South by Southwest Interactive, Here I Come
August 21st, 2008
In a fit of passion, and quite without thinking about the implications of it all, I submitted a panel idea to SXSW interactive.
When I saw my idea live on the page, ready to be voted on, my heart thumped in my chest, and I admit I felt a little sick. Not from the fear of public speaking or anything like that; I love presenting, and speaking to an audience is a high for me, born performer that I am. No, it was more the realization that I was making inroads, or at least truly trying, towards my goal of being at the forefront of a movement to make the web an integrated, holistic library not only of information but of experiences. A place where our needs as readers, learners, teachers, artists, and writers are met. A place where the creative process rules supreme.
My proposed panel is Many roads to Rome: Pluralistic Narratives in Content Strategy. I have summarized it thusly:
“Narrative content strategy creates relationships between content items that guide a user through a website in ways he might not have devised on his own. This panel addresses how instructional design and storytelling help users engage with content-rich sites by creating multiple narratives, and turning independent content pieces into a tapestry of knowledge.”
The talk will cover the benefits of such an approach, business implications, user and reader benefits, as well as how such an approach plays nicely with taxonomies and folksonomies. The idea is to present content strategy, at least in part, as a platform for storytelling and interactivity. A narrator says, “You can only ask me what you know to ask. I know more about what I know that anyone. Let me help you uncover what you may not know you want to know.”
Oh what a beautiful web we’d weave if only we had more narrators willing to show us the way! This is a step in that direction.
So, if you are so inclined, I’d love it if you would take a moment to register and vote. Thanks :)