News from Adrian’s blog is that Sean Cubitt has a blog. Now, Sean’s writing is not for the faint at heart but for the strong of mind. Eg:
The multidimensional mysteries facing the analyst of light in the early 21st century are neither more nor less characteristic of our times than the explorations of Groseteste or the indications of Newton were to theirs. The answer, the first part of the answer, to the question “What is Light?” is “Light has a history”, not only as practice, nor even as an experience, but as an idea. Informing and informed by technologies and techniques, evidence and sensation, light changes. [Light 2]
I’d like to just take a moment and share with you what it is like being in industry and academia. This post is actually in response to Monique’s comment yesterday:
Hi Christy,
Ah the terming debate… sigh.
Now, what Monique is referring to is my recent rantings about terminology on this blog. I highlight it because it may just be indicative of many of my industry readers. I find it interesting because I also have academic readers who I’m sure “sigh” at my posts about marketing and my lack of theoretical debate. You see, I work in industry and academia and both of them speak different languages.
Industry isn’t concerned with discussions about terms or antecedents. If a term is introduced or claimed (eg: ‘mobisodes’ or ‘360’) it is to draw attention to the person or company touting it. A term helps create a product that can be exchanged for monetary value. They’re focused on the present, but more so the future. Industry is interested in the latest and next trend. It is about being economically viable, and that means products are marketed as being the first. Industry rarely refers to its predecessors and always claims it is the future. Industry is never unsure, it champions definitive cause-and-effect solutions only.
Academia is concerned with how the present and past shapes the present and, at times, the future. Academia looks at phenomena in the present and wants to find its heritage. It presumes there is never a first. Terms are introduced to delineate the object of study from other things. They describe a specificity. A term can be exchanged for monetary value (it is an IP business), but the aim is to draw attention to the object it describes rather than the person describing it. Terms represent theories, ways of seeing things. When discussing a way of seeing a thing, an academic has to know the conversation that has been going on for decades about it. It is always referring to its predecessors. Academia is always unsure, it champions sound inquiry only.
It is hoped that with these sweeping generalisations I have communicated the conflict of interest of I have when writing for this blog. I have purposely made this blog as accessible as possible but I am not a neutral reporter of projects. I am an academic and creator, who has opinions and a way of seeing things. This means that I’ll talk about things that won’t interest all of you all of the time. I have hardly any theoretical debate on this blog (because of plagiarism concerns) but I will be including more as I move into the final stages of my PhD land. I may be moving my theory stuff to another blog but that won’t be for a while. In the meantime, you’ll just have to grin and bear it. Or start your own blog that discusses things in an industry- or academia-only manner. But please, be aware that this is a shared space. So, academics and industry people, be tolerant of each other. And for those of you that are both…we can share war stories some time.
Tejpaul Bhatia, the founder of Tej Media Networks & senior manager of international business strategy for ESPN New Media, was recently interviewed on Kevin Roberts site SISOMO about “multi-platform storytelling”.
Multi-platform story-telling requires story-teller’s to think on multiple levels and in multiple dimensions. The audience is no longer in one place and no longer on a single device for a scheduled period of time. These additional layers and moving parts require quite a bit of effort on the story-teller’s part. The story-teller is no longer just a writer. She is a writer, a producer, an architect, a metadata specialist, a marketing exec, a business person, and a user experience professional.
Hey, now that sounds good. But then Tejpaul answers a question about whether formats will change with multiplatform delivery (“‘delivery?” I ask myself and then read on):