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Re: Jules Verne on your iPhone?

From: David Merchant <merchant~at~latech.edu>
Date: Sat, 07 Aug 2010 13:02:20 -0500
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

With the speedy advances being made in information technology, I think it would be good for Jules Verne societies to work on such matters as a dedicated part of their mission. Google Earth, Google Maps, smartphone applications are but a few ways to help spread the word and world of Verne. SecondLife is another; I've seen some good things with Verne in SecondLIfe, but I've seen some sad ones as well -misinformation or otherwise poorly thought out. Usually Verne in SeconLife has been steampunked (I'm a fan of Steam Punk and so while I don't mind alternative treatments or a respectful honoring Verne as an influence on Steam Punk I would like to see "pure" Verne as well, otherwise the average person will only think of Verne as a Steam Punk author, when he wasn't. Steam Punk became recognized as a genre in the 1980's - 1990's and was influenced, in part, by Verne, but it is not Verne). If Verne societies do not actively get involved we will see more myths and misconceptions (however innocently done) spread across the digital world. For some people, their only experience with Verne will be with the movies or what they see online in SecondLife.

Another project could be something like Alpha Dog Creations' "The Tell Tale Heart"  <http://www.thetell-taleheart.com/>. "Easier" than a live action movie. If we couldn't get the talent and time ourselves, I suppose we could look into hiring Alpha Dog Creations to create one for us. We'd need to see what it would cost and then see if the membership would be willing to contribute the monies for it. We could make sure what they created was a faithful adaptation.

TTFN,
David

Harry Hayfield wrote:

The BBC's technology programme called "Click" is a weekly programme broadcast on both the BBC News and BBC World channels and looks at various technological newspoints. This week the main discussion was on AR (Augmented Reality) which is just a posh way of saying "You have a smartphone with a camera, point it at something and it will tell you something of interest about the thing the phone is looking at" and that got me thinking. As we know there is a person who posts on here who has created quite a few Google Earth and Google Maps maps showing the various routes taken by Verne's characters, and it occured to me that perhaps him, the real Vernian experts (such as William Butcher and the like) and someone who knows how to programme these things into a smartphone to create "The World of Verne" where a smartphone user can find something mentioned in a Jules Verne book (say for instance The Reform Club in Pall Mall, London), point his phone at it and get not only a history of the Reform Club, but the segment of Vernian text that mentions the Reform Club and the context of the Reform Club in "Around the World in Eighty Days"

A plausible idea anyone?

-- 
Instructor of English
Technology Coordinator
Louisiana Tech University

Received on Sat 07 Aug 2010 - 21:02:20 IDT

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