Social networks are our gateway into engaging mobile phone internet users.

Our primary target audience, first year undergraduates, fall within the age demographic that is one of the most enthusiastic adopters of internet use on mobile phones. Among 15-24 year olds, there was a 57% take-up in 2011 of internet use on mobile phones. Ofcom statistics indicate that social networking is the most common way people access internet on their phones, polling ahead of sending/receiving email, browsing the web and watching video/listening to music online. By creating a social media presence, we are accommodating trends in mobile phone internet usage in order to connect with as large an audience as possible. Apart from merely drawing attention to the project, social networks also provide one of the key ways for users to participate. Visitors are encouraged to post their own interesting, funny, quirky experiences on the bus, and through the sharing of these narratives, to connect with other commuters. We think this would be ideal for first year undergraduates looking to connect with people and make friends in their new environment. The shared experience of the commute serves as a point around which people with different backgrounds and interests can relate; it thus provides an ideal jumping off point for the sparking of conversation. Users also have an incentive to share their stories; the opportunity for their contribution to be made into a fully realized narrative. Users thus have some input into the formulation of future stories, creating a sense of involvement and investment in the project.

In our project, we applied the skills learned in our various disciplines, but we also sought the talents of students outside our own group in order to create content across several media. This ties in with Jenkins theorising on coauthorship, which he sees as an important development in trans-media narratives. He states: storytellers are developing a more collaborative model of authorship, cocreating content with artists with different visions and experiences at a time when few artists are equally at home in all media. (p.4) As a result of our collaboration with students outside our group, we were able to engage with media in ways that we would not have been possible alone, and as a result of this, attract a larger audience; as Jenkins notes, different media attract different market niches. From the beginning, we never viewed Bus Stories as a commercial enterprise. Instead, we see it as an opportunity for students at BU and the Arts University College Bournemouth to collaborate and hone their skills while enriching the lives of bus commuters, both students and non-students. With this in mind, we see the potential for Bus Stories to be used as an induction project for future students, with each successive year collecting new stories and adapting the project in fresh ways. While profit generation is not a priority for us, Bus Stories could benefit from some additional funding that could go towards raising

awareness of the project. The Arts Council England have listed 5 goals over the next 10 years, one of which is to have more people experience and be inspired by the arts. Our project, which is concerned with merging imagination and creativity into the daily commute, is well suited to championing the goal of democratizing the arts. Additional funding could go towards marketing tools such as posters at bus stops and advertisements in local newspapers.