Transliteracy conference De Montfort University - update

I'm still digesting what I heard yesterday.  We were presented with a wide range of information in a short time.  Coming from the business community I tried to focus on what could be passed on as useful tips.

These are my musings so far; I think they're applicable to both business owners: and writers:

1. How we read is being altered by the way we use the internet.  We already know that readers on screen want information fast.  Now we have to consider how we can involve our readers.
2. Keeping up with the trends is very difficult for any of us above teenagers.  I talked to a 23 year old PHd student who said she'd noticed in the last year that she no longer was keeping up seamlessly with new trends in social media, and was starting to choose what she used.
3. We're all in the business of education; we need to educate ourselves, our customers and our wider audience.  To make sure we reach as wide an audience as possible, then we have to offer as many ways of absorbing the information as possible.

What did come out loud and strong particularly for writers, is that there are so many more opportunities out there for us than ever.  To make the most of them, we need to pay attention to what's available.

More musings on this in a few days.

Writing in 2010

Whatever your interest in writing, 2010 is an exciting year.  Tomorrow I'm off to a conference on transliteracy at De Montfort University, where the implications of the digital age and its effects on book writing will be considered.

I'm looking forward to finding out how all the available technology can be harnessed to widen the reading population.  There are bound to be trends that I haven't even yet considered, though I'm trying to use social media networks to advantage.

As writers we often bemoan that we can't get published.  It seems to me though that there are so many more avenues open to us than in the past.  And really it's up to us to find out what's out there and how we can use it to help out case.