An experiment in scarcity and abundance

Last year, I was approached by a major publisher to write a book about new forms of storytelling. The deal was weak and ironically was so traditional that I wasn’t able to experiment with the form of the book. So I turned down the offer and wrote a book in tweets. Using the limitations of twitter, each page of the book was written in 140 characters or less. The book will be published in a limited edition run of a 140 copies. In addition I’ll sit down for a convo with everyone that buys the book. For 30 minutes we’ll discuss their projects, emerging trends or have a casual conversation – the choice is theirs.

The book is the basis for a course I teach at Columbia called, “Building Storyworlds: the art, craft & biz of storytelling in 21c.” In the end it’s really an experiment in scarcity and abundance as each page of the book says “set this book free please retweet.” I wrote about it in the Summer issue of Filmmaker Magazine.

PRE-ORDER your copy today! – Limited edition of 140 copies

How many alien civilizations exist?

Are we alone? Calculate the number of alien civilizations using the Drake equation. Created by American astronomer Frank Drake the equation is used to calculate the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations that may exist in the Milky Way galaxy.

The BBC has a cool interactive chart that puts the equation to work. View it here.