OneThousandAndOneStories : A format for multichannel multimedia narratives

Rubegni, E. and Sabiescu, A. and Paolini, P. (2008) OneThousandAndOneStories : A format for multichannel multimedia narratives. In: ECCE '08 Proceedings of the 15th European conference on Cognitive ergonomics: the ergonomics of cool interaction :. ACM. ISBN 9781605583990

Abstract

Motivation - In the field of cultural heritage, the need for producing fresh contents in many cases outruns the possibilities of the institution itself, while outsourcing can be too expensive to employ. The 1001 Stories authoring package that makes the object of this paper was meant to provide to cultural institutions a solution for speedy creation of interactive media, which can be easily achieved by content creators with no technical background. The package - made of a pre-defined interactive format, a suggested workflow for creation of contents and a data-entry tool - has been subsequently employed for tourism and corporate communication applications, as well as for educational purposes. Research approach - The research assessed the use of 1001 Stories in two different contexts: (1) by professional content creators with little technical background; (2) by school children with low level of knowledge and skills in both technology and content creation. The research addresses three main issues: the time required for creating multimedia contents, the authors' response to a ready-made design format, and the suitability of the authoring workflow for professional and educational contexts. Findings/Design - Data drawn from the use of the tool for building professional cultural heritage narratives indicates that the pre-defined interactive format favors the concentration on content creation, as it sets aside any preoccupation regarding the technical aspect of the application development. In the educational context, un-experienced content creators approached the authoring process using the pre-defined format in an inspiring and resourceful way. Children successfully accomplished the technological training and were fast in learning how to use the tool. Research limitations/Implications - The data received so far indicates that a ready-made design format, rather than obstructing, it encourages creativity in its use for developing a storytelling application. Take away message - 1001 Stories package supports the creation of multimedia narratives by providing a ready-made design format, a suggested workflow and an authoring tool that allow content creators to concentrate on the authoring process with no concern for technological constraints. Originality/Value - What makes 1001 Stories innovative as compared to existing tools for fast multimedia creation is that it allows the creation of nonlinear multimedia multi-channel narratives, which support several user-navigation styles, while maintaining the authoring process - workflow and data entry system - simple and straightforward.