Behind the scenes of an m-novel project in South Africa
Over the last few months, Yoza editor-in-chief, Louise McCann has been leading a collaborative story writing workshop with four teenagers from Khayelitsha. Anthony Baatjies, Zandile Ntlatli, Christopher Mzamo and Lamla Nyikila have produced the m-novel Someone like me for publication on Yoza.
Read the Mobook Story Co-Lab Report about the writing workshop.
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.
A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 7,600 times in 2010. That’s about 18 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 30 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 50 posts. There were 23 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 21mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.
The busiest day of the year was August 25th with 153 views. The most popular post that day was Press release: Launch of Yoza m-Novel Library.
The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, shuttleworthfoundation.org, innovatingeducation.wordpress.com, vosloo.net, and facebook.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for m4lit, m4lit project, kontax, book logo, and literature survey for project.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Press release: Launch of Yoza m-Novel Library August 2010
7 comments
About the project August 2009
7 comments
Reports March 2010
7 comments
Literature Survey September 2009
Read the m-novels April 2010
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In Nadine Gordimer advocates book over screen, the Mail & Guardian reports on a defense of the printed book against the onslaught of technology by the Nobel laureate and one of South Africa’s most distinguished literary figures. Below is my response.
Nadine Gordimer (Image: United Nations Photo. License: CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0)
Dear Nadine,
I too love the form of a book, the weight and smell of it, the feeling of the paper. I would be devastated if books were to vanish, relegated to museums. But one can’t ignore the changes that are happening in the world, nor the advantages that new technology offers. Books are highly durable — read on the mountain top without fear of the battery dying — but prohibitively expensive. Without libraries, our youth can’t access books. I agree that we desperately need libraries, but must concede that we probably won’t see them built and stocked for some time (if ever).
What our youth do have, however, are cellphones. The project that I lead, called m4Lit (mobiles for literacy), takes this book-poor/cellphone-rich context of South Africa — indeed of most of Africa — as a point of departure. If cellphones are what’s in the hands of young people then that is what we have to work with. On a mobisite and on MXit, we’ve published two short stories called Kontax, written in conventional English. In 7 months we’ve had over 33,000 reads of these stories. We asked young people to leave comments on chapters — over 3,000 received so far — and have run two writing competitions (e.g. make up a character you’d like to read about in the next Kontax story) with over 4,000 entries submitted. Through their comments, some of the readers have said that they don’t like reading books but that reading on their cellphones is fun and enjoyable. A few others have indicated that reading Kontax has changed they way they think about reading, from “that is something that I don’t do” to “this is fun.”
A key feature of phones, which books don’t have, is connectivity. With chapter comments left by our readers for all to see, reading moves from a solitary exercise to a more social one. While reading a book on one’s own is a very enjoyable pastime, a more social experience has huge potential for those who need help with texts through annotations (remember how useful it was when you got your hands on a school or university textbook that a previous learner had embellished with notes). This sort of marginalia can now be useful to a much wider audience, not only to one lucky learner each year. What’s more, in a publicly visible way there can be questions and answers as one reader leaves a comment wondering what is going on in the story, and another reader comments with the answer.
True, a cellphone needs a charged battery, but today’s kids have a habit of finding power one way or another. As a device it offers a viable distribution platform for the written word, not printed on paper but displayed in pixels. I think we need to acknowledge that while the pixel isn’t as soulful as a page of paper, it is infinitely better than nothing. Publishing format aside, 33,000 kids are reading and that is a good thing.
A cellphone is a viable complement, and sometimes alternative, to a printed book. If we want our youth to read, we need both. Viva the book! Viva the cellphone!
At the World Bank’s Innovation Fair “Moving Beyond Conflict” event in Cape Town, Parvathi Menon, the CEO of Innovation Alchemy gave a short but very insightful presentation on innovation. A key question she asked was: What are the series of innovative ideas that together make an innovative proposition? People often stop at the first idea and think that’s the innovation. Don’t do that! The iPod was the platform not the key innovation. The killer “app” was being able to buy a song at a time for 99c and easily drop it onto a player.
