Digital Story Telling
There's a burgeoning movement in the small world of technological art today that aims to reverse that passivity. But this cadre of performers and teachers embraces digital tools, hoping to use them to level the old distinctions between the creator and the crowd.
Models for this movement can be found on the Web, at sites -- like Derek Powazek's The Fray – which serves as a showcase for writers' personal stories and bulletin boards for readers to respond. Powazek's is more of an open mike for true-life stories (usually, for some reason, with a depressing bent).