If We Could Only

I've got about 10 days to get my first transmedia project started. Why the sudden rush? I'm going to have a pretty large span of the summer where I'll have limited Internet access. So I wanted to share what I've done so far. I think it will be interesting enough as it stands. And I'll take @SlackMistress's example and just ad-lib the rest of the experience; getting the rest out as I can.

As with any skill you hope to master, the only real way to learn about transmedia is to do it. The more you do it, typically, the better you get at it. It also increases your understanding of transmedia. For me, it's obvious that is one of the problems we have with nailing down a transmedia standard is because we have two different views. One from the academic perspective, which is usually theory; and second, the practioner's perspective, which is usually based on direct experience.

I'll share soon what I'll be doing about standardizing transmedia. While I think an IRC channel is useful, and recommended, the fundamental issue that needs resolution is the definition of transmedia and transmedia process. IRC is just a tool to converse. We must focus the conversation on establishing transmedia standards.

Anyway, as I was saying, oh yeah, I'll be throwing a bunch of stuff onto the Internet, and we'll see what sticks. And what falls and is ignored. The horror! We'll see how things work over the summer and then tweak things when I get back to mission control. I mean, who knows what could happen, you never know when you leave cronies in charge.

In the meantime, I invite you to explore with me the world of Pandemic 1.0. Mad Props to @LanceWeiler and @ChuckWendig for the bountiful cracks in which I could create "If We Could Only." In the end, this experiment is my proof to you guys, that I get it! Get it?

I love used book stores! And libraries too! There is something about the smell of rotting books, I know, weird isn't it? Anyway, one of the treasures I picked up a long time ago was a copy of Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail. As I began to master the many processes of software development I came to admire this book's brilliance. John Gall provides one of the clearest explanations of how to understand and develop systems ever printed.

One of the gems Gall documents is a simple rule of thumb. You can't develop a successful complex system without developing a successful simple system. So to start the standardization of transmedia I recommend we start simply. As mentioned in my call to action for transmedia standards, the RFC system used in the development of consensus and standards on the young Internet should prove a good guide.

The Transmedia RFC System

An RFC, for those not familiar with the concept, is (according to Wikipedia) a memorandum published describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems. In our case, it would be for the working of transmedia and transmedia production.

The RFC allowed engineers and computer scientists to publish discourse either for peer review or simply to convey new concepts and information. Then the Inter Engineering Task Force would adopt some of the proposals published as RFCs as Internet standards.

For the transmedia community, we could mimic the function of the Internet RFC, to publish discourse either for peer review or simply to convey new concepts and information. Then an, as yet, unformed organizing task force would adopt some of the transmedia RFCs as transmedia standards.

Why the RFC? Well for a couple of reasons. First, it's a well understood system that has been successful in obtaining consensus from a global community. Second, it is a fairly simple system. Third, it has a consistent process that ranges from the informal, using the Internet Draft, to the formal RFC, with produces outright standards.

What is needed to get started?

In terms of resources, there isn't much technology required, but there is some, for which I have proposals. The rest of what we need for the Transmedia RFC System is process based, which means we can obtain the necessary documentation and adapt as necessary.

While there are many "free" web resources that could provide the functionality we need, I would recommend NOT using said resources. I believe it is important that community own all of the data produced through the Transmedia RFC System, therefore, the only way to ensure that is to use open source tools running on independently owned servers.

As I see it, what we need is:

1. A modified set of organizing documents that establish the process for Transmedia Drafts and Transmedia RFCs. We can obtain these documents from the Internet community and then modify them for our own purposes.
2. An email list or group to coordinate the communication with the transmedia community. This would be an opt-in process. There are quite a few email list servers available, any of which would provide the functionality needed.
3. An IRC channel. In many of the standardization examples I mentioned in my call to action for transmedia standards, they use the Internet Relay Chat system to maintain a constant online communication channel. This channel makes the transmedia community to stay tightly linked as we progress through this transformative phase. In addition, it gives novices a place to turn to when they can't find what they are looking for. 
4. A repository for the Transmedia Drafts and Transmedia RFCs. I think that wiki software provides the right set of functionality. It allows us to share an initial document and then manage changes to the document as it evolves towards consensus. 
5. A set of leaders that will guide the standardization process. This group will ultimately be responsible for deciding when Transmedia Drafts become Transmedia RFCs and when Transmedia RFCs become transmedia standards.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: Hugo90

The Large Hadron Collider/ATLAS at CERN

It occurred to me the other day, as a friend and I gear up to ask the NEA for a grant to launch a new transmedia _________, that as a community, it is time to knuckle down and develop a transmedia standard. For example, did you notice the fill in the blank? I did that intentionally, because I'm not sure what to call the effort we have in mind! Is it a canonical narrative? Or maybe a story? Perhaps an experience? No? Then what about a storyworld or an ARG? Is it simply a project or a production?

It might be simplistic to believe that a standard is necessary just because I'm not sure what to call the work I want to produce. However, if you'll consider this as a symptom of a much larger problem, then you might agree with me. One of the advantages that I bring to this discussion is that I come from a software development background and in my world, it's nearly impossible to accomplish anything without standards. So for me, standards are commonplace.

