October 22nd latest

Just had a meeting with Jon and Tom in CEMP (Centre forExcellence in Media Practice), and the project has suddenly made a hyper-jump (appropriate metaphor here, do you think?). It's very exciting, and what Jon proposed somewhat overhwelmed me because I'd been thinking pretty small, and Jon has been thinking a lot bigger.

Essentially, I had been thinking of Genarrator as a small-scale software platform, something we could give away on a CD, which would allow non-techie people to create interactive stories. That's still the main aim, but Jon has opened the project up by suggesting that we create something that can be offered to users via a CEMP-hosted site, an application which can be downloaded, along with the offer to writers of being able to upload their creations to the host-space. That way we can create an archive of cool material which will serve as a display case for others to view, and a record of how our research is being translated into practice. From a CEMP perspective, there would be a financial implication to hosting work, so ultimately a small charge might need to be levied - initially though, users would be offered the software and upload free of charge. And we can still use the application (Genarrator) with partner institutions, schools, writing groups etc, so that interactive narrative hopefully begins to become much more widely practiced and understood.

Finally, we will be able to use Genarrator for the teaching of interactive writing, and it could be used in other pedagogic areas, such as the teaching of self-evaluation, recording students' learning journeys, or documentary and biographical writing.

So, we're going to speak to potential web developers very soon, to see who might be able to assist me (given that I'm being unusually strong-willed about what I want to be built into Genarrator in order to make it usable and productive for writers and readers).