The Onward! Film and Narrative Multimedia Track
Years ago, sophisticated software systems had to be constructed by highly-trained programmers who understood the ins and outs of software development. Today, with the advent of new mashup technologies and service architectures, these barriers have been lowered. Now we are starting to see systems built by people primarily skilled in the wider areas of media studies, marketing, design, and communications. They bring new ideas and new approaches to the software development process. In particular, they are experienced with creative ways of communicating via the moving image. The goal of this track is to explore new developments in how film and other narrative multimedia technologies can be used to enrich the software development process. We expect this to have at least the following beneficial effects:
  • Make the software requirements phase and acceptance phase more robust by enriching the means of expression between developers and customers.
  • Identify new expressive ways to communicate in a software engineering team.
  • Make the software development process more intimate and more robust.
  • Help bridge that gaps between technology, business (e.g. marketing), and humanities (e.g. media studies).

Themes

The Onward! Film Track seeks submissions in the following areas:
  • Films concerning software engineering, e.g.
  • interviews with practitioners
  • new programming methodologies
  • new team-oriented processes
  • film diaries
  • use-case scenarios of new systems
  • New approaches for using Film and Narrative Multimedia in software engineering
  • New approaches in social networking and video blogging for the use Film and Narrative Multimedia, e.g.
  • Bloggerheads, tv
  • Lifecasting
  • Mobile video microblogging, such as Bloombla, Kyte TV, and QIK
  • Use of narrative in Virtual Worlds.

Dates

Deadline for Film Submission: July 2, 2009
Notification of Acceptance or Rejection: August 15, 2009

Publication

Accepted films will be shown at the conference, their descriptions will be published in the OOPSLA 2009 Companion, and will appear in the ACM Digital Library.

How to Submit

Films and digital multimedia presentations can be up to 15 minutes long, and may be submitted in formats including DVI, MPEG, AVI, and Quicktime. Accepted films will be presented at a special session in the Onward! track. (Note that filmmakers must secure the rights for any third-party materials used.) Electronic submission of proposals is required through the Onward! submission system.

For additional information, clarifications, or questions, please contact us at films@onward-conference.org.

Committee

  • Martin Purvis, University of Otago, New Zealand (chair)
  • Roberto Bisiani, University of Milano - Bicocca, Italy
  • Oliver Creighton, Siemens, Germany
  • Ralph Guggenheim, Allegator Planet, USA
  • Andrew Long, University of Otago, New Zealand