Again I read this profound and provocative Atlantic-article by Nicholas Carr how the internet affects our thinking and would like to post it to your attention.
SEED sets science and design to talk
The last issues of Adam Bly's science magazine SEED featured some of our dear DLD friends, including the senior curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, Paola Antonelli and biology pioneer Craig Venter. In a frank interview, Venter who sequenced the human genome explains what’s holding science back and how he intends to fix it. The design issue presented seven different themes – from visualization to algorithm – that underlie the emerging science-design movement. I like it a lot, especially the conversation of Will Wright and Jill Tarter of the SETI center on science and game design. Wright created not Sims as well as Spore. And the influence game design has on science but also business is far reaching "Can we model reality?”
The debate between the highly esteemed “father of fractal geometry” Benoit Mandelbrot and MoMA’s Paola Antonelli embraces among other things, fractals, self-similarity in architecture, algorithms that could specify the creation of entire cities, visual mathematics, and “the death of Euclid”. And what is interesting, Nassim Thaleb dedicated his book "The Black Swan" to Mandelbrot. Small worlds indeed.
Change, Clouds and Chanel
Three articles that I picked of the two current Economist editions I'd like to comment on. The fact that young voters in the US really brought the change and rallied for Obama in a way which has not been seen so far. And the knew to use the internet and social networking. It is the real first internet election like it was the first television election in 1960 (the famous Kennedy-Nixon TV debate). 1960 it brought the iconic turn of politics. Like the 1960 Olympics made the sports competitions a global political event. The 2008 elections are the digital turn of politics.
The other 16-pages dossier is on cloud computing. A very good read to better understand the scope of this paradigm shift in computing and data storage. There are many dimensions to it, the environmental issue of energy consumption which makes server farms go under water, the political question of privacy rights and law enforcement when data is not stored at a place to localise, and the business impact. Who will benefit when information commoditizes further? Nicholas Carr sees Google as the benefitor and driver of this process like Microsoft emerged as monopolists by commoditizing products like the browser that were "complementary to its cash cows, such as Windows".
And I liked the face value on Maureen Chiquet, newly named CEO of the epinomious Chanel, a brand that stands for the luxury and inspiration for nine decades now. How to renew such as legacy? The notion of luxury is changing so much. Often people tell you that personal time and independence is true luxury, less buying expensive products that can be bought on Ebay or whose exclusivity may be undermined by fakes. Global brand need to aspire buyers in different cultures. Celebrities endorse such brands and vice versa, like Nicole Kidman or Keira Knigthly with Chanel. But even so, luxury has been a growth market over decades, and just now feels the impact of the credit crunch. I visited the Chanel Mobile Art Pavillion in New York and can say that this staging of the brand is a most modern expression of inspiration and brand mystique.
Munich Munich!
Again, Munich has been named most liveable city. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung conveyed a survey on German cities where the creative class would like to live. Here!
super normads
Philippe Starck could be called a super normad. Well perhaps he would see himself this way. When I read about his lifestyle this weekend in ParisMatch, I thought so. He tells there how he permanently travels around the globe for his projects, the Baccarat in Moscow, the Le Lan in Bejing or designing a new eco-friendly and almost invisible superjacht. And he keeps his energies by creating a personal cocoon with his wife around himself during all this jetset, the keep rituals, doesn't take baggage. Interesting.
I thought of others who keep their average speed at these levels. Our DLD friend Hans-Ulrich Obrist for example who takes his inspiration around the world connecting artists, exhibitions and people. Josua Ramo wrote about the average speed, the miles you travel divided by the hours in a year. Hans-Ulrich will be in Dubai next week, too. Looking forward. I spoke with Steffi today about super normads who are the first global citizens.
No Tipping Point
Just got back from Berlin on a quite windy flight on which I read an article by Clive Thomson in Fast Company negating the tipping point paradigm brought to public by Malcolm Gladwell a few years ago. In his bestseller he laid the basis for viral marketing and reaching out for influentials who would set trends which then disseminate. In contrast Duncan Watts, a Yahoo-sponsored researcher shows that trends actually are not made by influencers. Watts argues that societies are much to complex as that a small group of influencers could amplify them and he builds computer models to prove.
Yet trends emerge if the public is susceptible to the "virus" or the product as you will. Very interesting and it reminds me of a conversation I had with a immunologist lately on how viruses spread. He told me that it depends very much on whether the organism is again "susceptible". I think this can also be oberved in public opinion. If there is a certain Stimmung, news have more impact than others.
Watts conclusion for marketing btw is that the best impact is achieved by combining traditional mass marketing - reach out as many consumer as you can - with instruments that let consumers drive a trends further e.g. by sending a product-related piece to their friends. What do you think about this theory? Do you know a successful campaign that combines these features?
Bonanza ade?
Wohin steuert die TV-Branche in digitalen Zeiten? Lange Zeit eine Goldgrube, nun ändern sich vieles: neue Akteure wie Google, Nokia, Deutsche Telekom, Diversifikation von TV-Werbung, der Ausbau von Inhalteproduktioneren für Internet und Handy wie bei RTL mit Freemantle oder DVBH.
Christiane zu Salm und Hans-Peter Siebenhaar haben heute darüber im Handelsblatt ein Essay ("Bildstörung statt Bonanza") geschrieben. Ihr Fazit "Die Fernsehkonzerne können ihr Zukunft nicht mit dem Verkauf von Werbespots sichern". Very interesting und straight forward.
Business of Fashion
Interessant finde ich die Business of Fashion-Beilage, die heute der FT beilag. Die führenden Powerplayers, Kreativköpfe werden vorgstellt aber auch neue Eigentümer. So hat IMG die Fashion Weeks globalisiert (Indien, Russland, Dubai) und einige Fashion Company liegen bei Private Equity Investoren wie Agent Provocateur (3i) oder J. Lindeberg (Proventus). Fashion spielt auch im Netz eine immer größere Rolle. Das Social Fashion Network Osoyou.com wird vorgestellt und andere Social Shopping Sites wie iliketototallyloveit.com (was für eine Name?), my-wardrobe.com, aber auch die Konsumorientierung der Millennials nach Werthaltung "the integrity of a brand". Letzteres halte ich im Netz für sehr relevant. Fashion-Experte Imran Ahmed schreibt, dass immer mehr Designer wie Alexander McQueen und Luis Vitton "actively" mit Bloggern arbeiten (LesMads!).
Current TV
Heute war zu lesen, dass Al Gore sein TV-Unternehmen Current TV an die Börsen bringen will. Current TV soll eine Mischung aus CNN und MTV sein, ein Mitmachsender. beim dem Zuschauer Beiträge und auch Werbepots einspeisen können. 51 Millionen Haushalte in den USA erreicht Current TV in den USA, auch eine englische Tochter gibt es. Wirtschaftlich schreibt der Sender aber (noch) Verluste. Nun mein kleiner Bezug, hatte ich doch in Davos Al Gore bei einer Kleiner Perkins-Veranstaltung auf Current TV ansprechen können, weil mich das interessierte. Vielleicht mal ein DLD-Thema.... ?
