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How do you tell stories on a cellphone screen? You should figure it out.

The Poynter Institute has a fascinating article about mobile journalists that are bopping around the world with laptops, cameras, and a notebook. While journalist Pat Walters sees some dangers in the practice, the article links to plenty of sweet storytelling experimentation. Check it out:

"At The News-Press, that means deploying a team of MoJos armed with laptops, cameras and recorders. At the Post, Ahrens says, it means hiring newspaper Web site designer Rob Curley, known nationwide for his groundbreaking work in creating an intensely local and interactive Web site for the Naples (Fla.) Daily News and the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World."

For the novelists in the audience, the Wall Street Journal has covered the evolution of mobile phone fiction. In addition, the Institute for the Future of the Book has a great essay about the future of the cellphone novel in  America, speculating if the bitty-text wave could affect us. Read it and weep:

"In other words, improved telcom services in the States wouldn't necessarily translate into a proliferation of cellphone novels, but other mobile media services would undoubtedly start to flourish. Broadband internet access is also pathetically slow in the US compared to countries in Europe and East Asia—the Japanese get service eight to 30 times faster than what we get over here."