Guagua Pública

The back story for "Guagua Publica"

I've focused all of my recent attention, since 2008, on the future of publishing. And for me it's an extremely exciting time to be in the publishing industry. All the rules have changed and the old business models and terms of engagement all lead to a dead-end. A new industry is emerging on top of it that I call transmedia production. Anyone involved in the production of content (artist, musician, author, celebrity, brand) needs to publish "their story" across all means possible.

2010 was a pivotal year for me as a publishing industry professional. I published my first book. Using the amazing software at SmashWords.com, I published "Thirty Stories," a collection of short stories written by one of my closest friends, Gil Schmidt. As a result of my continued efforts with Gil I've given the future of publishing my undivided attention. During 2010 I was greatly influenced by a keynote presentation by Jeff Gomez at the 2010 Tools of Change for Publishing Conference entitled "Storyworlds: The New Transmedia Business Paradigm."

Accordingly, I've been investing a lot of time with O'Reilly. I joined the 2011 Tools of Change for Publishing organizing committee, am scheduled to monitor a panel at the conference,  begin blogging on the Radar about eReading devices for the Publishing channel, and I have been volunteering as a manager on the TOC for Publishing LinkedIn Group.

As a micro-publisher I want to expand our reach. I want my friend Gil to be able to earn enough off of his writing so that he can continue to give his attention to working on things that really matter. Things in Puerto Rico are bad. Between us, Gil and I have written greater than 1,800 blog posts about the situation in Puerto Rico. He on gilthejenius.blogspot.com and me on blog.dondees.com as MC Don Dees. He and I have been both been syndicated by Global Voices.

However, each us has become frustrated that we are not reaching enough people to actually manifest any influence. As intellectual leaders, we owe it to our fellow citizens to help. However, in order to do so, our voices must grow louder, they must become more influential, we have to get more people to see what we see, to understand what we understand.

Recently I've working on a model of transmedia production that will allow us to do it. By twisting the definition of transmedia to include social media, I now see that in order to reach the maximum audience possible we need to tell our stories across all media. We must in the words of Eric Schmidt use a "max strategy" [Free,p124]; we must have pieces of our story in every possible place any netizen may come into contact with the network.

In Puerto Rico we have a public provided bus system. It is a loosely organized connection of vans that known as "Guagua Publica," or the public bus. While Puerto Rico has one of the highest population densities in the Western hemisphere, mass transit is not nearly as effective as cities with significant lower population densities. So the "Guagua Publica" is still an essential means of transportation.

Luckily, I was able to procure guaguapublica.com. Living in two cultures provides me with a unique vernacular to draw from. I'm also a big fan of the work of Ken Kesey, especially "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test." In that work Ken described his efforts to spread the message and experience of LSD using a bus. Traveling from city to city Ken and his band of Merry Pranksters tried to "turn every one on" with LSD. To justify and try to explain why he was doing this, Kesey would simply respond "You're either on the bus, or you're not."

That's the way transmedia production will be. I already explained my experience trying to lead the Puerto Rico Internet industry and receiving a similar response. As the founder DóndesE.com I blogged frequently on Dondequiera about the experience of an Internet startup in a very unique Internet culture. So in order to reach society which is starkly driven by word of mouth, we need to really on a "max strategy" to reach as widely and as deeply as possible (we need to be ubiquitously present on the Internet).

With "Guagua Publica," it is my desire to use my extensive systems analysis experience to codify how to be a transmedia producer. The reason I'm codifying the transmedia production process is because it is my intention to launch MisTribus.com. Translating, I was extremely fortunate to recently obtain this domain name, it means "My Tribes."

Seth Godin and Kevin Kelley are right, it only takes a small tribe to significantly amplify your message. I know it will become known in English as "Mistri Bus", in fact, I'd be thrilled for people to refer to it as the Mystery Bus, because you know what Ken said... Well, once I've written the book on how to successfully produce a story using a transmedia max strategy, I intend on building software for MisTribus.com to facilitate the process for any tribe leader.

In order to prove this concept I've identified three scenarios. The first, is obviously myself. Frankly, some of the processes haven't been identified. As I execute a max strategy for myself, I'll document the process and make it available on the MisTribus.com website. I'll literally be inventing these processes as I execute my theories.

The second test case id my friend Gil. As a prolific writer, Gil has a lot of material to produce. For Gil I'll be customizing the process to maximizing his exposure as both a celebrity and an author. For Gil I'll be creating a basic marketing plan that he can use to attain a max strategy based on his skills and ability. The point is that there's a big difference between 0 effort and a delta effort (delta being unique to each tribe leader's ability and means). In this relationship I will coach Gil as he implements his own max strategy.

The third test case is the rising musical talent Anima5. This group of Puerto Rican youths includes my nephew Gerald López. In this case I've enlisted his younger brother Estaban to become the coach for Anima5. In essence, I'll be coaching the coach. By that time I should have evolved sufficient automation with MisTribus.com, that he can be more effective in trying to get this group to become mainstream and develop a reliable stream of revenue; thus enabling them to focus full-time on leading their tribe.