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WyrdCon and my moderating my first panel!

09 Jun 2011 by Angelique

I want to tell you all about this amazing event that is happening this weekend, and that I get to be a part of. It is called WyrdCon.

WyrdConWyrdCon is an interactive theater convention. From my understand, Interactive theater covers LARPS (Live Action Role Plays), RPGs (Role Playing Games) and ARGs (Alternate Reality games). In my opinion these genres are types of entertainment that will only be more relevant to the general public with the convergence of various media forms. One of the important aspects of interactive theater is that it plays on the notion of escape and wanting to become someone else. Everyone wants to escape and be someone else at some point or another and this is a way to do so. To learn more about what exactly WyrdCon is you can click here for the mission statement and here for a Day in the Life of a WyrdCon organizer.

For the first time Wyrdcon will be hosting a Transmedia panel. This panel will be a Transmedia 101 of sorts to examine the different ways that various new media platforms can be used to enhance participants role and participation in interactive theater experiences. Personally, I’m extremely excited for this panel because it will be my first time moderating a panel! And I have some awesome people on the panel. If you are in the Southern California area and are interested there will be tickets sold at the door. Come by and say hi if you can make it, it is sure to be a great weekend.

And our WyrdCon Transmedia panels are…

Hope to see you at WyrdCon!

Category: social media  Tags: , , , , , ,  One Comment

Social Media FTW

05 Sep 2010 by Angelique

I’ve been thinking about writing about the different types of social media and why each provides their own benefit for the last 48 hours. Partially this was drawn out of my own need to express myself and partially it was drawn out of convincing myself that yes, I do need to try out all the various social media tools out there in order to get a feel for what is around.

The first understanding must be that various types of social media satisfy certain needs in our lives. Some examples of this are:

  • Twitter – microblogging at its best. Best uses are to keep in touch with online acquaintances, businesses, celebrities and the latest news.
  • Facebook – social networking in all it’s glory. Best for maintaining personal relationships with friends and acquaintances.
  • LinkedIn – professional social networking. A must in the professional world of social media.
  • YouTube – Social viewing. Watching and discussing online content and short videos.
  • Wordpress, Blogger, Blogspot – personal blogging software. Lets you expand on thoughts too long for twitter and facebook.
  • Tumblr, LiveJournal – visual, short blogs. A tool for those who want something in between Twitter and a blog.
  • Niche specific sites – bring together communities based upon a common interest.

The above list is by no means expansive. There are some sites that duplicate others (such as Vimeo being similar to YouTube), however it does give you the gist of what I mean about social networking sites each having a purpose and focusing on fulfilling that purpose. Some sites (such as Facebook) are trying to converge a variety of purposes under one roof. The problem with this is that it is harder to do many things well then do one thing excellently.

Personally I’d rather have applications (such as tweetdeck) that allows me to combine my social media in a way that I want to. For instance when I post this blog I can decide if I want to retweet it on my Facebook and LinkedIn pages.  I like to have this control because I can decide exactly how I want to promote myself across the different media.

All this comes around to me explaining what brought this along. With my final semester of grad school, job hunting, various outside projects, part time job, and life my mind gets a bit cluttered sometimes. And I don’t want to put my clutter here, because this if for my social media related posts, and I don’t want it on my Efficient Creativity blog because that’s for creativity related projects. Hence, I have decided on trying out Tumblr to see how it differs from other blogging software and as yet another tool to add to my toolbag. The link is along the side if you wish to join me on my journey.

Category: social media  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  One Comment

Buzz Word: Social

09 Jun 2010 by Angelique

“Social” is the current hot buzz word for the tech industry. There is social networking, social online entertainment viewing, social media and even, as Miles Beckett of EQAL said, social shows.

This drastically conflicts with the warnings that many studies have gone to great lengths to prove, namely that if people use too much media and entertainment technology it will result in society becoming anti-social.

While I can get tired of the word “social” being thrown around so much these days I will say I think that technology has allowed us to become more social rather then creating an antisocial subculture. Think about it this way- People tweet to keep in touch with people they are interested in, they use Facebook to plan events with their friend and share online material including pictures, videos and articles. People use YouTube to create and post their own videos and comment on others. People have turned video games into a social environment where they can talk to others while they play. Even TV is slowly becoming an environment where you can connect with other fans (see Fox’s new Glee SuperFan player).

So while the word “social” may be getting a little played out I do think it is an adequate way to explain the current phenomena. We are becoming an even more social world – one in which it is possible to share almost anything at any time.

The question I ask you is – when does the sharing become too much?

Let me know what you think about the social new phenomena by commenting below.

Category: social media  Tags: , , , , , ,  11 Comments