A future of story telling (because I think there are many)

[MichaelFStewart]

Hi all,

I've been thinking about some of the technologies available today to deliver guided tours and the such through our mobile devices and it struck me that story telling isn't much different.

If I created an app that allowed you to tell stories through video, text, photos, etc. would anyone use it? It could be geocoded and I could even add props you could add to your pictures, so if you needed a gun or I could simply drop it in and move it where you needed it.

Not sure I'm explaining this properly but essentially I'm saying that if you are an author you could develop a murder mystery with multiple types of media in multiple locations across a timeline and readers could follow it, either online or on the devices themselves.

What do you think?

MFS

[spellbanisher]

Books already take advantage of the most powerful technology in the world, the human imagination.

[MichaelFStewart]

Thanks for responding and you'll get no fight from me on that given that I write the things. You can't do better than a good book! But I also enjoy a good movie and great pictures and if you combined them with location...You could tell some amazing ghost stories if you took people into the real haunted house.

[user_none]

There is a geolocation Zombie survival game. Adding a story to something like that could be highly engaging and imersive.

[MichaelFStewart]

Originally Posted by user_none

There is a geolocation Zombie survival game. Adding a story to something like that could be highly engaging and imersive.

Very cool. There are a lot of group gaming, Scavenger hunt, capture the flag, etc. type apps coming down the pipe or in existence. See the Tron app for a cool recent example. I guess the gaming element needs to be there to appeal to the gaming crowd?

MFS

[spellbanisher]

I'm just pandering to the crowd. As someone interested in history I think new forms of storytelling can be useful for historical reconstruction. New technologies can also find a way to integrate various forms of primary documents into studies.

[spellbanisher]

I had a professor of Roman history who had a Second Life avatar. I always wondered if he had like some reconstruction of Rome or something like that.

[wyndslash]

To answer the OP: it is certainly an interesting idea. Are you familiar with Tumblr? At the moment, using animated gifs of characters and shows and mixes of different shows are popular in retelling what happened to their day or their reaction to something or to just answer a question. It's very entertaining.

[MichaelFStewart]

Originally Posted by spellbanisher

I'm just pandering to the crowd. As someone interested in history I think new forms of storytelling can be useful for historical reconstruction. New technologies can also find a way to integrate various forms of primary documents into studies.

Interestingly though, I do believe text is a better format for some storytelling over others. For instance an action movie like the Indiana Jones type is better in film format over a book. Where as a literary piece which might be more introspective is better in the form of text. This is just my opinion of course.

[MichaelFStewart]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

To answer the OP: it is certainly an interesting idea. Are you familiar with Tumblr? At the moment, using animated gifs of characters and shows and mixes of different shows are popular in retelling what happened to their day or their reaction to something or to just answer a question. It's very entertaining.

I am familiar with Tumblr but never actually used it myself. I'll have to check it out, thanks!
MFS

[wyndslash]

In japan I think, short stories told through cellphone testing is popular well, but I'm not sure as I've only heard about it. Personally, I don't like audiobooks. When I read, I get a certain image of a character in ny head, and a voice just ruins that for me. Plus, there's also just one voice and that's the voice of the narrator. Would be cool if they had different voices for different characters.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by spellbanisher

I had a professor of Roman history who had a Second Life avatar. I always wondered if he had like some reconstruction of Rome or something like that.

There's at least one university doing a virtual ancient Rome. They had some of the externals done the last I heard, which was a while ago. I would so want that, with a little "date" slider so you could move through time and see how a certain place had changed.

I can see a problem with tying something to a particular place, though. For example, speaking of ancient Rome, I'm quite fond of Steven Saylor's "Gordianus" mysteries. I'm nowhere near Rome, though, so it would really suck for me if I had to actually go there to experience a story. And the haunted house might be interesting, but what happens when two ... or two hundred ... people show up to "read" it the same night?

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by MichaelFStewart

If I created an app that allowed you to tell stories through video, text, photos, etc. would anyone use it?

No need for apps. A html document (a web page) is such a multimedia format. Well, at least once html 5 is out in the wild with its native support for audio and video, such content as of now is handled by addons like flash player.

ePub is based on xhtml so it most probably will eventually catch up.

That said, I prefer to read books, listen to music, watch movies and play games. But audio-visual content is certainly a worthy addition to children's books or instructional material.

[MichaelFStewart]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

There's at least one university doing a virtual ancient Rome.

I'll look into that - I know there's always tonnes of things going on that I'm not aware of. As for having too many people show up at once? That's called success! I see what you mean, it would be nice if there was a webbased side to it as well.

MFS

[spellbanisher]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

And the haunted house might be interesting, but what happens when two ... or two hundred ... people show up to "read" it the same night?

Then you have a mob, which is perfect, because it's ancient Rome!