That is, it’s created a universe where its main characters are the subjects of a series of novels which have fans. The series of novels is called Supernatural. The fans of the fictional Supernatural novel series, then, are alternate-universe versions of the real fans out there, watching the TV show.

Initially, fans were (as you might expect) flattered and thrilled to finally see themselves on screen. But the writers lost their trust because of the way these fans were portrayed.

Supernatural is a cult TV series. It’s lasted many seasons, but it still hasn’t made a significant cultural impact: when I teach classes at MIT and ask, usually only one or two out of twenty-five young adults has seen it (as compared to, say, Modern Family, which everybody has watched). That’s not a bad thing. There’s a place for cult TV series. It is, however, a bad thing when a cult TV series begins to alienate their fans by mocking them, using the standard stereotypes of fans as violent, hypersexualized, and airheaded. There have been many responses on the fans’ part, but one of the best — and most recent — is here.

One of the reasons that it’s the best is that it highlights one issue at play here. Is it really a bad thing, financially, when a cult TV series mocks their fans? It worked for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, after all — the Trio were straight up nerdy fanboys, and nobody cared. Or, if they did care, they certainly kept watching. The controversy over Supernatural led me to watch it for the first time in years (I had stopped about season 3) so that I could understand the debate. I bought the episodes I wanted to see on iTunes. Ka-ching! Besides, unless there are a lot of fangirls in Nielsen families that I don’t know about (and if there are, why did Firefly get cancelled?) this discussion is unlikely to have much effect on ratings: it simply is too localized and never makes it into the actual press.

The other part of the story, though, is that Nielsen ratings aren’t going to work forever. For Supernatural, it may not be a problem to piss off fans. For shows down the line, shows that perhaps function on a pay-per-view model — it will be. Shows with a smaller viewer base can’t afford to piss off their viewers, and shows that are distributed primarily online can’t afford to piss off the people who control what the Google search results for “______ fan” are.  If market realities are changing, as I believe they are, why not start planning now for the future? After all, all the people who work on Supernatural have careers that stretch long beyond one show — many fans arrived to the show because it featured so many highly visible crew members from The X-files, and they’ll follow those people’s careers — or not, if they lose confidence in them. Perhaps, for them, taking the long view would not be amiss.

1. ‘Spreadable’ media will change. The new “frictionless” sharing will change the social dynamic of the way people share content. If an invisible algorithm decides which videos show up in your stream — or if every video you watch shows up on your profile — there’s an intermediate between ‘not spreading content’ and ‘becoming an evangelist.’ You can share videos in a casual way without feeling like you’re spamming your friends. That’s going to mean a huge change for how transmedia storytellers think about how their stories will spread.
2. It will be harder to create the illusion of reality. Facebook has already made it difficult to create fictional profiles for characters in a transmedia story. The advent of the Timeline will make it nearly impossible to create a convincing fictional profile, even if you can get around Facebook’s regs. While that doesn’t really hurt our ability to tell good stories, it does sadden those of us who’ve been around since the days when of Claire Bennet’s MySpace page — it feels like a door closing, even if somewhere another one is opening.
3. Lifestyle transmedia will surge. ‘Lifestyle’ transmedia – meaning wraparound experiences including fashion, music, and everyday apps – aims to keep viewers immersed in the story by bringing pieces of the story’s vibe into their everyday life. (For example, think about how Mad Men devotees can wear clothes, drink cocktails and listen to music that reminds them of their favorite show.) By emphasizing how people build identity through multiple media – video, audio, etc. – the Timeline will give lifestyle transmedia campaigns an edge.

Obviously, there will be larger shakeups in terms of how we do business, how we actually get our stories onto Facebook and into everyone’s Timelines: will we work directly with Facebook, or through partners like Spotify, Zynga and Vevo? What will it be worth? How will it work? But once we get beyond those questions, the really exciting work begins: learning to tell better and better stories with these new tools.

What you might not know is that Christie, whose work has almost entirely been on the stage, was actually first suggested as “fantasy casting” by the fans. Commenter Mauberly suggested her for the role on fansite winter-is-coming.net back in 2010, and another fan made her aware of the role. She declared her intention to audition on Twitter; it was picked up by fansites, and she was immediately followed by hordes of Game of Thrones fans.

