Economics/Freakonomics/Geekonomics

• How the economy, and the credit crunch in particular, is affecting media and Hollywood – A good overview with some surprising tidbits.  Online and games seem to be the best positioned.  The credit crunch is also hitting people hard – because credit, especially short-term, is a kind of lubricant to keep things working.
• Why Magazines Should Act Like Air Conditioner Companies – An amusingly clever look at how publishing can act a bit differently to its own benefit.  Also a great example of Freakonomics (the blog and the principle)

Media

• Neisen Buisness Media has layoffs – Not much on the story yet, so I’ll see about follow up.  Remember the post yesterday about how conventional media had 5 years to live . . .

Publishing

• Sports Publishing files Chapter 11 – I’m not too up on who they are, but apparently they lived up to their name by doing a LOT of publishing of sports-related books.  I’m a bit surprised they had such problems considering the topic, but there you are.  There’s probably more to the story than is obvious (I figure the Olympics would have been great for them), but its yet another hard-hit publisher – and they’ve been having trouble for at least a year.

Technology

• Blip.tv secures undisclosed Venture Capital Amount – I haven’t heard of these guys – now I’m unhappy I didn’t.  They sound like a serious competitor, and have an interesting income model.  Plus they’re keeping their investment numbers under wraps.
• Google Open Sources Android – Gutsy move.  There are several advantages however if this is done right – it lets the "Google" version snarf up all the best code and features, and makes it a bit harder for the iPhone to compete, and finally it has some Geek Appeal.  I think this is an indicator of just how serious Google is – very serious – about Android.
• Red Hat CEO sees brighter future for Open Source in the economic hard times – He may have some valid points – OS really blossomed in Silicon Valley after the dot-com fallout.  I’ve seen entire startups based on Open Source as well – successful ones.

Video Games

• Indian Game Company starts Russian Branch – Mainly I include this to draw people’s attention to gaming not involving NA, UK, and Japan.
• A little news on the ailing state of E3 and it’s future – Not sure what the big gaming event is going to be in a few years – or if there is one.  That’s going to make networking tougher for everyone as well.
• Playstation 3 agreement means sony can pretty much record anything you do online – In the wake of the LittleBigPlanet mess, the lackluster PS3, and the anger over DRM and related issues, is this the best way for Sony to go?  Or are they hoping no one notices?  Or is this boilerplate?  Either way not sure this’ll go over well for Sony if the story has legs (and I see assorted potential problems).
• Song quoting Koran pulled from LittleBigPlanet so as not to offend Muslims.  Muslim group is offended – In a global economy, it’s hard to know what to do in cases of cultural sensitivity, but this sounds ham-handed.
• An analysis of the Wii two years on – Worth reading.  The Wii, whatever it’s future, is going to have been a transformational creation – my mother is seriously considering one just for Wii Sports (though I can bet she’d love Boom Blox).  However I’d also like to see more exploration of the DS, which I think has done a great deal for changing gaming.

-Steve