Africa is book-poor but mobile phone-rich, so m4Lit’s idea to use phones as a way to get teens to read and write is an innovative one, right? No. Applying Parvathi’s points to m4Lit: for our readers the innovation isn’t reading and writing on mobile phones. It’s reading kick-ass stories, affordably, easily (they always have their cellphones with them, they don’t always have books or magazines with them), and being able to make comments and have the world see them in near real time (beats writing a snail mail letter to the author). These are the “layers” that make up the innovative proposition. The mobile phone simply enables all of this. Key to realising the innovative proposition is telling readers that the stories are there — so need to market effectively (and innovatively) — and quickly moderating readers’ contributions.
Great quote by Arthur Attwell of Electric Book Works in Applying publishing tech in Southern Africa:
There is a justified obsession with mobile in developing countries. There are far more mobile phones in the developing world than the developed, and therefore a delivery device in nearly every pocket.
At O’Reilly Publishing Tools of Change (TOC) conference in New York was the session Digital Storytelling: The Evolution of Publishing Fiction on a Mobile Device by Geoffrey Young (StopWatch Media).
Mobile phones know where you are, what time it is, are communications devices and are fully programmable.
Starting question: Given these features, what story can you tell?
The Carrier is the first transmedia graphic novel as an iPhone app. In it’s “print” form, the novel would consist of 680 panels, 35 chapters — about 120 pages if printed out. Really it’s just images on a screen. But given the transmedia way it is told — in real time over 10 days — the story is a lot more.
Because mobile phones know what time it is, stories can be revealed over time. Depending on the time of day that reading begins, readers begin the story in a different way. This puts the storyteller in control. In real time the story pushes out messages.
The authors have created a lot of fictional sites — alternate reality game-like. They also created merchandise in Cafe Press that they linked to, which readers could buy. Messages were pushed to iPhone readers using Urban Airship (first 250,000 messages sent a free!) Geoff considered using SMS for messaging, but that option was too expensive (the author pays for the messages, not the reader).
This was an interesting presentation, given the transmedia features and story extras we built into Kontax.
At O’Reilly Publishing Tools of Change (TOC) conference: Consumers in the Cloud: Google and Digital Books presented by Abe Murray, Product Manager at Google Books.
There are millions (billions?) more browsers than ebook readers, so why not use the browser as an ereader? You can walk into a bookstore and buy any book. Not so with ebooks, e.g. Kindle locks you into ebooks from Amazon. Google no like … Google Books mantra: buy anywhere, read anywhere. So Google moves into the ereader market with Google Editions — it’s browser-based and in the cloud (of course)!
How it works: Users preview book on Google.com. They can buy the book directly from Google.com or through retailer site. User then owns a Google Edition ebook. All users books will then be online and accessible anywhere, anytime in the cloud in their Google Books library. Further:
Abe: “This is a great year for ebooks and Google’s gonna be part of that.”
OK, so this is all very interesting. Yes, Google will still be a
controlling party in the value chain (let’s not forget that they make
money … they don’t just love freeing information for the love of it).
But their control will be less restrictive than current publishers.
Definitely a space to watch.
Day one at O’Reilly’s Publishing Tools of Change (TOC) conference in New York kicked off with a few great keynotes. Some snippets and thoughts:
Enhancing the ebook
Peter Collingridge, Enhanced Editions
One of his previous projects is www.bookseer.com — a book recommendation service.
Law is not a business solution
William Patry, Google Inc.
Are ebooks dead?
David Skip Prichard, CEO of Ingram Content Group
Publishing is dead: Long live publishing!
Ariana Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post
How does this apply to the m4Lit project?
The winners of the Kontax Sequel Ideas Competition have been announced. We asked readers for ideas for what should happen in future Kontax stories. These are the three best entries for English as well as isiXhosa.
