Te Ara—the encyclopedia of New Zealand/Aotearoa—has just released the second of nine themes, Earth, Sea and Sky. When they launched back in February last year I suggested Te Ara use digital storytelling to get New Zealanders to tell their immigration stories in a more engaging way. There’s still no sign of digital stories on Te Ara so we helped Graham Eyre tell his story to illustrate the point.

Compare Graham’s digital story with the text-only story here and let us know what you think.

There is a renewed interest in capturing the stories of organisations. Kathy Sierra fervently believes that where there’s passion, there are stories. She says that truly passionate users know your organisation’s story. Steve Denning confirms the power of story for telling corporate histories. A little closer to home, the Auckland Business History Project, has been doing just this: recording the stories that make up Auckland’s colourful commercial history.

Digital stories are usually short personal digitally created stories that offer a view into someone’s world. They can also be used for reporting and for sharing ideas.

In Hamilton we have taught the use of digital stories at Fraser High School Community Education classes as well as at Wintec, and have been (and are) working most recently at the Auckland Museum with Dianne Northcott, Manager Schools Services.

This story was created in 2004:

There I was in Alice Springs driving along Gap Road when I saw the Gap Youth Centre - actually I was directed to it by Maria Power at Charles Darwin University and was very pleased indeed to find it as I had already found the website…….for the Deadly Mob.

I met up with Linda Chellew who is a director there. She talked with me about the ways in which they (at the centre) use digital stories in the communities around Alice Springs. It seems that they take a bus and equipment for up to 10 weeks and work with students,  teaching them how to use digital cameras, software and to put together their own short story. The results are on the website and look fantastic - full of energy and enthusiasm and a few ghost stories.

Check out the website and let the students and staff know how much you like the stories.

I liked the Hermannsburg page and Rose and Betty’s games but there are quite a few to see……