700445The Gates of ViennaClosedGRD Proof of MarketInnovate UKThis Proof of Market project will seek market based research evidence demonstrating current and emerging market opportunities and the commercial/technical viability and considerations relating to development of an innovative app-novel/software platform that has potential to disrupt and revolutionise the publishing industry. The Gates of Vienna is a comedy about the 1683 siege of Vienna, in form of iPhone app, written and designed to be read in numerous ways (character, timespan) in 15 mins at a time. The impact is potentially significant. There is no shortage of eBook platforms and marketplaces, with Amazon Kindle currently dominating with a viable publishing and selfpublishing platform, as well as Apple and many others in the fray pushing reading to digital formats. These platforms are however still geared towards/support and only allow straightforward linear stories. There has been academic work around non-linear narrative structures (for example ‘hypertext’) that is unreadable. Lots of commercial research is also underway on the future of writing/future of narrative. Crucially, not many people have looked at the future of reading despite the fact that we read nonstop - our consumption of text is ludicrous. People like reading, but have been shoe-horned into a form that doesn’t fit our lives anymore. The technology behind the Gates of Vienna project has potential to create story environments, where writers and content producers can use books as worlds or platforms to build new narrative reading experiences. The outcomes of our research into the market need and relevance of the proposed technological approach will help us determine the future R&D strategy (eg proof of concept and development of prototype). The intention is that The Gates of Vienna will utilise an innovative combination of technologies and provide valuable and potentially disruptive development in the publishing sector.