It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but I have a ton of open tabs I need to close and I thought I’d share a snapshot of what’s ben on my mind lately. In no particular order…

• Gruff Rhys Journeys into the Transmedia Landscape of the “American Interior”. Emerging possible case study of transmedia + music. “Cinematically American Interior is a documentary, tour diary, concert film and road movie that includes animation and a silent puppet co-protagonist”? I’m sold.
• SOLID 2014. Where I’ll be next week.
• CFP: FAB10 Barcelona. “We are looking for proposals on how cities can re-discover their potential for productivity – without compromising other aspects of life.” Abstracts of 300-500 words due May 19.
• How transmedia can transform audiences.
• WATCH_DOGS: We Are Data. Fascinating.
• Hotel’s Google Glass App Lets Guests Explore Cities Without Leaving Home. “The SPG app utilizes voice control and GPS features of Glass to create an immersive travel experience for guests before they even step into the hotel. Wearers can use voice commands to find a hotel and see what’s nearby. They can browse through photos of the hotel, rooms and local area.” Wait ’til you see them adopt the Rift…
• CNN’s iReport comes to Google Glass. Citizen journalism gets wearable.
• Wieden + Kennedy’s experience of Google Glass. “Are devices like this are actually making us more productive in the most valuable way? Sure, it’ll help if you’ve a long stream of little things you have to do. In this case the timely reminders can certainly be useful. But shouldn’t computing be helping by doing these small tasks for us, rather than controlling our day to make sure they get done? This would free all of us up to do what people still do best: creative and conceptual thought, and problem solving. Surely that should be the ambition of technology and innovation, rather than just a more complex way to keep yet another list.”
• Seeds – A Mother’s Day Story Told Through Google Glass. <3>
• This Mother’s Day Video Shows How Pointless Google Glass Is. Yes, Karyne Levy. You are heartless. Also apparently without vision, curiosity or imagination.
• Google working on embedding a camera into a contact lens. Blink twice if you saw this coming.
• Blurb Offers New Toold for Color Book Authors. Thinking comics…
• Why Major Publishers Missed the Boat on Self-Publishing. “Publishers were in a perfect position five years ago to provide a viable self-publishing program. They missed the boat and Amazon become the unstoppable juggernaut that pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars piggybacking on the indies. The Seattle based company is vilified by everyone in the publishing industry because they developed and executed an idea that the traditional publishers were unable to do.”
• USC Games director Tracy Fullerton pushes boundaries, touts diversity. Yay Tracy! So inspiring. So well-deserved.
• Trailers for new FOX shows. Wayward Pines looks fascinating.
• Neil Gaiman’s Journey from UNHCR. Neil’s in Syria, getting an up-close and personal look into the refugee crisis.
• Meet the Godfather of Wearables. The MIT Media Lab’s Sandy Pentland, in case you were wondering. “Wearable technology is inherently social, where computer technology isn’t. When the Lab opened, mainline computer science people thought anything including social aspects was pretty far afield.”
• This is Ben Affleck as Batman, this is his Batmobile. Zack Snyder’s “direct lift” skills are paying off, being applied to Frank Miller’s iconic Batman. Very cool.
• Xbox LIVE is bigger than DirecTV. “With 48 million subscribers through Xbox Live (silver and gold), Microsoft has a bigger audience than DirecTV.”
• How digital is helping the world’s largest genre publisher to engage fans. Yay for Alison Norrington and Nick DeMartino!
• Producers talk brand integration at TO WebFest. “One of the insights that came from the panel is that brands are now asking for product integrations to be incorporated into the transmedia aspects of a show, not just through the video. For example, to show off the Samsung watch video capture capabilities, the technology is woven into the storyline as a character captures a song that’s performed for him and beams it to Emma, who then posts the video on Instagram. Not only is it authentic to the storyline, it’s an important part of the plot.”
• Steve Lettieri on Imagimod and 3D Printing Your Videogames. Fascinating.
• Use of Force’s Nonny de la Peña on Pushing Journalism into the Interactive Realm. Such a rich area to explore.