Comments on: Digital versus Physical….Where stories go to die? http://mith.umd.edu/digitalstorytelling/2012/09/06/digital-versus-physical-where-stories-go-to-die/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=digital-versus-physical-where-stories-go-to-die HDCC 208B / Seminar in Digital Cultures and Creativity / Fall 2012 Mon, 11 May 2015 07:39:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Jen Guiliano http://mith.umd.edu/digitalstorytelling/2012/09/06/digital-versus-physical-where-stories-go-to-die/#comment-20 Jen Guiliano Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:27:08 +0000 http://mith.umd.edu/digitalstorytelling/?p=479#comment-20 Hi Kelsey- You'd be surprised at how fragile digital material really is and how quickly it disappears....here's a good article from Popular Mechanics on how technical evolution makes the loss of digital materials more rapid (http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/4201645) When we look at the internet, the assumption that something just "exists" on the web is problematic. Take YouTube...it was originally founded in 2005 by three former paypal employees. They sold YouTube in 2006 to Google, changing all the rules about who ran what and with what legal rights....now imagine that google implodes tommorrow and goes bankrupt. Every google server farm in the world turns off...including the one hosting millions of youtube videos. not a problem if you as the person who contributed your video have it somewhere else but perhaps you've had hundreds or even thousands of comments on your video. When google dies, it takes the live video and the commentary record with it. If you are like most people, you trust that the cloud has your back and you haven't backed up your video anywhere....now what happens? Hi Kelsey-
You’d be surprised at how fragile digital material really is and how quickly it disappears….here’s a good article from Popular Mechanics on how technical evolution makes the loss of digital materials more rapid (http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/4201645)

When we look at the internet, the assumption that something just “exists” on the web is problematic. Take YouTube…it was originally founded in 2005 by three former paypal employees. They sold YouTube in 2006 to Google, changing all the rules about who ran what and with what legal rights….now imagine that google implodes tommorrow and goes bankrupt. Every google server farm in the world turns off…including the one hosting millions of youtube videos. not a problem if you as the person who contributed your video have it somewhere else but perhaps you’ve had hundreds or even thousands of comments on your video. When google dies, it takes the live video and the commentary record with it. If you are like most people, you trust that the cloud has your back and you haven’t backed up your video anywhere….now what happens?

]]> By: Kelsey H. http://mith.umd.edu/digitalstorytelling/2012/09/06/digital-versus-physical-where-stories-go-to-die/#comment-18 Kelsey H. Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:55:20 +0000 http://mith.umd.edu/digitalstorytelling/?p=479#comment-18 I've noticed a lot of people have a similar problem with the e-reader - it's incredibly hard to share books on it. This has a lot to do with copyright law and whatnot, and I think that we're definitely headed in a direction where sharing books on the Kindle is much easier, as easy as sharing music. That's one main reason I like physical books - you can tell a lot about a book by how well loved it is. I borrow books from my boyfriend a lot and my favorite part is seeing lines he underlined as important, or comments he jotted in the margins. This is probably possible, or even easier, in e-readers, but... it just doesn't have the same feel to me. As far as your questions, it's definitely harder for a digital story to "die." It's not like a huge catastrophe could just wipe out our electronic database and "kill" a story the same way stories were lost in ancient civilizations and cultures. I think a digital story online does not necessarily die. It can be lost on the interwebz, it can be hidden, but I think someone, somewhere, will always eventually find it and draw meaning from it. I am thinking of, in particular, the various YouTube videos that have become popularized over the years. More often than not, they are several years old and have very few hits before they become a trend. This is an extreme example, of course, but it illustrates the idea of the story being "reborn." I’ve noticed a lot of people have a similar problem with the e-reader – it’s incredibly hard to share books on it. This has a lot to do with copyright law and whatnot, and I think that we’re definitely headed in a direction where sharing books on the Kindle is much easier, as easy as sharing music. That’s one main reason I like physical books – you can tell a lot about a book by how well loved it is. I borrow books from my boyfriend a lot and my favorite part is seeing lines he underlined as important, or comments he jotted in the margins. This is probably possible, or even easier, in e-readers, but… it just doesn’t have the same feel to me.

As far as your questions, it’s definitely harder for a digital story to “die.” It’s not like a huge catastrophe could just wipe out our electronic database and “kill” a story the same way stories were lost in ancient civilizations and cultures. I think a digital story online does not necessarily die. It can be lost on the interwebz, it can be hidden, but I think someone, somewhere, will always eventually find it and draw meaning from it. I am thinking of, in particular, the various YouTube videos that have become popularized over the years. More often than not, they are several years old and have very few hits before they become a trend. This is an extreme example, of course, but it illustrates the idea of the story being “reborn.”

]]> By: Amanda Visconti http://mith.umd.edu/digitalstorytelling/2012/09/06/digital-versus-physical-where-stories-go-to-die/#comment-11 Amanda Visconti Thu, 06 Sep 2012 18:43:26 +0000 http://mith.umd.edu/digitalstorytelling/?p=479#comment-11 To Jen's excellent questions, I'd add one more: "What happens to stories when they change media form?" (The Book-Was-Better-Than-The-Movie Dilemma.) A lot of the stories we're encountering in this course will be "born-digital"--that is, created as a digital object--but there's a host of other stories that start out as print novels and short stories, then are re-imagined ("remediated") in a new media form (it even happens with board games--does anyone remember the film Jumanji?). Next week, we'll start exploring the limits of different media forms--what does hypertext allow that you can't do in print, what does writing with pen and ink call forth that typing does not. How does the media format for your writing limit and empower different stories? To Jen’s excellent questions, I’d add one more: “What happens to stories when they change media form?” (The Book-Was-Better-Than-The-Movie Dilemma.) A lot of the stories we’re encountering in this course will be “born-digital”–that is, created as a digital object–but there’s a host of other stories that start out as print novels and short stories, then are re-imagined (“remediated”) in a new media form (it even happens with board games–does anyone remember the film Jumanji?). Next week, we’ll start exploring the limits of different media forms–what does hypertext allow that you can’t do in print, what does writing with pen and ink call forth that typing does not. How does the media format for your writing limit and empower different stories?

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