Mobile Storytelling and Video Sharing for
Inter-Cultural Communication:
How Personal
Expression Leads to Job Skills
John Kuner
Digital Vision Fellow, Stanford University
jkuner@mobilestorytelling.org

Overview
• Individual media creation is a growing trend
that has strong impact
• Personal and professional media has huge
growth in the developing world
• Industry and Government build on these to
create new jobs and new industries

3D animation,
New Media photography,
web design
video--gaming,
filming, editing,
archiving…
• “Web 2.0” economy is based on content
creation with global interchange
• Video creation is especially effective
• Learn digital skills
• Personal expression & life skills
• View & connect globally

Recipe for a Story
Point of View
1.
Dramatic Question
2.
Emotional Content
3.
The Gift of Your Voice
4.
The Power of the
5.
Soundtrack
6. Economy
7. Pacing
Source: The Center for Digital Storytelling's Cookbook (Lambert, 2006)

Digital Story example
http://www.jumpcut.com/view?id=BD9773941DCA11DCAC41000423CF0184

Digital Storytelling
Benefits
• Individual narrative becomes digital media
• Also creates a more level playing field --
kids, Ze Frank, David Letterman, and YOU all
have videos on the web that anyone can
access

Importance of Cell
Phones
• Cell phone market is massive
• Over 2 billion sold in 20 years
• Next billion in the next 3 years; mostly
from developing world
• Cell phones surpassing landlines
http://www.kiwanja.net/gallery/handsets/kiwanja_handsets_13.jpg

Mobile Education
Projects
• Mobile games for financial
literacy
• Mobile storytelling
• MobilED - large information
repository/community via
SMS/Voice

MobilED diagram
From: http://mobiled.uiah.fi/?page_id=7

Media market scale
• Hollywood(USA) - $50B today
• Bollywood(India) - $1B today
• Nollywood(Nigeria) - $.8B today, but fastest
growth
• Global media & entertainment - 1 trillion in
5 years (PWC)

Nollywood in more
detail
• Started by traders -- organic growth through
large distribution and many small films
• Funding increasing by private equity
• Even a few web advertising companies
http://www.thisisnollywood.com/trailer2.htm

However....
• Formal education difficult to get (60k spots
for 160m people)
• Existing training programs & higher
education have huge demand

Case Study: Cap Digital
• Competitiveness Cluster for Ile
de France media industry
• Worked with government ,
industry, and local media arts
center to create Digital
Pathways
• Out of work youth training
program for media arts
industry Photo: Bay Area Video Coalition
• Training program grows in
conjunction with cluster

My Projects
• DiSCO: Extending Cap Digital model to SP
• E-Lounge - cultural connections
• New Collaborations?

Conclusion
• Media training around self-expression (eg
digital storytelling) in an inter-cultural
context
• At minimum, increases self-esteem and
digital literacy
• When well aligned, it results in job
placement and creation

Thank you!
• Questions?
• Other resources
• http://mobilestorytelling.org (my website)
• http://storycenter.org (Center for Digital
Storytelling)
• http://rdvp.org (Digital Vision Program)