English winners
1st Place: Zindles (R2,000)
Kontax will still be fully functional and the friends still united as ever.song works after school and on weekends so she can help out her sick mother. Airtime realises that his feelings for song r getting stronger by the day. K8 has been distant for a couple of weeks but nobody knows why or where she is,they just asume she’s busy. Sbu and Airtime try to help Song in everyway they can-they even acompany her to go get ARV’s at the community clinic. Airtime,for once in his life,came up with a brilliant idea:to take Song’s mother’s situation and turn it into a learning opportunity for others. Sbu suggests that they do a kontax project on HIV/Aids and how it is not a death sentence. But mostly they wanted to stress the fact that the community should come together to help people infected and affected by HIV and Aids. Sbu also suggests that they take Song’s mother’s employer to the CCMA for unfair dismissal. We watch how the trial develops and eventualy they win the case.
2nd Place: Amila (R1,000)
Sbu starts hanging out with the wrong crowd.Luvo and Thando had always had a bad reputation around the township but that didnt stop Sbu from wanting to be accepted by them.Songz,K8 and Airtym tried speaking to him but they just couldnt get through to him.Sbu finds himself in a rather uncomfortable situation when Luvo and Thando hijack a car while he was driving with him.Sbu had no choice but to continue driving as he would also be thought to be part of the hijackers.Sbu is furious with Luvo and Thando but there is nothing he can do about it because they start threatinig him and his friends.He turns back to his friends and reveal all.They encourage him to go to the police and report.They get arrested and are convicted for otherr things they had done in the past.Sbu becomes friends with K8 and them again.Sbu is punished to do commumity work.
3rd Place: Lisa (R500)
Sbu tells s0ng about the job interview 0n the m0nday,s0ng is very excited and gets the job,airtime starts realisng that he has developed feelingz for song and he c0nfeses them 2her..k8 and sbu get offerd a pr0fesi0nal job at an art studi0 2 showcase their grafitti and this is a dream c0me true for both of them..sbu keepz c0ntct with adele and they bec0me very cl0se friends ,adelles direct0rs bec0me interestd in sbu.s st0ry and decide 2 make a m0vie out of it nd it goes platinum …s0ng and airtime start dating nd with tha m0ney she earnd she managd 2get her m0ther treatment and healthy again..the m0vie recieves a grammy nd goes big nd sbu gets an award for his role…
isiXhosa winners
1st Place: Sbuja (R2,000)
USbu owayehlala ezilalini waze waza edolophini.USbu wayenamaphupha angawaziyo, into eyenza ukuba agoduke ayokubona igqirha.Igqirha lamxelela ukuba ufuna ukusetyenziswa zizinyanya ukulwa ububi obuzathi buvuke, izinyanya zaye zaxabana(kukho icala elingcolileyo nelilungileyo). Izinyanya ezingcolileyo zazifuna uku-controller ilizwe lonke.USbu waye wabuyela edolophini enikwe i-powers, kodwa kwakufuneka ukuba afunde ukuzisebenzisa.Wayene-powers zokwenza imvula, ezokwenza umoya, ezokwenza umlilo, ezemilingo(uyakwazi ukunyamalala).Waye waqala umsenzi wakhe wokulwa umoya ombi, ngokuthi ahambe esilwa nabantu abasetyenziswa zizinyanya ezingcolileyo(wayethi akumoyisa umntu amncede ngokuthi akhuphe umoya omdaka).Ekugqibeleni uyaphumelela kwaye izinyanya ezingcolileyo ziyagwetywa kwilizwe lezinya.
Translation: Sbu who lived in the rural areas came to the city. Sbu had dreams he did not understand so he went back home to see a Sangoma. The Sangoma told him that the ancestors wanted to use him to fight the bad that were going to spring up. The ancestors fought amongst themselves (there was a good side and bad side) The bad ancestors wanted to control the whole land. Sbu went back to the city after being given powers but he had to learn how to use them. He had rain making powers; wind making powers; fire making powers, and magic making ones (he could disappear into thin air). He set out to do his work of fighting the bad spirits by going to fight the people who were being used by the bad ancestors ( when he had defeated the person he would help him by taking out the bad spirits). Finally he succeeded and the bad ancestors were banished to the land of the dogs.
