Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

Social Media and Speculation

In watching my habits socializing - and that of others, I've noticed two trends in social media that I think bear analysis - since social media may be an interesting career for people, and people will be using it in their careers.

What I've noticed is that social media can be roughly classified into two areas: the general (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter) that provide functionality with no goals beyond socialization, and the specific (LinkedIn.com, Crunchyroll, etc.) that provide service based around specific goals or media.

I see this as being the future of social media - there is only room for a few big general players who perfect their craft and deliver general social media functionality.  But there is also room for specialist social media built around particular audiences and services - I myself find myself using specialized or semi-specialized social media as much as any other.  In fact, as the generalist social media settles, the major market may be creating specialized communities that can respond to specific needs and leverage specific knowledge.

For those working in social media, this will lead to some hard decisions - do you go general (knowing there are fewer choices), or take changes with a specific community (taking a different set of changes).  Placing your bet will result in some careful evaluations - work with the fewer larger or the less predictable but wider-spread specialists.

For those USING social media intensely, it involves hedging your bets and determining what you can and should use.   I think enough of the major players and some of the specialist and semi-specialist players (gaia, LinkedIn.com, Crunchyroll, etc.) are defined that you can determine what you want to use and for what goals.  There's enough room out there - and enough potential mergers and changes - that things can shift in at least some markets.

Never a dull moment . . .

- Steven Savage

News of the Day, April 30, 2009

Video Games

Electronic Arts is promising that the next version of The Sims will utilize digital distribution and user-generated content more than ever before. The company is launching a Web site, www.thesims3.com, to serve as a digital storefront. Very smart move on the part of the company, taking one of its biggest franchises into the lucrative world of downloadables and digital goods. The company's sports division also says it's going to work on improving its Wii games, which it claims are falling behind other platforms, and look for new ways to bring its games to PCs. Sounds like EA, which has had a bumpy road of it as of late, is looking to reinvent itself, which can only be positive for them at this juncture - they serve as an example for anyone who finds their business model faltering. Take a step back, take a long look and target very specific areas that need fixing.

Sony exec David Reeves is claiming Playstation 3 will dominate the market in three to five years, and still no mention of a price cut. If EA is the example right now of the right way to go, Sony, at least as far as the PS3 is concerned, is "Ur doin it wrong." Trash talk does no good without the action to back it up, and if Sony wants to make good on their word, they're going to have to cut the PS3 price in order to stay competitive.    

Ubisoft reaped big profits during the last year, with sales up 14%, thanks to Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. and Shaun White Snowboarding, and the company is already talking about followups to the latter title (which took advantage of the Wii Fit balance board technology in its Nintendo version). The company is also looking to secure its future by preparing for the next generation of hardware. They're looking like a smart, steady company at the moment, and a good career bet.

The Social Network Game Boom: A look at how MySpace and Facebook are changing the face of the gaming industry. The blogger here calls social networking games the biggest revolution since downloadable casual games, so it's definitely an area designers should take seriously.

Technology

Disney has taken a stake in Hulu, the streaming video site, which creates the unusual setup of a company co-owned by two competing networks (Hulu is part-owned by NBC, and Disney is the parent company of ABC). This may also hasten that made-for-Hulu programming that we've been predicting for awhile, since Disney is very big on cable and direct-to-video production, so new avenues for television production may be coming sooner rather than later.

If you're a software developer who wants to test your programs on Windows 7 before it comes out, you're in luck: The company is offering the Release Candidate, essentially a version of the upcoming software one step up from the beta that will be available for a year. Looks like they're going well out of their way to avoid a repeat of the Vista debacle and make sure all third-part software is compatable with its next OS.

Apple is assembling an in-house chip design team to work on in-house units for mobile devices. The company has worked with Samsung on phone chips in the past, but this looks like an effort to safeguard their secets and make sure they don't fall into the hands of competing smartphone makers. The chip team is said to be made up of "all-stars," but the company will doubtlessly be looking for support staff for them. The company also seems to be getting very serious about iPhone gaming, hiring Richard Teversham, formerly senior director of strategy for the Xbox.

