You Tube and stories

Once watching a film or video was an organised, social event. The family or friends waiting all week to attend thier local cinema to see a featrue film.They used to show pre-show films , orininally being perhaps a news reel. Sometimes it was a cartoon or a rarely a short film. Short films did not really exist , in terms of geting public viewing unitl the invention of the DVD made it possible. Even then a short film meant 30 mins long.

Really short films did not really start until the internet was able to support video. When was that? about 2003 ish? Now you did not need some funding organisation to recognise you, only have your mum see you video film. Home video was just that , at home. Sequences of piped video, wandering around a family wedding, boring and loathsome nights in having to watch it again, only to be polite to the bride. Non linear editing was helping the self made filmakers to develop thier art,  like the had seen on TV but with no-one to organise thier work into the corporate form they began experimenting with thier own idea of how to make a film. Again this was interesting but only to those who would see it and were interested in the first placei.e. family and friends. Who else would want to see your film. Oh yes of course! maybe Geremy Beadle, who would give you £250 pounds for showing your most embarrasing moments on T.V.

A new route for storytelling had unfolded, our family stories are passed down from generation to generation only to find that we cannot access them . ( super 8 film breaks after years of poor storage and vido 8 GONE ( anyone got a player I can borrow?) The stories about my Great Gradad survive but those about my sister are preserved on such film, in some mouldy cardboard box, never, never to be seen again. What a waste of film.

Has You Tube changed this? Will I be able to watch my work on the internet in 20 years time, when the grandkids want to see what I was like?

I can now see a range of short films, some good , mostly drivvel and not all for public viewing. It is evident that people are putting their inimite family records on the internet. Are they facinating? yes often they are. An evenings entertainment is more like wandering aimlessly through a photo album that I found lying on the desk and have no buisness looking at. ( this makes is slightly more interesting). But many of the videos are amusing, interesting and thought provoking. As you continue to watch , video after video you build a picture and a story that was never there in the first place. Is this helping my imagination and creativity?

Story Forms

When I was young I was never into reading much because it took so long. However, when I had the time, mainly on holiday, to get into a good book I would notice and note every detail. I would understand the characters, what they looked like, what they wore. In addition I would also have created my own scenarios with the characters in my own story. This would be when my brain would wander off, into scenario land, after which I would then have to re-read the text that my eyes had glanced over, line by line, without taking any of it in.

( I think we have all done this at some point). Concentration was always hard for me. I have since found out in my 40's that I am dyslexic and this would explain a lot about the way that I read. I am not disappointed as I feel that my reading style helped to develop my creativity.

I was always more interested in short stories, magazine articles etc as the look of a solid page of writing seemed to be a bit of a chore. I really wanted to know the story but did not want to do the hard work of getting there. It took too long and I was impatient. This was how I felt in "normal" time and not when i had hours to while away on holiday, when my approach to a book was the opposite.

I liked Mrs Pepper Pot, the stories were short even though I wanted to read, like my big sisters, Swallows and Amazons, The Famous Five, Ring of Bright Water ( the older sister was the best reader of all) I just could not get into it. Again they took too long.

The internet is my friend, it allows me to read how I naturally do, allowing me to wander off into, sub stories that digress from the main narrative. I can build up my own picture of characters, events and stories by clicking on related links giving me a much more detailed view of the story in the same way that I did when I read when I was young.

I found it hard to prioritise my information, and frequently needed the chicken and egg argument to chuck off. Who knows which one came first and who cares, both the egg and the chicken are important. The non linear nature of interactive reading suits me fine. It represents the way I have always thought

At the same time, has it taken away my creativity, filling those related gaps with solid facts, images and information? Where does my imagination go now? Does it wander off at all? I don’t think it does, so maybe I have lost some of the ability to digress and wander off with my imagination.

Narrative thoughts

When re applying the role of the director a virtual space, where the audience can wander and choose their path the director becomes a teaser, persuader to coax the viewer to the story. The control has changed but how does this affect the relationship between the viewer and the director. Who's story is it now?

Communities of practice

members have some shared goal, interest, need, or activity that provides the
primary reason for belonging to the community
• members engage in repeated active participation and there are often intense
interactions, strong emotional ties and shared activities occurring between
participants
• members have access to shared resources and there are policies for determining
access to those resources
• reciprocity of information, support and services between members
• shared context (social conventions, language, protocols).


Users should be able to...
• Tell who is speaking
• Provide feedback to a speaker verbally or non verbally
• Follow a conversational thread when there are multiple speakers
• Backtrack on a conversation
• Know if conversation is being logged
• Signal which conversational thread they are attending to
• "Hear" everything that is said (locally) with enough time to process it
• Communicate with different "voices" (e.g. say, emote, think, change real voice)
• Indicate level of engagement (e.g. be able to indicate when otherwise engaged in
real world conversation).

Widening the Net: Workshop Report on the Theory and Practice of Physical and Network Communities. Steve Whittaker, Ellen Isaacs & Vicki O'Day

Wiki - supporting communites of practice

Video article explaining how wikki works as a support for communities of practice.

Fridge magnets - online

Communities of practice relies on an active , sharing of informatation about a common topic or theme. This game allows people to interact at once using flash and could be a good basis for an online message board where inforamtion and thoughts are collected and displayed together ( in real time)

http://www.kongregate.com/games/QRious/fridge-magnets

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