The web demands a new literacy - the Haiku!

I am working on a project right now that compels me to take very complex scientific ideas and compress them into 2 minute videos for YouTube with 3 line paragraphs as a description. I am finding this very hard to do and I am wondering if this is part of the challenge for us all on the web?

Is the web is forcing us to come up with a new literacy? Is the 140 character Haiku the new gold standard for writing? Here is a snip from the NYT today on this:

I don’t expect all my graduates to go on to Twitter-based careers, but learning how to write concisely, to express one key detail succinctly and eloquently, is an incredibly useful skill, and more in tune with most students’ daily chatter, as well as the world’s conversation. The photo caption has never been more vital.

So a few years ago, I started slipping my classes short writing assignments alongside the required papers. Once, I asked them, “Come up with two lines of copy to sell something you’re wearing now on eBay.” The mix of commerce and fashion stirred interest, and despite having 30 students in each class, I could give everyone serious individual attention. For another project, I asked them to describe the essence of the chalkboard in one or two sentences. One student wrote, “A chalkboard is a lot like memory: often jumbled, unorganized and sloppy. Even after it’s erased, there are traces of everything that’s been written on it.”

If the web is all about “Interaction”, then the content has to drive that doesn’t it?

I am still struggling with this new style of writing. When I get stuck, which is often, I go to the books of Chip and Dan Heath.

Here is an example of a video that they admire a lot. Total clarity!

via fastforwardblog.com