Heekya: Wikipedia for Stories from DavidAdewumi on Vimeo.
Earlier this year, Penguin Books launched a high-concept web site called, We Tell Stories. The site challenged six authors to remake six classic books in a more web-native and engaging format. The results included a Google Maps mashup, line by line live "storycasting", and a scattered story told across several blogs and Twitter.
While the results were quite engaging, the project missed on out on exploring storytelling as it relates to the social web. With the prevalence of user generated content, wikis and crowdsourcing, it feels like it is only a matter of time before the storytelling medium becomes more collaborative. But, sites have had mixed success in bringing this trend forward.
Back in 2006, Showtime's The L Word partnered with FanLib and held an exquisite-corpse-like contest in which fans submitted scenes each week and voted on which was the best. The best scene was added to a growing script week after week until it was finished. Since then, though, FanLib has closed down.
This week Heekya launched an effort to attempt to bring "social storytelling" back to the mainstream. The site allows the web community as a whole to add multiple perspectives and content on the telling of a given story or event. Although currently in private "alpha", the video demo of the site gives you an idea of just how compelling such an effort, if successful, could be.
Marta Strickland
Strategists & Planners