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AFTER PAPERS PAPERS (Or Why I Want to Participate):
Further descriptions of panels: |
This is the 4th Hypertext Writers' Workshop, a part of the Eleventh ACM Hypertext 00 conference. You can see the papers for this workshop as well as papers and results from HT99 and HT98 at Word Circuits. This workshop will provide a much-needed physical setting for writers, readers, and system developers to share works in progress and discuss techniques and strategies to improve hyperliteracy. Participants are strongly encouraged to attend the rest of the Hypertext 00 conference, as well.
ACM Hypertext 2000 will be held from Tuesday, May 30 to Saturday, June 3, in San Antonio, Texas, USA, at the Menger Hotel, next to the Alamo.
The HTWW will hold sessions Tuesday May 30 and Friday June 2.
There will be a workshop fee (set by the conference organizers).
Hypertexts comprise a range of media, techniques, programs, and systems. Authors have developed strategies to use these systems to explore, challenge, and play with reader expectations.
Hypertext content developers and system developers need a place to explore hypertext writing strategies and discuss specific tools and techniques to create quality hypertexts. The specific objectives of this workshop are to:
- Promote and improve hyperliteracy and quality hypertext writing (both fiction and nonfiction)
- Be informed about new projects and techniques
- Examine hypertext writing, ask questions of the authors, and discuss important "invisible" aspects such as structure, decision-making, and technical details.
Participants come from a broad range of hypertext systems developers, content developers, and readers.
The maximum number of participants will be 60 (10 in each session). Participants will be chosen to ensure as broad a range of expertise, perspectives, styles, structures, and strategies as possible.
Participants will be able to chose three of the following four tracks. Each track will be given twice. Tracks will run simultaneously.
1. WRITE NOW!: A hypertext writing exercise to explore ways to write hypertext and demonstrate the concepts and thought techniques involved. This writing exercise will explore collaborative writing and linkning to provied a glimpse into how writers think and create in hypertext.
2. WRITE WITH WHAT?: A discussion designed to further expand existing lists of specific tool requirements--and determine where these are available or how we can get them. Discussions will cover expectations for hypermedia developing software (both from a writer's and reader's perspective). Developers, researchers, readers and writers expectations often differ--writers may expect readers to be very engaged with the work and forgiving of the software quirks, while readers may expect more immediate payoffs without being required to invest time learning the software and puzzling out the navigation. How can we work with these differing expectations to create usable, enjoyable hypertexts?
3. WRITE HOW?: A discussion designed to further expand our existing lists of strategies and techniques--and determine how these techniques are being used and could be used in future hypertext literature. Discussions will focus on writing techniques and ways to use the media. Hypertext writing provides a multidimensional space. We will look at:
- How do we use navigation, structure, linking to show meaning?
- What strategies can we employ to create effective works (e.g., collaboration, usability testing, storyboarding)?
- Hypertexts take on meaning and structure from the programs they are created in.
- How can we translate a hypertext from one program to another?
- How can we effectively use existing hypertext software?
- What tools do we still need for effective reading and writing environments?
4. TALK ABOUT WRITING: This session will explore ways to discuss hypertext literature using literary theory's tools. After ten years of hypertext conferences, it is time to review our assumptions and think about the theoretical status of our discipline. Discussions will focus on questions such as:
- How can these tools be adapted to suit our purposes?
- What approaches are useful for hypertext and what aren't?
- Can we speak of a hypertextual rhetoric?
- How does hypertext fit into the century's cultural arena?
This session is aimed at all those working in Humanities, specially Literature, Linguistics, Philosophy and Cultural Studies, but other approaches are also welcome.
Send a letter to Deena Larsen with:
- NAME
- ADDRESS AND PHONE
- WHY YOU WANT TO JOIN IN
- WHICH SESSIONS YOU WANT TO BE IN
Participants will:
1) Write a short paper about the issues they see in hypertext literature and development, and ways to address these issues.
2) Writers and systems developers will be asked to provide a short introduction to their work. Writers should provide an excerpt from a work in progress for the other workshop participants to read before the workshop. (This should be a short excerpt (10-30 nodes) and provide a flavor for the work). System developers should provide a brief description of their system's features and/or a betatest site.
3) Read excerpts from demos and position papers before the workshop. These will be made available on the Word Circuits site and sent to each participant.
4) Attend the reading evening earlier in the HT00 Conference, and explore works available in the reading space throughout the conference. We will not have time this year for demonstrations within the workshop. Yet it is vital that everyone be able to discuss some of the same works and techniques. Therefore, this year, we must require participants to read works ahead of time and to attend the readings.
The Writing Workshops at HT conferences provide a chance to meet face to face and to explore hypertext literature for the first time. Participants will continue to work together throughout the year, through online collaborations, including a monthly online chat, and other workshops, including CyberMountain.