Conference presentation

1. Paper presented at 3rd Interna*onal Workshop on Social and Personal Compu*ng for
Web‐Supported Learning Communi*es, DEXA 2010, Bilbao
An Ontospa*al Representa*on of
Wri*ng Narra*ves in Hybrid Ecosystem
Kai Pata
Centre for Educa*onal Technology, Ins*tute of Informa*cs
Tallinn University

2. Goals of the presenta*on
• I will discuss narra$ve behaviors in hybrid ecosystem
using the dynamic ontospa$al method.
• I use the dataset collected from the course Ecology of
narra,ves to demonstrate the ontospa$al storytelling
conceptualiza$on and indicate, what is
technologically missing to apply the approach.
• I propose that by using ontospa$al representa$on of
hybrid ecosystem, the individuals may be provided
with the means of enac$ng with this hybrid ecosystem
in more efficient ways, for example co‐construc*ng
narra*ves and ac*ng upon them.

3. What is a story? Spa*al storytelling
• If we say Story we usually think of the
common conceptualiza*on of sequen*al
narra*ves as representa*ons created by
authors.
• What if we look at stories and narra$ve
prac$ces in hybrid environment conducted
with web 2.0 tools in spa$al terms?
• Spa*ally we can look at places as n‐
dimensional meaning‐, ac*on‐ and geospaces.

4. We narrate ourselves into the world
Hybrid ecosystems rely on the ar*cula*on of ‘fragments of
embodied virtuality’ or fragmented interac*on.
In explaining narra*ve
media*on the
embodied cogni*on
and a dynamical
systems account of
the mind may be used
that binds interac*ons
of brain, body, and
the surrounding
environment (Spivey,
2007). We embody different perspec*ves

5. Accumulated chances through
narra*ve ac*on
We store eco‐cogni*ve chances for ac*on and
emo*onal involvement to the hybrid ecosystem,
and use community chances for naviga*on
The conceptual space
formaliza*on by
Gärdenfors (2000)
suggests that a
number of sensory or
non‐sensory quality
dimensions will be
ac*vated eco‐
cogni*vely every
moment of
interac*ng with the
world.

6. The spa*o‐dynamic ontospace model
• This metadata approach (origina*ng from Kaipainen et
al., 2008) enables par*cipants to dynamically define
descrip$ve feature dimensions (ontodimensions) that
altogether cons*tute a spa$o‐dynamic ontological
space (ontospace).
• Using dynamic ontospace, it is possible to represent
any type of descrip*on of the digital content situated
in the hybrid ecosystem, be it a geoposi$on, loca$on
in web, or a tag, or a $me stamp of an event, and
blend them and refer to them in various hybrid ways.
• The ontospace model allows proximity by rela*ng the
existence of en**es in terms of similarity.

7. Taking perspec*ves as ontospa*al
posi*oning
• Narrators actualize meaningful parts of the hybrid
ecosystem by means of narra$ve media$on of places.
Narra*on serves as the tool, we extend ourselves with
narra*ve act to mediate our current feelings or ac*ons.
• In narra*ve media*on they take one perspec&ve at a
$me.
• A perspec*ve is a personal priori*za*on of dimensions
of the hybrid ecosystem.
• Individual places can be iden*fied by the
ontocoordinates that specify their posi*on in
ontospace.

8. Ontocoordinates of onee place in
hybrid ecosystem

9. Ontodimensions of the space
Individual storytellers would act largely as autonomous
agents, aligning their narra*ves according to story
prototypes (conceptual places) that they perceive
meaningful for them

10. Trajectory in ontospace
• A person’s path from one conceptual place to
another when wri*ng hybrid narra*ves may be
described as a trajectory in an ontospace.
• The trajectory as a storyline is determined by and
combined from a limited set of dimensions that
the person highlights, and a small number of
hybrid places where the person stays during
ac*vi*es.
• The trajectory usually fluctuates between the
limited amount of closely situated posi$ons in
the hybrid space.

11. Ontobrands as story prototypes
PERCEIVED STORIES TAGSPACE OF STORIES
STORYLINE AS A INVASION
TRAJECTORY
SUSTAINABLE ECOLOGY
MESSAGE
ATTRACTOR BASINS OF STORIES
An existen*al posi*oning (ontobranding)

12. What is missing from ontospa*al
representa*on
• So far, in a hybrid ecosystem there are no good
means of sequencing story elements situated in
different soeware systems as we do in tradi*onal
novels.
• The possibility of (re)connec*ng story elements
from one virtual environment to another could
be provided with the ontospace representa*on in
future elabora*ons of the system.
• What we need to add to the ontospace
dimensions is the loca$ons of virtual contents in
different soIware

13. Niches as community perspec*ves
• A perspec*ve is by defini*on individual, but
sharing perspec$ves in hybrid ecosystem as
an ecological inheritance of narrated ac$ons
determines niches.
• When iden*fying perspec*ves shared by more
than one individual, these perspec$ves
become community‐defining and facilitate
some community ac*ons more than others.

14. Afractor basins in ontospace model
community‐cultural preferences
• Niches change dynamically in the course of ac*on and
serve as a,ractor basins for community members in
the ontospace.
• An afractor signifies a point, or region (set of points) in
the ontospace favoured by similarly minded
individuals.
• The aJractor governs the mo$on through the space
because it iden*fies what is preferred in the
conceptual space as a good “media*on device” for
emo*ons and ac*ons by many individuals.
• Any individual’s trajectory passing close to that point/
region will be ‘sucked in’ if it reaches to the afractor
basin.

