Joe- Do you have any stories about producing the stories?

Dorelle- You have to tell him about the Valentine Story.

Kimberly- OK. For valentine's story that just came out, we produceed a story by a women named Pandy Arrieta. She had sent us a story that resonated with us. Her story was not the simple happy Valentine story. She wrote about how when she grew up how important Valentine's Day was for her, how she always wore pink and dressed up with bows and everything. When she grew up, she even got married on Valentine's Day, and they had a Valentine ceremony with the wedding cake shaped as a candy box with heart-shaped truffles. Well five months after their baby is born, husband decides he wants to start dating again, and he leaves her. The story would be pretty depresseing if it ended there. But sure enough, on Valentine's Day three years later, her little three year old boy comes into her room, without Pandy even knowing that the boy knew what Valentine's Day was all about, and gives her a little heart, and tells her he loves her. So she learns about a deeper kind of love that is also what Valentine's Day is about.

Dorelle- So we produced it. And at some point, when she is talking about her husband leaving her, I made an animation that was a silouette of her husband and I had three knives going into the body. It was a bit intense, so we showed it around the staff, and a few people said maybe we should tone it down. So we made it into a single knife going through a heart.

Kimberly- Pandy called the day after the story came out and went on and on about how much she liked it for several minutes. Pandy was grateful for the job we had done in producing the story, and said she felt that although the story started on a sad note, it had a happy ending, and that this was what was important to communicate to other people. After the conversation, my ego was sky high, this is precisely what makes all the hard work worthwhile.

Dorelle- And of course, Pandy said her favorite part was the knife through the heart.

Joe- Once the story is published, how do people get to respond?

Dorelle- We have a vibrant message board community where people respond to stories, and with the launch of the cable network last month, they began the process of putting chat sessions online as well.

Joe- So where do you see OurStories going in the Future?

Kimberly- We have all sorts of thoughts about where this could go. We want to explore all kinds of stories. We recently added a fiction area, so that a business women or someone who doesn't often get to express themselves in creative fiction, can have a chance to explore that territory as well.

Currently five of the our stories pieces were selected as interstitials for various components of the Oxygen Cable programming. They are played within a frame that contextualizes the story. For example, one was on SheCommerce program, where a group of women see the story and then discuss the issues the story brings up for them.

Dorelle: So this could go on to be a special on the cable channel, or develop in a number of exciting ways.DorelleBut we don't want to lose the co-creation basis to this work. It is critical to the success of the project.

Kimberly- One of the things that makes these stories work is that the stories have the voice of the woman sharing the story. When I am working on a story with people and they make a mistake in recording their voiceover, a small pause or something, I tell them that's ok, its part of what makes the story so special.

I think the OurStories process is particularly important becausethere are a lot of people who think that all our lives our so busy, and we are so centered on our own problems and needs, that we don't have time to take five minutes to listen to other people's stories. OurStories suggests that people have a desire to listen and share their own stories. We are creating a venue for people listening to each other, and by the response so far, there is a real demand for this service.

Joe- And Oxygen.Com remains committed to this section of the site?

Kimberly- I don't know whether it is because we are part of a start-up, or because of the particular approach of Oxygen Media, but we are very lucky that they have the liberty to create with a great deal of freedom. I am still getting used to working in a corporate environment, but my sense is that many companies would not give us the freedom to run with
this project in the way we have done with OurStories. That is another way that this project is so special.

Joe- I think you are right. Good luck with the project, and we'll see you online.