Hypertext to change how we read

A book that never ends.

Infinite book

It is an interesting concept, and one that is described in the Douglas reading.

 

What if you had a book that changed everytime you read it? Michael Joyce

 

What the? I had never heard of such a book until I encountered the topic of interactive narratives. An interactive narrative is a story in which the reader determines the path that the narrative may take. The author provides many alternative routes that the reader can explore through in order to discover a new storyline every time they read it. Indeed, there may be so many combinations of possible narratives that even the author may not have even thought of every path that the story may take.

 

 

Hypertext is a perfect technology to use to create interactive narratives. Books have lasted throughout the centuries, but now people are intrigued by this new way of storytelling. Douglas shares of the potential of hypertext, suggesting that much discovery and further exploration of the technology is still to come.

If the book is a highly refined example of a primitive technology, hypertext is a primitive example of a highly refined technology, a technology still at the icebox stage.

 

Douglas mentions how interactive storytelling meets a desire that many readers have – a desire for the inexhaustable story. A book no longer has to stay the same every time you open it up. It’s like the reader is given a role in authorship. I feel a great example of this is in video games.

 

In many video games, the participant controls characters as they journey through their own world. Someone had to create this world and all the various scenarios that the character could enter into, yet once it has been designed and completed, that’s when the game player comes in and chooses how the story will be told.

 

Take Grand Theft Auto for example.

Grand Theft Auto V

A complex city has been designed and put in place, along with many challenges, opportunities, and nice cars to drive around. The ‘reader’ is then free to explore the city and create the narrative based on what he wants to do. People can play the game many times and encounter different scenarios every time. That’s why people are drawn to the games, because the experience isn’t the same every time.

 

And I think it is similar with hypertext narratives. People enjoy being able to come back to a book later on and explore a totally different storyline, a whole new experience, and a brand new ending.

 

 

While you’re reading, check out James’ post Before HD there was Kodachrome.

 

Want to know more on interactive narratives? Here’s a short clip sharing how they have been used to gain a profile in the business scene:

Just one cog in the chain…

Week 3.1 Symposium

chain

You may think of writing as an individual task that we do on our own. If this is the case, think again!

Monday’s symposium made me think again. We discussed how through the rise of hypertext, we now need to write with the awareness that we are writing as part of a larger discourse. It’s not just the content that I’m creating, because my content is just one chunk of many other texts on the internet that can all be related, linked, and read together.

The little network we have amongst our class is a great example of this. We are all writing our own posts and creating our own work, yet we are constantly linking to each other’s posts. We read one post then follow the link to another post and read what they have to say. In this way, we are encountering a larger discourse, not just each individual article that we read.

And through hypertext and hypermedia, we as readers can become active readers not just passive. We can direct our own reading, choose which link we will click on, and have an endless reading experience if we so desire.

Another topic that came up in the symposium was that creative discourse is a collaborative task. Our input joins up with other online contributions to form the discourse.

And I feel that a great example of this in our course would be our wiki pages. We are working in groups of three or four people to create a creative, informative wiki page about the topic we have been given. We each contribute our own work onto the wiki, and as we do this the finished product is achieved.

It is an interesting process to work with others to achieve the desired outcome, but it is an activity that we are involved in every time we post onto our blogs. We are part of a much larger discourse than we may imagine, and our input adds to the rich, diverse, range of opinions and perspectives that floats around the World Wide Web.

Wednesday Symposium week 2.2

The temperature hit 41 degrees on Wednesday for our Networked Media workshop, but inside RMIT it was a very comfortable 20 degrees. In fact, I almost had to grab a jumper it was that cool! The attendance was a little light on due to the weather, but for me uni was the best place to be on a day like that.

 

The symposium was a useful time of discussion as we looked into the readings and other topics that came up. We spoke about how the readings were relating to how to store knowledge and information in a useful and practical way. And then delving into how accurate that information is anyway.

 

We also looked at hypertext, and understanding how it can be used to include information that links to other information. Nelson wasn’t fully sold on the idea of hypertext because at that time it was fully textual. However, nowadays hypertext has been broadened to include ‘hypermedia’, for audio/visual media can also be linked in this way.

