I’m pleased that my little survey widget on my sidebar has gleaned a few responses — and not as much spam as I’d feared.
I asked: What do you think will be the next significant development in applied storytelling?
Here are readers’ responses:
I imagine something that draws on creativity…the use of cartooning and visualising stories is of interest.
Continued advancement & adoption of immersive storytelling in simulation games & virtual worlds like World of Warcraft & SecondLife.
Person-to-person charity sites (e.g. Kiva, GlobalGiving) will reach the tipping point of mainstream philanthropy because recipient stories (told via multimedia) will increase the emotional connection of the transaction.
I would take issue with the word applied. All storytelling is applied. I don’t think good storytelling changes. All that changes is the methodology that is used to communicate the story. So today we have the web that allows us to reach people with our story that are not within our immediate circle of family and friends. Just as the printing press changed how story was distributed. The web changes how story is distributed. But neither technology changed story. Story adapts to the medium outwardly, but at its core remains the same. So when the next technological advance arrives, story will hop on for the ride.
Interesting observation about virtual worlds. Seems like last year, Second Life got tons of buzz (the way Twitter does this year), but now I barely hear about it. Just read a piece about newspapers setting up bureaus in Second Life but now expressing disappointment in the low number of users and advertisers.
Tim, I think your observation is astute as I am increasingly seeing nonprofits use storytelling.
Harley, I believe it was Michael Margolis who inspired me to use the term “applied storytelling.” I don’t disagree that “all storytelling is applied.” But I use the term “applied” to distinguish the forms of storytelling that most interest me from performance storytelling, which interests me, but not as much as other forms do. I have learned through Annette Simmons that the performance-storytelling roots of “applied” storytelling are exceedingly important because performance storytellers have so much to teach the rest of us about how to tell a good story. I really like your final line, “So when the next technological advance arrives, story will hop on for the ride.”
I’m posting my next question on the widget — about defining “story.”