软件帮你讲故事

    照理我应该是提出问题的那个人。不过，当我和史蒂芬•拉库纳斯在旧金山金融区的Tully's咖啡厅前交谈时，他却率先发问了：“你有什么新闻？”其实，我不该感到吃惊。因为拉库纳斯开办了一家新创企业Story Coach，目标就是构建一部包含有每个人生活经历的百科全书。Story Coach是出版社、编辑和时间胶囊的综合体。人人都可以给Story Coach讲故事，无论是口述还是写出来都可以。Story Coach随后会把这些故事转变成电子或实体书。详细的流程是：用户通过打电话、打印文稿或邮寄录音带等方式将故事发给Story Coach。故事的主题一般是人们在生命历程中的智慧结晶。Story Coach有一套软件能让故事讲得更精彩：例如，它会提示，这里需要详细点，或者这里得润色一下。公司首席技术官——42岁的拉库纳斯将这套软件称为故事专家（Story-Tech）。记录完故事后，Story Coach的算法会在互联网上搜索与故事相关的历史资料——新闻片段、图片、视频等。最后，根据故事以及网上找到的资料，Story Coach团队中的设计师会为故事增添一副原创插图。

    【听起来是不是有点像口述历史的21世纪版本，事实也的确如此。Story Coach创立之初曾寻求与StoryCorps展开合作，后者是美国国家公共电台（NPR）在2002年成立的一家机构，致力于讲述老百姓日常生活中的故事。不过目前双方的合作还没有进展。】

    创办Story Coach的点子最开始诞生于Design Garage课程上的一个团队项目，这门课程是传奇设计工作室IDEO的创始人大卫•凯利在斯坦福大学（Stanford）设计学院开授的。在斯坦福，拉库纳斯与Story Coach现任首席执行官马克•罗杰斯、设计师朱尔斯•谢尔曼、销售主管扎克•奥斯本三人组成项目团队。项目一开始是一项针对老年人的医疗服务。不过，经过一番研究后，他们发现这些潜在用户的最大需求是与家中的年轻人进行交流。

    所以，他们决定调整项目，从可能拥有最多故事的人——祖父母们着手。项目团队前往老年中心寻找志愿者。拉库纳斯没有使用“老年人”这个词，他把自己的第一批用户称为“长老”以凸显其智慧。截至到目前，Story Coach总共已经制作了30本书，计划以每本电子书5美元以及每本实体书20美元的价格出售。出版资金完全自筹，销售所得将被Story Coach用来继续开展与健康有关的工作。有朝一日，Story Coach的讲故事技术会让故事变得更加“聪明”——例如根据读者的问题在故事进行中调整情节（有些聪明的宝宝，大人每说一句话，他们都会问一句“为什么”。对这些孩子而言，这或许是个不错的功能）。

    讲故事是一项古老的活动。Story Coach希望能为这个传统的活动注入新鲜的活力。

    译者：项航

    I'm supposed to be the one asking the questions. But as we chat in front of Tully's cafe in San Francisco's financial district, Stephen Racunas says to me, "So what's your story?" I shouldn't be surprised he's asking. Racunas' startup, Story Coach, aims to build an encyclopedia of every person's life lessons.

    Story Coach is part publisher, part editor, part time-capsule. The service lets people tell a short story to the company, either verbally or written out. Story Coach then turns the yarn into an electronic or physical book. Here's how it works: A customer either phones in, types up, or records and sends in a story. Typically the topics are those pearls of wisdom one picks up along the way of life. The software, which 42-year-old Racunas, the chief company's technologist, has dubbed Story-Tech, provides prompts to bolster the tale: elaborate here, embellish there, for instance. An algorithm then scrapes the web for relevant historical content -- news clippings, pictures, video footage. Then, based on the story and material found online, one of the team's designers creates original illustrations.

    (If that sounds a bit like a 21st century version of the oral history, it is. The firm originally sought to partner with StoryCorps, an NPR program that focuses on telling the stories of everyday people and that has been around since 2002. No luck so far.)

    The idea was born out of a group project in Design Garage, a class at Stanford's design school taught by David Kelley, founder of legendary design firm IDEO. At Stanford, Racunas teamed up with fellow student Mark Rogers, now Story Coach's CEO, and designer Jules Sherman and head of sales Zach Osborne. The idea began as a medical project focused on serving seniors. But after some research, they found that potential users' biggest desire was connecting with younger family members.

    So they decided to tweak the plan and start with the segment that presumably has the most stories to tell: grandparents. The team went around to senior centers asking for volunteers. Instead of using the word "senior," Racunas refers to his first costumers as "elders" to designate their wisdom. The company has made about 30 books to date, and plans to sell them for $5 per e-book and $20 per hardcover. They are self-funded, and have raised money for Story Coach by continuing to work on health tech. And someday their storytelling technology could even make tales "smarter" -- like changing the plot mid-story based questions from a reader (good, perhaps, for the precocious grandchild who asks "why?" after every sentence).

    Storytelling is an ancient practice. Story Coach wants to take it into the future.