 

The symposium then took a bit of a random tangent off in the direction of web search engines. Elliot brought up an interesting point, saying that large Internet providers are currently debating how much search engine results should be tailored based upon the individual’s past web history, browsing interests etc. They are worried that having the results focused too heavily to match the individual’s characteristics, they may in fact be limiting the individual from accessing areas of the Internet. It’s complex, I know!

 

Finally, we were introduced to two types of determinisms – technical and social. These terms are used to describe society’s relationship with technology, or how technology relates to us.

 

Technical determinism is the idea that the advent of new technologies determines the way that society and cultures operate. And then the social determining of technology is the idea that if society wants a particular technology, they’ll probably find a way to achieve it.

 

Personally, I feel that both ideas can be true at times. Technology has definitely changed the way that we operate, and I believe that if society wants and needs a certain type of technology, they’ll work to either achieve it or find something that would do a similar job.

 

Over and out.

Writing has its place – week 3.1 readings

Is writing a waste of time?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinni/4048982287/

This is a thought I’ve encountered whilst working through my first year of Professional Communication studies. Jay Bolton understands my concern, and through his reading for this week I now more fully appreciate writing as a craft on its own.

 

Bolton explains that writing is a technology that is not as obviously productive at first as farming or carpentry, yet as time passes we can see that writing is the great preserver of culture, history, and other technologies. Indeed, writing is just as much a craft as other trades are, it is just using a completely different skill set.

 

Bolton continues by noting an important difference between writing and other crafts such as construction or architecture. In most fields, craftsmen can put down their tools and head home after their work is done. However for writers, detaching themselves from their work is not so easy. For some reason, writing seems to constantly play around in your mental thoughts. You might turn off your computer and finish writing that essay, but then throughout the day it’s like you are still writing in your head.

 

“Walter Ong and Jacques Derrida have insisted that writing exercises this constant influence upon our mental life.” Bolton reading

 

It is for this reason that I don’t think I could ever be a journalist. I don’t think I would be able to switch off from ‘work mode’ because I would forever be thinking about, and listening out for potential new stories. Obviously some people would thrive on it, but I’m feeling exhausted just thinking about it!

 

I feel that one reason why blogging has grown so popular recently may be because it is a great way of getting thoughts down on paper as soon as you think of it. You don’t have to work to a deadline like journalism. Instead, when bloggers get an idea, they can simply go straight to their computer and write it down.

 

Also, people often feel more comfortable sharing their private lives on a blog than through face to face means. Janet Murray shares about this in the Landow reading:

 

“Some people put things on their home page . . . that they have not told their closest friends. The enchantment of the computer creates for us a public space that also feels very private and intimate.”

 

George Landow goes on to describe how bloggers can use hypertext to then link individual blog posts to each other. By doing this, the writers are…

 

“allowing readers to put events in context and get the whole story without the diarist to have to explain again.”

 

And then also through hypertext, the blog reader becomes a more active reader, one that can add text or link to another site at any time. They are empowered to become a creative, more interactive reader.

 

Thanks for reading. You should check out Esther’s informative post about navigating hypertext.

Gadgets to drive us into the future

future

 

I was reading the Herald Sun this week when I came across an interesting article about futuristic inventions that could change the way we use our cars. These were just some of the thousands of products on show at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas last week.

 

What are we talking here…how about when we are stuck in a traffic jam (think Hoddle Street at 5pm), we have a car that can switch into autopilot whilst you sit back and relax? Or, a car that could park itself, by itself, while you are already in the supermarket buying your groceries?

 

 

Not bad, huh? I must say I do enjoy hearing about new and exciting devices with radical abilities, and these new products were no exception! Take the Traffic Jam autopilot for example. All you need to do is make sure the car is pointing the right direction, and it then it will choose the optimal speed and start and stop without you lifting a finger. And in the last year, this technology has shrunk from taking up all the boot space, to fitting inside the glove box!

 

The self-parking technology is equally impressive . Not only does it park the car park itself, but when you are finished shopping, you open an app and tell the car to come and get you!

 

This is just one example of how our smartphones will become more and more connected with our cars as time rolls on. In fact the article points to research that has found that by the year 2020, many of our cars, appliances, and houses will all be connected to our phones.

