Storillo: A Collaborative Story in Progress
The following entry is from Thomas Wilkie, cofounder of Storillo and a graduate student at Daemen College.
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Coming into Sandbox, Storillo's story was written by a handful of people: myself, my co-founder Tim, some friends and family, and a few people at Daemen (thanks Cathaleen!).
And while the plot moved forward, with such a small group of contributors on the same page (figuratively speaking), there was little conflict along the way.
Enter Sandbox and a lot more voices and a lot more ideas as to what Storillo is and what Storillo could be. And at the beginning, I worked to regain control of the story I was writing as I saw it becoming something I hadn't intended.
But what I realized was that the CEL classes and board meetings weren't designed to necessarily change the story, but to challenge it. It's easy to think that your first idea is your best idea and to look for ways to justify it. And it's easy to get stuck on that idea and to defend it. But defending an idea doesn't help it grow. Sandbox has added the conflict necessary to move the plot along.
So what is Storillo again? Storillo is a collaborative storytelling network where people connect to tell stories piece by piece. Like how I have been begun integrating the various voices at Sandbox into Storillo, we are trying to move that process online and get people to collaborate on stories.
Why is this important? In our constantly connected world, how much are we really connecting? Clicking like or following someone when you are bored is not creating any true, meaningful connections between people. Instead, we believe people connect more deeply by sharing in a common experience. We want to break down the walls that divide people and bring them together to create.
Our focus on collaboration and creation is essential because as our world grows more complex, we need to develop the skills to work together effectively to create solutions to ever more complex problems. And by using stories we are encouraging people to think creatively and to not be afraid to take chances.
It is for these reasons that we are excited about the possibility of using Storillo in schools and are currently exploring this opportunity, which we may not have explored for quite some time without the Sandbox.
We are close to having our prototype finished and we'd love to have some help testing it out. So if you're interested, stop by storillo.com and sign up for updates so we can let you know when you can become a part of our story!
