MACME

MACME logo

MACME (Multi Author Medial Cross Ecosystem), is an open source platform that transforms a WordPress blog into a system of cross-media publishing.

MACME has been issued as a giant WordPress plugin, distributed through GPL3 license.

Thanks to MACME, anyone can produce their own cross-media publication and distribute it individually in augmented reality as a website, e-book, mobile phone application (for iPhone, iPad and coming soon for Android).

BRIEF HISTORY

Presented and utilized for the very first time in the book “REFF: The reinvention of reality through critical practice of remix, mash up, recontextualization, reenactment”, published by DeriveApprodi and Fake Press, the MACME software was publicly released at the international exhibition “REFF. Remix the World! Reinvent Reality”, February 25 to March 26, 2011, at the Furtherfield Gallery – London.

MACME has been distributed through a series of events, workshops and seminars held at universities and by university and student movements in London. The software is currently installed at the laboratories of six universities (Southbank University, Goldsmiths, Writtle College, University of Westminster, Curtauld Institute and Queen Mary), and has been made available to students and teachers.

FEATURES

Once installed, the plugin allows the user to make new posts as one would for their WordPress site and, thanks to the modifications and additional functionalities added by MACME, create radically different outputs. This particular feature allows you to automatically generate QRcodes and Fiducial Markers in order to directly connect to associated multimedia contents through an augmented reality and interactive experience (video, photos, links, three-dimensional objects).

In summary, without the added complexity of the editing process, MACME gives you the power to autonomously create your own cross-media publications in augmented reality and to actually see the contents of your blog published through a variety of channels, namely:

– On a website (WordPress blog)
– On a mobile version of the site (the wordpress blog is optimized for mobile access)
– In an e-book (ePub and PDF formats) which can be aesthetically formatted based on your desired layout and easily implemented using simple CSS-based mechanisms
– As a smartphone application (for iPhone / iPad and coming soon for Android): automatically generated creating a development environment ready to be customized by the user
– Geografically, using location-based technologies (geo-referencing contents by either using the MACME-generated, smartphone application or through any program that accepts inputs such as KML and GeoRSS)
– On the physical world (objects, paper, walls, bodies, buildings, floors or anywhere a MACME-generated QRCode can be placed)
– Or anywhere else in the world. Specifically, Fiducial Markers, generated by MACME, and geographical coordinates distribute the superimposed content, in augmented reality, onto the screen of your mobile phone, directly layering it onto your “ordinary” reality.