 

Just imagine the possibilities this could afford us! It’s a little scary, actually.

 

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You can read the Herald Sun article here.

Thank God You’re Here

“Your world awaits… good luck!”

 

You remember that line, right? It’s the quote that the host would say on popular television show Thank God You’re Here just before the well-known celebrity would walk through the door into an unknown situation. You know the drill, the actor would then have to interact with others on that set, but everyone else knows the script except them!

 

I must say, it’s one of my favourite shows because I feel it really showed the skill of the comedians that went on the show. Some of the lines that they come up with just on the spot is amazing! It’s no wonder that they can make a career out of the funnies when you see them at work under that kind of pressure!

 

Some of my favourite performances on the show would have to be Hamish Blake, Merrick Watts, Tony Martin, Matthew Newton, and Ahn Do. Speaking of Ahn Do, there’s quite a funny one of him acting at the launch of a brand new futuristic car, so it kinda fits with the course too 😉

Ahn Do… the man who laughs at his own jokes before he says them! Here it is, enjoy.

 

Ponderings on Week 2.1 Workshop

Well another Monday has come and gone, along with another Networked Media workshop. This time we were focusing on Design Fiction, and we can think of fictional situations to envisage a possible future.

 

The three students on the symposium panel along with our lecturer Elliot, all did well at further explaining the readings. We learned that design theory provokes and inspires our thinking, and helps us imagine future realities. We test with the goal of proving or finding something.

 

In the symposium, I remember someone mentioning how throughout the last hundred years many of technological advances were based upon the older technologies they were replacing. I feel we could put it this way: we need the old to guide us towards ideas that might become the new.

 

A great example of new technologies coming about based on older technologies would have to be video editing software. As some might not have thought about before, video editing software is actually designed to replicate the manual practice of editing film… you know, actually cutting and trimming film in your fingers.

 

The old way…

film

 

 

The new way…

video editing

 

You may notice that many of the terms used in video editing software directly relate back to the manual editing practice. For instance, Final Cut Pro has bins to keep the clips in, just like how old-school editors had physical bins that held the film. Or you can trim clips down to a desired length, just like you would trim the film back in the day.

 

There are lots of other terms such as sequences, razor tool, jump cuts, rough cuts, filters, storyboard, timeline… and the list goes on. All of these software functions relate back to the old way of editing actual, physical tape. Amazing huh?

 

Thanks for reading, also make sure you check out Kim Lai’s thoughts on double-loop learning here.

 

What we read for Week 2.2

Hypertext. What exactly is it?

 

“As popularly conceived, this is a series of text chunks connected by links which offer the reader different pathways.”

Nelson on hypertext.

 

screenshot of Xerox PARC's NoteCards hypertext application

 

We read in the Nelson reading about how hypertext opened doors to new ways of sharing text. However, we also find out the trepidation that abounded over the complexity of the computer age. Nelson writes:

 

The computer, and now the personal computer, have opened whole new realms of disorder, difficulty, and complication for humanity.

 

Brusaporto 2013

 

Nelson mentions how some people embraced the computer tide enthusiastically, and then others wanted to stop the rise of the computers and the confusion that they brought in. However, I like the third perspective that Nelson says we can have on the matter: To accept computers, and to work to intelligently organise their systems so that people can gain the benefits that they will bring. He could see that computers and hypertext could potentially simplify our working and personal lives.

 

For I believe that the potential for a new Golden Age, through such a unification of electronic text systems, lies before us, and just in time, too.

 

Computers have changed life enormously, making it possible to achieve so much more in quicker time, and I know I’m thankful that people like Theodore Nelson worked hard to bring in hypertext and computers into everyday life.

 

Vannevar Bush reading

The Bush reading, As We May Think, focuses on looking towards the future and pondering upon what technological advances may be made. It also explains the potential for computing devices.

 

There will always be plenty of things to compute in the detailed affairs of millions of people doing complicated things.

Bush reading.

 

Vannevar is indeed right that there are plenty of things to compute. When I read this sentence, I immediately think about how people are now using the internet to gain complex data about what people desire based on what pages they view, what ads they click on etc.