Social Networking

IBM is converting its developers' site, MyDeveloperWorks, into a social network, incorporating LinkedIn-style features. The site has a library of 30,000 resources and an estimated eight million users, and this new development shows how much social networking has become incorporated into business culture. If you're not seeking it out now, you're going to fall behind - especially if your company adopts it in-house.

General Mills is scoring a big hit with MyBlogSpark, under which mothers with blogs who agree to review the company's products can have them for free. A look at how social media can be utilized for target marketing and how big business is embracing the geekosphere.

A Guide to Who's Hiring in Social Media This Week: As we so often say, you know what to do. 

Publishing

Maplewood, a small town in northern New Jersey, is becoming a model for local news delivery of the future: the town has three hyper-local Web sites that cover it, as well as the New York Times site. This is definitely the wave of the future - the local newspaper isn't going to go away, it's just going to evolve into a pile of pixels. Young journalists just out of college, who used to get their training at the local weekly, will most likely be working at these sites now - providing a realistic glimpse of what their careers will be like in the digital-news world.   

- Bonnie 

How do you know Twitter has arrived?

There's a Twitter for the CDC covering emergencies.  Currently, they're covering Swine Flu.

I of course, having an interest in both my own and public health, and medical issues, subscribed.

Twitter may not be perfect.  It may have issues coming up with a revenue model (and you can be sure people aren't going to like it), and it has retention issues.  It is however very firmly lodged in public consciousness and will survive and probably prosper in some form.

- Steve

News of the Day, April 29, 2009

Anime/Manga

Old-school anime and manga publisher Central Park Media has filed for bankruptcy. Sad news to those of us who remember buying CPM's old VHS tapes, but not entirely surprising. CPM has been struggling for quite awhile in the digital climate - their Be Beautiful yaoi manga line (which carried prestigious titles like Kizuna) seemed to be off, then on, then off as it struggled to find distributors. Given that the industry as a whole is suffering tough times on both sides of the Pacific, it's not surprising that an old school company that couldn't quite become new school went down.

Video Games

The salary of the average game developer has been revealed to be about $79,000, according to a new survey - and that figure is up from last year due to increased asking prices from experienced creators. If you were considering making a jump into this field but needed incentive . . . there it is. 

The iPhone appears to be one of the hottest platforms out there, if sales statistics from mobile game maker Gameloft are any indication - its 22% increase in sales was largely driven by iPhone titles. Flash-based games for other brands of smartphones were also extremely strong sellers, so don't think Apple is, no pun intended, the only game in town.

Details have emerged of the next generation of PSP, called the PSP Go! It will have a sliding screen and lose the UMD drive. Sony is one hungry company when it comes to this thing, as the PSP has never sold quite well in America, so they're going to be looking for some appealing games to help drive it. (This may be the time to think about PSP games to appeal to a broad spectrum of people, because Sony is going to want to put its new device into the hands of non-traditional gamers). They do seem to be making an entry into the downloadable content arena being mined successfully by the DSi, as the game Fate: Unlimited Codes, a sequel to the popular Fate: Stay Night, will be available only as a PSP download. 

Nearly half of GameStop's profits are from used game sales, according to its latest revenue report. In this economy, that's to be expected, and it also shows that this company has built a strong business model on the concept - they're going to be very hard to unseat here, although Amazon is certainly trying.

Social Networking

Apparently, Twitter doesn't seem to be generating the brand loyalty many people think it has - it seems that 60% of the people who sign up for it quit within the first month. This does not mean, however, that it lessens its importance to both business and social networking, since it is still used extensively by everyone from newsgathering organizations to oil companies - and has also played a vital role in spreading information about swine flu.  

Technology

Hulu is on the move: The video site's traffic has increased 62 percent in the last six months. A hookup with Splashcast that allows users to watch videos with friends via Facebook and MySpace will only help matters. The site is well on its way to becoming the fifth network (heck, we wonder if it has more viewers than the CW on most nights) and we'e sure we're going to hear an announcement about them carrying original programming sooner rather than later, so if you think you may never get your idea on a network . . . you just might.

