Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (40)

• closed (or branching) – “the user plays an active role in determining the order in which already generated elements are accessed,” “uses fixed elements arranged in a fixed branching structure”
• open – “both the elements and the structure of the whole object are either modified or generated on the fly in response to the user’s interaction with a program”

Andy Lippman (in J. Yellowlees Douglas, The End of Books, 42-43)

• interactivity defined: “mutual and simultaneous activity on the part of two participants, usually working toward some goal, but not necessarily” (42)
• interruptibility – balance of participation between interactors
• fine granularity – statements made by either party can be interrupted at any point
• graceful degradation – interaction can continue in spite of non sequiturs or unanswerable queries
• limited look-ahead – final outcome is not predetermined
• absence of a single, clear-cut default path or action
• the impression of an infinite database

Marie-Laure Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality (210-212)

Selective

• to determine the plot
• to shift perspective on the textual world
• to explore the field of the possible
• to keep the textual machine going
• to retrieve documents
• to play games and solve problems
• to evaluate the text

Productive

• to participate in the writing of text
• to engage in dialogue and play roles

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