15. Humans as ants in hybrid ecosystem –
narra*ve swarming in ontospace
• The ontospa*al model allows the iden*fica*on of
niches as community‐specific and community‐
determined subspaces of an ontospace.
• Space with dynamically embedded meanings (eg.
spoken narra*ves, movement) entails ac$on
poten$als defined by similarly minded
individuals.
• The spa*al view to storytelling focuses on the
places in conceptual space that serve as
aJractors for community’s s$gmergic ac$on.

16. Same inten*ons

17. Mutual awareness

18. Dissipa*ng signals

19. Visibility within hybrid ecosystems
Ecosystems are not closed to visitors and contributors

20. Aspects of interac*ng with the hybrid
ecosystem
• a) Defining ontodimensions and taking personal
perspec,ves while narra*ng the hybrid story
evokes meaningful places in ontospace and
contributes to the forma*on of a community
niche;
• b) Social surveillance as a par*cipatory
monitoring, empowering and subjec*vity building
prac*ce in hybrid ecosystem allows dynamic
awareness of the state of the ontospace;

21. Aspects of interac*ng with the hybrid
ecosystem
• c) Social naviga,on in ontospace, a behavior of
considering narra*ve ac*ons and incorpora*ng
the story contents of some other individuals into
their own narra*ves, orientates each narrator’s
enactment with the ontospace;
• d) Social informa*on retrieval such as seman$c
naviga$on by community browsing (actualizing
some ontospace dimensions and using the
found contents to guide their own perspec$ves)
allows individuals to focus their meaning building
and ac*on into the community niche;

22. Aspects of interac*ng with the hybrid
ecosystem
• e) S*mergy and swarming refer to
uncoordinated interac$on of autonomous
agents with the dynamic ontospace (b‐d), and
leaving feedback to this system (a) which at
macro‐level causes the emergence of global
coherent behaviors such as collabora$ve
agglomera$on of stories.
• S*gmergic narra*ve ac*on may ini*ate
swarming phenomena in ontospace

23. Narra*ve swarming in ontospace
Individual search
Detect the signal
Dis*nguishing Previous disturbance
feature experience
No*cing an afractor area in ontospace,
Detec*ng afractor no*cing a story trajectory
Analogy Selected no*cing
object
Feedback loop
Following the from the
signal trail environment
Determining an
ontoposi*on Visibility
Wri*ng narra*ve, Collec*ng and
leaving signal trail Collabora*ng based on
mashing, tagging,
ontospa*al representa*ons
geo‐tagging Abduc*on
Increasing afractor Modifying the signal
New
concentra*on story
Expanding, transla*ng, interpre*ng

24. Interac*on is based on ecosystem
feedback
• Social media environments together with geographical
loca*ons can be conceptualized as a “hybrid ecosystem”,
provided that par$cipants of social media have
ecological dependence of the par$cular set of
mediators that they use as their niche for taking ac$on.
• Ar*facts (eg. digital narra*ves, images, real‐world
objects), soeware (eg. social soeware tools), language
(eg. user‐created ontologies such as tags), other actors,
and geographical loca*ons all serve as mediators of
ac*on in hybrid ecosystem.
• People create a feedback loop to hybrid ecosystem that
influences the evolu$on of communi$es and
determines their individual interac$on with the
ecosystem.

25. Swarming phenomena integrate city
space
Some swarming ac*ons took place around perceived stories as
afractor areas in space – many storytellers were autonomously
contribu*ng to the emerging shared stories.

26. Interac*ons with one person’s story
The story contents are distributed across soeware
The story contents become reused in other persons stories
The story contents trigger responses from other storytellers
Just amplify how a community interacts based on narra*ve cues lee by each
storyteller!

27. Dedica*ng content as a
form of collabora*on
Dedicated image

28. Adding content to another story
• Yesterday I walked around and
recorded some city sounds ‐ like
tram and trolleybuses speaking
out next stop names, voices on
the streets and so on. Had an
idea that maybe Geroli would
like to enrich her
tram narra*ve with a sound file
as well. But of course I picked
the wrong tram :)

29. Ac*on may follow in places

30. Empirical findings: Interac*ons with
places
• Social naviga$on by friendfeeds (being influenced by
certain individuals and their story contents) appeared
as a more frequent orienta*on prac*ce in the hybrid
ecosystem than seman$c naviga$on (being influenced
by certain common community tags or story
dimensions). *Note that in the experiment these were
not visualized using ontospa*al tools.
• People rather interacted with the emo$onal
dimensions (tags) of the places in hybrid ecosystem
found by social naviga*on.
• Interac*on in geographical loca$ons was rare
supposedly because the density of accumulated
contents and loca*ve visibility (with mobile tools) is
low.

31. What may enhance spa*al
storytelling?
• Ontospa*al representa*on would reveal to
the storytellers useful informa*on about
community places and ac*ons.
• In the future, visualized niches and aJractor
areas in the ontospa$al representa$on may
become powerful real *me guides for
community members to befer adjust their
personal ac*vi*es in respect to community
preferences.

32. What may enhance spa*al
storytelling?
• Secondly, extrac$ng and visualizing individual
trajectories represented in the dynamic
ontospace may serve in the future as new ways
of perceiving and sequencing spa$al stories and
interac$ng with them in hybrid ecosystem.
• Such adapta*on support tools are needed to
bring ecological learning possibili*es to the new
level in hybrid ecosystems and open their
applicability in culture, marke*ng, tourism or
branding.

33. We proceed the research with spa*o‐dynamic ontospace tools.
The formaliza*on of this framework enables to develop spa*o‐
dynamic ontospace explora*on methods and soeware tool
prototypes that support individuals in exploring narra*ve
communi*es, aiding their naviga*on and crea*vity
Contact: Kai Pata kpata@tlu.ee
blog: hfp://*hane.wordpress.com