IN THIS ISSUE:

• IN THE NEWS: "Tell Me a Digital Story" - Business Week
• OP/ED: The Search for a Digital Storytelling Definition
• CASE STUDY: NCR takes Storytelling in Hand
• DSTORY6 SITES OF THE WEEK: this could be you!

IN THE NEWS:
Business Week' Features Digital Storytelling

Have you been wondering whether you are the only one out there that thought digital storytelling was tough to grasp, but that there definitely seemed to be something to it? Not so! The circles of people doing digital storytelling - but perhaps not calling it that - are beginning to discover each other. And each of these diverse circles bring something unique to the table, putting to use the power of using rich media enhanced stories to tackle all sorts of communications challenges. A recent article on digital storytelling in Business Week (May 15), featuring an interview with Dana Atchley and other corporate brandbuilders, is a great example of the degree to which the volume is getting pumped up around this emerging discipline. Telling a digital story is an excellent way to build business and attract and keep customers. "Digital stories boost Oxygen's site traffic by 14 percent right after they're posted," quotes the article, which goes on to declare digital storytelling as "the hot new trend in online marketing." We've known this all along, and this has inspired the development of a strong business focus in both The Digital Storytelling Festival and Conference.

Read the article.
Read Q & A with Dana.

OP/ED:
The Search for a Digital Storytelling Definition
by KoAnn Skrzyniarz (Scra-ZIN-yerz), Vice President
The Digital Storytelling Conference & Festival

People often accuse technology of being responsible for creating a disconnect between people - between a company from its customers and vice versa, between the leaders and employees with the organizations they are part of, and between dispersed communities that seek to be connected. The compelling thing for me, working to support the emerging discipline of digital storytelling, is that its practice offers the promise of helping us all to reconnect. One of the obstacles to the emergence of a new discipline is that it's difficult to communicate about the discipline until there becomes a shared understanding of the scope or definition of the field. I see digital storytelling as a new set of skills and tools that can strengthen communication within or between individuals and organizations in compelling new ways - much the same way as desktop publishing did when it came into common use. Today's rich media tools and the advent of broadband and other distribution media allow us to go to the next level in building emotional connections between us - in giving ourselves, our products, our companies, our leaders, our history, and our community interests a voice. As we seek to encourage the emergence of this new field of expertise, one of our first orders of business will be to help establish a definition of the scope of digital storytelling. It doesn't need to be bulletproof, or necessarily elegant (though I always prefer things that way) to be effective.

With that in mind, here's my attempt: "Digital storytelling is the art of creating and enhancing good stories with rich media development and distribution tools. Digital storytelling helps communicators build powerful connections between people, products, companies, communities, themselves and each other." What's your view? As participants in this new community, we'd love to hear your thoughts on how you would define your field. --

Contact KoAnn Skrzyniarz

ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITY
Is your company interested in sponsoring the dStoryNEWS? Please contact Denise Atchley for sales and sponsorship information.

CASE STUDY:
NCR Takes Storytelling in Hand

Dana Atchley recently conducted a successful digital storytelling workshop for members of NCR's Global Learning Division. During the four-day workshop, participants created six short digital stories with the aim of learning the digital storytelling methods pioneered by Atchley at the American Film Institute.

Stories were created on Apple DV laptops using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere as the primary tools. Participants brought their own archival material and, in some cases, created original footage using a Canon GL1 digital camcorder. These stories and the knowledge gained from the workshop will aid NCR in developing digital storytelling techniques for distance learning and reality based training. Dana was assisted in the workshop by Joe Lambert and Philip Petersen from the Center for Digital Storytelling. NCR is expected to present case studies based on this work at the dStory6 Conference. Joe Lambert will be conducting the Digital Storytelling Bootcamp. Until then, check these out:

Dana Atchley Productions
Center for Digital Storytelling
NCR
AppleComputer
Adobe Systems
Canon

Watch for scheduling of the NCR case study session.

DSTORY SITES OF THE WEEK
This could be you!

We're proud to announce our new dStory site of the Week, featured on our home page. We choose the sites based on our interests, the site's level of support or implementation of digital storytelling, and just because we think they're great.

Our first dStory Site of the Week was the home of the Free Photographic Omnibus by Daniel Meadows. Daniel Meadows is a photojournalism Tutor at the Centre for Journalism Studies, University of Wales, Cardiff, UK, and used the web to create a retrospective and diary of a photo series he had created 30 years ago, adding current photos of the same people as they are today. Doing so provided a dramatic hook to students for further learning about the culture and social issues he represents.

This week's featured site is www.scottmccloud.com, the intriguing site by one of our founding attendees Scott McCloud. Scott is the author of Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics. His work provides us with new ways to think about both visual and digital domains using the art of traditional comic storytelling. If you are designing content for limited bandwidth internet delivery, don't miss his work.

If you would like your site to be considered for dStory Site of the Week, please send your URL to Dana Atchley

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For further information Contact:

Denise Atchley
dStoryNEWS
3435 Cesar Chavez Street, Studio 221
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-285-4383