We are in the process of converting Dr. Mark Van Stone’s 2012: Science and Prophecy of the Ancient Maya book to an interactive book for the iPad with the intended date of release coming in June 2012. It’s been a very involved process but one we are learning so much from.
Larisa Lovelady of Birmingham, first tackled the massive task of editing the copy of the book, looking for updates and ways to approach taking something that’s been produced in a traditional form and transferring it into something much more alive and different with interactive charts, graphs and 3D animations. Shawn Hartley of Omaha did the first transferring of the copy once edited into the iBooks Author software. Last weekend, CEO & Founder Donny Claxton and Photographer Jamaal Jackson went to Memphis for the 72nd Annual Society for American Archaeology meeting where video snippets were shot of 12 world-renowned Mayanists who will appear in the book, including Dr. Anthony Aveni of Colgate, Dr. John B. Carlson, the director of the Center for Archaeoastronomy, Dr. Susan Milbrath, curator of Latin American Art and Archaeology, in Gainesville, FL, and Dr. John Hoopes of the University of Kansas among others.
Sample draft page of 2012: Science and Prophecy of the Ancient Maya
We now are neck-deep in doing the transfer layout, building the graphic animations and the compressing of nearly 11 hours of amazing insightful video down to hopefully about an hour’s worth to include in this one-of-a-kind new version of books.
This version of a book isn’t going to change how students around the world learn, it’s going to change the tools they use to learn. And we are so excited to be on the cusp of this incredibly big step.
Our hats are off to Dr. Van Stone and the other scholars we met with last weekend. They get this. While other scholars sat in sessions debating the future of archaeological publishing–basically a word document, a pdf and maybe some form of an e-Book reader, our scholars were sitting in front of our cameras giving perspectives generations will be able to read about and view for generations to come about the 2012 Meme.
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