http://itvt.com/story/4671/director-ridley-scott-working-audience-driven-interactive-sci-fi-franchise-purefold

DIRECTOR RIDLEY SCOTT WORKING ON AUDIENCE-DRIVEN INTERACTIVE SCI FI FRANCHISE, "PUREFOLD"

Submitted by tracyswedlow on June 5, 2009 - 2:16am in Content Movie Ridley Scott SciFi Social Networking. FriendFeed --Franchise's Storylines to Reflect Viewer Input, "Harvested" through FriendFeed --Franchise to Feature Brand Integration, Will Be Distributed under Creative Commons License Ag8, an independent studio that was recently founded by David Bausola (who previously created "Where are the Joneses," a "social media sitcom" for Ford Motor Company, in which the audience influenced the daily production of a road trip to seek out 27 sperm donor siblings, and which was billed as "the first and largest branded media production to be licensed under the Creative Commons commercial license") and Tom Himpe (who was previously senior strategist at communications consultancy, Naked Communications), announced Thursday that it is working with Scott Free, a newly launched entertainment division of Ridley ("Blade Runner") and Tony Scott's RSA Films, on an audience-driven interactive video project called "Purefold," which it describes as "an open media franchise designed for brands, platforms, filmmakers, product developers and communities to collaboratively imagine our near future." According to Ag8, the "Purefold" franchise will consist of a series of short-format episodes, featuring interlinked storylines and set in the near-future, that will explore the subject of empathy and attempt to answer the question, "What does it mean to be human?" The episodes, which are slated to launch later this summer, will be directed by RSA Films' "global talent pool of directors," Ag8 says, and--most interestingly--will be "informed by real-time online conversations from the audience, which are harvested through FriendFeed, the world's leading 'life streaming' technology." Ag8 says that the "Purefold" franchise will enable brands "to take an alternative route to brand integration than traditional product placement and embrace invention within a narrative framework." It also says that the franchise's content will be distributed on the Web under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license, giving brands, platforms and audiences "unprecedented equal use rights through their participation"--i.e. allowing them to re-edit and redistribute them commercially, provided they do so under the same licensing terms. According to Ag8, "Purefold" is supported by FriendFeed, Creative Commons, WPP, Aegis, Publicis and Naked Communications.

E3 2009 - electronic entertainment 2009

• Relationships major at E3
• News
• June 01, 2009 8:19 PM
• Paul Govan

One day into E3 2009 and we seem to have a theme emerging - celebrity. Each of the first three press conferences have rolled out some impressive celebrity figures. Microsoft had Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Stephen Spielberg and Tony Hawks, whilst EA had Pete Sampras and Ubisoft had Ridley Scott.

More than the name checking though is the ease and willingness at which these folk are happy to stand alongside our favorite videogame experiences. More than ever it seems that games are part of the fabric of our society now, and no longer the reserve of the hardcore gamer.

Alongside these names we find similar technological changes. Particularly interesting to a family gamer was the new ways to play together, as well as the new ways to control games. From the ability to connect LastFM, Facebook, Twitter and Netflix to your Xbox 360, to the new super simple Natal and Hawkscontrollers, it seems like there is a recognition that more casual gamers are more interested in relationships than technology.

As a Dad, I found two of the Natal demonstrations particularly interesting. Here we have a controller that lets you direct a game by standing in front of a camera and moving your body. With this simple concept we watched as they demonstrated a magical painting game - something my kids would love. The player could grab pots of emulsion and fling them onto the canvas, Jackson Pollock style, to impressively creative results.

The second demo using the Natal controller was the creation of a computer controlled character, a little boy called Milo, who could notice and respond to communication as subtle as a smile or as human as sunken shoulders. We watched as the player conversed with Milo, and had as genuine an interaction as you could imagine between a screen and a person.

Then came a moment of magic, when they lent forward to play the fishing activity and we could see their reflection in the pond they were poking and prodding. A simple idea executed seamlessly and without a visible controller.

Time will tell how well the technology stands up to rigorous (and untrained) testing - we should have a hands on for you soon - but hopes are high that this is a big step towards a whole different way of creating game experiences.

Random House launches ebook app for iPhone - New Media Age

Random House has launched an ebook reader on the Apple App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Users of the app will be able to download digital editions of titles from authors such as James Patterson, Ben Elton and Richard Branson.

They can turn pages, make notes on pages and change font style and size.

Jonathan Davis, digital publisher at Random House Group Digital, said, “This is the first time a major UK publisher has made mass-market books available via the Apple App Store. The iPhone and iPod Touch are fantastic convergence devices and we’re delighted customers can now enjoy digital versions of some of our bestselling books on a device which fits neatly in their pocket.”

The ebook app costs £7.49.

Last week the publisher launched a community site for book lovers (nma.co.uk 22 May 2009). Users can set up their own profile page and rate and review books.

Kidulthood as emoticons

In thinking about emoticons as a language option, as a reading option, I have copied the opening of Noel Clarke's 'Kidulthood' novel into Zlango, an emoticon translation site that allows you to 'ping' emoticon texts and messages to mobile phones.

Here's what came out...



and here's the original text...

'Katie Fineal was in hell. She stood on the school playing field, barely aware of the sounds of the players and the small crowd of watchers coming from the football match. All she knew was that she hurt, both outside and inside, Ffteen years old, and her life was misery. Beaten and humilated by Shaneek and Carleen, the leaders ofthe gang of girl bullies in her year at school, and no one came to her help.'

Is it easier to read, quicker to comprehend, in Zlango??

What do you think???

10 things you didn't know about emoticons

I've recently written a short play for the Museum for the Future of the History of the Book - an if:book project for schools - and gave myself a headache trying to zone out and imagine literature of the future, more precisely, the next 1,000 years.

I found myself looking back at hieroglyphics and realising that this was possibly the way forward (backward, if you get what I mean!).

This nifty little link somewhat bridges the gap between the ancient art of hieroglyphics and the 'modern' trend for emoticons. According to this piece, the first emoticons were published on March 30, 1881 by (the now defunct) US satirical magazine Puck.

http://www.neatorama.com/2009/05/05/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-emoticons/

Being Digital 09

http://www.being-digital.com/

kyte.tv - Staying Single to be broadcast

I've decided to broadcast Staying Single as part of my PhD - but to broadcast it in a wider and more focussed way that I did for my MA.

I've created Sophie's channel on kyte.tv and have broadcast a basic intro to Sophie. However I am planning to broadcast an episodic tv version of Staying Single - in a similar way to Sofia's Diary was on Bebo - over the next few months.


I'm still in pre-production phase on this however, and would be willing to take on any advice or hands-on experience that might help shape or move this project on.

Please feel free to contact me on singlesophieregan@yahoo.co.uk