Introducing StoryLab - Change the Story, Change The World

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- The Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) has just launched StoryLab, a new research and development wing dedicated to improving public conversation in the U.S. and around the world.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120913/CG74474)

"With the explosion of media platforms through social and mobile media, the time is ripe for a renewed focus on innovation, especially new ideas that can bring all of our voices to bear on the challenges we face," said Joe Lambert, CDS Founder and Director.

With partners around the world, StoryLab will experiment with media, platforms, and techniques, seeking new ways of capturing and using stories for maximum impact. Arlene Goldbard, CDS's Strategic Visionary, said, "I am so excited to be working with CDS on this project. It is a quantum leap, scaling up all that the organization has learned about story power to affect millions of lives." 

Five pilot projects address critical areas where story can help build healthy democracy and communities, touching on civic engagement, civility and mindfulness, place and connection, service, and overcoming legacies of violence. CDS is seeking organizational partners and investors to collaborate on the development of pilot projects. Those that succeed will be expanded to national or international scale.

The StoryLab launch is timed to lead into CDS's twentieth anniversary in 2013. CDS invented digital storytelling. Ever since, CDS has helped thousands of people make short movies telling their own stories. They are used via screenings, websites, and TV to inspire with the power and creativity of foster kids and cancer survivors, Asians and Pacific Islanders living with HIV and indigenous peoples sustaining language and culture, women and men around the world overcoming gender-based violence, homeless vets and family farmers.

CDS has worked in more than 40 countries and 46 U.S. states, curated eight Digital Storytelling Festivals in the U.S. and convened or cosponsored the four major international festivals. CDS's two books on digital storytelling, Digital Storytelling Cookbook and Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Communities (a fourth edition is about to be published) are the definitive written resources for the field.

"Even as we help individuals and groups tell their stories, we are contributing to a global shift in which stories will be given their true value as the seed-stock of a humane, sustainable world. We are part of a larger field and phenomenon. We always try to share, collaborate, and innovate in ways that advance the field of practice, not just our own work," said Lambert.

"StoryLab will show how things would change if everyone lifted their voices as citizens of the world," said Lambert, "calling out what doesn't reflect their deepest values and standing up for what does. Our motto is 'Change the story, change the world,' and with our partners, we will."

Contact Joe Lambert <[email protected]> or Arlene Goldbard <[email protected]> for more information. 

To view this video on YouTube, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02fm4O7i8j8&list=UUKLPPDaG0bCj1Yqy6PlcouQ&index=2&feature=plcp

Media Contact: Joe Lambert, Center for Digital Storytelling, 510-548-2065, [email protected]

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SOURCE Center for Digital Storytelling