Employing AI in the Thurman Story Initiative
In my first job, I worked on an Olympia SM3.
I started my career writing on an Olympia SMS manual typewriter.
Fifty years later, I’m on three AI platforms that assist in performing a variety of writing tasks. These include:
Transcription of interviews from speech to text
Aggregation of my materials: notes, links, articles, and books
Organization of content
Crafting of leads and conclusions
My AI-augmented process is not wholly automatic. When I produce a story for Stories from Open Space, I still do a lot of tinkering to achieve a voice that I think will resonate with readers. It’s not exactly the voice I’d choose if I possessed super-intelligence, but it’s close.
Step-by-step, here’s how I tap the power of Large Language Models:
Now I spend much of my time working in a Google product called NotebookLM, which you can imagine as a “cage” of content in which Google’s AI agent, Gemini 2.0, may roam freely through sources you’ve uploaded but not beyond. You may converse freely with Gemini about this content, and task it with extracting it in any form you wish. I tasked it with writing the two Stories from Open Space you’ll find below. (For a close look at this screen shot, click to enlarge it.)
Record and transcribe the interview in Otter and download the text in a Word document.
Paste the interview into NotebookLM, adding it as a source to links, chapters, articles, and letters I’ve already uploaded.
Describe in depth for ChatGPT the story I want to write and ask for the prompts that will generate the best results when I query the sources I’ve uploaded to NotebookLM.
Issues these prompts one by one to NotebookLM and thereby create chunks of text that can be easily pulled into a longer feature.
Task ChatGPT with writing the last prompt for NotebookLM that will generate the first draft of the piece.
Task ChatGPT with polishing and perfecting NotebookLM’s draft.
By this time, I typically have a draft that reads pretty well but requires fine-tuning. Because I want my sources to tell as much of the story in their own words as possible, I usually must take the additional step of asking my AI tools to generate and insert direct quotes. I like crisp headlines, and usually will ask ChatGPT to generate four or five from which I can pick. When I feel the story is ready for publication, I publish a draft in Basecamp for review by all of the experts and sources I consulted. When I’ve made all of the corrections or additions they’ve advised, I publish the story on our platform in Squarespace.
Last November, Bill Walker, my long-time C&R Interactive colleague, the Warren County Department of Planning and Community Development, and the Thurman Community Association and I teamed up to launch the Thurman Story Initiative. This project harnesses artificial intelligence and GPS-triggered location-aware content to capture and publish stories that celebrate the people who live in this rugged land that sits to the southeast of Crane Mountain and borders the Hudson River.
As our first project, we’re promoting Thurman Maple Days, the annual celebration in which, over three weekends from mid to late March, local maple producers open their sugarhouses to the public, offering tours, demonstrations, and maple-infused treats. Below you’ll find the first fruits of our collaboration. We hope you enjoy them.
Each spring, as the maple trees of Thurman, New York, wake from their winter slumber, generations of families tap into an ancient tradition that blends Indigenous wisdom with settler ingenuity. This is the story of how a simple act—gathering sap and boiling it down over open fires—shaped a community’s identity and fueled a legacy of hard work, innovation, and connection to the land. From hand-carried buckets to today’s thriving Thurman Maple Days, the sugarmakers of Thurman have preserved a heritage that still flows strong with every drop of syrup.
Gathering at the Griddle:
Maple Days at Valley Road
For over fifty years, Ralph Senecal has followed the rhythm of the maples, building a family tradition that started in a friend’s garage and grew into one of Thurman’s most beloved maple sugaring operations. From hand-hauling sap in Warrensburg to serving thousands of pancake breakfasts at Valley Road Maple, Ralph’s story is one of hard work, deep roots, and community connection. This is the chronicle of a sugar maker whose life and legacy are measured not just in gallons of syrup, but in the bonds forged around the breakfast table.
