See a photo of Stewart, his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.

Q&A with Stewart Marshall, Question 4:

Q: The culture is abuzz about Web 2.0 and social media. To what extent do you participate in social media (such as through LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Second Life, blogs, etc.)? To what extent and in what ways do you feel these venues are storytelling media?

A: I do participate in what is currently called social media, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs. Of these I think some are more effective as storytelling media than others, but most of them have a role to play. Twitter for instance, is very interesting. It can give you insight into the stories of those you follow. It reminds me of a series of photographs. Each individual picture can speak a thousand words, but it is the stream of photographs that exposes the true story. It also works the other way around. What does the collection of people you follow say about your own story?

Blogs are another example, whose story has changed itself. Now I am seeing a lot longer entries than in previous years. Writers seem to be articulating in more details the thoughts and ideas they have. In many cases they really are exploring the story. Web-based tools like FriendFeed are also story aggregators, pulling large parts of the internet from multiple sources into one easily digestible place. Collectively the tweets, blog entries, shared items, photos, status updates, etc., provide you with an ongoing and live story where you can choose your level of involvement. If you do get involved (by commenting for instance) the story becomes interactive which is really exciting!