The Art of Storytelling iPhone Application

When I was first starting to explore the worlds of storytelling, one on the real surprises I happened upon was the oral storytelling movement. From the story slams sponsored by The Moth to the many festivals, like the just completed Smokey Mountain Storytelling Festival in Pigeon Forge, where tellers would weave their tales to the delight of thousands, I came across an array of wonderful stories and storytellers.

One of the best known of those is Eric Wolf, who goes about his storytelling as Brother Wolf. He’s been at it for pay, so to speak, since 1993. You can find out all about him and the work that he does here: About Brother Wolf. Over the past 6 months or so, I’ve linked to several pieces by and about him on the daily storytelling updates here on the site.

In 2007 he started The Art Of Storytelling podcast series. In those he interviews a different person each week or so and they talk about different aspects of the storytelling art. He was awarded an Oracle Award for Distinguished Service to the National Storytelling Community in 2010 for his work on this podcasting series. For those of you who may not be aware, the Oracle award is the highest award given by the storytelling community to those who have worked to support the art of storytelling nation wide. If you listen to just a few of the podcasts you’ll understand why he is so deserving of the award.

About a week ago he released The Art of Storytelling iPhone Application. Before we take a look at what it’s all about, let’s get the 3 letter agency blogging rules and housekeeping out of the way so that I can avoid water boarding, hot coals and whatever other penalties one might incur by running afoul of those new blogging disclosure rules. Eric was kind enough to provide me with a code that enabled me to bypass the iTunes Store payment system. So, in the spirit of full disclosure, authenticity, transparency and all of that other good social media stuff, I got it for free so that I could review it for you here.

The first thing you see when you tap the app to start is this opening screen.

Once it loads you’ll see the latest podcasting episode.

Isn’t that a clean, elegant interface? If you tap the “Episodes” button, you’ll be transported to a screen that lists all of The Art of Storytelling podcasts. For those of you who have used iTunes to listen to the podcasts in the past, and who have been unable to listen to the first 60 episodes, you’ll find them all right here. That feature alone is more than worth the price of admission.

Tapping the “Extras” button from the current podcast screen brings up a list that lets you download wallpaper, download in iTunes, visit the Art of Storytelling website or tell a friend about a podcast or site by emailing them.

The wallpaper looks like this:

The navigation menu across the bottom of the screen has three options. The “Art of Storytelling” one will take you to the current podcast screen or the one listing all of the available podcasts. The “Contact” option brings up a screen with all of the ways to interact with Eric, the podcasts and the website.

“Call the show” will do just that. Selecting that option brings up the number for the show with the option to call or cancel. For those of you who haven’t participated, one of the neat things about the podcasts is that Eric encourages audience participation. Something I didn’t see in the App, and it would make a nice addition to the next version, is a way to see when the next podcast is scheduled for so that you could add it to an iCal event and get notified so that you could call in if you so desired.

“Email the Show”, “Visit Website”, “Follow on Twitter”, “Visit on Facebook” and “Report a Problem” all do exactly what you would expect. A quick note about the “Follow on Twitter” option. Eric also runs The International Storytelling School and on Friday he tweeted this:

I’m still chuckling about the “eco-obama” remark (we hug trees here in Chapel Hill), but, he’s given you fair warning. Maybe a future update to the App will offer the option to follow the eco-obama Twitter account or the Storytelling School one.

The “Starred” option will show any episodes that you have tagged or starred. You can star episodes by tapping the “star” located between the “Episodes” and “Extras” button whenever you’re on the podcast screen.

When you select a podcast to listen to, this is the screen that will guide you along.

You can see how much time has expired. How much time is still left. You can tap and hold the little ball between the timer and move the podcast forwards or back. You can also use the controls below to stop the podcast or jump to the beginning or end. And best of all? This:

If you pause or stop a podcast, it will remember where you were and ask you if you’d like to resume from there the next time you visit the App or start again at the beginning if you prefer. That’s something you can’t do from the website. You can kinda’ sorta’ fudge it with a playlist in iTunes. But why would you when the App makes it so simple?

This kind of App falls into the category that is coming to be known as “vanity apps”. Bloggers, columnists, pundits, media publications and even corporations are releasing them left and right. Some are good. Most are not. Those that aren’t offer little to nothing more than you get by visiting through a web browser. Those that are offer features that you don’t find on the website or through other web interfaces. The Art of Storytelling offers a simple, elegant interface to its storytelling and podcasting content that you can’t get through a browser or iTunes. It also offers access to the first 60 episodes which aren’t available through iTunes. And there are some real gems in those early episodes.

Other than the option to get notified of upcoming shows that I mentioned earlier the only other thing I’d like to see in a future version is the option of viewing the podcasts by category such as that offered on the web site. Is it worth the $4.99 price tag? Absolutely!