A touch of mysteryBryan Alexander at Northern Voice on mystery, bees and bad PowerPoint

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Is there such a thing as too much clarity?

Northern Voice 2010 got off to a great start this morning with Bryan Alexander's opening keynote, a call for us to embrace mystery in the online world. He surveyed the terrain of mainstream fear-mongering around the Internet ("Facebook can give you syphilis!") (I'm actually willing to hear that case being made) before suggesting that some degree of genuine mystery can offer a tremendously engaging experience.

I captured some of it on the iPad:

Notes from Bryan Alexander's keynote

Comments

Bryan Alexander says

May 8, 2010 - 9:47am

That's a brilliant sketch, Rob. Many thanks for doing and sharing it.

Rob Cottingham says

May 8, 2010 - 12:01pm

You're welcome - and thank you for a terrific keynote. I loved your emphasis on the importance of mystery; it reminded me of the thing that struck me the most about Robert McKee's analysis of story, that it thrives on leaping the gap between expectation and outcome.