Symptoms of the need for a transmedia standard

Before you swiftly brush this rant aside as the tirade of a naiveté, consider the following additional symptoms:

1. Nearly everyone admits this is nothing new, but still, the debate on what transmedia IS will not die down. This dissent points to fundamental disagreements. Disagreements that need resolution.
2. Most of the conferences and speeches on transmedia are still centered on individual perspectives on what transmedia IS. 
3. While process oriented documentation and speeches are beginning to emerge, they are still the minority and vary wildly in depth and scope.
4. Since Dr. Henry Jenkins' call to action in the Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, there has been little progress and sparse adoption of the fundamental elements of transmedia.
5. Very little scholarly research has been written since Jenkins' CC was published. (I'm guessing here...)

The history of global standards  

As you read these words, can you begin to see the similarities between the transmedia community and other communities that have come before? Here are four examples of communities that greatly improved and subsequently reached new levels of adoption and success through standards:

1. The Internet - In the 1960's when researchers around the world begin to exchange communication and explore remote collaboration, they recognized the need for standardization. They begin to use the concept of a Request for Comments (RFC). As those RFCs reached consensus, they eventually became standards.
2. Programming languages - Throughout the history of programming, standards facilitated the learning and adoption of new programming languages. As languages matured, then the programming community moved their desire onto standardization of software development processes, such as the waterfall method, iterative prototyping, rapid prototyping, object orientation, extreme programming, and lean programming, to name just a few.
3. Open Source - More recently as a global community begin to work on the gargantuan task of building a free unix, now known as Linux, they realized that in order to effectively manage and optimize work they needed standards. This quickly became the pattern for many other wildly successful projects, like Apache, MySQL (until recently, screw you Sun! I always doubted your loyalty to FLOSS), OpenOffice, now known as LibreOffice (Up yours Larry! You're ignorant of the power of a free culture network to route around obstacles.) Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.
4. Wikipedia - Finally, even crowdsourced projects like Wikipedia required a style guide and other standard operating procedures in order to manage a highly complex system and database used by  a large global volunteer work force.

Advantages of a transmedia standard

So you see, as with nearly every complex technology, the transmedia community should recognize that with a standard they could:

1. Move past our differences by obtaining a consensual definition. 
2. Once past the definition stage, we can move into the process definition stage of the technology.   
3. Make the technology easier to communicate and learn, thus reducing the confusion for aspiring transmedia producers.
4. Accelerate the acceptance of transmedia as a  practice and raise all boats with the rising tide of adoption.
5. With increased awareness, selling transmedia to major distribution companies will become significantly easier.

Characteristics of the transmedia community

In the end, when you look at the state of our art, you'll recognize some of the reasons why we are still, where we are. Consider, if you will, that we are:

1. A global community.
2. Highly connected over the Internet and through social networks.
3. A diverse group with a variety of backgrounds, experience, and expertise.
4. Artists attempting to establish a new art form, a new hyper-flexible-medium, capable of extremely complex organizations of story. 

It is combination of all these factors which significantly increases the complexity and risk of attempting to grow our craft. With each new channel, with the addition of participants, and in the face of constant technological change, the complexity grows exponentially. There is only one way to manage this level of complexity, through standardization

Conclusion

As I continue to study and learn about transmedia, I'm constantly reminded of how difficult it is to explain what transmedia is to novices. Standards provide a wonderful resource to improve a novice's ability to find a foot hold on which to scale-up the ladder of understanding.

Reflecting on where we are and who has gone before us, then our resemblance to previously dispersed and loosely coordinated groups is clear. We should recognize that other groups have solved the problems we face and learn from their lessons. I encourage the leadership of the transmedia community to consider this proposal and work together to layout the framework for a transmedia and transmedia production standard.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: Image Editor

Atari and TRS-80 Computers

Looking back on my career in the military, in private industry, as an entrepreneur and author, there's one maxim that repeatedly proves itself to be true.  One of the first people to point this out was bazillionaire Bill Gates. He said

"We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.”

Put another way, we almost always overestimate the impact of technology in the short term and underestimate it in the long term.  There's a popular corollary, which is not nearly as widely known, but I submit is equally true.  It states, that it is a very difficult and long term process to "eliminate" technology.

There is a direct relationship between the amount of money required to replace a legacy technology and the time required to replace it.  This relationship helps explain how some inferior low-cost or free technologies can quickly disrupt an industry.  When the cost to replace a technology approaches zero, the less features, quality, and over-all functionality people are willing to accept. However, even though, for example, ebooks may severely disrupt publishing, any prediction of the elimination of printed books is hogwash.

One of the biggest secrets of the banking and finance sector is the amount of legacy COBOL code that is still running in their back-end data centers.  Since the amount of money required to replace those systems and the potential for business interruption are so high, most companies have chosen to build around the legacy systems.

What does this mean for transmedia producers?

I'll give three quick examples from my current research: books, CDs, and movies (DVDs). While many have predicted,  the disappearance of these mediums, I don't see any of them disappearing anytime soon.  As I've tried to establish here, each of these mediums has a large installed base of compatible consumer devices and each has a very large investment in place for their production and distribution.

It's difficult to anticipate 20 to 30 years out, but as it concerns publishing I don't foresee books, magazine, or comic books, disappearing within that time period.  It's also very likely, that these forms of content distribution could even turn into just another souvenir, like a t-shirt or any other types of memorabilia.  I can even see some traditionalists clinging onto the medium, let's call it sentimental or memorabilia  publishing.  Therefore, we can anticipate many people continuing to consume printed media because it holds sentimental  value for them. A good example of that is the resurgence of vinyl LP's. While this could also be attributed to the perceived quality of analog reproduction of music, in a way this is still consistent with the transition of music to a service (or experience).

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: blakespot