Tip of the Quill: A Journal

Category Archives: Academia

Introducing Waker!

I’ve been working with the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab for a while now, primarily as its Communications Director but also occasionally as a researcher. This summer I had my first chance to write a game with this group, and now said game – Waker by Poof Games – is up and available to play for […]

leaf

Boston to Brazil and Back.

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to join my friends Maurício Mota and Mark Warshaw of The Alchemists (also here) as an invited speaker at the Descolagem lecture series in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Our hosts were Roberto “Beto” Largman and Marcia Oliveira, the founders of the Descolagem series and two genuinely warm and […]

leaf

The Future of Publishing.

A few months ago, I had the honor of organizing and moderating a keynote panel for the sixth Media in Transition conference here at MIT. Our title (and topic) was “The Future of Publishing”, and MIT World has just published the video recording of it online. I’ve embedded a copy of it here (all 94 […]

leaf

The Wrong Essay: From Horrorism to Terrorism.

This weekend is Readercon, one of my favorite conferences in the world and, although this is only my second, one I’ve all but sworn never to miss. I love the people, the panels, the bookshop (especially the bookshop) and the level of conversation that happens here, wide-ranging debates that cover everything that has to do […]

leaf

Henry Jenkins: Convergence Culture and Transmedia Storytelling in a Nutshell.

In this clip from the future (November 2009?) Henry sums up the basics of what he’s been saying about convergence culture, transmedia storytelling and the Obama campaign. Henry Jenkins on Transmedia – November 2009 from niko on Vimeo. I really like how the author describes the clip as a “viral-info-snack”; Henry would challenge the ‘viral’ […]

leaf

On storybots.

Yesterday I had an amazing meeting with several of my friends and coworkers to discuss a new possible project coming down the pike, and although I can’t tell you what that project is yet, it wound up triggering some intense late-night thinking. How do robots tell stories? We’ve all seen robots as characters – C-3PO […]

leaf

Learning vs. learned.

I woke up this morning with an odd thought in my head: is it better to be learning or learned? Traditionally, scholars and experts are considered to be learned individuals, people who are, in short, paid to know. Yet once you reach a certain level, it becomes rapidly clear that to remain a professional, you […]

leaf

If I were in Ohio…

I’d totally be attending P. Craig Russell’s appearance tonight at OSU’s Wexner Center. Here’s the description of the event from the site: Wayne Alan Harold and P. Craig Russell introduce Night Music: The Art of P. Craig Russell Night Music provides an illuminating behind-the-scenes look at one of the most acclaimed and interesting comic book […]

leaf

April: The Month That Got Away. (Kinda.)

Rabbit rabbit! OK, now that that’s out of the way… Great Caesar’s ghost, what a month. Alas, the 2009 30|30 project didn’t work out, as I’d feared – still, eighteen poems is better than I fared last year, when I petered out at thirteen (yet still not as good as the first year I did […]

leaf

CONATHON09.XX2: Paused.

Well, damn. My attempts at videoblogging have been temporarily paused due to an unforeseen circumstance: a shortage of hard drive space on my laptop. Once I land in San Francisco and drop my stuff off at the hotel, I may go searching for an el cheapo Flash drive or card to offload some of these […]

leaf