Ten Things I Hate About 303 (Not Really)

1. First, I was nervous about the transmedia narratives. I didn't exactly know what I was getting myself into by taking this class. It was hard for me to get into at first, but I'm glad now that I took it.
2. I love the flexibility of the course.
3. I enjoyed being able to control what our projects were about.
4. I'm not generally a people-person, so when it comes to group work I don't typically enjoy it. The other members are either overly-passionate or just passionless. However, getting the chance to work with the other members and bouncing my ideas off of the others was ultimately refreshing. It was nice to discuss homework and actually enjoy it.
5. The information given about the Story Bibles was extremely helpful. While the idea itself is sort of a duh moment, the suggest to make it more professional and extremely detailed will be something put to great use in the future.
6. I enjoyed working with a blog. It was a break from the usual turn-in-your-essay-by-the-due-date I had anticipated. It was also interesting getting to work with all of the pieces.
7. inDesign was very detailed, and I'm confident that I will be using this in the future. I wasn't aware that you could do that much with the program. This class was more helpful in teaching inDesign than my journalism classes have been thus far.
8. While the idea of collaborating with the CAC members seemed interesting, it was ultimately disappointing. They didn't seem as enthusiastic as I was and it was difficult to get in contact with them.
9. I enjoyed the feedback given in this class. Whether it was by my fellow classmates or the professor, it was helpful to hear what I could do to improve without it sounding like an attack.
10. The relaxed nature of the presentations made it easier to present. I has, perhaps, made me more confident for future presentations.

Jenik and Lewison

Before we get started, here are some useful links:
The Official SPECFLIC Website
SPECFLIC Schematic
PDF of the Essay
SPECFLIC 2.0 Video

Moving in Place: The Question of Distributed 

Social Media

This essay was centered around an exchange between Adriene Jenik, the director and creator of SPECFLIC and Sarah Lewison, and observer and participant of the production.

SPECFLIC 2.0 is an ongoing creative research project in a new storytelling form called distributive social cinema. It was a production integrating pre-recorded and live performance with audience interaction. The event, which took place at the Martin Luther King Jr. branch of the San Jose Public Library, encouraged all forms of technology in experiencing this high-tech futuristic world.

SPECFLIC has two versions, 1.0 and 2.0. With the interaction between Jenik and Lewison took place after the 2.0 production, the majority of the information given deals with the aforementioned version.

Version 2.0 is a researched-backed speculation of the near future of books, written word and public library.

SPECFLIC takes place in 2030, where hardcopy books are considered a “special collection” and the majority of them are housed in the public library. The library itself has become something of a relic in this futuristic world, as its purpose is served something of a museum.

Because books are essentially a thing of the past in 2030, books aren’t generally read cover-to-cover, but instead the pieces needed are extracted using the InfoSpherian.  

The InfoSpherian is the 2030 equivalent of the information or reference desk librarian. The primary function of the infospherian is overseeing the issuing and enforcing or reading licenses to the public. Upon accepting a request from the public, the infospherian sends the searcher to find the ‘book object.’

Reading Licenses are issued to the public in order for them to access various tiers of knowledge.

The Searcher is one of the few library functionaries permitted in the interior of the library. When the infospherian accepts a request from the public, it is the searcher’s task to locate the hard copy of the book in question. When the request for the book has been fulfilled, it is then the stacker’s duty to reshelf the books.

The Stacker is another library functionary allowed within the interior of the library. When the request for the book has been fulfilled, it is the stacker’s duty to reshelf the books. As such, the stacker is often seen shadowing the searcher to reshelf the books.

A small working piece within this futuristic world is the Foolbook and her dog, both whom can be found wandering aimlessly within the library passing out chapbooks and spouting incantations to any who listen.

Other pieces detrimental to the understanding of this futuristic world are vaguely outlined. For example, this future is the outcome of the Great Silverfish Attack of 2012, a fictional point of history that made books somewhat of a relic with the advent of eBooks.

The Software Protection Authority can be best explained as Jenik’s vision of digital rights as libraries move away from their “historical role in defending ‘free open access to knowledge.’” Many libraries  are in the process of instituting tiered access to information. The Software Protection Authority essentially keeps the tiers in check by use of reading licenses.

The Sousveillance Grid serves the Software Protection Authority as a ‘most wanted’ grid. The authority encouraged the public to snapCapture images of public they suspect is in violation of their reading license.

The Black Market, although many have a basic concept for what it is, serves as an alternate means of gathering books and information, illegally. Those suspected of being in possession of a black market item are found by the authority. 

Questions:
1. SPECFLIC was a production that had many working parts. With this model in mind, how could we have used this to better prepare for our presentations on first friday?
2. While SPECFLIC is an interesting, indepth project, several of it's pieces lacked definition, i.e., what the Silverfish Attack of 2012 was. Is there anything in our own stories that should be better defined?
3. This futuristic world is research-backed, so it's possible that some form of this could be our future. Do you think this is plausible? Do you think that multimedia works are more attention-grabbing with plausibility or without? What could we do to make out stories more plausible, if not already? 

