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Well this sounds fun--and in time for National Library Week, too. School Library Journal is hosting its first annual (so huzzah! there will be more) Battle of the Books. They have lined up an impressive list of last year's choice titles, as well as an all-star panel of judges. You can follow the progrss of the battle at their BotB Blog. I've read enough of the books on the list to be able to

Got a second? Why not publish your next story?

Last weekend I took my Flip videocamera to a book party, and shot a little video project to make my interview feature more exciting. That little camera is changing the way I tell stories. 

I'm not the only one. In our interview with Smith Magazine founder, Larry Smith, we spent a lot of time discussing fast and easy web applications for writers.  

In that spirit, I have two great links that will help you explore the mobile writing web this weekend. First of all read Jeff Jarvis' inspiring essay about Reuters/Nokia's mobile journalism project.

This has been one of my favorite new projects, and it was cool to see Jarvis jazzed about the whole thing. If this doesn't make you excited, then you might want to check your writerly pulse:

"I can also see using such video clips as part of larger stories – they become moving and talking pictures. They become part of a multimedia narrative, now that journalists no longer need to pick one medium but can work in them all. In short, we’re not using cameras to make TV with all its trappings and orthodoxies. We’re just making video, video that’s good enough to tell a story."

Then check out the Visual Editors website. Besides having lots of video advice, they also have a great feature on using Twitter as a journalist.

Feeling stuck? Feeling bored? Here are three simple links that will break you out of any writing funk. No matter if you are a creative writer or a journalist (or both!), these links will help...

First up, journalist Jeff Jarvis just published a round-up of his Davos coverage using a Reuters/Nokia cameraphone. It's mobile journalism at its finest with interviews with everybody from Google boss Sergey Brin to Bono. Check it out now!

Felicia Sullivan, novelist, podcaster, and publishing whiz, celebrates six-word memoirs on her blog. She's got a new book coming out, and her site is giving an intimate look at the joys and anxieties of a a first novel. 

Finally, CUNY J-school (where Jeff Jarvis teaches) just launched a new project that will interest citizen journalists everywhere, keeping them out of legal hot water:

"[CUNY] has launched an interactive, multimedia web site to provide these and other answers.  'The Top Ten Rules To Limit Legal Risk' at www.kcnn.org/legal_risk offers concrete rules to encourage citizen journalism by providing training on legal rights and responsibilities related to news gathering and online publication."

The annual Davos World Economic Forum has just become a hotbed of mobile web videos, a virtual labratory for writers to study.

At Davos, Jeff Jarvis is running with a crowd of journalists who are all using mobile technology to capture the event. It's a historic moment for journalism, undoubtedly the most mobile-tech-covered event ever.

You should click on every link I painstakingly added to his quote--it's a Who's Who of Moblile Journalism. Check out his enthusiastic coverage:

"Robert Scoble is broadcasting live from his mobile phone, as Jason Calacanis did at DLD. Loic LeMeur is making videos all over for Seesmic (with a bigger camera). I’m playing with the Reuters/Nokia mojo cameraphone (see the videos below). The YouTube Davos Conversation booth is recording the machers on video with tiny cameras."

As a side note, I just started using one of those Flip Video cameras that Jarvis is using at Davos. You don't need to format or anything--the video comes out as an MP4 that can play on iPods, iPhones, cellphones or whatever mobile media you want to use. I'll upload some sample videos soon.

Mobile! Mobile! Mobile!

I keep saying it, and every day I'm seeing more examples. The Internet is quickly filling up with bright, hungry writers who are setting the standard for cellphone writing. You should be one of them.

Here are three writers I discovered in the last week, people who can inspire you to try using your cellphone and videocamera as writing tools.

I was reading Galleycat when I spotted Barry Yourgrau (that's his picture) and his mad collection of multimedia stories. He wrote a series of short shorts intended to be read on cellphones and plays with web video writing as well.

Earlier this week, journalist Sarah Meyers stopped by our website. Check out her Consumer Electronics Show coverage for tips on live video and breaking tech news. 