Apparently, Christie went so far as to show up to the audition ‘looking like Brienne,’ that is, ‘uglied up’ for the role. (That’s been the largest fan complaint; in glamor shots she looks beautiful, and the character is supposed to be astoundingly ugly.) It’s hard to imagine that she’d have thought to do this if she hadn’t been following fan discussion of her possible casting and knew that her good looks would be the biggest obstacle to obtaining the role.

Based on YouTube videos of her prior performances, Christie will be perfect for the role of Brienne. Once more, an illustration of how fans can make a production better: the collective intelligence of the internet will find the perfect actor for any role!

Previously, Nina Paley suggested a label called “Creator Endorsed,” which would allow fan creations and derivative works to be officially – and recognizably – endorsed by the creator of the original work. By creating a stamp, much like the recognizable Creative Commons stamp, it would be easy to determine the relationship of any derivative work to the original creator.

Doctorow suggests that instead of “Creator Endorsed,” we should think about a stamp called “No Endorsement.” Specifically, he’s talking about applying this stamp to “on-demand objects”: as 3D printing becomes more and more popular, we will soon all be able to print objects on demand – and design objects that could be printed by others. These objects are different than other fan-created objects in that they are not artisanal, but not mass-produced either – so it isn’t fair to treat them as art, exactly, but it isn’t fair to act as though they’re being made by big corporations, either.

One key aspect of Doctorow’s proposal: if one wanted to use the “No Endorsement” stamp, one would also be required to share one’s profits with the original IP owner.

When I read this proposal, my mind turned to less tangible goods. Could we apply this stamp, if it ever came into existence, to fan fiction? Then fanfic authors could choose to sell their works if they wanted without running afoul of fair use law. But would such a stamp be acceptable to the fan fiction community? Probably not to everyone – but to some, yes, certainly.

Implementing a proposal like this might make perfect sense to communities of ‘makers,’ or to 3D printing enthusiasts, but if it ever comes about, it will take a great deal of thought before it can be implemented for authors and (most) visual artists.*

*Even though Nina Paley suggested the Creator Endorsed label, I’m not sure that most artists would want to give up their rights as creators of transformative works so quickly…

Hatsune Miku isn’t a real person. She’s one of the voices of music software Vocaloid – their soprano opera singer voice. As part of their marketing, Vocaloid created a “Character Series” of voices: Hatsune Miku is the most popular of those characters. Initially, Hatsune Miku only existed as a marketing tool. Fans responded incredibly quickly, however: they began drawing Hatsune Miku fanart to create “music videos” for the songs they composed using Vocaloid.

Responding to fan demand, the creators of Vocaloid released Miku Miku Dance, a free piece of 3-d modeling software. This software – which is surprisingly advanced – allows users to create dances for 3-d modeled characters, including Hatsune Miku and the other members of the Character Series. Users can also create their own characters to animate using Miku Miku Dance.

According to Alex, the terms of service surrounding Miku Miku Dance and the Vocaloid software itself are very interesting, because they create a mixed commercial/gift economy surrounding the Vocaloid software. People must pay to buy Vocaloid software, but they are free to distribute and even sell the songs they make using it – and they may certainly use Hatsune Miku and the other “Vocaloids” (as the characters are sometimes called) to make fanworks for free distribution online.

A lot of people venturing into transmedia storytelling struggle with how much they can “let their characters go.” For example, I often hear concerns: “What if all the fans just want to write porn about the characters we’ve created? Then they’ll get associated with porn, and not with anything we want them to be associated with!”

Hatsune Miku proves that this is untrue. Oh, certainly, there’s Hatsune Miku porn out there. But despite radically opening Hatsune Miku and the other Vocaloids up to fan use – even releasing 3d models of them! – they haven’t become tainted in any way. Rather, they’ve become more and more famous – and fans are willing to follow them anywhere. Thanks to the fan community, the Vocaloids and especially Hatsune Miku have become a hit across the world, not just in Japan.

In 2009, Vocaloid figured out a way to make Hatsune Miku and her fellow Vocaloids appear in concert, using holograms. This year, they’re coming to the United States – and filling up concert halls all the way. Who would have expected a piece of voice synthesizing software to be able to do that?

Hatsune Miku in concert