Its not a new topic to my blog readers. The way we read and the way we write is changing, for some more quickly than others perhaps. I reported recently, that according to my latest research on content distribution, nearly half, 45% of the organizations I polled are only minimally using or not using new publishing and distribution techniques that specifically leverage the unique capabilities of online content. Only 13% felt they were using such techniques extensively.
I guess among those 13% are wovelists, people who write wovels - serial novels specifically distributed and read through online means. According to a recent NPR story, author Victoria Blake "wanted to offer exciting, edgy fiction with a touch of the fantastic, and to make her Web site a primary component of her business. She hired Jesse Pollack to help her with Web programming, and then got together with him, some of his programming friends, a six-pack and a bag of Oreos. They came up with a format that demanded a new name: the wovel." As explained further a bit later in this post, she did not just publish to the web, she specifically rearchitected the content to exploit web capabilities.
Read on - this is a primary example of e-publishing, as I have been expounding on. But before we move on to that, I wanted to point out a "best practice". Victoria, expert in writing prose, teamed with Pollack, an expert in Web programming. At least during this transition phase, such a teaming is a best approach, that leverages the expertise of two disciplines that all too many consider only tangentially related.
The findings of the recent market study are likely symptomatic of many organizations putting up walls between content authors and content "publishers" (i.e. Web masters and designers). Without coordinated and deliberate cooperation between these two disciplines, focused on creativity and increased attractiveness or usability, online content remains "the same old stuff" just published in a new media. The dynamic capabilities of the new media remain virtually ignored. The value derived from online publishing is seriously and negatively impacted. Organizations need to rethink the value statement of their content, and then rethink that again, asking how the value can be increased if unprecedented approaches to publishing and distribution are considered.
OK, back to the NPR story. So what is a wovel? Is it merely a Seussian term for novel, designed to catch our attention? No - although a clever name that Dr. Seuss would have been proud of, a wovel is a new form of publishing, a most creative one. "A wovel is a Web novel," Blake says. "There's an installment every Monday. At the end of every installment, there's a binary plot branch point with a vote button at the end." Programmer Pollack describes the wovel format as reminiscent of the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, with a high-tech twist: "allowing the readers to ... choose their way through and decide on integral changes in the plot."
So, not only does the wovel represent a powerful and creative new way to create and publish content, it also incorporates social voting and collaborative development - two fundamental functionalities of Enterprise 2.0. Blake and Pollack are to be commended for their embracing and clever manipulation of these emerging e-publishing capabilities.
The writing style is not new. You may recall from your high school English class that Charles Dickens published many of his novels in serial form, and occasionally would allow public opinion to influence the direction future chapters would take. Wovels take this concept to a whole new level.
The technology is there including, web content management software, social voting and collaboration, Kindle readers. Now the onus is on the authors and "new age publishers" to think creatively and leverage these capabilities. Its not just about making content available on the web, its about making content available for the web.
The wovel - I ask you: "Will it change the way you think, when words are not provided in paper and ink? Will it inspire you to think again, the next time you pick up your pen? Would you read it on your i-phone, would you read it with friends or all alone? Would you read it with great glee, would you read it if it were free? Would you read it here or there, would you read it anywhere?
The wovel how novel.
