new media
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Boutique publishing house les éditions volumiques shows us that print is far, far from dead
Say what you will about traditional media and the continually shrinking size of print magazines, but we've got some proof right here that good 'ol pulp still has a lot of life left. French publishing house les éditions volumiques has been doing research into new and... interesting ways to use the print medium and to combine it with mobile devices. The company's site is like a playground for bookistas, with short videos showing off all sorts of wondrous things. One project is The book that disappears, a volume printed on reactive paper that turns black after 20 minutes. Another is The Night of the Living Dead Pixels, a graphic novel (shown above) that allows you to choose your path, with terminal pages featuring QR codes that trigger videos on your smartphone. There's a board game that uses iPhones for pawns, and even a book that turns its own pages. All are demonstrated at the company's site (in Flash, so watch out for Steve), and most are destined to actually see print by the end of the year. We've already made room on our bookshelves.
Cinemassively: Media in SL - old vs. new
Whenever an important topic comes up, virtual video journalist, Draxtor Despres, is on the scene. His YouTube page features a variety of coverage, including movie premieres, celebrity appearances, and even a trip to the Second Life Community Convention. They are all part of what is dubbed "the first TV magazine in Second Life", Life 4-U.In his latest episode, Draxtor took a look at how both old and new media are participating in SL. He interviewed podcasters, film makers, online magazines, and blogs, to find out what they think about the situation. Starr Sonic, of SLCN, speculated that real life companies coming in won't be able to commit to making it work, because it requires extensive hand-holding. However, at the end, Marvel Ousley states that once residents cut their teeth on the free news blogs, such as CNN's i-Report, she'll pay them to write for SLNN. That sounds like a winning situation to me!
The Urballoon art installation has a message for you
What is it about art and technology? People just can't get enough of it, and yet, it hardly ever seems to be any good. Far be it from us to pass judgment, however, on the Urballoon -- an "urban media space" wherein a balloon hovers three stories in the air, equipped with a projector and a wireless connection. The balloon / projector is used to "broadcast" images or text sent to it via a website onto the ground below. Anyone can hop on the page and create a message for the balloon, so we'll assume they have very good profanity filters. The artist behind the project, Carlos J. Gómez de Llarena, says that the Urballoon, "Seeks to juxtapose emerging notions of mobility, P2P networking, syndication and blogging with traditional uses of social space, broadcasting and outdoor advertising." Um... whatever you say, Carlos.
Joystiq's own Chris G. sweats it out at the PAX new media panel
Our own Christopher Grant filled in today for an arguably hotter, but sadly absent, Frag Doll in PAX's "new media" panel on blogging, podcasts and other fancy publishing formats on them there Internets. He sat down with Kotaku's Brian Crecente, Julianne Greer from The Escapist, and MC Wilson from the Broadcast Gamer podcast, while Major Nelson moderated, gracefully playing the role of "corporate shill" (we're just playin'). The Web 2.0 buzzwords flew, Google Ad-Words were firmly promoted, NDAs were promptly scoffed, and Chris and Brian managed to leave the stage without resorting to fisticuffs. (Sad, yes.) E3 was a hot topic of debate -- even Major Nelson called it a mystery for Microsoft -- and all the panelists were unsure about the methods of coverage that will be available to them next year. An audience member mentioned that the Consumer Electronics Association (producers of that little Vegas show known as CES) are considering filling the gap, as we mentioned earlier this month, but it was still clear that future gaming shows are quite the mystery other than this weekend's obvious hit: PAX. We hope you can forgive this bit of utter meta vanity -- we'll now return you to your regularly scheduled programming -- but first, Chris would like to thank his Mom and his insatiable hunger for brains for making all of this possible. Oh, and if you'd like to hear the full discussion, Major Nelson should be posting it as a podcast soon, in true new media fashion.
