Once Upon a Time...

By Melissa Feldsher in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 19, 2009 6:40PM

SXSW is more than just music. Granted, Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot [Ed. note: and, ahem, Lizz Kannenberg] are probably having the time of their lives traipsing across the 1,800 odd bands scattered amongst Austin, Texas, but you’ll have just as much fun reading NPR’s All Songs Considered twitter feeds, right?

Delusions aside, you can share in a little of the SXSW love from the comfort of your own cubicle, because the 12th Annual SXSW Web Awards have announced their winners. Drum roll please: the “Best of Show” site that has either been launched or completely redesigned in 2008 goes to the interactive fiction web site, We Tell Stories.

We Tell Stories combines reality game designers Six to Start with “traditional media” publisher Penguin UK to redefine the art of storytelling. Using tools like weblogs, Google Maps, and—of course—Twitter, We Tell Stories lets readers see tales unfold sentence by sentence, view different characters’ perspectives, and fully immerse themselves in their fiction. The site both re-imagines classics like Charles Dickens’ Hard Times and Tales from 1001 Nights and creates new conceptions of literature like Toby Litt’s Slice and Charles Cumming’s The 21 Steps.

We Tell Stories’ co-founder, Dan Hon next imagines using devices like mobile phones to transport readers into fictional worlds by combing design and storytelling. T”">ext in me muse and through me tell the story?

BY: Melissa Feldsher