[Sigia-l] re: narrative in IA - links

[Stacy Surla]

The following thoughts may be utterly tangential to Eric's question, or just
embarassingly basic, but I'm *very* interested in the topic and so I can't
resist.

* How about the use of narrative in knowledge management, a la David Snowden
and others (Cynefin center, IBM's Knowledge Socialization project, etc).  Is
there some interesting link between applying narrative to knowledge
management tasks, and using narrative as a metaphor for organizing
information in web structures?

* And the fascinating book "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006097625X/qid=1109084649/sr=2-1/ref
=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-5493831-9202443).  Everyone seems to agree this book is
relevant to IA, but nobody  has yet said why.

* What about performance art and narrative - Thom Haller (my scribbles on
one of his presentations
http://www.dc-ia.com/events/ia03sum/info_overload.html); Laurie Anderson's
interactive fictions (Puppet Motel, anything else she's done, etc.) - are
these performance-based explorations useful or a dead end from an IA point
of view?  

* It could be said that one thing that distinguishes literature from a good
yarn is that story is the whole point of a yarn, but it's just a vehicle for
literature.  I really believe that if James Joyce had used the Dublin phone
directory as the organizing principle for Ulysses, rather than a day in the
life of Leo Bloom, the book would still have been a masterpiece.    If this
is so, then what is it about the structure or the project of literature that
makes it so enthralling, satisfying, and worth working for (as reader as
well as writer)?  Structure, narrative... organization, website... is there
a leap to be made here?

~Stacy
 
------------------------------------------
Stacy Surla
Information Architect, Content Management & Stewardship
R305/Information Management & Practice
The MITRE Corporation
Email: ssurla at mitre.org
Phone: 703-883-3493