Pirate Bay logo, a toy race car and a model robot. The latter two are potentially infringing versions of existing designs, but WinstonQ2038 claims the site has more egalitarian aims: "The benefit to society is huge. No more shipping huge amount of products around the world. No more shipping the broken products back. No more child labour. We'll be able to print food for hungry people...."

Read the full post from the newscientist.com here:

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/01/filesharing-site-serves-...

Get set for shakeup in big TV packages, Cogeco says | FP Tech Desk | Excerpt via Financial Post

By Jamie Sturgeon Jan 26, 2012 – 6:47 PM ET

"...The challenge the $8.1-billion industry must master is in creating the right mix of product and price to protect the comfortable margins the old model has produced.

“What’s going to happen is that everyone, every distributor, will gradually move to smaller-sized packages,” Louis Audet, chief executive of Cogeco Cable Inc., said Thursday on a first-quarter earnings call. “The art will be in pricing and offering these packages in such a way that we maintain or enhance our revenue.”

Erosion in the existing model doesn’t appear imminent. Montreal-based Cogeco, the fourth-largest cable provider in the country, reported better-than-expected subscriber additions to its premium digital television service while also posting gains in basic cable. Indeed, asked by one analyst whether the company saw any downsizing of packages by customers who may be augmenting television viewing by going online — called “cord-shaving” as opposed to “cord-cutting” — Mr. Audet said no. “We don’t see that right now.”
But trends are undoubtedly changing. Rate increases have hummed along for the past decade, up another 6% to an average $59.73/month in 2010, according to the latest data from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Consumers have begun seeking refuge, some through regulatory complaints others via new Web alternatives...."

This is a very Trippy Site. What IS This???: virtual destination - Web of Fate | Prediction

  • Prediction

    Share your perspectives of the future

virtual destination

  • Will take place on January 01, 2095
  • Predicted on March 31, 2008
  • Countdown 83 Years Left
  • Votes 2
  • Chance 50.0 %
  • Influence 47

Dreamt of flying to Switzerland, but cannot afford the trip? You can take in the sights, smell and feel of Switzerland, by just sitting right in your bedroom! Towards the end of the 21st century, virtual travel will be set up on your home theatre. When you switch on the home theatre, you get a battery of destinations to choose from. From the Alps to the Andes, from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean, from Japan to Canada, you can choose to be anywhere.

Suppose you choose to visit Amsterdam in spring, and you press the button, your walls will be filled with bright red and yellow tulips, with windmills and you will get to feel the breeze too. And if you want to go swimming or sun-bathe in the beaches of Florida, all you got to do is press the button and yes, your room will have a roaring ocean plus the sun and sand! After your tan, just switch it off and opt for another destination.
If India is where you want to go, you can feel the walls of the ancient Khajuraho temples or take in the beauty of the Taj on a moon-lit night.

Where

home LAT: 9.50 LONG: 2.25 RADIUS: 248

Semantic Analysis

home theatre, india

What is this? I'm on the site poking around....

Fab New Post on Henry Jenkins Blog: On Transmedia and Education: A Conversation With Robot Heart Stories' Jen Begeal and Inanimate Alice's Laura Fleming (Part One)

On Transmedia and Education: A Conversation With Robot Heart Stories' Jen Begeal and Inanimate Alice's Laura Fleming (Part One)

This week, I want to showcase two innovative projects which seek to explore the intersections between transmedia storytelling, participatory culture, and education -- Robot Heart Stories and Inanimate Alice. Here's some background on the two projects, taken from their respective home pages:

Robot Hearts Stories is an experiential learning project that uses collaboration and creative problem solving to put education directly in the hands of students. This fall, two classrooms, a continent apart, will work together to get a lost robot home, and they will need your help... The experience begins when a robot crash lands in Montreal and must make her way to LA in order to find her space craft and return home. Two class rooms in underprivileged neighborhoods, one in Montreal (French speaking) and the other in LA (English speaking), will use math, science, history, geography and creative writing to help the robot make her way across North America. At the same time, Robot Hearts Stories extends beyond the classroom, as the project welcomes involvement from a global audience. We need participants of all ages to share their own passions in the form of a creative act involving a robot they can print, customize and document. For each photo or piece of art featuring the robot that is submitted, the "signal strength" of the robot grows stronger and helps her to get back home. Robot Heart Stories is the first in a trilogy of experiential learning projects from award winning storytelling pioneer Lance Weiler and creative producer Janine Saunders.


Robot Heart Stories from WorkBook Project on Vimeo.

Read the full interview here & watch for Part 2!:

http://henryjenkins.org/2012/01/on_transmedia_and_education.html