AUCKLAND, New Zealand - The Xerxes’ Atlas team in Auckland have today announced they’re ready for contributors to the world’s first wikimusical.Like the jet boat, the bungee jump, and even the humble pineapple lump; this is a true New Zealand invention. ‘Xerxes’ Atlas’, the world’s first wikimusical, aims to re-connect the theatre with young people through the power of the internet as a tool for collaboration.
The term 'wiki' - like 'open source' – usually refers to a website or free software designed for multiple people to collaborate by adding and editing content. For Xerxes’ Atlas this means anyone with internet access from around the world can contribute.
Chairwomen of the Xerxes’ Atlas Board, Bridget Marsh, said “declining theatre numbers, especially among younger generations, is a very real threat to the industry. We’re reaching out to a younger audience by developing a musical that connects with them through the internet and social media.”
Xerxes’ Atlas is about community and collaboration on a scale not seen in modern times in theatre,” said 28-year old creator and Board member Jade Wood. “It means anyone with internet access from around the world can contribute the music, lyrics and even choreography.”
“People can visit the website right now to read the song briefs and hear others’ contributions,” says Wood, “bringing together creative people from all around the world.”
Marsh is former Head of Performing and Screen Arts at UNITEC while entrepreneur Wood has a background in website development. Other members of the team include Business analyst Chad Carter and Lawyer and Documentary Edge Film Festival Organiser Alex Lee.
Information about Xerxes’ Atlas is accessible online. Read more on their website wikimusical.com or alternatively, follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
Comments
But I'm confused why the script isn't collaborative/wiki-fied and why it will be licenced under a non-commercial CC licence - that doesn't seem very open source or wiki-like (the FAQ compares it to a GPL licence, which is for free use). :-(
I couldn't find anything on the site/blog explaining this limiting decision. I guess it's more risky, but that's what makes it more exciting, and arty, and newsworthy.
I got all excited about contributing chunks to a shared script, or some lyrics, or a melody, etc. but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be set up like that, so I'm not really interested.
It might be slightly misleading to call it open source or wiki-based. It seems to be a standard collaborative using the Web to source collaborators, and not even that as composers are competing against each other to get their piece selected, rather than all working on the same piece.
Or have I read it wrong?
One of the main reasons for me changing the tag line from the world's first open-source musical to the world's first wikimusical was because open-source didn't describe the project as well.
With wikis, the project owners provide some kind of structure for people to submit to. For us that's the song briefs and the script. We could have crowd sourced the script but using pro writers means we'll get something good to base the songs on sooner and provide a more cohesion. Maybe next time we'll crowd source the script.
People who submitted work to the project but didn't make it to the official version are welcome to revert back to versions containing their own material and perform it. The competition is only for the official version and should be paid according to their contribution.
To me, a wiki is about the the collaborative nature of the project rather than the licence it's released under. That being said, for most people the work is open. We're actually releasing the official version under CC-BY-NC-SA+. The '+' being an additional licence allowing schools and amateur theatre groups, who would be by the Creative Commons licence deemed commercial, access to the product.