Cowbird: An Online Audio Storytelling Community

If you've ever listened to an episode of This American Life and thought, I could do that (or maybe, more realistically, I wish I could do that) then you might just find a home at Cowbird, an online community of storytellers. Users record stories based on their personal experiences and share them with their fellow Cowbird urders and the wider Internet community.  

"Cowbird is a small community of storytellers, focused on a deeper, longer-lasting, more personal kind of storytelling than you’re likely to find anywhere else on the Web...The storytelling format we're trying to coalesce around is a single photograph accompanied by an audio or written vignette, the more personal and authentic the better." 

You don't have to be a user to listen in, but if you want to get the most out of the experience you can request an invitation and start "loving" stories (way better than Facebook's "Like") and discovering authors you admire. When you join someone's audience you get updates when they record a new story. When you're ready, you can begin your own audio-visual diary. 

"Our short-term goal is to pioneer a new form of participatory journalism, grounded in the simple human stories behind major news events. Our long-term goal is to build a public library of human experience, so the knowledge and wisdom we accumulate as individuals may live on as part of the commons, available for this and future generations to look to for guidance."

Find out more and listen to a few stories to undoubtedly get inspired.

-- Perrin Drumm

Call for Entries // The Tribeca Film Institute New Media Fund Supports Innovative Cross-Platform Storytelling

18 Days in Egypt, which launched this week on the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the Egyptian uprising, captures that historic moment throught an interactive collaboration that brings together citizen journalism and multimedia. This is the kind of innovative project that the Tribeca Film Institute is supporting with its newest program, the TFI New Media Fund.

"The ultimate goal of the New Media Fund is to push the boundaries of storytelling and take the audience beyond traditional screens," says 3rd Ward member Opeyemi Olukemi, who is part of TFI's Digital Initiatives team. 18 Days in Egypt was one of the first six projects funded through the program last year, along with others such as Map Your World, which encourages children to help improve their communities by mapping, tracking and sharing the changes that they are making. There's also an interactive online companion to the documentary film The Tillman Story.

"The Fund aims to support non-fictional, social issue media projects that engage audiences and challenge them to explore these stories in an innovative approach," Olukemi adds. Think you've got a project that fits those criteria? TFI will be accepting submissions for the fund through March 6, and this summer four to eight projects will be awarded between $50,000 and $100,000.

Olukemi recommends starting with an idea that inspires you. "I would advise each applicant to find an issue that is important to them—whether it be human engagement with wildlife (NFB's BEAR 71), black male identity in America (Question Bridge), or city life in dense spaces (NFB's Out My Window)—and think of how their community can explore it through a different fashion," she says. "Think beyond the film screen and start creating what you wish was being done!"

For more information, check out the TFI New Media Fund Wiki or get in touch at newmediafund[at]tribecafilminstitute.org

-- John Ruscher