Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The Changing World of Publishing

(Updated 9/11/08) If you missed the talks on Monday (or if you left early), come on over to Writer Response Theory where I have posted my notes.

The talk was an introduction to some of the changes in publishing modes and in what Hayles called Digital Scholarship.

But in the meantime, go explore the following sites that were discussed in the talk:

Vectors: USC's multimedia Journal. Make sure you go in and look at the articles inside.
One of my favorites is here: Blue Velvet

HyperBerlin:
Encyclopedia of Egyptology
Write your reactions as comments on this post.

3 comments:

matt mccormick said...

First of all, I would like to say that the Blue Velvet Project was intense. The use of the creepy music and the background along with different font sizes and angles had quite an effect. This technique is, in my opinion, a lot more effective in getting a point across than a simple internet article would be. It really shows the extent to which presenting information a certain way can change the way we view the topic. The other sites didn't quite have the same appeal to me, but it is clear that the way we can present information to mass audiences is changing (for the better).

Eric Inamine said...

it's amazing to see how publishing is changing the world of entertainment and information. simply having text is a way of the past--now information is presented in ways that appeal to sight and hearing. interactive websites offer information in ways that are not only more appealing, but possibly more informative.

Unknown said...

I had mixed reactions to the USC Vectors projects. I found The RED Project rather interesting, and the ability to look at the distribution of Wi-Fi signals at my home, USC, and other places I was familiar with pulled me in and made me want to read on about what the aim of the project was, when I probably would have ignored the article presented with a few traditional maps.

On the other hand, the interaction with the strings in Nation on the Move proved quite distracting, and I found myself ignoring the pop ups of information to continue playing with them, obviously not their intended purpose, and in the end it didn't hold my interest long enough to see what it was really about. The beginning of Deliberative Democracy and Difference seemed like a glorified powerpoint, and though I understood what the animations were getting at during the "debate" I didn't find myself learning from them.

Blue Velvet Project was my favorite, and I must concur with Matt's statement- it was intense. The creepy music was a surprise and the titled text made key points really jump out at me. The background music distracted me in a way, but rather than causing me to turn away, I wanted even more to understand the points being brought up, and I reread them several times to make sure I didn't miss anything. The animations were pulled off quite skillfully as well.

My experience shows me that digital publishing has a huge amount of potential, and there's so many different ways to present ideas. I guess the only issue is finding what will appeal to the mass audience, because though I loved some projects others did leave me yearning for a plain text article where I didn't have to hunt down information in colorful pop ups.