Supporting Personal Digital Storytelling: From People to Software

Abstract

Everyone has a personal story to tell. Often these stories are captured in the photos and videos we take to remember and share our experiences. Through a study of the Center for Digital Storytelling's workshops, we discovered telling personal stories using digital media captured during the experience requires more support than current software tools provide. We present a set of guidelines for supporting digital storytelling and strategies to implement each. We use the guidelines to assess the support a current software solution (Apple Computer's iLife series) provides. From our analysis, we identify supports needed for personal digital storytelling that are absent in tools today and provide suggestions for providing those missing supports.