In Silicon Valley, The Line Between Humor And Reality Is Thin

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That App Was a Joke . . .  now it’s not.

I work in Silicon Valley, and trust me there’s a lot of weird stuff here.  That’s part of the charm.  We get fish curry tacos, monuments to water towers, and people who make apps that were originally jokes – like those mentioned in this article.  Yeah, you laugh at iPoo . . .

There’s many ways to look at this phenomena, but I’d actually like to add a different point of view – the insane stuff that becomes all to real is a good thing:

It reminds us that there is a market for almost anything.

It’s a demonstration of how fast something can be developed.

It’s a reminder that you CAN make it with a seemingly crazy idea.

It’s a reminder there’s still a lot of VC sloshing around.

It’s a celebration of the pure crazy that we can produce – and that means even if some of this crazy is, well, stupid, we can make the good kind too.

So let’s not decry iPoo, or the infamous Wesley Crusher sex novel, or any of this other stuff too easily.  Let’s remember right now that we have the tools, technology, and often cash to go completely bugnutz in our technology, media, and more.

Now that you remember that, let’s go make it happen, because if someone can seriously discuss Tacocopter . . . .

– Steven Savage
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

 

Promoting Professional Geekery #41 – Fansource All The Things

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(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)

If you want to encourage people to use their hobbies and passions in their careers, start paying them or at least having them do work in kind for you. Or, in short, start fansourcing.

I’ve written about Fansourcing extensively – in my definition it’s using fan/geek connections to get goods and services.

When you fansource things, you perform a great service to professional geeks providing those services – and more:

  • You give them a chance to use you as a reference, promoting their career.
  • You give them a chance to apply their skills and thus learn more.
  • You give them a potential addition to a portfolio or resume.
  • You give them a chance for free publicity by being affiliated with you.
  • You give them the real experience of applying their skills.
  • You pay them or provide some other service for them.
  • You promote the idea of fansourcing so others do it (you are doing that, right?)

The result of good fansourcing? Promoting Professional Geekery in a solid, reliable way.

It’s easy to not do this. It’s easy to use a standard business card template or forget that you know the people that provide fansourcing. It takes time to get into the habit, but it’s a worthwhile one.

Do this enough and other people do it. Make sure your fellow geeks get enough time, attetnion, publicity, and money, and their ambitions can be realized.

Sounds worth it to me.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Wii U, Wii Me

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Well, here it is, the Wii U demoed at E3.  Word is it’s going to launch last quarter of 2012, which of course means we all know what’s gonna get given at Christmas.  It demoed with quite a few titles (a smart move) and of course is doing the usual Nintendo thing of sucking the oxygen out of the room, which Nintendo is pretty damn good at.

Kotaku’s reviewer is slightly underwhelmed, even though they’re exploding with Wii U cover.  Ubisoft, meanwhile, is heavily invested in the Wii.

I’d actually expect more enthusiasm, but honestly, this is weirdly subdued E3 so far.  I see plenty of twitter complaints on FPS overload, etc.  So I’m trying to take this in context.

My take?  In context:

  • This is, as noted, Nintendo stealing everyone’s thunder.  Despite the Wii’s slow slide into irrelevancy, it was very popular in its time, and came out at the perfect time to get people’s attention.  I sense a nostalgia factor.
  • The launch titles are moderate to quite strong.  The Lego City Undercover, in fact, looks like a winner – basically Lego GTA IV.
  • The oddball controller, of course, has everyone’s attention – that’s what Nintendo does.
  • The new platform is going to help get interest and of course rile up the competition, who seem more focused on other issues.
  • There are new services, so it’s hopeful Nintendo isn’t going to botch the “extended” world.

I’d say a solid launch, with a few advantages, but coming during a tired time.  If Nintendo is smart maybe they can get some energy going.

– Steven Savage