Economics/Geekonomics

If The Future Is Cultural Power . . .

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This article on the future of China as a superpower intrigued me, mostly for asking the question of what kind of superpower China could be.  As I analyzed it, I ultimately figured power has to be cultural on one level or another – simply using force of any form is limited and limiting, as well as exhausting and compromising.  So my rough figuring was China will have more power the more it is able to exert positive cultural influence.

Then I began thinking about the world.  Where US films are exported everywhere.  Where anime is a giant cultural export for Japan.  Where India has taken the musical to amazing heights.  Where Gangnam style has raised awareness of Korean music, and probably K-pop as a whole.

The US was also good at leveraging export technologies and economic and political power post WWII.  Anime would not have been nearly as popular in the US without fansubs, streaming, and cheaper delivery technology.  India’s media popularity has gone slow-burn, but seems to be helped by things like Netflix and hip cultural awareness like the Colbert Show.  Gangnam style wouldn’t even be KNOWN without Youtube.

Cultural power is something that China will want and need – and that means media and communications technologies, shows and comics, a real media/world presence.

So that makes me wonder what’s next for China.  Will it try to build a culture engine for commercial, economic, and cultural power?  Will one evolve or be allowed to evolve?  Is it even being thought of?

What will their geeks and geekonomy be like if they seek superpower status and cultural influence in the world?

I’m not sure I have answers.  OK I’m pretty sure I don’t, but it’s going to be interesting to see the Chinese geekonomy and how it works – and evolves – and connects it to the world.  You have to open up to have influence . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

 

Are You Thinking About Less In Your Career?

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If you told me ten years ago people would be playing a game on their phones that was birds being flung at pigs, I wouldn’t believe you.  Oh, and ditto on the entire jewel-moving thing.  Games were always bout bigger and better, baby!

Have I mentioned I really like Angry Birds?

Or maybe that people would be publishing little pamphlets again, many in electronic format.  I’d probably give you a dull look and ask why – people seem to love books of a certain size.  Oh, and pamphlets are for blogs.

By the way, I just helped edit one and am working on my own.

The Windows 8 interface is simple – probablyy too simple.

Android is taking things by storm, and it’s a simpler-interfaced Linux.

Everything is icons.

It seems sometimes less is really more – or more what people may want in some cases.  It’s pretty big in the geekonomy right now.  So I want to ask you this . . .

Are you thinking about what less means for your career?

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Beam Me Up, It’s A Team Up

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Well I confess an econogeek like me is pretty excited about Wal-Mart, Target, CVS, and a few others were teaming up to make their own automatic payment system.  I’m excited because, well, it’s interesting and I like technology, and of course it promises to have lots of job potentials and opportunities.

Stephen Carpenter of Endorse.com laid out his thoughts at Venture Beat in a nicely categorized article that you should read.  He points out the data exchange advantages, the cost reduction, etc.  Two things struck me that are important for progeeks out there in finance and technology.

First, Carpenter notes frankly that consumers do NOT want a bunch of solutions to payments.  They want one, maybe two, and they want them to work.  Whatever happens out there in autopayments, at best I see 2 maybe 3 real alpha payments on top – and probably really 1-2.  Simply, there’s no room for too many, and even if a solution is just a frankenstinian combination of many solutions, it’s still one solution on the consumer end.

I think he’s entirely right, and the takeaways are:

  • If you work in mobile and electronic payments remember there can only be a few – maybe even one true – winners in this space.  If you’re not sure you’re going to be them, you need to keep your eyes open or prepare for acquisition.  If you are sure you’re working at the winner, then you need to go to a therapist to check your delusions of grandeur.
  • This market is going to shake out at some point.  Be ready for it.
  • This could accelerate further mobile adoption of various technologies.
  • What will amazon and other tablet makers do – since people may want to use said devices for payments as well since they’re omnipresent.

But there’s one other thing – and that’s the presence of Wal-Mart.

Now I’m no fan of Wal-Mart – you know that.  Sure I’ve wondered if they may go hip and high tech – and if it could save them, though it sounds like they’re doing better lately.  Indeed, this mobile move may be a good sign they’re trying to do more and be more upscale.

However, Wal-Mart seems to operate with a very extraction-driven methodology.  So my concern is their involvement in this mobile project could result in them looking more to slash costs and increase sales to the detriment of a larger, functional, long-term sustainable project.  The temptation will be there to get as much out of it as possible, and I can’t see their partners being as enthused.

So I’m concerned this project may turn into one of the failures, or shatter into several pieces, or have to go much larger to avoid the possibility of Wal-Mart trying to overuse it.  Yes, I know they’re going more high-tech, but I fear out of all of the members of this alliance, they’re the ones that may think too short-term.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.