Web 2.0 Storytellin

g:Principles

ELI Annual Conference

January 28, 2008Bryan Alexander,

NITLE

Non-digital roots

• Epistolary novels• Victorian serials• Pulp serials• Radio• Soaps

(Dickens, Bleak House installment,PBS site)

Practices and principles

How to start• Idea germ - maybe a character, a

concept to explain• What audience?• Which platform tends to lead to the

kind of results you’d prefer?

Practices and principles

How to start: preparation• Lessons from ARGs

– Preload lots of material before release– Art of lack of control

• Basic PM– Build in risk control– Timeline (maybe milestones, maybe

gates)

Practices and principles

Digital Storytelling’s 7 principles1. Point of view2. Dramatic question3. Emotional content4. Voice (style)5. Soundtrack (and other media)6. Economy7. Pacing

“Digital Storytelling Cookbook”

Practices and principles

Time• Wilkie

Collins: "Make 'em cry, make 'em laugh, make 'em wait"

• keep it coming (cf ask a Ninja)

• Big time: serial

• Little time: accretive

• No time: archiving

Practices and principles

Space• Accretion

–Linear–Rhizomatic

• Subtraction–Deletion (wiki, comment)

–Link rot

Practices and principles

Character• You: persona• Creative or historical character• Blog as character (Kathleen

Fitzpatrick)• Twitter as character (Eric Rice)

Practices and principles

Setting

• Sometimes ambient

• Or use linked services (maps)

Practices and principles

Triangular desire (Rene Girard, Eve Sedgwick)

• Connections between characters • Watch for connections between

audience members– Check platform and aura

Practices and principles

Fab your lexia chunks

• Recap/summary of story

• Cliffhanger • Internal organizing

statement• Discrete argument

point

Shift in Lego pieces• POV• Timeline• Embedded story• Meta, help,

disclaimer

(And they move without you.)

Practices and principles

New practices emerging: breaking the fourth wall– driven by social nature, and beta nature– Rely on ST Coleridge

Practices and principles

New practices emerging: hoax

• She's a Flight Risk http://esquire.com/features/articles/2003/030922_mfe_isabella_1.html

• Conservapedia?

• lonelygirl15

Practices and principles

New practices emerging: ARG (http://www.worldwithoutoil.org/)

-ARG.edu

Futures

• Web 2.0 story content might privilege mysteries, since there needs to be a hook to drive readers from piece to distributed piece. Note, for instance, the predominance of mysteries in alternate reality games.

Futures

• Web 2.0 stories are likely to focus on time as a major structural element. – smaller Web 2.0 stories which don't do

this– are Web 2.0 stories always in beta?

Futures

Stories about Web 2.0 storytelling

• Alex Payne, “They Stopped Calling It Rendezvous” (2005)

Futures

Await the backlash.1. First will come the Rosens and

egostorytelling.2. Next will be the scary Web update:

news media, marketing.

Futures

• Quality– Some are lame– Emerging standards, aesthetics?– Reputation as a whole

Futures

Could Web 2.0 storytelling be a minor literature?

• Eastgate hypertext• MUDs, MOOs• IFiction

Futures

Or could it be a transition stage to new things?

• Eastgate hypertext ->WorldWideWeb

• MUDs, MOOs -> Croquet, Second Life

• IFiction -> gaming

Caveats

•Project versus piece versus principle

•Framework is not your project

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

-blog commentators Andy Havens, Steve Kaye, H Pierce, D'Arcy

Norman

-Alan Levine!

-all Web 2.0 storytellers and participants

National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE)

http://nitle.org

http://b2e.nitle.org