Transmedia 4 Kids

Excerpted from this article by Brian Solis:

"Information overload isn’t a new phenomenon by any means. The sensation of being overwhelmed by information has been linked to every media revolution. With every new innovation and the mass adoption of disruptive technology, the volume of information available to us grows exponentially.

With media now so pervasive and portable, information, of any focus, is available, on demand, and more importantly, resides in our hands to create and consume at will. We are, for better or for worse, always on. And this is both part of the problem and part of the solution for how we evolve as individuals and as an information society.

Social media has gifted us a new democracy. And with it, the ability to connect to people around the world and create, share, and devour knowledge, entrainment, and irrelevant information at will. It’s as intimidating as it is beautiful.

There is a very real human cost of social connectivity. But, the symptoms of information overload are only a reflection of our inability or lack of desire to bring order to our chaos. See, we are the engineers of the media levees that prevent overflow.

The challenge lies not in the realization that we are empowered to curate our social streams and relationships, but in the consciousness of what is and what could be. Meaning, that we must first understand that how we’re connecting, consuming, and creating today is either part of the problem or part of the solution. We, and only we, are in control of information overload and everything begins with acceptance.

Information overload is a real phenomenon, but it is I believe, by design. It either works for us or against us and it is our choice as to which way the stream flows. To be clear, information overload is a symptom of over consumption and the inability to refine online experiences based on interest and importance.

Access to information and people is intoxicating. Creating an online portrait of who we are or who we want others to see is equality alluring. But without direction, governance, and discipline, we are at risk of giving ourselves to the very networks we value rather than managing the platforms to our advantage.

Our participation must be inspired by purpose and parameters. No, we are not obligated to connect with everyone who connects with us. We are obligated to maintain balance in who we are, what we value, and equally the value we invest in the communities in which we participate.

As Clay Shirky once observed, “There’s no such thing as information overload — only filter failure.”
My take? “Information overload is a symptom of our desire to not focus on what’s important.” It’s a choice.

Perhaps said another way, information overload is a symptom of our inability to focus on what’s truly important or relevant to who we are as individuals, professionals, and as human beings..."

Read full interesting article here:
http://www.briansolis.com/2012/05/the-fallacy-of-information-overload/

Pinterest over the last 6 months has become the social network with buzz and it provides a visual platform that offers an ecosystem to experiment and play with images as a means of marketing and engagement and even selling.

I walked into an electronics store the other day and happened to pass the television department.

The 70 inch televisions with high definition flat screens were displaying videos so compelling that for a minute or two I just stood there watching images so sharp and mesmerizing that I just stopped and watched.

The vibrant colors and high contrast were almost hypnotic.

It was only ten years ago and a flat screen TV half that size was $20,000.

Now everyone has at least a 42 inch plasma or LCD screen and that is in the smallest room in the house!

Read more: 

Excerpted from article:

"Qwiki, the start-up known for creating automated multimedia presentations, is launching a new media format that allows publishers, bloggers, web personalities and others to create 60-second video stories that are embedded with other videos, images, maps and links.

It’s like an interactive video slideshow that lets users click on other content throughout a narrated story, so they can choose how deep they want to experience the content.

The service goes into private testing today with some early users and is expected to open to the public in a couple of weeks.

Users can put together a Qwiki by arranging images, videos and maps and other content into six frames. Each frame can be further edited with a caption and embedded with more images, Tweets, maps and links taken from sources such as YouTube, Flickr, Google Maps and other sources including their personal content.

When the media content is laid down, a user records a 60-second narration for the story with the option of appearing in a small window throughout the Qwiki. The creator decides when to advance each frame.

Imbruce, Founder and CEO, said:

"there are many more features to be added that could make Qwiki even more attractive to its creators and users.

Right now, creators can only tell a 60-second story. But with the ability to add more content, it could really be the starting point for a bigger story. I think over time, Qwiki might be better served by allowing people the option to make videos a little longer.

New online tools, such as Pinterest, are already showing us that self-expression and curation are now very popular. I think it’s logical that a simple tool for mixing video, images and online content could also attract an audience..."

Read full article: 
http://gigaom.com/2012/05/23/qwiki-launches-interactive-story-telling-platform-with-abc-news/

Check out it: http://www.qwiki.com

Robin Good: StyleBook is a fashion and glamour curation platform allowing you to easily create rich illustrated stylebooks.

StyleBook looks on the surface like most other visual boards, allowing you to easily follow other users, and to select and repin images to your stylebooks.

From Techcrunch: "To use StyleSaint in its current form, log in with Facebook or Twitter and create an account, once logged on, you can choose from over 55K “tear sheet” images from which to create your own Stylebook, once you’ve got more than ten tear sheets loaded, you can hit the “Create Stylebooks” link in the top right and StyleSaint will automatically import, then publish, the last ten sheets you’ve torn. Alternatively you can drag-and-drop the tears to create a custom stylebook. Click on “Create” to publish to the site.

In addition the resulting books are Facebookable, tweetable and embeddable, the embeddable stylebooks function as an overlay on embedded sites, preventing traffic re-direction. 

The most compelling thing about StyleSaint is that co-founders Brian Garrett and Allison Beal eventually want to use the collective data from the style booking activity to come up with its own line of clothing. “StyleSaint is the only company editorializing the phenomenon of image discovery and curation and combining it with a manufacturing, vertical eTailer ecommerce model...”

(Source: http://j.mp/Mj5m1o) 

Free to use.

About: http://www.stylesaint.com/about ;

Try it out now: http://www.stylesaint.com  

For good or ill, as what defines us as people warps and no lines remain between physical and digital, what do we need to teach the next generation?