Odyssey.js: New open source tool to weave interactive stories by CARTO

We are announcing today the beta release of Odyssey.js, an open source library that allows journalists, designers and creators to weave interactive stories on the web. The development has been possible thanks to the support of John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Although the web has many possibilities for interactivity compared to print or TV, most content we consume online is still plain text. Some experiments have been made in interactive storytelling: the famous New York Time’s Snowfall or the Malofiej Awards winner NSA Files: Decoded. But crafting these stories is complex both in terms of design and software development cost, requiring custom code.

Map based storytelling made easy

Odyssey.js helps change this reality. The open source library enables creators to build interactive stories, no coding skills required; and makes map-based interactive storytelling easier to develop. It features a sandbox in which anyone can easily outline interactive stories using the human readable markup language Markdown to mix narrative, interaction, and multimedia. The sandbox allows non-coders and coders alike to test the capabilities of the library. The JavaScript library can be used by developers to create complex interactions for map-based storytelling.

Odyssey.js examples

Here are some project examples created using Odyssey:

Checkout how Twitter is visualizing stories in features like Ramadan, how the world celebrates and wimbledon2014: Men’s final match

What is the story of a t-shirt? Loomstate, creators of sustainable clothing, tell us in Making the most traceable tee in the world

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Next

In CARTO we are firm believers that there are lots of stories hidden in your data. With our CARTO Editor you can easily analyze your data and create maps that tells stories. With Odyssey.js we dig further in this direction of enabling and making it easy to do storytelling. This is only the start.

Read more about Odyssey.js at the Knight Foundation’s blog, and start creating your Odyssey.js stories today. Head over to the Odyssey.js website to start testing it, read tutorials, access the complete documentation and code, watch screencasts, and, of course, start creating your interactive map-based stories: cartodb.github.io/odyssey.js