Dànielle Nicole DeVoss | devossda@msu.edu
Sue Webb | webbsuza@msu.edu

We want to tell two stories to preface this webtext. (Skip the preface—take me to the webtext.)

Story 1 is what we hope this piece does. We are pleased to publish this piece in Computers and Composition Online as a complement to and extension of the piece published in Computers and Composition, in the special issue on Media Convergence.

The print piece is only a piece of the puzzle that is thinking about intellectual property in the composition classroom. Jonathan Alexander called for articles that addressed the complexities of living, working, and teaching at a moment of media convergence—a relatively new and big moment, if we look back at the history of production and publication in the United States. Never before have media been so malleable in terms of the ways we can merge, mash, and mix them together. In our print piece, we situate our work in the ways in which scholars such as Henry Jenkins talk about media convergence and the ways in which scholars such as Larry Lessig talk about intellectual property.

The webtext we offer here is an invited presentation we did for Computers and Writing Online 2008. Here, we not only tell the story of intellectual property and media convergence, but we show that story and narrate that story—with music, examples, audio clips, video pieces, and more.

Story 2 is how this work came to be. In Summer 2007, we worked on a manuscript for Jonathan Alexander’s special issue of Computers and Composition. During the process, we thought briefly about making the electronic portion of our work available online. In mid Summer, Danielle was asked to deliver a keynote address at Computers and Writing Online 2008, scheduled for mid-February, and invited Sue to present with her. In December, we met to discuss the presentation, imagining how we might remix our print piece into an online presentation. We talk about the delivery of the piece, and decide to do short video pieces complemented by images and by text, folded into several PowerPoints delivered as video (.mov) files.

We spent much of December and January videotaping ourselves—individually and together. We make edits, cuts, and splices, and further develop the web site that hosts our conference presentation. In February, we present our material, and the presentation is followed by a robust live chat. The presentation is a success; several audience members ask to share and use Sue’s Grand Theft Audio. Several people in the audience even ask Sue for a sequel… In March, we think about a permanent home for the presentation, wanting it to have a more robust life beyond being a conference moment.

We are delighted to present to you Grand Theft Audio.

If you need to download Adobe Reader, it is available at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html; if you need to download QuickTime Player, it is available at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

You can either view the .mov files streaming from the Web by clicking on them, or you can right-/ command-click on the file names below and save the .mov files to your computer to watch (this route might move more smoothly).

part 1: Introduction to Grand Theft Audio (.mov file; 7MB)

part 2: The Composer (.mov file; 23MB)

part 3: Grand Theft Audio (posted on YouTube)

part 4: The Field (.mov file; 29MB)

part 5: The Issues (and Some Agency) (.mov file; 56MB)

postscript: The Tools (.mov file; 10MB)

bibliography and resources: resources.html

PowerPoint text-only transcripts (all .txt files):

part 1: Introduction to Grand Theft Audio

part 2: The Composer

part 4: The Field

part 5: The Issues (and Some Agency)

postscript: The Tools