An organization of experienced interactive media professionals has launched a new group - Story Labs - to help writers, designers, and producers learn new story telling techniques for interactive, experiential multimedia.
As a writer who has worked in this medium and taught creative writing, I can tell you that there is a delicate balance between creating a linear narrative (which is what's essential to the illusion of a story) and involving the audience and multi-media materials into a non-linear interactive form. There are useful lessons for those who are working to develop this new story-telling form.
I'd be very curious to see what this group comes up with. We're only at the beginnings of this new medium.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Hybrid Media: How Traditional Media Innovates In a Social Media World
As social media jumps to the top of Americans online media habits, it's no wonder that traditional media creators and marketers are wondering how to participate. The question that publishers, traditional marketers, and broadcasters are asking: how does one-way media fit into a two-way social conversation? In a world of user-generated content and a mass of free content online, how does curated content play...and pay?
These are not easy questions to answer, but the insights of the open innovation movement do offer one perspective. Social media is not simply a place for readers and viewers to talk to each other about their favorite books and shows. Social media is a key element of the innovation pipeline. For media professionals this means learning how to tap into social media to create new media...or hybrid media: media developed by publishers and producers from consumer and fan insights.
Till now, experiments in this realm have included reader-generated endings as a marketing promotion, or the Demand Media model of crowdsourcing journalism or other types of content as a new business model. But hybrid media asks for something different: for media companies to bring readers and viewers into the editorial development process (which in media companies is the equivalent of product development for consumer products).
How does this work? Well, differently for different media, of course (fiction is very different from non-fiction, and television different from print). But the essence is this: use social media to gather feedback on the latest product (book, article, TV show, movie). Respond and test new ideas. Gather key insights. Invoke insights into your next project. Rinse and repeat.
Studios have been conducting focus group tests for ages...and certainly, there is a hazard in "focus-testing" a story to death. As even Jeff Howe admits, art does not lend itself well to being designed by a crowd. But understanding the psychology of your readers and viewers is a great gift for any artist. As reader-response theory would suggest, the more we understand how readers respond to what writers create, the more insight we have into the meaning of the work (and therefore, the more meaning a writer could theoretically introduce for her readers).
The same is even more true in the non-fiction world, where information is only valuable if it is of value to the reader or user. Better understanding the how your readers and viewers have reacted to and used your book, magazine, or television show will allow you to produce a new one with even more utility. Which style of gardening tips are the most practical - or popular - with today's busy weekend gardeners? What aspects of electron microscopy is of the most interest to the research community today?
Producers who have gone online have realized that social media such as online communities, micro-blogs, and content sharing tools are particularly adept at helping editors and producers gather feedback and data on what their audience is responding to. Even when users aren't directly commenting on stories, there is data in weblogs on which stories are most popular, how much time users spend on them, and where they go next. Online editors mine this information and tailor their content to take advantage of the trends they see.
The same insights can be used by producers of offline media, once they are able to figure out how to connect the digital social world with their eBook or iPad videos. All editors and producers should be starting to plan now for gathering the types of consumer-driven insights and analytics that digital content creators have been studying for years. The best way to do that is to start using social media not only for marketing chatter, but for real editorial conversations with your readers and viewers.
Images: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Till now, experiments in this realm have included reader-generated endings as a marketing promotion, or the Demand Media model of crowdsourcing journalism or other types of content as a new business model. But hybrid media asks for something different: for media companies to bring readers and viewers into the editorial development process (which in media companies is the equivalent of product development for consumer products).
How does this work? Well, differently for different media, of course (fiction is very different from non-fiction, and television different from print). But the essence is this: use social media to gather feedback on the latest product (book, article, TV show, movie). Respond and test new ideas. Gather key insights. Invoke insights into your next project. Rinse and repeat.
Studios have been conducting focus group tests for ages...and certainly, there is a hazard in "focus-testing" a story to death. As even Jeff Howe admits, art does not lend itself well to being designed by a crowd. But understanding the psychology of your readers and viewers is a great gift for any artist. As reader-response theory would suggest, the more we understand how readers respond to what writers create, the more insight we have into the meaning of the work (and therefore, the more meaning a writer could theoretically introduce for her readers).
The same is even more true in the non-fiction world, where information is only valuable if it is of value to the reader or user. Better understanding the how your readers and viewers have reacted to and used your book, magazine, or television show will allow you to produce a new one with even more utility. Which style of gardening tips are the most practical - or popular - with today's busy weekend gardeners? What aspects of electron microscopy is of the most interest to the research community today?
Producers who have gone online have realized that social media such as online communities, micro-blogs, and content sharing tools are particularly adept at helping editors and producers gather feedback and data on what their audience is responding to. Even when users aren't directly commenting on stories, there is data in weblogs on which stories are most popular, how much time users spend on them, and where they go next. Online editors mine this information and tailor their content to take advantage of the trends they see.
Images: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
New Media Innovation: Digital Media, Social Marketing, Open Innovation, and More
Welcome to "New Media Innovation," my new blog about innovations in the digital media space. We'll be covering subjects related to digital marketing, open innovation, customer-centric innovation, digital media, electronic publishing, new media, and technology.
About me: I'm Director of eBusiness Development at Wiley Global Finance, an international publishing unit that's part of John Wiley & Sons, a 203 year old publisher, where my job is to help lead our business into the new media economy. I've been on the forefront of digital media in New York's Silicon Alley since 1994, and have been involved with the first online shopping network, the first interactive video broadband channel, and many other developments in new media. Please follow me on Twitter.
I recently started teaching a class on Digital Innovation in Rutgers Mini-MBA Digital Marketing program (recently reviewed in the New York Times). "New Media Innovation" is where you can find my thoughts on the latest innovations in digital media and innovation.
I'll also be leading a panel on "the book and magazine as experience" at the upcoming Digital Hollywood New York, November 10th, 2010, which will include Ellie Hirschhorn, EVP and Chief Digital Officer of Simon and Schuster Digital.
About me: I'm Director of eBusiness Development at Wiley Global Finance, an international publishing unit that's part of John Wiley & Sons, a 203 year old publisher, where my job is to help lead our business into the new media economy. I've been on the forefront of digital media in New York's Silicon Alley since 1994, and have been involved with the first online shopping network, the first interactive video broadband channel, and many other developments in new media. Please follow me on Twitter.
I recently started teaching a class on Digital Innovation in Rutgers Mini-MBA Digital Marketing program (recently reviewed in the New York Times). "New Media Innovation" is where you can find my thoughts on the latest innovations in digital media and innovation.
I'll also be leading a panel on "the book and magazine as experience" at the upcoming Digital Hollywood New York, November 10th, 2010, which will include Ellie Hirschhorn, EVP and Chief Digital Officer of Simon and Schuster Digital.
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