We decided long ago that a play about new media needed to incorporate new media into its creative process. So far, that has been mostly limited to conversations on Facebook that have informed our research and writing process.
Now we're taking it to the next level. You can literally be one of our writers.
The New New News WikiScene is a collaboratively written "play within a play" inspired by a New York Times article (Update: as published in the Seattle Times) about how multitasking affects your ability to focus. It will be created by an online community and actually performed this February.
Unlike other wikis, we decided to just use a Google Doc, with a nice, familiar word processing interface. That way even a luddite like Paul Mullin can figure it out.
The instructions are simple: Anyone can edit any element of the scene. However, a few elements are non-negotiable:
1: The instructions cannot be edited
2: The scene must tell a story with a beginning, middle and end
3: The characters must learn something about themselves
4: All participating writers must read this article and use it as inspiration: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012049123_webmultitask07.html
That's it! I should mention that when you contribute to the scene, anything you write becomes the property of NewsWrights United. Nobody's getting rich off of this -- believe me -- but just to be clear so there aren't any hurt feelings.
Click here to help write The New New News WikiScene!
Bonus: use the chat function! The chat bar looks like this:
Click on it, and you'll get a chat window that looks like this:
You can confer with other contributors in real time. Sweet!
Help write The New New News WikiScene!
Remember -- if you contribute to the WikiScene, you get to become an angel when you die. It's true, there have been studies.
ReplyDeleteMinor correction: the article was written by a New York Times writer: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html?pagewanted=1. The Seattle Times forgot the citation (normally it should look like this: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012998690_washgrizzlies26.html?syndication=rss).
ReplyDeleteSorry that's my only contribution for now. :) Great idea and excited to see what happens.
Thanks LeAnne!
ReplyDelete