Merriam-Webster Definition of MACGUFFIN: an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance

I finally had some time to get into the swing of Camp so I thought I’d start by watching the Michael Wesch video. It started out a little strangely, I could see Martha Burtis but not hear her. I clicked round a bit and eventually saw a man who was introducing the presentation. While listening to him I organized a document to take some notes. I was happily watching and wrote a quote from the introduction “We know we are going someplace but we are just not quite sure where or how.”

When I went back in the video to confirm the speaker’s name and title, MBurtis was back. I clicked around in the video and she was everywhere! No matter where I found her, if I let her run, it eventually went back to the introduction regardless of the timestamp.  At 14 minutes: MBurtis and then intro; at 7min: MBurtis and then intro; at 40min: MBurtis and then intro. What’s up with that?

So where did that take me? Certainly around in circles! The same thing happened in other browsers. Do I need to watch the whole thing from the beginning to get the content? From other’s blog posts it seems that they have watched the video… Is there a hidden message in all of this for me? Is it a Digi-Ouija???

I went back to find our definition of digi-ouija – it made an elegant comparison to a macguffin but couldn’t remember who suggested this Bunk name or find the reference in my Twitter feed. In the amount of time that I have now spent trying to understand what was going on and explain it, I could have gone back to the beginning of the video and watched the whole thing!

As someone said at the beginning of the video,

“We know we are going someplace but we are just not quite sure where or how.”

That pretty much sums up my ds106 experience thus far!