News of the Day 4/12/2010

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Plenty of interesting news on deals, from venture capital to the Nook, some economically depressing news, and more on the Adobe-Apple war! Its must-read news time for progeeks!

Economics/Geekonomics:
Japan may be more trouble than Greece to a world economy, but it has some advantages over many countries – including the U.S. Some interesting statistics and information on the Japanese mess – oddly one of the major strenghts is the debt is internal to the country.

Anime and Manga:
What's it like to be a rookie editor in manga? Find out here.

Comics:
Marvel switches to Hachette to deliver TPBs and hardcovers. Apparently non-comic-book comic publications are a huge business for them. Looks like our calls about Hachette being promising may be true . . . and what does this mean for Diamond? Diamond still distribution to comic stores of course, but I feel like this is a bit of a blow to them.

Movies:
Where to spend your money when making a low-budget sci-fi movie. Some interesting advice and insights you can use – or at least learn a bit about film making.

Publishing:
A younger viewpoint on why your next book should be an app.

Best Buy will sell the Nook. Sounds like a good deal for all involved.

Technology:
A helpful guide to the Adobe-Apple kerfluffle, with a look at it's history. This helps make a few things clear about the past of this battle – as well as the present and the future. I myself confess though I have problems with some of the things Apple has done, Adobe's attempts to own cross-platform spaces (with what I consider a bloated, buggy product) does worry me. A more profanity-laced but researched look at the battle is here – be warned, some salty language.

Palm is putting itself up for sale. I don't see much else for them to do quite frankly – so let's watch and see who buys them.

Korean company NHN buys the Japanese portal Livedoor. Livedoor had some pretty bad times, but I find this consolidation interesting. South Korean's continued growth as a tech powerhouse can't be ignored.

Digital sky, which has done many investments in big names like Facebook and Zynga, itself has been backed by Chinese firm Tencent. Now Digital sky is a Russian company. So you have a chinese company, Tencent investing in a Russian company that has a growing presence in American IT and social media. That's quite a bit of globalization going on, and to me, it hints at more complicated economic relationships to come – and ones you want to look for.


Video:
Netflix goes live on Wii. I've got my disk in the mail!

Video Games:
I don't know if this goes here or under Geek Law, but Infinity Ward's founders are launching a new studio. It's Respawn entertainment, and EA will publish their games. They are apparently recruiting.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: With Netflix on the Wii, PS3, XBox, iPad, and web streaming, is anything else left for them?

-Steven Savage

Weekly Challenge: The Next Step?

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I want you to speculate on your success.

Really, sit down now and outline an image of success for one of your projects or jobs.  What is that perfect job, ideal game release, fantastic costly, etc.  Pick something and describe it to yourself.

Mull it over.  Feel it.  Enjoy it.

Now . . . what happens next?

What happens when that Tripe-A game ships?  That novel comes out?  What happens when you get that ideal job with that ideal company?

What's your step after that?

We often focus so much on success we miss that past the milestone is the rest of our lives.

So take a moment to look at what happens when you reap your rewards – and find out what's next.  You may be surprised at what you have planned – or what gaps you face.

For that matter, how far out do your plans go?

– Steven Savage

Convention Idea: A Range of Talent

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The roundup of Pro Fan Panel Ideas is here.

When you select a panel of people for your profane panels, workshops, etc. one of the questions that you'll face is what level of experience do you want.  Do you want an experienced pro – with the risk that others may not even understand them?  Do you want a newer pro – with the risk they don't know enough?  Do you want a student on their way there – but of course they have less credibility?

Let me toss out an idea for profan panels: provide a range of experience when appropriate.

Put an old salt, a new careerist, and a student on the same panel – or some other range of skill and experience.  Let them talk together, fight it out, or cover different areas of knowledge.  Either way, try a range.

Why?

  • It lets you give a variety of views.
  • It lets you give a variety of experiences relevant to people.  The new student may not be experienced but they know what current students are facing now.  The old hand may not get what it's like to start out today, but they know what current professionals are facing.
  • It gives you great cross-fertilization of ideas.  People of different levels of experience can put their minds together and come up with great panel ideas and sessions with less groupthink.
  • It also lets you spread or reuse panel resources.

So don't just focus on one experience level in your profan panels – go for a wide selection at once!

– Steven Savage