News and Analysis

Keeping Originality In Perspective

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Last post I explored why people are obsessed with originality to dysfunctional degrees.  I noted that there were factors of individuality, a desire to be industrious, a sense of property, a desire for notoriety, and a focus on making a contribution.  All these factors lead to an emphasis on originality in media work in my opinion.  Let me also note that I think all too often originality gets over emphasized.

Yes, in short I am saying that people and groups and cultures can take an emphasis on originality too far.  That may sound strange, but an obsession with something good does not mean one puts it into practice properly.  I feel fear of unoriginality crushes people's creativity, destroying the very thing they're seeking.

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News Of The Day 1/24/2011

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Wizard is gone, legal challenges get weird, and many media changes about. It's an odd day geek news wise so let's dive in!

Career:
Here's 15 musicians that found fame through you tube. So take that as a bit of inspiration.

Good news, some of the best companies are hiring

Economics/Geekonomics:
Interesting thoughts on provincialism today and why it's bogus in the interconnected world. Or, don't diss Chicago.

Texas' budget problems are also entrenched in politics and use of stimulus money.

Geek Law:
Zynga accuses Blingville of violating trademark The battle over "ville" begins . . .

Comics:
Wizard magazine closes. Wow, there goes a part of my life. They're going online, obviously, and it has a whiff of "new-startup-venture" to it. Hmmm . . . you folks might want to network a bit and see if this could lead to opportunities . . . or if friends of yours there need help.

Media:
BBC cuts its online budget by 25%.

Mobile:
Speculation on the next wave of children's mobile apps. Something for programmers to think about.

Publishing:
I'm not even sure how to think of this, but a company has software to Make books into social apps on iPad.

Social Media:
Facebook's Facebook credits are rolling out today. They're going to become THE Facebook currency, so look out programmers.

Foursquare had insane growth in 2010 – 3400%. Who knew giving away your position was so popular. I smell a future purchase.

Filmster wants to be the Foursquare of films. Not too sure on this, but they're going for a broad application footprint. Might be interesting to see how it goes.

Technology:
The Apple App Store hits Ten Billion Downloads. No one is surprised because they're too busy playing Angry Birds.

Street Fighter via Kinect. Another glimpse of the future I'm sure.

Video:
Vid.ly hopes to make uploading in various video formats easier. Interesting venture. I hope the make an equivalent for publishing sometime. These guys might be worth keeping track of, its a nice concise venture.

Video Games:
Wizard 101 continues to do insanely well. On that note DCU is doing pretty decent too – but we'll see how things go past the free month.

A Dose Of Awesome:
A wiki for Golden Age Women in comics.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Can books make it as a form of social media?

– Steven Savage

The Originality Trap: Why We Fear Unoriginality

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Last week I noted that originality didn't always sell for entirely understandable reasons.  This reason was the simple fact that humans socialize via their media choices and interests, and originality did not necessarily play into that.  Sometimes originality produced social bonding, sometime common and derived media did, but the originality's importance was not in its existence, but what it meant for social connection.  Originality just is not as vital as we may think for people's choices, nor is not chosing something original a personal failing.

As I examined the issue of originality I began to wonder why so often creative people obsess over originality.  Why do we fear being unoriginal?  Why do we fear ideas we have are derivative?  Why does the fear of unoriginality cripple some (I'm sure we've ll been there or known someone who has been).  It was worth analyzing.

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