One Hundred Million Networks

Those of you who have read my blog posts on The Virtual Worlds Story Project Website know that I have a multiple personality disorder…alternately being known as the Reluctant Quester, pixelated as Marty Snowpaw, and finally from birth living and breathing as Marty Keltz.

Reincarnated yet again as one of three Startled Cats there is one through line….media junkie. My father called me, “The television crazy kid.” At six years old, I sat in a comfy leather chair close enough to the TV set that I could change the channels with my toes, leaving my hands free to eat Kellogg’s Sugar Frosted Flakes by the fistful, directly from the box.

When teaching junior high school, I brought television into the classroom and taught eighth and ninth grade non-readers about drama, comedy, character, plot and setting, and to say out loud, understand the meaning of and pronounce: denouement (day-noo-mon). In his book, Teacher Man and in his classroom Frank McCourt told stories.

At Scholastic Productions, producing The Magic School Bus, Charles In Charge, Goosebumps, and The Indian In The Cupboard, under the tent of the largest children’s publishing company in the world, we told stories.

If you have read Doug Thompson/Dusan Writer’s blog posts, you know that he is a storyteller. If you have been on the Linden Prize-finalist Uncle D Story Quest, then you know that Jena Ball/Jenaia Morane is a storyteller.

Startled Cat is a production studio dedicated to telling interactive and immersive stories. We believe that virtual worlds like Second Life contain a hundred million channels of programming…communities that are also audiences, performers, writers and directors telling stories synchronously and asynchronously. In other words, “appointment viewing” in real time regardless of the time zone or geographical location. These are niche markets, communities of practice and of shared interests. Virtual world residents gather around live, living and breathing content the way Googlers congregate around stored information.

Google is the engine that guides you through a dead storage system and makes it easy to find what you want when you want it. The Second Life viewer is a “set top box,” offering much more than a mere couple of hundred cable channels. “In world” are 100,000,000 (one hundred million) networks, programs and experiences that are alive, dynamic, immersive and engaging.

Virtuality is not about widgets. It is not even about technology. It is about content and stories. People tune in, show up and come in-world for the programming – to watch, create and participate in the show; to tell their stories and listen to stories. Startled Cat Studio is in the business of producing and telling the most compelling stories of all. viagra

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