You don't know Jack about Harry

[TG <thom@indiana.edu>]

The Harry Gottlieb I was referring to is the guy who created 
JellyVision.com which is the company which created 'You Don't Know 
Jack' years ago and won a award at GDC even though Harry never 
considered what he did a game. On their web site they have the Jack 
Principles which I've used in class for the past 6 years simply because 
the principles work very well for what Harry calls 'interactive 
conversational interfaces ( iCis as opposed to Guis -- it is an sound 
pun but that is how Harry plays (JellyVision as opposed to TellyVision 
) We had Harry out here once to speak where he was to speak for 20-30 
minutes but spoke for over an hour and not a soul stirred. I have this 
talk on DV tape and with luck will eventually get this online because 
Harry is worth the price of admission and attention. Harry definitely 
think that what he does is interactive conversation. he definitely has 
a business model which is exceptionally successful but it is the 
complete opposite to the idea of generated entertainment. Harry's 
backgound is not in computer science it is in theater, radio, 
television and film. JellyVision use a computational combinatorial 
approach when it is appropriate but they very much script out their 
work. I think they do this because they can, they have a training which 
most don't. [ The other person worth looking at is Bates with his 
Dramatic Presence paper which I also think is a model for how iDrama 
and iStory can work effective in a very mixed environment. ]

Harry agreed to do a weekend workshop at IU on iCi design. Normally a 
weekend workshop is where the instructor attempts to shorten the 
workshop with the students complete help as much as possible but Harry 
in not your normal instructor or thinker. Saturday was long and Sunday 
was even longer and then harry decided that more work was needed so he 
gave the students a really big assignment to design their own iCi and 
said he'd come back for another weekend. Harry made the normal weekend 
workshop over twice as long as a normal weekend workshop. Way past 1 
credit worth in terms of time but this was really deep learning so most 
of the students didn't blink. They did the work; Harry came back and 
then really threw them and myself for a loop when he decided we still 
weren't done and we should extend the class into the spring term which 
we did and Harry cam back again. We lost a couple of students at this 
point but we were at true believer stage by then so the folks remaining 
were in high gear. And, again harry said we were not done. he gave more 
assignments and we agreed that the class would travel to Chicago and 
present their work at JellyVision. I'm sure all the students in that 
class would say that that experience with harry was the deepest 
learning experience in their lives - I wasn't 'in' the class but it was 
one of the deepest learning experiences in my life. But, the thing was 
is that the idea of the iCi and this sort of software design as theater 
was the the real hook. That room had musicians, artists, storytellers, 
programmers and instructional designers, all working at very high 
levels of design. Computational combinatorials are part of iCi designer 
but it isn't the driving force which means the entire room does not 
rotate around the programmers. The artists aren't their to decorate and 
the writers aren't their as meat puppets. They have jobs to do at 
various stages and the iCi only works when the entire room works. This 
is the same way that orchestras, theaters, film, and tv have worked for 
decades; it is how humans work to get jobs done.

JellyVision has been and is doing iStory and iDrama with the BIG I. The 
company is worth a look, the Principles are worth reading and seriously 
thinking about and if you ever get a chance to hear Harry talk, to talk 
with Harry or be in a class Harry teaches do it. He is also a really 
nice person.

--thom