Dream Machines

I think everyone is aware of so-called ‘convergent devices’: devices that provide functions (such as text, sound, moving image, net-enabled) that have previously only been available is separate units. A premium example is Microsoft’s upcoming Origami [see YouTube video]. I like the idea of a device that can do everything, but I don’t like the idea of a device that has a fixed shape and size. I don’t care if the screen is rotatable or reversable and I don’t care if a keyboard can fold out or not. I’m talking about the actual delivery device. There are times when I want to lie on a couch and watch a show on a big screen TV, times when I want to have a small device I can use as a phone, times when I want a couple of medium sized screens to work on, times I want a larger screen for presentations, times I just want a small radio, times when I want an unobtrusive screen while on a train. So, that is why the converged devices, that we are being offered at present, do not satisfy me. My dream machine is a device that is made of some flexible material, like a firm jelly, that I can manipulate to the shape I want. I can stretch it to a screen size that suits, and it sticks to walls. It can also shrink in my fist and stay small and compact. I want the feel of it to be changed from a luminous screen to paper and so on. That is my ultimate converged device. How long do the scientists need?

Since I’m on this soapbox I might as well add some other things I’d like to see happen sooner:

  • I want a light and/or tone to indicate on my TV when a show I like is on;
  • I want a light and/or tone to indicate on my TV when a recommendation for a TV show to watch from my mum comes through;
  • I want a website seen in a show or movie playing on my TV to automatically open up on my computer, inviting me to join in with what the characters are seeing and doing…

What do you want? What is your dream machine?

 

Attracting Audiences & Digital Storytelling

For those in Melbourne, Australia, next week, I’ll be co-presenting at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School seminar: The Business of Digital Distribution. I’ll be drawing the relationship between distribution and attracting audiences. The objectives of the event are:

  • analyse the benefits of new digital distribution models
  • develop strategies for incorporating digital distribution into their development and production models
  • determine the major trends happening in the digital distribution area
  • explore the possibilities for becoming more independent from expensive intermediaries in the traditional distribution chain

For those anywhere in the globe, here is my latest journalist publication: Your Story: Your Medium, published by RealTime. It is my coverage of the International Digital Storytelling Conference held at ACMI this year, and is available online and in print. The beginning of the article is not how I intended it… 😉

 

Another Cross Media Book!

Drew Davidson — who is a permanent resident on my blogroll, and alongside Monique De Haas, is one of the first cross-media researchers I met online all those years ago — is bringing out a book on designing cross media projects: Cross-Media Communications: an Introduction to the Creation of Integrated Media Experiences. Drew is academic department director at the Entertainment Technology Centre and Art Institute in Pittsburg; he is also co-facilitating the ACM Siggraph Sandbox Symposium that I’m meant to be writing for. But I might put that aside to spend time on my invited inclusion in Drew’s book. Yay! Monique will also be contributing, and many other cross-media luminaries around the globe. It is the first how-to book dedicated to cross-media production (not repurposing folks) of its kind in the English language (with Max’s book, Fare Cross-Media, that I’m also in, ;), being the first in Italian!). And of course, staying true to the cause, the book will be accompanied by a website & DVD with lots of juicy assests. Go Drew!