The Lessons Of Fandom: Customer Service

So last week we discussed how fandom teaches you good business sense, one of those useful "general skills" you'll need in your life.  This week we'll explore another thing fandom teaches you.

Customer Service.

As I noted previously, many fandom activities are run like businesses – conventions, websites, etc.   They may not make money, of course – they may not be intended to – but they are like businesses in almost all regards.  Thus they are very educational to work on because you learn good business sense.

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News Of The Day 7/26/2010

Jailbreaking is now on the "Legal" side of the law, Comic-con was great but not what it was at the same time, Sony is getting profitable . . . lots of changes, lots of must-know geek career news!

Career:
Creating the world's best resume. I don't agree with all of this (especially the part about unemployment being a people problem), but there's a lot of good stuff here. I especially like the points on creating value.

Geek Law:
EFF gets legal exceptions allowing jailbreaking of phones. An interesting case leveraging, of all things, fair use. 1) I expect this to make some changes in smartphone company policies, and 2) Expect this case to be used elsewhere by the EFF and others.

Anime and Manga . . . and Comics and Animation:
Marvel to have 4 Anime Series (done by Studio Madhouse) running on G4. Several takes on this. 1) G4 probably needs this. 2) This will further obscure AND amplify the what-is-anime debate. 3) Some or all of these may indeed be the prime-time animated series Marvel was talking about. 4) Some of this looks quite mature, so I think this shows Disney isn't going to water things down. 5) Somehow they made Wolverine-with-supermodel-looks work.

Media:
The Biggest Winners And Loosers At Comic-Con – Including . . . comics. Comic-con seems to be less about comics all the time – while still being heavy on superheroes.

Movies:
Karl Urban to play Judge Dredd. This is interesting because it shows people think the last film is no longer in public consciousness, and choosing Urban shows a level of seriousness for the project – Urban is a very adaptable actor. I wonder if this is part of a second "British Invasion" like Bonnie and I discussed.

Social Media:
How one woman talked her way into a community management position. It's pitched Gen Y, but has lots of good tips.

Technology:
Security Tech company Red Lambda raises $10 million in investments. They're in Florida. Fancy some sun and proximity to Disney Land? Send them a resume!

Sony may return to profitability in Q1. Been quite a journey for them, but they have endured. Now once they return to profitability, what are they going to do next . . .

Looks like paying for Apps on Android is going to get easier. There's another narrowing of the iPhone/Android gap.

Video Games:
StarCraft II pre-orders at 800,000. Just so you know.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Marvel's Anime Plans – what do you think the results will be?

– Steven Savage

Take Time For a Geek Review

Have you taken a look at your fannishness lately and seen what you can mine for your career?

Every now and then, when I'm evaluating the next steps in my career, updating my LinkedIn.com profile, and similar activities, I like to review what I do as the total geek that I am.  I review it because there's often a lot of useful things you can use in your career that you miss.

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