hack text

Let's build some brain connections!

I’m thinking for Fridays I need to do something different. Perhaps put out a few quick ideas, pulling on previous posts. I’m going to give it a try today and you should tell me what you think down in the comments.

The idea is this synthesis post. Since I’m trying to build new ideas that all function in the same space (narrative design/transmedia), here are some ideas combining previous post concepts.

Considering transmedia and music along with new bookstores:

I was thinking more about the potential use of music and sound to transmit information on a layer usually unused by the media. What about better use in the physical world as well?

Directional speakers are becoming more common. Why not use them to build more sound into the proposed bookstore’s environment? Authors and publishers are creating more audio and video content to accompany books, lets incorporate it into the shopping experience.

I’m not talking about random ads. When you step in front of a shelf filled with an author you can have them talking about their books. You can play podcasts of short stories by the same author. When customers step into a section, they could step into an area that would play recommendations or new releases for that sections.

Twitter chats and narrative-parallel artifacts:

I was wondering about the potential of Twitter-based narrative-parallel artifacts. The concept of the Twitter sidebar (or even the Twitter story) has been pretty well executed by Storify.

What I’d really like to see however, is the implementation of a live Twitter chat with experts around the release of an article. The archive can than be attached. It seems fairly simple, perhaps someone has done it?

Archiving Twitter chats and finding local people on Twitter using FourSquare:

I’d love to see someone do a project archiving and displaying random interactions among local (to each other at least) Twitter users. I bet a collage of them would be pretty interesting to see.

It would be fun to see the emerging minor stories of the normal people around us.

The new bookstore and 750 words:

Consider the following:

• People who read often like to write.
• People who write often write in bookshops.
• People like to show off that they are writing.
• People like using game systems.
• People like NaNoWriMo.

When you sit down in a coffee or bookshop you can log into a local version of 750 words (geo-targeted or something). Watch your word count and everyone else’s word count go up in real-time. Rewards are given every hour or so to fastest writer, writer who targets certain senses, writer who uses the most complex words, etc… Then build timed events using this type of system for NaNoWriMo, give a free something to the first writer to reach the daily targeted word count.

WordPress plugins and narrative-parallel artifacts:

I mentioned it in both articles, but it is worth mentioning again. We need better ways to offer content integrated into text. Amplify is one, as is the Popupper. However, Popupper doesn’t even work very well. This is a golden opportunity for someone to build a useful WordPress plugin. Perhaps I should give it a try?

Did my blogging this week make you think of anything cool? Tell me in the comments.