3hundredand65 is a collaborative online storytelling project that’s raising money to support the Teenage Cancer Trust by inviting contributors to “crowdauthor a graphic novel”.
Each day, a new writer progresses the story via a single Tweet to the organizers. Their tweet is then illustrated and added to the website.
The plot is a science fiction, improvised on the themes of “end of hope” and the “struggle for hearts and minds”. A synopsis is published on the 3hundredand65.co.uk website, but it’s only natural that the storyline wends its own sweet way.
The organisers sensibly embrace the project’s inherent unpredictability, saying: “We love twists, new characters and plot developments. We love quirky, weird, detail and description.”
Here’s today’s entry, courtesy of @MooseAllain, by way of illustration:
“Cephalopod stroked Cope’s chin with a tentacle. “You need a shave, mate. Here, have a cuppa”. A moment’s pause before the whirlwind resumed.”
Each day’s entry is illustrated by designer Dave Kirkwood, who came up with the following image to accompany @MooseAllain’s Tweet.
Anyone can contribute to the story, though if @MooseAllain inspired a follow-up Tweet I’m afraid you missed the boat. Available dates can be selected from the online “contributors calendar” (as I write there are no slots left before June). A simple Tweet to @3hundredand65 then secures your slot, and all you need to do is follow the storyline and hope for inspiration to strike when your turn comes.
Kirkwood’s hard-bound notebooks will be auctioned off to raise extra funds. Bidding starts at £120, which the organisers say equates to their cost. Original, signed drawings of the characters are also available for a negotiated donation.
Naturallly anyone can donate to the Teenage Cancer Trust charity with no need to contribute to the story. Donors have so far raised 42% of the charity’s £1,000.00 target. Further donations can be made via the Just Giving page linked to 3hundredand65.co.uk.
The website is supported by a Facebook community page, on which the pictures drawn for donators are published, alongside the occasional one-off, such as the special Valentines Day artwork.
Kirkwood is enthusiastic about the photo sharing and networking app Instagram, where he has posted extensively:
“Instagram has helped lift interest and is quickly becoming a source of traffic to rival Facebook. But Facebook is our sticky place. Here advocates, early adopters and new fans are sharing an interest in the project. It’s different to Twitter, less frenetic but is as important because it holds the core of the project together.”
3hundredand65 is a great example of multitasking social media. The guidance for contributors promotes interactivity:
“We love conversation…but what we love even more is writing that collaborates with what’s gone before and considers what might come next. Every writer’s address is shown on the site so you can mention-collaborate with them if they’re willing.”
Social media geeks will definitely find the guidance posted under “What not to put in your tweets” interesting. It includes the following admonishion to prospective authors:
“We don’t ban boring but devices such as Dallas style “It was all a dream” scenarios will ruin the project – we’ve already had one, which was fine and taught us a lot about process, but one’s enough.”
There is also a request that the majority of tweets should be from UK residents only:
“Teenage Cancer Trust is a UK charity and these online viral projects by their very nature grow through friends of friends all of whom, we hope, will consider donating. It’s far less likely that people living outside the UK will donate to us. So our pragmatic take on this is it would probably be better not to (contribute) unless you have a wide network of friends and or family here in the UK.”
It would be interesting to know what others think of that decision. At the moment, it seems that Twitter is the project’s most effective champion, with 1,100 tweets spreading the word, as compared to only 84 Facebook “Likes” and not one “public recommend” via Google .
In an email to me, Kirkwood explained:
“The thinking was we could get drowned by tweeters keen to make a story, less keen to engage with the charity. Remember this is uncharted territory, we’re learning by the day and that’s what’s so much fun for us. The blog sphere has driven a lot of interest amongst what have become our core followers. Within that are our early adopter advocates who keep the pressure up on Twitter.”
An iTunes app, due imminently, will help people to follow the story and make donations, while a blog should foster more social engagement. “Twitter’s constraints make any kind of genuine collaboration very tricky,” says Kirkwood, “the blog posts will change all of that.”
Follow the story as it unfolds via Twitter hashtag #3hand65. And contribute in any way you can.