If you needed any more proof that fan flame wars can be on-the-job training, just look at the Palm vs. Apple smartphone wars. Word now has it that Palm is deliberately looking to launch its much touted Pre the day before Apple's WWDC keynote. Palm has talked trash like a wrestler when it comes to the leader in the smartphone business, so let's see if they deliver the goods.  Acer has joined the parade of manufacturers working on Android phones, with their model set to debut next year. The company, which has reaped a tidy profit from Aspire netbooks, doesn't seem to be considering an Android netbook, though. What this all means is if you want to get into the smartphone games market - see above - bear in mind you're going to be developing for quite a few platforms.

Publishing/Media

Old-school publishers like the New York Times and the Washington Post are increasingly using a service called Aperture to draw readers into their sites and keep them there. Aperture places links within content that allows readers to hover over them to see a picture or video or hear an audio file related to the text.

Clear Channel, the radio giant, is cutting 590 jobs, including on-air positions. Bad news for an already shaky industry. Radio is definitely one area that has been shrinking and shrinking as stations look to cut costs more and more - a lot of them are ditching "live and local" programming altogether and going to syndicated feeds. Satellite radio was, at one point, though to be the salvation of that industry, but that seems to have gone bust as well, with XM and Sirius consolidating and eliminating large amounts of staff in the process. This is one of the few areas where we would advise you not to chase your career dreams - if you want to be in audio broadcasting, your best bet is to pursue a career in voice-over work for cartoons/anime and do a podcast or Internet radio show as a hobby. 

How Grey's Anatomy Created a Successful Brand: A look at how marketers behind the popular TV show used an upcoming wedding that's part of the plot as a springboard to launch an online wedding page and how one brand can be used to propel another, compatible brand to success. Grey's Anatomy isn't exactly one of the first shows to come to mind when it comes to fandom, but the example here can definitely be applied to fandom-friendly properties (Naruto and Japanese noodle houses? Axis Powers Hetalia and European travel? Ranma and martial arts schools?) 

- Bonnie

Social Media: The Holy Trinity Plus One

Awhile ago I began deliberately working on my personal and professional social media strategy - and began doing readings, querying people, etc.  My goal? What was a good core social media strategy that wouldn't overtake one's life and let me pursue my personal and professional goals.

What I found actually surprised me a bit, and I'll share it here.

News of the Day, April 28, 2009

Video Games

Is Square Enix looking toward world domination? The company says it might decide to acquire another company after its takeover of Eidos. Squeenix was a big-and-getting-bigger company to begin with, so they're building on a solid foundation - I don't think this is going to be a case of a company suddenly getting too big for its britches, expanding way past what it can handle and then, ultimately, taking a fall. If they set up new North American divisions, by all means think about working there, since they should be a sure bet way into the future.

An Endemic Problem: A look at the video game magazine business and why it's so dependent on advertising from game companies, a factor in the demise of EGM. It's ironic that gaming mags, which deliver a young and hip audience (this article says its primary appeal is to "young men," but people who know the actual gaming audience know better), can't seem to attract ads from the very companies they cover - and an occasional military recruiter. The current climate in newspaper/magazine advertising in general doesn't make things any easier. This is definitely a challenge for someone looking to get into marketing/advertising - getting manufacturers of a variety of products (Energy drinks? Snack foods? Televisions, even?) interested in reaching the geeks throgh these mags.

The State of GameStop: The first part in a series examining the retailer's revenue and profit history in the new and used software markets. GameStop is a prime example of a nearly recession-proof business - they have continued to prosper and expand when other electronics retailers have been shutting their doors, so their business model is well worth studying for other sellers not only of games, but also of any other targeted/niche product.

Money for nothing, indeed: Nonoba has proven, yet again, that virtual goods are jaw-droppingly successful nowadays. The company has signed up 100 clients for GameRise, a micropayment API designed to support virtual goods sales in Flash games, in 30 days. If they start building on that and grow at the rate other virtual goods companies have, they will be turning a tidy profit in no time.

Are enhanced graphics coming to the iPhone? Apple just hired Bob Drebin, formerly CTO of the company that created the GameCube's graphics chip, but didn't say why. Given that the iPhone is increasingly being used as a pocket gaming machine, it's logical to think he may have been brought in to soup up the device's game performance, which will create demand for graphics-intensive games for the platform. 

