The first session of the day I went to was Carl’s, about digitising his grandparents’ memoirs Fairytales Can Come True. Obviously, as Carl’s my partner, this wasn’t the first time I’ve flicked through the folder. Carl’s grandparents have told their story in a beautiful way – Pat and Brian have written their passages of the same time separately and published them side by side, Pat’s text is in italics whilst Brian’s is plain text.

Of course the memoirs aren’t just precious personal memories, they’re rich with Birmingham history (Pat and Brian started their life together in the then newly built Chelmsley Wood area). Carl was keen to discuss how he could share these memoirs in a way that expressed the historical titbits and insights they contained whilst respecting his grandparents’ privacy by not over sharing and overcoming some of their fears about the internet. Here’s some notes I took during the session:

The main points that particularly stuck with me were:

• Get the protagonists’ voices online telling their story for themselves where possible – capture them on audio or video to bring the text to life and give people a feel for how the text should be read (regional accents, slang, etc.). Great tips from Katrina Kirkwood.
• Get the story behind the story – how has the history come to be published online? In Carl’s case, it was because his grandfather deleted the document on his computer soon after printing it, so he has been working hard on scanning and re-digitising the document.
• Gradually get the authors blogging their own story using a simple platform such as a private Posterous, so they become accustomed to publishing online and can see how their work reads.
• Rich family archives such as these are starting to be passed down into the hands of people who naturally share their lives and findings online. People find they want to not just to preserve these archives, as their mothers and fathers would have, but to also tell their family’s stories.
• “Blog like there’s no-one reading,” said Lloyd Davis. Sound advice – concentrate on telling your story the way you see fit, don’t let an idea of an audience affect the way you tell it.

The session generated some interesting discussion on how much history (especially local histories) are personal stories, and the delicate balance between sharing versus exposing those looking to publish them need to strike. I was also introduced to some great tips and tools, such as the social network http://www.gransnet.com/

John Popham interviewed Carl just after the session:

Glad you enjoyed the day Jason!

Follow @BBCommArts@BBCommArts
Tash James

Hi #storycamp ers. I hope this link proves useful it lists storytelling apps for your smartphone I recommend blurb bit.ly/iDCV4J

October 4, 2011 6:14 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

Follow @digitalst@digitalst
Gareth Morlais

12 tips for a #digitalstorytelling project aberth.com/blog/tokyo-mel… (scroll to Rear View) @siwhitehouse #storycamp

October 4, 2011 5:39 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

Follow @digitalst@digitalst
Gareth Morlais

As promised @formbyfirst #storycamp BBC Capture Wales Guide to #DigitalStorytelling bbc.co.uk/wales/audiovid… (PDF)

October 4, 2011 5:43 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

Follow @ilovephotocall@ilovephotocall
WINNIE MANGWENDE

Doing reseach on Daniel Medows inspired #storycamp storytelling #tog, check out 1st pic of Martin Parr, long hair 70s shar.es/b01EK

October 3, 2011 7:38 pm via Tweet ButtonReplyRetweetFavorite

To people’s post StoryCamp actions:

Follow @formbyfirst@formbyfirst
 

Following #storycamp last weekend I've started a twitter called @FormbyVillage I hope it's used to for stories & events in the village

October 5, 2011 1:21 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

To intriguing indications of post StoryCamp meetings being arranged and plans being hatched:

Follow @digitalst@digitalst
Gareth Morlais

@GillAllard do you have time to meet at Atrium tomorrow? #storycamp

October 6, 2011 10:15 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

All of them are making me smile!

I just had to share the amazing set of photos #ashroplad (AKA Nigel Bishop) took at StoryCamp and shared on Flickr – he really did capture the relaxed, fun yet productive air of the day. I especially love the one of Ben Whitehouse and Sandra Hall dancing.

Alison Tarry at StoryCamp by #ashroplad

It seems Alison Tarry has taken all she soaked up at StoryCamp back to her workplace, the online marketing company Video to Viral. As a result they are thinking and doing digital storytelling this week:

It was a wonderful day filled with lively conversation, debate and knowledge and project sharing. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to come away inspired, enthused and having made some great connections with like-minded people. Many thanks to both organisers and sponsors Talk About Local, Kind Of Digital and NESTA.

This week Digital Storytelling will be the theme of the blog. Telling stories and enabling the telling of stories is an important aspect of what we do at Video To Viral. We help our clients tell their stories digitally and daily through text, image, video and sound. Audience engagement is the primary goal of all our content-based marketing strategies. Whether our clients wish to engage with consumer, business or internal parties, we always remind them that people engage with people and storytelling is an intrinsically human form of communication. Marketing has (arguably quite deservedly) a bad reputation and we enjoy humanizing it.

This week we’ll be sharing a few of our favourite Digital Storytelling tools*, talking about ways of using storytelling to make even the dullest data appear interesting and looking at how social media can be used to create a ‘Digital Fireside’.

Check out the first of their digital storytelling posts – a very useful list of 10 Free Digital Storytelling Tools.

John Popham‘s video of Lloyd Davis‘s Session on being a ’21st Century Hobo’. Lloyd led a session in which he looked back upon his travels across the States at LocalGovCamp, which amongst other things got me thinking about the possibility of StoryCamp. Here Lloyd talks about his recent ‘working while wandering‘ in the UK, which looks set to continue for the forseeable!

John Popham‘s video of his session on “Helping Young People Envision Their Lives” at StoryCamp, conducted in the sunshine on the back porch!

John said he was inspired to kick-start this discussion by RSA Chief Executive Matthew Taylor’s post The longest journey starts with a single step:

…part of encouraging young people to take on opportunities which offer limited short term benefits is to provide information and encouragement so that they see this as being the first step on a bigger project of personal growth, financial independence and career development. Ministers are currently mulling over whether to abandon independent face to face careers advice so perhaps this is another reason to suggest they shouldn’t…

Getting young people to take up modest opportunities (and we shouldn’t forget that in some areas there are no opportunities at all) is about sticks and carrots but also about advice, encouragement and support, and in that we can all play a role.

A fair few StoryCamp-ers are also keen users of Twitter – if you’d like to find and follow the people you met at StoryCamp on Twitter – check out the StoryCamp twitter list created by Gareth Morlais, who is @digitalst on twitter!

It was a lovely, warm and sunny day on Saturday and not getting out to enjoy the sunshine and delights of Ludlow would have been a criminal waste. Thankfully locals Graeme Perks of Skill Builders (@ludlowperky on twitter) and children’s author Carol-Anne Carr were on hand to lead John Popham’s session request of a tour of the town!