Online Literacture. It was time to make some Noise.

Compared to the movies and music, literature is still far behind on the their way on Web2.0- there are some texts available but without any advantage compared to the paper (and for me is far less comfortable to read).

It was to try to move the books segment and to create a digital literature that could use the possibilities of the new media that the British publisher Penguin joined the company Digital Six to Start the project “We Tell Stories” (wetellstories.co.uk).

The idea was to get six books and famous authors to re-create those book’s stories exclusively online, supported by digital tools-that is, something impossible on paper.

The result has been published over six weeks at the project’s site and is available free.

Google Maps

The first story recreated it was one of the most innovative: an adaptation from Charles Cumming’s “The 39 Steps” by the Australian author John Buchan. Web 2.0? He wrote it using Google Maps . The results are fantastic.

“The style of the book, full of action and suspense and with changes in its frame, was ideal for the web,” said Cumming.

“I think people have a very short attention when they are reading online, so there is much movement in history, scenes from outside and relatively little psychological or emotional content.”

The English Toby Litt, in his turn, used blogs, text and photos (such as Flickr) to tell a story of ghosts, “Slice”, which readers could follow as the characters went posting in a daily basis in their blogs – it was even possible to send an e-mail to the characters.

Writing in Real Time

The idea of narrative in real time was taken to the extreme by the couple Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. They are writing as double and signing as Nicci French: its history was inspired by “Thérèse Raquin,” by Émile Zola.

It’s been produced live, daily. The writing it’s been happening this week, it’s started Monday 7Th and will go until Friday 11Th April 2008, here.

I’m always wondering what’s coming next. This is a great example of a phenomenal use of online tools to reinvent a model.

The web has long been hailed as the next great marketing frontier for entrepreneurs.

Things that change

…are more interesting than those that don’t

Cheers

Lucio Dias Ribeiro

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