Technology

The traditional box-and-monitor desktop computer may be an endangered species, as more and more companies step up production of netbook and iMac-like all-in-one monitor/hard drive combinations, such as the Dell Studio Multitouch. We've been saying for awhile that we are headed for a world where laptops are the new desktops and smart phones/netbooks are the new laptops, and it seems that the industry is about to bear out our prediction. Desktops will always survive, but their future use may be primarly for heavy-duty graphics (and, possibly, hardcore gaming), so when designing software, remember that it will be viewed on increasingly smaller screens.  

Firefox and Facebook are the applications most used across different platforms, according to a new survey by Wakoopa, a software-oriented social network. Neither is any surprise, especially the news that Internet Explorer isn't as "default" as Microsoft likes to think it is - and neither is the news that Twitter clients are extremely popular, including Tweetdeck, Twhirl and, for the Mac, Destroy Twitter. Any kind of Facebook or Twitter software is going to just increase in demand in the future. (Firefox just released a new beta, by the way).  

Recession Culture: Old is the New: People are holding on to their old electronic gadgets a lot longer in this climate rather than upgrading. What this means to you is it opens up plenty of need for people who are willing to service and repair older gadgets, so if you know how to fix a first-generation iPod, you're in luck. 

Amazon, which already owns a big chunk of the e-book market with the Kindle, is looking to extend its reach by acquiring Stanza, an e-book reading app for the iPhone. This means that other smartphones will doubtlessly be looking for similar apps, opening up a new chapter in the e-book wars (and new opportunities for developers).

Job Market

Dealing with Job Search Depression: A guideline for handling being out of work, including volunteering, avoiding the news and getting proper exercise. A lot of what's found here is just plain logic, but it's also quite useful.

Economics/Geekonomics

Are We Better Off Than Our Parents?: This article asks the question if the children of the Baby Boomers are the first generation to be worse off than their parents, and argues the point that they're not due to technological advances and a willingness to help each other out. It's an inspirational pick-me-up to anyone slogging under the weight of bad economic news that seems to just keep coming.  

Social Networking

AOL is throwing its hat in this ring with Socialthing, an online profiles manager that is designed to drive traffic to its various sites and Bebo, its fledgling social network. You have to give the old dog credit for at least trying to learn new tricks, and if this works, it could make them at least a minor player in the industry again. Hold off on sending resumes there until we see how this works out, though. 

Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy?: We know that social media does wonders for networking and new business opportunities, but here's a look at the other side of the coin: Be careful what you post on Facebook, YouTube, etc. in (or even mentioning) your company's name, or it could come back to bite you. People may be less likely to do business with employees who were YouTube-d en masse doing bizarre things to food.

- Bonnie

Stereotype-Fu

I was reading an interesting article on how stereotypes can derail your personal 'brand'. It made some good points, and I responded with some of my own strategies. I'd like to go into my own ideas of dealing with stereotypes.

If you're reading this blog, changes are you're a professional geek/nerd of some kind, or hope to be. Pretty much you've got plenty of stereotypes to deal with professionally and unprofessionally - the lifeless nerd, the socially incompetent geek, the perverse otaku, etc. You've dealt with them for a long time.

News of the Day 4/27/2009

Career:
What will come of Human Resources in the IT Age? HR certainly hasn't moved with the times, so this question bears some thoughts - with so much data out there, what COULD an HR department do? A good read and worth keeping in mind in the future, where you'll need to be aware of what's known about you.

Economics/Freakonomics/Geekonomics:
How the Obamas deal with paparazzi - via publicity - A quick but fun read. Short version, by releasing so many photos necessary, the Obamas control their image and make paparazzi far less valuable. A good bit of freakonomic thought and media savvy.

Publishing:
Barnes and Noble launches audiobook store online - Sounds like a good straightforward leap into audio. As we've noted here, we're expecting audio to be a fronteir for techno-geekery that isn't going to get the big play of video, but will be important. I imagine if this works out you might find a way to pitch yourself if you've got some audio involvement.

Newspaper decline gets even worse - At this rate I'm expecting a critical 'seismic' change to occur soon as a mixture of failures, consolidations, and new media rewrite the rules within a relatively short time (a year). It may be depressing for some people but the change could mean opportunity as well. Now for further thought where else could a collapse like this happen . . .

