Okay, Let’s Make this StoryBox Thing Easy

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by D’Arcy Norman

My last tactical effort to solicit items for the StoryBox had a good number of reads and tweets– and I got nothing sent in. And in talking to some friends, I figured (once again, lather, rinse, repeat), I am doing it wrong.

Asking people to share a digital file that “represents this time to them” is a tough assignment, believe me, if a friend like Cheryl Colan struggles with it, I am on the left sign of the graphic above.

Here is the easy version. Don’t think about it, just grap a photo, make an audio recording, shoot a short video of whatever you are doing, or where-ever you are. Just send me something that is not posted elsewhere in the internet, and send me something you created. Like what you had for lunch today, the essential Twitter Zen question. Name the file something cryptic, cause this is all anonymous.

Most of you will not be where the StoryBox is to add it, so I have another route (two) so they can go along for the ride;

• Upload as many things as you like to dropitto.me/cogdog — use the password storybox.
• You can also email attachments to my dropbox via alan_x2ze (AT) sendtodropbox DOT com — just send the file; I am not tracking the emails sent, so I won’t know who it is from.

It would really lift my spirits to see more stuff come in! It’s LONELY out here on the Wyoming roads–

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

Maybe I am impatient, it’s only been up for about a month or so, and I do have over 100 items in there and it has been out in public at a few places … but many are mine, or things I have recorded in audio while visiting people.

Take two days ago. I got an email from Nathan Lowell asking about what he might share, and offering to have lunch since he was nearby. I swung my driving circle so we could have lunch in Greeley, Colorado. Nate is a long tim educator who has found a new calling as an author of science fiction stories, and he is making a career of it! His books are freely available on as audio podiobooks, and he did share 2 of them with me via USB (technically these wont be part of the StoryBox but are nice to have).

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

Instead, we just recorded about 5 minutes of conversation. Thats enough. Someone send a video of their kid riding down the sidewalk. I recorded the sound of the rain yesterday. Someone sent a photo of a hot dog. Just find something that captures this moment in your life– is that really difficult?

Now that seems easy to me, it might take you 2 minutes to do something and another 2 to send it.

Please?

My sanity is depending on it.

Now, I am off to drive 240 miles to get somewhere.

PS- The beauty of this web is that I did a flickr creative commons search on the tag “easy” and I came up with the perfect image— by my friend D’Arcy Norman!

PPS- And this is not the kind of things that happen if all we do is share stuff in our little circles.

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