Workshop position paper for CHI 2001 workshop on narrative and HCI

1. CHI 2001 Workshop Position Paper: Perspective Modulation through Interactive Fiction
John C Thomas
Manager, Knowledge Socialization
IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
PO Box 704
Yorktown Heights, New York
10598
Experience and Perspective.
I am currently Manager, Knowledge Socialization at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center. The
efforts of this team currently focus on developing new tools, techniques, and representations to
support the capture, creation, analysis, organization, finding and use of stories and scenarios in a
business context. I received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1971 and
managed a research project in the psychology of aging for two and a half years at Harvard
Medical School before joining IBM Research. I spent 13 years mainly doing research in various
areas of human computer interaction including query languages, natural language processing,
design problem solving, audio systems, and speech synthesis. In 1982-1984, I worked for the
Chief Scientist of IBM focusing on increasing IBM’s commitment to User Centered Design. In
1986, I began the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at NYNEX Science and Technology. The
laboratory did work in expert systems, machine vision, human computer interaction, intelligent
tutoring systems, robotics, speech recognition and advanced tools for software design. I was
active in the formation of ACM's Special Interest Group in Computer Human Interaction and
have served in various capacities including general co-chair of the CHI conference in 1991. I
have taught at a variety of institutions of higher education including courses in cognitive
psychology, problem solving and creativity, statistics, the psychology of aging, and human
factors in information systems. I am also a licensed psychologist in New York State. In the
practice of group therapy in the cognitive behavioral practice, we have developed a number of
interactive narrative and dramatic techniques for change that might be adapted for other
purposes. I have over 130 publications and invited presentations in computer science and
psychology. I began experimenting with dynamic poetry and interactive fiction in 1984 when I
bought my first PC. Since then, I have been experimenting with a variety of techniques to help
expand people’s perspectives. In this regard, stories, scenarios, role-playing, and interactive
narrative have played a major role. While directing the NYNEX AI lab, e.g., we developed a
variation on heuristic evaluation in which evaluators were asked to assume the perspectives of a
sequence of various people (e.g., physical therapist, worried mother, cognitive psychologist,
human factors expert) while trying to find problems with an interface. Under that condition, they
found significantly more usability problems and suggested significantly more potentially useful
changes than when evaluators spent an equal amount of time without those role-playing
instructions.
Over time, my interests have generally migrated from using technology to increase the
effectiveness of the individual learner and problem solver toward supporting teams and large-
scale organizations. I see the combination of ancient techniques like storytelling with modern
technologies as promising potential solutions both to tactical and immediate business issues (e.g.,

2. dealing with the loss of critical expertise and supporting communities of practice) and more
strategic concerns such as helping people worldwide see the necessity of a sustainable economy.
My major hobby is writing fiction.
Critical Issues.
Traditional non-interactive, linear narratives are memorable and motivating. Yet, they also
provide a single perspective into what is clearly a complex and ambiguous set of events. Can we
use modern technology to help provide people with educational experiences that may broaden
and expand their perspectives; e.g., helping people understand and appreciate differences in age,
gender, race, professional orientation? How can this be accomplished?
Our society places an emphasis on quantitative measures even when they are arguably less
appropriate than qualitative reasoning procedures. The oil companies in the so-called energy
crisis kept to their quantitative prediction models of demand, despite the fact that the underlying
assumptions had changed, for over seven years resulting in tens of billions of dollars in losses.
As a reaction, many of these companies now balance quantitative models with scenario based
planning. Is there a way to incorporate this kind of thinking more pervasively into individual,
team, and organizational thinking?
In “straight-line” narrative, the author has integrated artistic control over the material. Ideally,
interactive narrative could provide personalized experiences. Yet, in practice, it has been
difficult if not impossible to use the power of interactivity to provide experiences as aesthetically
compelling as straight-line (i.e., completely authored) experiences. Is there a fundamental
problem with interactive narrative or do we simply need to let the technology mature? How can
we provide interactive experiences that are even more effective than an audience receptive,
passive experience such as watching Exodus, Hamlet, or Othello?
Interactive Narrative Experiences.
As a part of our research program, we have developed a patented efficient methodology for
gathering groups together and encouraging “natural” stories about a particular topic and then
analyzing these stories and providing teaching stories constructed to be memorable and
motivating. We have applied this technique to a variety of areas including e-meetings, NOTES
5, the patent process, and boundary-spanning skills. Perhaps as a part of the workshop, we could
employ this technique (1 hour) to having people share experiences about interactive narrative
and related topics.
We could also demonstrate, in outline form, the construction of interactive scenario training. In
this technique, a group of experts is interviewed for stories that illustrate surprising events.
These stories are organized and analyzed as a basis for providing a kind of interactive training. In
this training paradigm (used in on-line IBM management training), users are asked to participate
in a role-playing situation and make choices about what to do. Essentially, the learning pivots

3. around situations where the users naive intuitions are violated.
References.
Frey, James. How to write a damned good novel II. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.
Laurel, Brenda. Computers as theatre. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993.
McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, structure, style, and the principles of screenwriting. New
York: Harper, 1997.
Neuhauser, Peg. Corporate legends and lore: The power of storytelling as a management tool.
Austin, TX: PCN, 1993.
Schank, Roger. Tell me a story: Narrative and intelligence. Evanston: Northwestern University,
1990.
Thomas, J. C. Studies in office systems I: The effect of communication medium on person
perception. Office Systems Research Journal (2): 75-88, 1983.
Thomas, J. C. Narrative technologies for the new millennium, Knowledge Management, 2(9),
14-17, 1999.
Turner, Mark. The literary mind. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.