Geekonomy, Technology, Homosexuality, Culture, and Apple

This may be one of my longest post names.

Last week I mentioned I was curious about Tim Cook's appointment as Apple's CEO and the fact he was gay, though it was a subject he didn't talk about (and frankly there's no reason he should or have to).  For me he's a reliable, wonkish, even-handed appointment who's good for a temporary CEO as Apple deals with the change of Jobs – but may have the chance to set a vision and go long term (his stock options hint at that).

As Cook was outed by Gawker (and 'Out' magazine listed him as the most powerful gay person in the world), I'm concerned that his sexual preference might become a Geekonomic/Geek culture issue due to some other trends I want to discuss.  Thus I consider this relevant to the blog, but at the same time feel a bit invasive.

That's a long-form way of kind of apologizing to Mr. Cook if against the odds he reads this or hears about this.

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Promoting Professional Geekery #1: Share Your Mistakes

Welcome to my new series – a series on Promoting Professional Geekery.

We, as profans, progeeks, and protaku take pride in our dreams – and achievements – to turn our interests into careers.  We build ourselves into our own ideals, we realize dreams others aspire to, we turn the daily grind into something far more.

It's time we promote that.

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Media and Fan Relationships: Zones Of Creativity

A lot of us work in or want to produce media, including fiction.  For those of us writing fiction, or planning to film it, or whatever, there may be some concerns about how to deal with fanfic and the like.  Fans are why we're here and how we get paid, and their fanworks help promote our works and draw everyone into a community.  However fanworks can also accidentally "brand" your work, something creators don't always seek or like – as we've had discussed here by our own Rob Barba.

I'm pro-fanwork as long as there's mutual respect and understanding.  I also know some authors fear what happens when people begin "playing in their world," and it's not always irrational (i can immediately think of two series I avoided due to fanfic battles and fanwank that gave me the wrong impression).  For authors and creators who want the best of both worlds, I had an idea.

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