Introducing: CCC!

1. Project Title: Crowdsourcing Collaborative Creativity (CCC)
2. Description: We are attempting to create a novel from the ideas of many, following the ideas of crowdsourcing from our digital age. We will write the entire story together and allow others to determine where the story goes, allowing for totally collaborative text.
3. Project Members: Heather Andersen, Jason Hamilton, Hillary Ulmer, Jake Cannon, Christina Holt, Rebecca Ricks, and Ashley Barnes
4. Social Proof:

• Evidence of informal social proof: We've set up a facebook page, which is open to everyone. We have proof that the idea is appealing to many: Jason Hamilton, I, and Alexandra Crafton have all posted on Google+ about collaborative writing with a great deal of feedback. 
• Evidence of outside social proof: We have contacted professors and writers from the area (one creative writing group and a few BYU professors more particularly). Chris Crowe, a professor at BYU, has expressed interest in our project and is willing to offer further feedback. Kai Fierle-Hedrick is a woman on Google+ who works at Free Arts NYC as an educator. She works to promote collaborative creative practices to help at risk youth, and we plan to refer to her when we have more of our book. Emily Dyer, a creative writing teacher at BYU, is also excited about this project and will watch us on the way.
• Annotated list of potential sources of further social proof: Webook.com is one source where authors can share what they are writing and receive feedback; Our Facebook page, again, will also function as a way for other writers to give input. We hope to work with Amazon.com when the book is close to completion in order to have it published as well. 

5. Literature Review:

• Links to blog posts exploring the topic from group members: Rebecca Ricks, Hillary Ulmer, Jason Hamilton, and I have all posted regarding the topic. 
• At least three books that establish the relevance and importance of the topic:  Marriage of Minds: Collaborative Fiction Writing; "Collaborative storytelling experiences in social media: Influence of peer-assistance mechanisms," an article by Liu, Chen-Chung et al (Discusses how much easier collaborative creative fiction is if you use hypermedia instead of a linear form); more to come...

6. Literary Component: 

• Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (me): This book would provide a groundwork were we to use the Austen video game story, but more importantly, it relates to identities and how media changes perceptions 
• The Future of Us (Hillary): This was written as a collaborative work by two authors, and while ours will be done in a different format, we are drawing on this tradition of collaborative creative writing. 

7. Format(s) and Audience(s): We plan to publish our completed project on Amazon.com, making it available to anyone who is interested. We may charge up to $0.99 to purchase it, but large peices will be available for free via our facebook page and (upcoming) site.
8. Success Criteria: Our main goal is to successfully complete and publish a book which we have all contributed to; however, we hope to have at least one sale on Amazon from someone who has no relation to the members of our group.
9. Prototype: We have had multiple postings on Google+ regarding our topic as well as class discussions - mostly after class - but also created a google doc for us all to pool our ideas. We have also worked on idea via our blogs, mentioned earlier. multiple members have submitted plot outlines which we have all worked together to begin to fit into our ideal: Superheroes, Virtual Austen are the google doc versions, while the blog post versions have been preciously cited. Our prototype is outlined in this google doc, which is public, although we have another one which is specifically for us.