Storytelling analysis interactive tutorial

Most users build a story collection by searching stories for specific words and then filtering stories by the answers to multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank questions the storytellers also answered. The combination can define the boundaries of almost any topic.

By default only the story words search box is shown.
Click Expand search options to display all of the questions now.

Start by copying this group of words into the story search box (at the top):

("kibera slum" "mathare slum") and (housing house home)

Then filter these stories by selecting a few specific answers below.

Tips:

If you check a box beside the answer, only stories with that answer will be included.
If you check multiple boxes within the same question, any stories matching one of the selected answers will be included. (This is like saying, "Give me 'happy' or 'hopeful' or 'inspired'.)
If you don't check any boxes beside a question, that question will have no effect on the collection you build. It will just ignore that question during filtering.
Selecting all answers or no answers to a question will have the same effect of ignoring that question, so you only need to select questions that you care about.
Typing a word or phrase into a text box will filter stories, keeping only those that contain the word you typed. So, for example, typing "Nairobi" into the city text box will only return stories that took place in Nairobi.

The most revealing filter questions relate to outcomes:
<center><h2>Who benefited from what happened in the story?<br>How does this story make you feel?</h2></center>

<center><h2>Who benefited from what happened in the story?<br>How does this story make you feel?</h2></center>

and the storyteller's point of view:
<center><h2>What is your connection to the events in this story?</h2></center>

Lastly, you'll notice a box where you can enter "group_id numbers." This is used by organizations that have built a custom storytelling survey or surveys. By entering the number of the survey, they can limit their search to only stories that were received by that survey.
You can read about and eventually build your own survey here:

Try it. It's free! We want to help you grow it into a knowledge system that helps the world.

Meta data

Meta data is information about the process, and not directly provided by the storyteller. This is generally not interesting to most people.

Cheat codes are secret words that change how results are compiled or which story collection is used in the analysis. Organizations that have collected hundreds of stories are allowed to further customize the design here.

Some organizations have imported their own narratives and data sets in as private collections, so that they can use these tools on pre-existing data. They use the "cheat codes" box to enter a password to access their own data.

If you'd like to import your own data, contact us.

Full search

Step 1(A): Build your story collection

By topic

Filter by answers to specific questions:

Step 2(A): Select from these options to narrow your story collection by specific criteria

("kibera slum" "mathare slum") and (housing house home)

Tips:

Step 3(A): Filter by meta data

Meta data