if:bookoznstuff

Next week the if:book crew are off to The Hurst, the Arvon Foundation's Welsh base, to work on a digital sampler of work by mentored writers, then I'm speaking at a QCDA conference about Hotbook and other projects while we prepare for our schools project to be available for download after halfterm.

In May I'll be in Australia, working with Kate Eltham and the new Australian Institute for the Future of the Book in Brisbane and then appearing at THIS EVENT.

19 MAY
Meanland: Reading in a Time of Technology
The Wheeler Centre Auditorium, 6:15PM - 7:15PM, Wednesday 19 May 2010

Adrienne Nicotra explains how educational wikis might replace text books; novelist and programmer Paul Callaghan demonstrates the role narrative plays in today’s computer games; and the poet/composer Klare Lanson explores the intersection of music and text.

illegal parking? you decide!

Filmed outside the Poetry Society. "parked with one or more wheels on or over a footpath or any part of a road other than a carriageway"?

steve jobs in book group shock

This is one of the images on the Apple site showing off the wonders of the iPad. I was interested to see that it contains notes about someone's book group. Makes a change from all that guff about enjoying cool photos of windsurfing holidays. Here's another cool photo of a person asleep in a library.

lornch ov hotbook at tha freeeewerd senter

The HOTBOOK is a mini social network, stitched together from cardboard, tape and bits of found technology and sent back in time via the TSPoser from the far flung future.

Originally designed by Chris Wilks in Moodle form, the project was extensively piloted in three schools after which we asked Anna Pitt to make a version which could be downloaded by schools to sit on their server. The HOTBOOK contains new writing by Kate Pullinger and Chris Joseph, Naomi Alderman and many more, beautifully realised in different digital forms by Toni Le Busque. Following feedback from schools that they wanted more ideas on teaching activities to use with each Litch Bit, a brilliant guide has been created by poet Daljit Nagra, if:book's Sasha Hoare and Queensbridge school's Jo Klaces and Ellie Clarke.

Wendy Cooling is a children's book expert and the originator of the Bookstart scheme; Cory Doctorow writes science fiction and contributes to one of the most popular blogs in the world.

Both were at the launch of our major education practice, which is pleasing as the HOTBOOK hopes to build bridges between page-loving teachers and students focused on the networked screen.

Students and staff from Queensbridge School Birmingham talked about their favourite litch bits and showed off the box they found when the first message arrived from the future asking them to help create the Museum of the History of the Book.

Roland Marden, Head of Research at Booktrust, talking about the success of the HOTBOOK with boys and 'lower ability' students

The wonderful Eleanor Clarke, Head of English, and Jo Klaces, Creative Agent at Queensbridge talking about the impact of the HOTBOOK on her students of all abilities, including the two utterly brilliant young people who spoke at the launch about how much they liked Toni's film of Wilfred Owen's Dulce et Decorum Est and Cindy Oswin's Chaucer remix in particular.

I was delighted to be able to announce that Everythingweb.net is generously providing hosting support for the project - and over 340 schools from the UK and around the world have already registered interest in downloading the HOTBOOK which is currently being tested in a small number of schools and will be freely available from our website in the next few weeks.

Photos by Hattie Coppard. More to follow

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Interesting post from Martyn Daniels with solid information on the eye strain question. Here's an extract.

"Finally we have the battle between backlit LCD and eInk and the claims and counter claims on the health effect of screen technology. The recent Taipei International Book Exhibition saw several companies promoting LCD devices aimed at schoolchildren. We have already seen many initiatives to ditch textbooks and go digital in education. LCD screens are less expensive than e-paper screens and obviously offer full colour and multimedia and the new iPad also has an LCD screen. The American Optometric Association finds the tie between eye strain, blurred vision, headaches and neck pain and LCD inconclusive and based on current evidence it is 'unlikely that the use of VDTs (video display terminals) causes permanent changes or damage to the eyes or visual system.' "

sunday outing

Ben Grubb (nephew) and my Mum at the Southbank Centre

it's here

And the arrival of the other kind is a big moment too.
I can see why I was anticipating the announcement of Apple's new gismo this week, what with running a charity that promotes digital, multimedia literary forms, but it was weird this week to look over my shoulder and find most of the rest of the world (well, nearly) anticipating it too.

"We've all got smart phones and laptops" says Steve Jobs. (Well, nearly all, if you mean people like us as opposed to the rest of the people who live on the planet. "Now we need to get an iPad." And it'll be really like cool and fun for him to sell it to us.

But this is what we've been banging on about: the devise that puts reading back onto the main stage and blends books into the multimedia mix. So..let's get creating wonderful new kinds of experiences for mobile readers (by which I mean people, by the way, not gadgets).

*****

We launch the HOTBOOK on tuesday Feb 2nd at the Free Word Centre after which a beta version of this six week reading experience for secondary schools will be free to download, thanks to Everythingweb who are kindly supporting the project which is funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.

«The Great Wipe hath irrayzed much of world culcha, butta few bits of licheracha haveth bn found – pleez help mi choose most bestest 2 exxibit» so says Curator HOTBOOK on 2/2/3010.

book fatigue

I love the idea of this Flickr stream of people sleeping in libraries. Poetic somehow, and reminds me of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire where angels cruise the library listening into people's thoughts.. and dreams.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/george/galleries/72157622566655097