A. Cass Remainder

Agnes is established as both a student at WVU and also a contributing member of MAPI. While the Group has yet to make much progress together, there has been a concrete layout of how the group will progress from there.
As far as the type of person Agnes is becoming, she's maintained a level of animosity about her mother and also her past. While this pay prove annoying to anyone reading the blog ("Just tell us the secret already!") I believe that secrecy has been a large part of Agnes's life thus far. She tries to come off as the type that distances herself from being part of the larger picture, but she secretly pines for the attention that her roommate receives.
I believe the best way to portray this would be to create a fake twitter/facebook where it would be easier to flesh out her mindset. It would also be easier to include pictures of things she's seen, places she's been, and even her sense of humor through memes and such.
Also, Agnes may prove to be useful as the obnoxious member of MAPI that records everything. While this may require effort, it might work to have a "visual" account of what happened on the night that the members dropped off the face of their world. I suppose it might be useful to collaborate with the CAC students to piece together a video clip(s?) of this.
As far as another public display is concerned, the extravagant option would be to plan a bonfire at the place where the MAPI group's demise was met.

Where is Agnes?

   Agnes, the 18-year-old WVU student has been tentatively mapped out thus far. She has a rough in to MAPI and definitely a strong reason for wanting to be part of the organization. However, I am still unsure of a few character traits of hers. This kind of keeps me weary to do any lengthy blog posts in her  POV.
   I am debating switching the dorm that she lives in from Dadisman to Boreman, simply because Boreman seems to have more potential for a haunting scenario.
   I also plan on having her mother make an appearance at some point, simply because Liz is a large part of Agnes's interest in the paranormal and having Liz be an actual character would be an asset.
   I'm also concerned with whether to make her a people person or not. The name Agnes scream socially awkward to me, but I imagine her with dirty blond hair and dull blue eyes which typically convey a more personable character. I suppose the middle ground would be to have her make a small group of misfit friends.
 

CGTS Top Ten

The following are the top ten ideas that I pulled from CGTS: 

1.      Organization – Organization is key in a transmedia narrative because there are so many different elements to it (fake e-mail, blog, twitter account). Organization is essential helping the group run smoothly.

2.      Story Bibles – A story bible is a way to put all of the elements and ideas of the narrative in one easy-to-access place. This will be useful within groups to keep everything running as smoothly an canon as possible.  

3.      Keeping a Strong Core Team – Keeping a strong core team is extremely important with transmedia because this is essentially several small projects rolled into the bigger picture. It’s important to keep everyone involved on the same page.

4.      Communication – Communication is partly a spin-off of keeping a strong core team, as communication is a big part of keeping things running smoothly. However, communication between group members is something that should be stressed.

5.      Web Design – The point of transmedia is to make things as real as possible. While the story itself needs to be a canon and smooth as possible, the web design itself is just as important. If someone were to stroll onto the group page and it wasn't well-designed and overall just a shoddy job, it wouldn't keep the person’s interest.

6.      Conveying Dialogue Online – Reading this piece was useful because at first I was confused on how to get the character to interact online. This section will prove to be beyond useful.

7.      Engage Audience – Engaging the audience is important and will be taken under consideration within the group.

8.      Worldbuilding – Set dressing is also important. If it’s a story taking place at a beach, one would expect to see elements of the woods or the desert. Also take under consideration the types of cars you would find at a beach.

9.      Characterization – In an effort to further flesh out the characters, one must consider the less obvious questions about aforementioned character. However, obvious questions (what type of clothing does s/he wear?) should be thought of too.

10.  Use Physical Artifacts… with caution – Using physical artifacts is a great way to keep your audience involved. However, keep in mind that certain artifacts, such as a telephone may have a limited use. For example, a telephone may only have one line and with several users calling, they may get a busy signal. 

CGTS Chapters 11-16

Transmedia storytelling is a relatively new concept to me. Of course I'm aware of several examples (Star Wars and Star Trek) but I'm new on the authoring bit. While I'm both nervous and excited about this project, I do admit that reading CGTS will help to essentially create the interweaving stories.
While reading through the assigned chapters I marked a few suggestions for later use.
"Cross-link heavily. This should be a no-brainer, but it's very easy to overlook." (CGTS p. 106). I found the suggestion to provide links to various medias relating to the project in one place helpful for not only the audience but also for the author's use.
"The purpose of a story bible is to make sure that teams of creators who may not get to communicate with each other directly are nonetheless on the same page." The idea of a story bible is almost essential for any sort of writing. It includes anything pertaining to the story: characters, plot, place descriptions, and anything else pertinent to making the world as realistic as possible. This is also important because its something to refer back to when you forget pieces of the story and also prevents any differing details.
There were several other suggestions throughout, however, these are the ones I feel that we should be utilizing the most.

Jane McGonigal uses a startling storytelling approach to her book "Reality is Broken" and this technique is obvious throughout the pages. She utilizes this narrative type approach to suggest implementing games into reality. While at first this notion seems interesting - and even cool, but as the narrative transgresses she makes claims about reality being "lonely and isolating".
Further, she suggests several ways to bring gaming into life to make reality more livable.
"Quest to Learn - And Why our Schools Should Work More Like a Game." With this claim she discusses a school that uses a method not unlike a treasure hunt to get kids into learning.
"Compared with Games, reality is pointless and unrewarding. Games help us feel more rewarded by making our best effort." McGonigal claims that playing interactive games help time pass by and again, make reality more livable. In this she uses an airport scenario that utilizes an app that allows the player to be a security guard checking luggage to pass the time.
"Compared with games, reality is lonely and isolating. Games help us band together and create more powerful communities from scratch." In this claim she suggests that people can use interactive games to become more connected with other people.
McGonigal's theory is interesting but honestly, I don't think I could live in a world where my peers are any more locked into a cyber world than they already are. I don't think this could ever be realistic.