2nd Place: Sugar (R1,000)
Abalinganiswa bethu bendingathanda ukuba bacacisele abanye abantu malungana negrafitti yabo ukuze abantu bezakubona elicala lilungileyo elibonwa ngabo, hayi into yokuba bayangcolisa apho bahlala khona. Ukuba kungathandwa ukuvezwa kakhulu icala lasesikolweni, sibone ukuba ngubani ungqa phambili apha phakathi kwabo. Ingasinika umdla into yokuba kubekho lo ushiyekelayo kwimisebenzi yakhe yesikolo ukuze abahlobo bakhe bazame ukunceda, ukubonakali izihlobo zokwenyani, kodwa kungabilula ukwenza oko kuba engafuni ukuyamkela into yokuba uyashiyekela kwimisebenzi yesikolo. Isizathu sokuba ashiyekele kwimisebenzi, yinto yokuba akalali ebusuku obu, kukho lento ayenzayo yonke imihla le, efana nento yokuba uyasebenza ukuze kutyiwe kokwabo. Mhlawumbi umama wakhe uhlukene notata wakhe umntu ebezisa kutya apha endlini ukuze batye, mhlawumbi uthengisa iziyobisi okanye ucinga nento yokuba athengise nangomzimba wakhe, kodwa ekugqibeleni abahlobo bakhe ngabona bantu abazakuzama ukumbonisa ezinye indlela.
Translation: I would like our peers to explain to others about their graffiti so that people can see the good that they see in it and not only the part where they are regarded as making the places they live in dirty. If possible I would like to be shown quite a bit on the school side so we can see who is best amongst them. It would be more interesting if one of them was lagging behind in their school work so that the friends could try and help and we can see true friendship but it should not be easy to do that because he/she refuses to accept that he/she is lagging behind in his or her school work. The reason for lagging behind is due to not sleeping at night because he or she is busy with something everyday like maybe work, so the family can eat. Maybe the mother is separated from the father, who was the bread winner. Maybe he or she is selling drugs or is even thinking of selling his or her body but in the end the friends should be the ones who try to show her or him other ways.
3rd place: Mayongi (R500)
Kubali elilandela okungenze usong angathatha ispani esi asinikwa nguAdelle ngenxa ka sbu ukwenzla anakakele ioledi lakhe.kwelinye icala isbu angamane ebhelela uAdelle nje ukuqhuba incoko,ngokwnza njlo kulapho bangasndelalna kakhulu lnto ingth ide ifike exsheni lokub bathandane.kwelicala lokupaynta igraffiti bangath bafunde bade bagqiba apho bazakuth baspane bathole inyuku yokuth bathnge indawo bazokth bapeynte kuyo apho izokuba njengeofisi lapho apho bayakuth xa bepeyntle babize abntu abasezmalni ukuze babone imisbenz emihle abynzayo pha.
Translation: In the next story what could happen is that Song takes the job that Adelle gives her because of Sbu so that she can look after her mother. On the other side Sbu could keep writing to Adelle just to drive the talk, by so doing it would bring them closer together so much that they end up in love. On the graffiti painting side they could study until they finish so that they can get work and money and buy a place where they could paint in, like an office, where they could mount exhibitions for people with money and show off the good works they are doing there.
Well done to all of the winners! And thank you to all who submitted entries. Keep trying in Kontax 2.
At the Geek Retreat at Stanford Valley Lodge I brainstormed two key questions for the future of m4Lit. The idea generation was awesome (despite some Geek Retreaters being wildly hungover). Below is what we came up with.
1. How to grow Kontax? How to make it more “sticky”?
2. How to monetise Kontax?
A general suggestion: Make the story multidimensional, e.g. story links through to images, videos, chat, etc.
Overall, the weekend was great for networking, putting faces to Twitterer I follow, hearing about very cool projects — such as Cognician — and getting ideas for projects. I’ll definitely attend future retreats. See photos from the weekend.