Social Media:
Facebooks new Open Stream API is out. What this means is they have a forward-thinking, open-standards-based way for applications to access Facebook data and functions. This keeps Facebook moving forward and defining how things can be done - while leaving standards open - and engaging developers. Interesting thought, their approach is Twitterseque

Facebook has also had voting on policies

The above two news items illustrate an important point on Facebook - they're working to maintain good will while maintaining presence and inviting people into their fold. It's actually a bit Google-esque if you ask me. Taking them on will require either a different approach (unlikely) or engaging them on their own ground (hard but doable). For careers, I'd say this shows Facebook knows what it's doing, and technically these open standards need to be followed.

In the midst of all this Hi5 gets a new CEO. That could be a good sign for their more enterainment-oriented approach.

Technology:
Why selling its search business to Microsoft is a bad idea for Yahoo - Which, if it does happen, is a good warning for career-minded people who may want a piece of the action.

The Oracle and Sun deal analyzed - A lot of redundancy, so expect job cuts and changes, and product mergers or decomissioning. If you WORK with either of them or for them be aware of this.

A roundup of future areas of legal conflcit on the internet - I don't agree with all of them (#1 and #4 seem unlikely or minor at best), but this is a good read in general. I do expect legal issues and social media to come up, so if you work in that area keep that in mind (of if you want to work in that area and have a law background . . .)

Video Games:
Eidos will maintain a separate brand identity from SquareEnix but their new owner expects them to pull out enough to cover the $120 million investment in three years. In a troubled time, that sounds like a lot of money to me - and it sets a goal for Eidos.

Petroglyph and Trion team up for MMORTS - I thought Trion was also doing some work with Sci-Fi/SyFy so I'm wondering what's up with them since they used to be doig a lot of hiring.

---

And in final geek news, there's now a portable epresso machine

Steven "Microexpresso" Savage

Week In Review 4/26/2009

Economically things were still mixed: signs of a home sale revival were hinted at - while other places saw homes being razed.  Your humble blogger simple states DO NOT BUY A HOME RIGHT NOW and suggests you wait.  Also, there's a useful map of job losses we found.

In social media, the big news was the changes at MySpace: Co-Founder Chris DeWolfe is out.  This may sound traumatic, but MySpace has a shot at getting out of its slump and its not going to go away.  Facebook is also moving, with a potential ad network and one of its big app builders came out of Stealth mode.  I'd take DeWolfe's as an opening salvo in a new round . . . and of course this could lead to opportunites at these and other social networking companies.

If there was rumbling in the Social Media area it was a complete storm on all fronts in gaming - including the news game funding may be drying up (career thought - how much of this cash is going to social media?). There was good news:  Wii had its video service channel, EA's online sports is doing very well, and Sega's doing some strategic rethinking.  Meanwhile the PSP is looking worse all the time.  No pattern per se this week, just lots and lots of stuff in gaming.

In video our big news was "what's up with Joost": is it shopping itself to Time-Warner?  Or is it rallying for battle?  I wouldn't go sending a resume there, but I don't think they're gone - in fact whoever buys them may have plans.  We have seen video is NOT going away as a major area of interest - PBS is getting in on it.

We also saw a Google Android Notebook hit the market from China.  I'm sure this is seen as a way to be more independent of American products, we'll keep an eye on this one.  Android, if you haven't seen us say it the past few hundred times, is something to know about in any tech career - even if you don't code.

Finally Geocities, a piece of internet history, is going away.

And a roudup of our advice and analysis:

• What's your fandom strategy
• Sometime's there's ramp-up
• Approaching the Dream
• The death of hardcore gaming?  Not so fast!

- Steve

What's Your Fandom Strategy?

We've got our life strategies, our career strategies, all sorts of strategies.  In fact I'm kind of getting tired of hearing the word strategy, and need a strategy to use it less.

So, you may be planning that big fan-to-pro leap, that progeek paradise, that Otariiman overture.  You got a strategy.

So what's your fandom strategy?  How are you going to use your fandom work in your career - or how are you going to make yourself appear more professional than just a fan?

This is something I rarely see people plan for two reasons: 1) they don't think about it, and 2) they assume fandom work will always be an advantage to them.

Unfortunately, neither of these are good.