Xerxes Atlas Blog

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.

Courtesy of World Vision I attended a guest lecture by Andrew Jones a kiwi (New Zealander) who travels around the world in a truck with his family as blogs as he goes. He's a bit of a guru on social media so I went along to see if I could learn anything. And I did - he talked briefly about something I hadn't heard of before so I took a note and have just looked it up. It's a book call Wikinomics. In fact there's a further book now called Macrowikinomics.

From wikipedia:

It (Macrowikinomics) explores how some companies in the early 21st century have used mass collaboration (also called peer production) and open-source technology, such as wikis, to be successful. According to Tapscott, Wikinomics is based on four ideas: Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Acting Globally. The use of mass collaboration in a business environment, in recent history, can be seen as an extension of the trend in business to outsource: externalize formerly internal business functions to other business entities. The difference however is that instead of an organized business body brought into being specifically for a unique function, mass collaboration relies on free individual agents to come together and cooperate to improve a given operation or solve a problem. This kind of outsourcing is also referred to as crowdsourcing, to reflect this difference. This can be incentivized by a reward system, though it is not required.

So I'll be buying the book and I'll give you my review when I finish. For the meantime here's an interview of Don Tapscott:

UPDATE: looks like the reviews on Amazon are a bit depressing, so maybe I won't read it.. Seems like the book is really long and convoluted. Perhaps best to read the wikipedia entry and watch the videos.

About a week ago most of the Xerxes' Atlas team met for a drinks and nibbles night in Auckland, which was something of a creative summit about the project.  We invited a bunch of smart and talented people were able to pick their brains regarding our project to see what was working, what wasn't and try to find areas that we could expand into.  

While not as many people showed up as we expected, that turned out to be a good thing because we got some really quality feedback and had a great discussion going that might not have been possible with a larger group.  

One important distinction to come out of the meeting was the idea of the difference between product and process, and whether a finished theatrical production was the final product for us, or whether the actual PROCESS of developing a wikimusical is the product.  

Producing and premiering a new musical is a pretty massive undertaking, and it would take a lot of funding to be able to do it properly.  However, what makes this project interesting is not that it's a NEW musical, but that it's an OPEN SOURCE musical, or a WIKIMUSICAL.  I think we came to realise that in order to complete the project we don't have to mount the production ourselves, but develop the tools and resources for other people to produce their own versions of it.

Jade's unique vision is for a musical that can easily be changed and adapted for each production, and where open collaboration is a central part of the creative process.  In focusing just on that aspect, as well as reaching out to groups that might be interested in eventually producing XA, we'll be able to use our resources better and hopefully be a  bit more efficient.

All of this came out of the meeting last week, and while it's changed the parameters of the project a bit, we're very excited about this evolution.  So as far as we're concerned, the meeting was a big success and I'm sure you'll hear more about our new direction in the coming weeks.

I've mentioned before that the script for Xerxes' Atlas is a cooperative effort between myself and Justin Eade.  I think it's a very fitting arrangement for this project, which is all about collaboration.  It does present some challenges, but that's part of what makes it fun and exciting.

Writers are used to working alone -- it's a solitary occupation most of the time.  Some people love that aspect of writing, but for someone who like me, that's the most frustrating part of the job.  I really like engaging with other people, so the process of sending material back and forth with another writer is something I really enjoy.  I can't speak for Justin here, but I have found that discussing the material has helped focus and shape my writing, and I think we're both producing better work as a result of the feedback we've been able to give to each other.

Justin and I bring different strengths and sensibilities to the table.  One thing we've spent a lot of time talking about is the style and voice that the play will be written in.  Justin's writing is more sparse and straightforward, while my writing tends to be a bit more ornate and decorative.  As we've been working together on a particular pivotal scene in the play, I think we've also been developing a style that incorporates both of those things and is tight and clean, but not without a bit of flourish.  We'll see how it pans out!

Of course, no two people are ever going to agree on everything, and we've had our disagreements about how certain elements should work.  But so far I think we've both been good at putting what's best for the project ahead of everything else, and I think that will really pay off with the finished project.

More to come!

Hi everyone!  I'm Aaron Humphrey, and my awesome co-writer Justin Eade and I are going to be writing the script for XERXES' ATLAS.  I feel very fortunate to have been chosen to work on such an exciting project with along with a group of really passionate, talented people.  I'll be blogging here over the coming weeks to update you all on the progress we're making with the script.

Justin and I spent the first part of 2011 hashing out a detailed outline which will inform the rest of our work on the script.  Now we've moved on to trying to nail down the appropriate tone and language for the dialogue, which is a very different discipline than writing an outline as it's a lot less analytical and involves more trial and error to get the right "feel."

I think so far we have both enjoyed working together and having another writer to bounce things off of.  Justin is a very accomplished, knowledgeable writer, and I'm lucky to have him as a writing partner.  And the fact that I live in Australia and he's in New Zealand means that an International Team of Writers is collaborating on the script, which sounds pretty cool.

I'll have more updates soon, but in the meantime you can check out the blog I kept while I was working on my proposal to write the script for Xerxes' Atlas for a look behind the scenes of my creative process.  

I was thinking this morning about all the possible objections to this project as to why it might not work. Years ago when I was first thinking about the idea I decided to test the idea to see how much interest there was in the project. I put up the project on a session musos site, sat back and watched what happened.  The result? in about 2 weeks I had about 40 people for 16 different countries. Many of them emailed me with stuff they wanted to show me even though I told them I couldn't officially accept their submissions. Many of them and one in particular were very good. So my logic is, if I can get 40 people without trying to be interested in the project and I know at least one of them is excellent - all I need to do is multiple that by 10 and I'll have 10 excellent people working on the project.

Check out the original test although I think some people left the project since and it looks like that you might have to sign up to see it.

This generation: It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

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