Joe- Maybe you can start by telling us a bit about your own background?

Dorelle- I got into storytelling via graphic design. I had been working in the corporate world, and people began to ask me about the web and web production, and while I knew the world, I hadn't actually produced a web site. So I got my masters at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, and studied new technologies, which is how I learned Flash. At ITP, I was in Sharlene Smith's class, and ended up doing an animated tribute to my grandmother. Sharlene became the VP of the Convergence Lab at Oxygen (the Research and Development component of the organization), and when they said they wanted a section on storytelling, she said I have just the person. She shared the story I did on my grandmother, and they said, that's what we want to do. So I ended up here.

If you met me, you would know that I naturally gravitate to sharing stories, although in this context, I am perhaps a bit more of quirky personality. If you visit my dorelvis.com personal site (which was my thesis project at ITP), you might get a better idea.

Kimberly- I didn't come from an internet production background. My background has been quite diverse. I worked with non-profit organizations such as Americorp and the , United Way in Miami-Puerto Rico and Brazil. While I was getting a masters degree in Latin American Studies at NYU I took a film course and that was it. My life was changed. I began to work in film and television production, producing an independent film, coordinating commercials and producing a morning show. But my main passion has always been stories. I have done most of the various roles in film production, writing, directing, cinematography, storyboarding, etc, so I bring all those skills into my role as a producer for OurStories.

Joe- Can you give us some background on the OurStories project.

Kimberly - OurStories was part of the Convergence Lab's initial launch back on June 28 of last year. It was up for a couple of months, and then in September we made a number of changes to make it more of a community, to take it from one specific focus, to more of a multi-level focus that we have on the site now. The new site was launched in late October. Originally, they had in mind to produce 3 stories a week or five minutes of content. That proved a bit unrealistic, so we moved to doing one story in Flash, a text story, and a image with audio piece,for the POV section of the sight per week.

Joe- What is the POV section?

Dorelle- Kimberly or I, or some guest writer, will address an issue for 30 seconds or so. For example, for the upcoming Women's History Month, we will have some stories about great or well-known women in history, and then have a group of teenagers responding to the stories.

Joe- Who's idea was OurStories?

Kimberly - Kit Laybourne who had been working on a number of the programming projects for the cable network, including the X-chromosome show, had a strong commitment to co-creation in the way Oxygen developed its media programming. Meaning Oxygen would take programming ideas from its audience, about subjects to address, about stories to cover, and so it made sense that there be a place on the website that encouraged women to share their stories, and to actually work with Oxygen.com in realizing their stories in the multimedia format.

Joe- You decided to use Flash to tell these stories. How was that decided?

Dorelle - At first, they thought about doing Quicktime stories, this would include video and could be used both as web pieces and for broadcast. But for technical reasons, and for artistic reasons, the using of still images and animation to tell the story was much more effective, they decided on flash technology. As it turns out, the Flash pieces also work well in broadcast.

Joe- So OurStories was always a central to Oxygen.com, why do you think this important in the context of the women's audience?

Kimberly- OurStories was always part of the site. The cocreation aspect was considered specifically appealing to our audience. And we have seen how this has worked. Women are not only sending stories, but sending topics for stories. And we have sought to make the topics and responses cover a wide range of concerns of women, from many different kinds of backgrounds or interests.

Joe- So how do you gather and produce stories?

Dorelle- First, we post a topic and call for submissions. Women then send in their stories and Kimberly and I read through them and decide which one would make a great story. People often have many different ideas about what a story is, sometimes it is a brief anecdote, other times advice or discussion, and sometimes a story.

Kimberly- And while we usually make the topics, co-creation means that sometimes the audience chooses the topics as well. For example, people were wanting embarassing stories, and I tried to avoid it for a while, but we finally caved in. So we ran the topic of Embarassing stories, and 40-50 stories came in, and looking through them we made a connection with a specific story. So then we contact the contributor via email, and tell them we are interested in speaking with them about producing the story, and set up a phone call. We then explain the process, and if they agree, we FedEx them a package with a mini-disk, and a roll of film, notes and releases, and then work with them to decide which images need to be taken and coach them a little of how to record the voiceover.

Dorelle- Then all the material comes back to us, and we storyboard the story, decide which animations and other graphics or effects we are going to add to the story, and then produce it in Flash.

Kimberly- The whole process can take about four weeks. I am working with about two months lead time as a producer to think about current events, holidays or subjects timed to the year, and Dorelle animatesone Flash project each week.