Finally, smojo (a writer with Twitter and webvideo on his site) reminded us about the future implications of all this tech. "Once the picture quality is a little better I can imagine reporters using this kind of technology to go into disaster zones. The news van with the giant satellite tower will no longer be needed."

Anybody else have some bright ideas?

Can you tell a story while filming something on your cellphone? Do people want to watch a live video streamed from a journalist's cellphone?

These are questions all writers need to be asking--it's almost as important as the question, "Will people upload videos to YouTube?" was in 2006. If you can find news and narrate, there will be plenty of opportunities for you on the mobile web.

The infrastructure already exists for you to report and film any event live from your cellphone with a website called Qik. Over at Lost Remote, Cory Bergman built the most amazing set of links that study and teach you how to jump on the live-video bandwagon.

As you can see from the Robert Scoble linked above, the video work isn't anything fancy--but it gets the job done if you manage to quickly corner the founders of YouTube. Check it out: 

"Self-described “lifecaster” and internet cutie Sarah Meyers is packing around a high-def camera, microphone and laptop with an EVDO card to webcast live via both PopSnap and Mogulus (she started on Justin.tv). You can see how she does it in this ZDNet video clip."

One of the most popular thing on YouTube today is (ironically) a bitty video of David Lynch bashing movies on mobile phones. "You will never in a trillion years have experienced the film," he yells at cellular movie watchers, yelling as much as David Lynch can yell.

It's true. I dig mobile technology, I own a video iPod, and I love shooting little pieces for YouTube, but I still think he's right. The YouTube screen is not meant for big movie fare.

The only reason people watch big screen movies on mobile technology is because there isn't very much good content for the small screen. But there will be smallest-screen content soon, and you could be writing it.

Start thinking about movies, journalism, and videos that are meant to be watched on a YouTube-sized screen. If you can figure out how to tell that kind of story, you'll be leading the pack. 

Here's some links to get you started. This page will tell you all about Reuter's first mobile journalists. Poynter.com has a sweet essay about mobile journalism and the Media Shift Lab has a touching post about worldwide web video watching. Listen to David Lynch and write something new...

How do you tell stories on a cellphone screen? You should figure it out.

The Poynter Institute has a fascinating article about mobile journalists that are bopping around the world with laptops, cameras, and a notebook. While journalist Pat Walters sees some dangers in the practice, the article links to plenty of sweet storytelling experimentation. Check it out:

"At The News-Press, that means deploying a team of MoJos armed with laptops, cameras and recorders. At the Post, Ahrens says, it means hiring newspaper Web site designer Rob Curley, known nationwide for his groundbreaking work in creating an intensely local and interactive Web site for the Naples (Fla.) Daily News and the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World."

For the novelists in the audience, the Wall Street Journal has covered the evolution of mobile phone fiction. In addition, the Institute for the Future of the Book has a great essay about the future of the cellphone novel in  America, speculating if the bitty-text wave could affect us. Read it and weep:

"In other words, improved telcom services in the States wouldn't necessarily translate into a proliferation of cellphone novels, but other mobile media services would undoubtedly start to flourish. Broadband internet access is also pathetically slow in the US compared to countries in Europe and East Asia—the Japanese get service eight to 30 times faster than what we get over here."

The word for the week is "mobile."

Over the weekend, I met one of Reuter's first mobile journalists. These reporters are armed with powerful videocamera phones and portable hardware--a single reporter can create print and video features miles from any newsroom.

The experimental Mobile Journalist Toolkit includes a portable tripod, computer keyboard, a directional microphone, and the Nokia N95 cell phone.

The United States is lagging behind other countries in adapting to cell phone possibilities, but the change is coming.

Last week, the MediaShift Idea Lab explored the slow transition to mobile media, offering ideas for writers interested in using this new medium. Paul Lamb writes: "According to a just released report by Jupiter Research, only 16% of U.S. subscribers are browsing the mobile web. According to the report, the low uptake is due primarily to lack of interest (73%) and the high cost (47%)." 

The change is coming, it's just taking longer for Americans. Someday soon, the mobile phone market will be begging for content. The journalists who can figure out how to write for this bitty medium can take their pick of stories. 

How will you write and report for the smallest screen of all?