Stories provide a context for the events, feelings, ideas, and relationships that make up the fabric of our daily lives. When we describe an important experience in our life to another person, we often shape it in the form of a story.
Stories are a means of communication.
Emerging computational and communications technologies will not eliminate traditional media, just as film did not eliminate novels. But they will open the door to new kinds of stories that can be told in new ways. These new approaches to storytelling will not violate the principles that have served authors and audiences since the first campfires. The main questions must always be if the structure being considered serves the needs of the author and audience, particularly when the technical innovations seem appealing in their own right. This talk will discuss some of the challenges to developing new forms of fiction, and offer my personal view of the landscape, pointing out some of the deadly crevasses to avoid and the lush valleys rich with opportunity.