Companies are now gaining complex data about the psychology of consumers, what leads them buy a certain product, all through the analysis of internet usage. In a way I feel it is related to what Bush is describing here:

 

It is readily possible to construct a machine which will manipulate premises in accordance with formal logic, simply by the clever use of relay circuits. Put a set of premises into such a device and turn the crank, and it will readily pass out conclusion after conclusion, all in accordance with logical law, and with no more slips than would be expected of a keyboard adding machine.

 

It’s amazing, really, how computers have developed over the years to become the ultra-efficient, high-speed data machine that they are. And you can’t help but notice that Vannevar Bush was fairly accurate in the predictions included in his article.

Australia Reclaims the Ashes

A 5-0 whitewash – who could’ve seen that coming!

Australia v England (2nd Test, Adelaide Oval, 2013/14)

 

Two months ago the Australian cricket team appeared to be clear underdogs coming into the 2013/2014 Ashes Series. They had lost embarrassingly in England three months earlier, and they were now in a rebuilding phase.

 

Then they burst onto the scene at Brisbane for the first Test and won that match fairly convincingly. I was impressed by their performance, but wasn’t fully convinced that they had overcome the quick batting collapses and poor form that they had battled in England. However, throughout the series they showed again and again just how much they had improved.

 

Several individual performances by the Australians come to mind as I think back over the games. Mitchell Johnson was so influential; he bowled extremely quick, and his short balls got the Pommy batsmen on their back feet.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69166407@N06/11382180703/

 

Brad Haddin also played extremely well. He got several centuries during the series, and each one of these were achieved at important times for Australia, saving them from a potentially low team score. And his impressive wicketkeeping topped off his classy batting performances.

 

Australia v England (2nd Test, Adelaide Oval, 2013/14)

 

And I think the whole team contributed really. Pretty much every player on the team played well and found form during the series.

 

Australia v England (2nd Test, Adelaide Oval, 2013/14)

 

The re-emergence of the struggling Australia, and the slight decline of the world-class England shows just how quickly things can change in world cricket. I feel confidence plays a big role in results too.

 

Australia came into the series full of confidence because they had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and they came out strongly. England, meanwhile, were on the back foot early. They lost their confidence, never to gain it back as the series wore on.

Week 1.2 notes…

Well the week 1.2 workshop has been and gone, and we made it though the symposium okay! I was not on the panel, but it was interesting to see how the 30 minute discussion would play out.

 

I found it beneficial to hear the perspectives of both our lecturer Elliot and also Esther, Mishell, and Dan share about the readings and their interpretation of them. They discussed the differences between single and double-loop learning, the importance of blogging in learning, and learning the art of noticing.

 

After the symposium, we brainstormed about which functions of the blogs we would like to know how to use. Our task was then to search the internet to find out how to perform these tasks on our blogs, and then to share what we find with our classmates. I learned how to upload and embed media onto blog posts, and then wrote a post about my findings.

 

READINGS

The readings for next class were all about Design Fiction, and looking at how people can predict and design what may become a part of the future.

 

One useful definition calls design fiction “an approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling.”

Excerpt from the Torie Bosch reading.

 

I found the Bosch reading quite interesting to hear about Bruce Sterling’s experience with Design Fiction. Sterling said one of the most effective types of design fiction has been videos. He said a great example of this is in 2001: A Space Odyssey, a 1960’s film where an iPad-like device is used. Little did they know that 40 years later the iPad would take the world by storm!

 

It was also interesting to read in the As We May Think reading, how when great ideas are thought of, sometimes it takes a long time before they are economically sustainable. Vannevar Bush explained that a calculating device was invented in the 1700’s, yet at that time it was very hard to produce:

 

The  economics  of  the  situation  were  against  it:  the  labor involved  in  constructing  it,  before  the  days  of  mass  production,  exceeded  the labor  to  be  saved  by  its  use,  since  all  it  could  accomplish  could  be  duplicated  by sufficient  use  of  pencil  and  paper.

 

However, nowadays the economic environment allows computers and other extremely complicated devices can be rolled out and produced in such a way that a profit can be achieved.

 

Make sure you check out Dana’s blog on Design Fiction here.