BlackBerry Keep Moving Project With Author Neil Gaiman

The BlackBerry team has provided us with an update on the BlackBerry Keep Moving Project involving author Neil Gaiman. As you may already know, Neil has embarked on a unique project to write 12 short stories that he will call a “Calendar of Tales.” To inspire him, he has spent this past week tweeting questions to his fans using his BlackBerry Z10, asking for their ideas and engaging them in a conversation about the project.



According to Gaiman, the project is off to a great start. "I'm loving this process: getting to collaborate with people all over the world on a glorious mad art project is an enormous challenge. I'm really pleased that the people from BlackBerry have made it so easy. I'm using the Z10, and the BlackBerry Keep Moving Hub (#KeepMoving) to connect people together and am starting to learn, with delight, that it's working better than I had ever dreamed. Now I just have to write the stories, and then give them back to people who will, in their turn, use them to make even more and better art."

Neil has now set out to write the 12 stories, each of which will be based on a month of the year. When he’s done, we expect him to reach out again to his fans to ask them to submit artwork and video that he will work into his own narration of the stories. This collaboration to create art is at the heart of the BlackBerry Keep Moving Project and is being captured in real time on the BlackBerry Keep Moving Hub.

Here are a few more points about the project and how it has resonated with fans in its first week:
- Neil Gaiman’s video received nearly 18,000 views the day it launched (February 4)
- A high level of engagement on Twitter was recorded - hashtags used for the project became trending topics. @neilhimself tweeted: “Was just told that #JanTale was/is the top trending hashtag in the universe. I think #FebTale may already have it beaten.”
- To put this into context, the Gaiman and the BlackBerry Keep Moving Project has generated similar levels of Twitter conversation in two days as the Super Bowl had done in one day.
- Of all the months of the year, the conversation about creating the December tale (#DecTale) was the most popular with fans

Neil is on track to complete his Calendar of Tales soon and we will update you again on his progress as well as the final project release date. In the meantime we encourage you to check out the process as it continues at the BlackBerry Keep Moving Hub.