StoryLab FAQ
None of the pilots exactly fits us. Are they flexible?
StoryLab is the Center for Digital Storytelling’s (CDS) new laboratory for creativity and innovation. StoryLab has a big aim: to radically improve public conversation in the U.S. and around the world. For CDS, StoryLab is a quantum leap, scaling up all that we’ve learned about story power to affect millions of lives. With partners around the world, StoryLab will experiment with media, platforms, techniques — whatever perfects new ways of capturing and using stories for maximum impact, generating far-ranging impact for each investment in a StoryLab pilot.
Over the last 20 years, CDS has evolved an approach to digital storytelling that has been popular and effective, and we plan to keep offering it. If you want to take one of the workshops on our schedule or talk with us about creating a custom project for your organization, we’d love to hear from you.
What makes StoryLab new is that each experiment is designed to take story power to scale. What happens when we take what we’ve learned over the last 20 years and set out to change the story as a way to change the world? We asked ourselves what we would do if we had the resources to make a major national and transnational impact over the next few years, and StoryLab is the answer. We’re initiating, aiming high, thinking big, and determined to find the best ways to create and deploy story in the public interest. Please join us!
We’re so glad you asked! First, like all innovation, StoryLab needs investment. If you can contribute or direct us to sources that might underwrite this Lab, please get in touch.
Our number one priority is developing partnerships for StoryLab pilots, and some exciting possibilities are taking shape. If your organization would like to explore partnering with CDS on planning and raising funds for one of the five pilot experiments we’ve outlined, please contact Joe Lambert at joe@storycenter.org or Arlene Goldbard at arlene@storycenter.org. We’ll be delighted to set up a time to talk.
None of the pilots exactly fits us. Are they flexible?
Our goal with the pilots is to experiment with new techniques, approaches, delivery systems, and other elements that can deepen and sharpen story power. We’re creating a major repository for stories (The Republic of Stories), using accessible one picture/one story methods to build a web presence for some pilots, creating story-based theater, using mobile and GIS-related technologies, employing app-based distribution, and creating posters, billboards, and radio. But none of these innovations is permanently welded to a specific pilot. If you have a different participant focus, issue, technique, or other adaptation that seems promising, let’s talk. Please contact Joe Lambert at joe@storycenter.org or Arlene Goldbard at arlene@storycenter.org.
