Tag Archives: multimedia books

Final notes on the Congress and multimedia books

Vancouver broke a 1954 record for coldest day in June and that happened during the congress (which itself ended this Sunday, June 8, 2008). The last day of the CATTW conference (June 3, 2008) part of the congress produced something very interesting for me. Somebody called Christine Penner did a presentation on a technical manual called “Why’s (poignant) Guide to Ruby” (it’s a programming language) and analyzed according to Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories.  The use of multiple voices and styles as well as humour  were all related to Bakhtin, plus there was actual technical information in  the guide. I’m thinking this might be helpful  as I put together my nanotech wiki.

Plus, I checked out So Misguided which bills itself as a Canadian book blog and this time found some information on multimedia books. Monique Trottier (So Misguided blogger) is talking about a Quillr called “Here Ends the Beginning” by Nicola Furlong (who coined the word Quillr to describe her multimedia book).  Trottier provides some links to other multimedia books including some award-winning nonfiction.

All of this (developing my wiki, Bakhtin’s theories, and the quillr) has gotten me to thinking about the relationship between the reader and the author. The wiki and quillr require a lot more work than a print book from the reader and the wiki even offers the possibility of  turning a reader into an author. Bakhtin offers the notion of multiple voices and dialogue. If I understand the theory rightly, language only exists as a form of dialogue which the wiki would make clearly visible.

As for Canadian nanotechnology, there doesn’t seem to be any today.