The Ever, Jane Kickstarter project is ~$14,000 short of its $100,000 goal with only 51 hours to go @ 6pm MST Friday, November 29th. You can support the project by pledging as low as $1.00!!!
Ever, Jane is a virtual world that allows people to role-play in Regency Period England. Similar to traditional role playing games, we advance our character through experience, but that is where the similarities end. Ever, Jane is about playing the actual character in the game, building stories. Our quests are derived from player’s actions and stories. And we gossip rather than swords and magic to demolish our enemies and aid our friends.
Support Ever, Jane: The Virtual World of Jane Austen by Judy L. Tyrer | Kickstarter.
Every year there are two amazing conferences focusing on information technology and libraries hosted by Information Today – Computers in Libraries and Internet Librarian. They feature the field’s top innovators sharing their insights, recent project experiences, and practical tips. If you couldn’t make this year’s event, here are 10 stellar presentations that will catch you up:
Presentation topics:
Access them here: The Best of Internet Librarian 2013 | Ellyssa Kroski | OEDB.org.
Dan Shapiro’s Robot Turtles board game Kickstarter showed there is serious appetite for kids’ games that aren’t just fun to play with but also sneakily teach core coding principles. Instead of the $25,000 he was aiming for, Shapiro raised more than $630,000. Geeky moms and dads clearly have money, and will spend it on the right bit of educational kit.
With that kind of Kickstarter community response, it’s pretty likely we’re set to see a wave of educational toys doing cool fun stuff with programming principles. To wit, meet Primo: a physical programming interface that teaches children programming logic while they control the movements of an Arduino-powered robot.
Read: Primo Is An Arduino Robot That Teaches Kids Programming Logic Through Play | TechCrunch.
When the Best Books of 2013 are listed, the most important may not make the cut. Thats because the most exciting literary innovation of the year is not a book at all, but a video game for iPad and iPhone. Device 6 is a metaphysical thriller in which the world is made almost entirely from words. Playing it is like reading a book—except, in this book, the words veer off in unexpected directions, rather than progressing in orderly fashion down the page. When Anna, the game’s protagonist, turns a corner in the narrative, the text does too, swerving off to one side at a right angle, forcing the player to rotate the screen.
More in this story about other innovative gaming apps that have a literary angle. Read: This Video Game Could Revolutionize Publishing—and Reading | Rowland Manthorpe | The Atlantic.
If you’re managing social media for your business, it might be useful to know about some of the most surprising social media statistics this year. Here are 10 that might make you rethink the way you’re approaching social media.
By making the basic building blocks of batteries out of ink, Harvard materials scientist Jennifer Lewis is laying the groundwork for lithium-ion batteries and other high-performing electronics that can be produced with 3-D printers. Although the technology is still at an early stage, the ability to print batteries and other electronics could make it possible to manufacture new kinds of devices.
Read: Lithium-Ion Batteries, Straight from a 3-D Printer | MIT Technology Review.
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