Fandom, Geeks, Jobs, and the Japanese Economy

On and off I encounter speculation that Japan's economy is going to get worse. I'm sure you've seen much the same news over and over.

I'm not able to speculate in detail, but I can see that Japan has had its trouble since its own economic meltdown, doesn't seem to have solved it's issues, and is having problems with its workforce.  In my own opinion as a non-economist, I can at least see why people are concerned.

Geekonomically and fannish-job-wise, I wonder what will happen to the major geeky industries of video games, anime, and manga if Japan's economy does take a serious dive (again).

(This is why following economics is important to any career.  Period.)

Read more

News of the Day 11/11/2009

Career
When not to do things for free – A little advice, since we often do things for free for our careers. (I myself like what one friend said, that it's better to say 'no charge' than free).

What NaNoWriMo teaches you about Sustainability – Excellent article on how one experience can translate to another – including fannish ones.

Mobile:
Widely differing estimates of Droids sold – At this rate I'm going to back off and see what happens, battling numbers like this just raise the confusion level.

Publishing:
A good analysis of how social media taking news local. A good read with a lot of lessons you can extend to many industries.

Social Media:
I always say keep track of people who do middleware and foundational tech. Vivaty announces it's Social Gaming Platform tool. Might be worth checking out job-wise.

Technology:
HP acquires 3Com – for a big fee. This puts them in good stead to compete with Cisco and represents an amazingly expensive move in a bad economy. They're either desperate or (more likely) confident. I'm amazed to see a deal this big, so I'm betting it's more thought out. Important if you work in networking (or at any of the companies involed).

Video Games:
A few details leaked on Microsoft's Project Natal? Not much to go on.

Playdom raises $43 million to develop new products – AND acquire other companies. Sounds like they've got plans brewing, and $43 million is a nice amount of money that a low-overhead company can do a lot with. Keep the resumes ready – and wonder what they'll do in light of EA's obvious strategy change . . .

– Steven Savage

News of the Day 10/10/2009

Mobile:
Bloomberg estimates 100,000 Droids sold the first few days. I can't say if that's legit or not, but this IS Bloomberg. A nice initial sell through. So let's see what happens.

Publishing:
Remember the Wal-Mart/Amazon smackdown about some big titles? It appears Wal-Mart jumped the gun on some of the book releases. Accident or another shot across Amazon's bow?

Social Media:
Twitter usage in the Enterprise is up 250%. Not surprising it's up, but that sounds like a big trend.

Technology:
Adobe lays off 9% of it's workforce. I'm still keeping Adobe on the "don't send a resume list" because I'm really not sure what they're up to.

AOL is also having layoffs.

Video Games:
More detail on the EA Layoffs – 900 people in development, 500 in publishing, 100 in corporate affairs. It's a hefty amount no matter how you slice it.

Speculation on changes in game release strategy – A good read if you work or want to work in the industry. What strategies work for releases in these changing times and in a troubled economy?

– Steven Savage