I’ve been playing around with some old TREC data over the past few days and completely by chance I came across this document. I find it interesting because storytelling is a good metaphor for what we as researchers do when we construct interactive information seeking systems. The document is short enough that I think I can reproduce it here in its entirety without getting into intellectual property trouble. I hope.
DOCNO: LA070590-0123DOCID: 243123July 5, 1990, Thursday, Home Edition
Calendar; Part F; Page 1; Column 1; Calendar Desk
57 words
QUOTABLE
“Networks are run by people whose weakest suit is that they can’t understand the importance of the craft of storytelling, which is what film and television are all about. . . . They can do statistical things, but they can’t quantify storytelling and put it into a computer.”
Writer-producer Roy Huggins, in Television & Families magazine
Wikipedia’s take on Roy Huggins.