Sunday, April 24, 2005

Rogers Cadenhead: "I wasn't prepared to be famous for 24 hours, but now that my weblog traffic has subsided to normal levels, I can relate some of the experience." [Scripting News] 12:38:14 PM    comment []

ShoutSpace. A geographical messaging system for the EPFL community as a segway to an ontology of spatial communication "ShoutSpace enables users with WiFi mobile devices (PDAs and notebooks) to see their position on the EPFL campus and to leave messages to other users. The message is then dispayed on the map at a desired location. Multiple threads are displayed graphically with connections among the messages. The system is used as a testbed to understand the cognitive implications of providing spatial references into a simple text messaging system, and as a segway into a general study on the links of geographical attributes and cognition. Particularly we are interested in the interconnections of place and meaning, where location signify something to the content and where it is signified by the context." [ShoutSpace] by Fabien Girardin, Patrick Jermann, Mauro Cherubini [Smart Mobs] 12:37:52 PM    comment []

danger: linear reading. Ooh, Steven Johnson turns the traditional "we must read books" argument upside down in his forthcoming book, All Bad Things Are Good For You. Here’s an excerpt from his blog: Many children enjoy reading books, of course, and no doubt some of the flights of fancy conveyed by reading have their escapist merits. But for a sizable percentage of the population, books are downright discriminatory. The reading craze of recent years cruelly taunts the 10 million Americans who suffer from dyslexia—a condition didn’t even exist as a condition until printed text came along to stigmatize its sufferers. But perhaps the most dangerous property of these books is the fact that they follow a fixed linear path. You can’t control their narratives in any fashion—you simply sit back and have the story dictated to you. For those of us raised on interactive narratives, this property may seem astonishing. Why would anyone want to embark on an adventure utterly choreographed by another person? But today’s generation embarks on such adventures millions of times a day. This risks instilling a general passivity in our children, making them feel as though they’re powerless to change their circumstances. Reading is not an active, participatory process; it’s a submissive one. The book readers of the younger generation are learning to ‘follow the plot’ instead of learning to lead. Steven Johnson studied at Brown when Brown was the only university teaching hypertext and electronic literature, and his first book was Interface Culture, shows his knowledge of hypertext theory and literature. His more recent books are a little more mainstream (well, sort of) and I rather like this approach: simply take it for granted that your readers will agree that the current generation was raised on interactive narrative and that this will make them discontented with linear narratives that require their submission. It’s the exact opposite argument to that put forth in the NEA’s recent report on the supposed death of reading, or at least of print novel-reading. [jill/txt] 12:37:36 PM    comment []