Promoting materialism and dependency masked as empowerment, and the rise of priv-lit.

On freakish-looking animals.

Languages and personalities.

The happiness that comes with not owning things.

“The American life does not exist until it is filled up.” And how to take a walk properly.

Economic steady state, the future of developed world?

Does the Chinese economy favour its corporations and against its households?

BRIC Special
India outsourcing firms set up shop in smaller towns
latimes.com- Call centres in India have a bad reputation as the breeding ground for inter-office romances. Newer, more rural openings want to avoid that. …
EU sees solar power imported from Sahara in 5 years
Reuters- Europe will import its first solar-generated electricity from North Africa within the next five years. …
It’s all about China now, get used to it
leighdrogen.com- Focus on companies doing business in China Brazil and India, the three centers of real growth. Says Drogen. …
Smart, young, and broke
Newsweek- White-collar workers are China’s newest underclass, the ant class. …

Tech & Media
Public Press started online, now turns to print
sfgate.com- One local newspaper is bucking the trend and going back to print. …
“The whole music business infrastructure is about selling out”
37signals.com- The whole music business infrastructure, the baby boomer infrastructure anyway, is about selling out. …
Why Amazon’s Kindle will eventually win the e-Book wars
gigaom.com- If Amazon wants to keep the device around, it will have to transform it from a mere e-book reader to a content consumption device that matches the iPad in its capabilities. …

Business & Finance
Slowed food revolution
prospect.org- Obama seeks to boost demand for organic food but doesn’t offer meaningful support for the people who grow it. …
A colossal fracking mess
vanityfair.com- The dirty truth behind the new natural gas. …
Freight fright *alert*
FT Alphaville- This particular forward macro-economic indicator experienced its biggest weekly decline since 2008. …

The Rest
Why bad guys matter
foreignpolicy.com- At the core of all successful societies are procedures for blocking the advancement of bad men. …
Eye of the beholder
moreintelligentlife.com- What does it take to make a hit reality show? …
Everything you need to know about the Internet
The Guardian- In spite of all the answers the Internet has given us, its full potential to transform our lives remains the great unknown. …
40,000 deaths a year due to junk food

telegraph.co.uk- More than 40,000 Britons are dying unnecessarily every year because of high levels of salt and fat in their diets. …

Online and citizen-journalism seems to have succeeded in South Korea, but not in Japan.

Japan, with its cultural disdain for those who stick out from the crowd, may be inhospitable terrain for the reader-turned-reporter model, Mr. Takeuchi said.

[A]nother reason for Japan’s resistance to alternative sites is the relative absence of social and political divisions. In politically polarized South Korea, OhmyNews thrived by appealing to young, liberal readers.

“It is only when the society sees itself as having conflicting interests that it will seek out new viewpoints and information,” said Toshinao Sasaki, the author of about two dozen books on the Internet in Japan.

Media experts say Japan has yet to see such critical questioning of its establishment press. They say most Japanese remain at least passively accepting of the nation’s big newspapers and television networks.

On top of the cultural and political differences between these two neighbours, does this also have to do with demographics?

This is South Korea’s population profile.

And this is Japan’s.

South Korea is aging fast, but it still boasts a median age that’s almost 7 years younger than Japan.  A younger, politically divided, and more restless cultural undercurrent seems to be driving this battle.

In 1966, the Harvard Business Review introduced the idea of “paperless clearing houses”, in reference to the emergence of digital data storage. Since then, the microprocessor industry emerged, personal computers were introduced, and before we knew it, everyone is connected by the web. The delivery and the digitization of data is no longer a fantasy.

But the implementation and eventual realization of this inevitable “paperless” world, however, is taking longer than expected. Ten years ago, we were told that every participant in the information age is marching towards the digital world in more or less uniformity. But despite the obvious technological leaps, we are still far from a paperless world.

Paperless for some

So far, we have managed to scrape a layer off of perfunctory bookkeeping. In areas such as online tax filing and the digitization of our numerous monthly financial statements, the quick and convenient source-to-records applications have surely saved both cost and time for all parties involved. In the case of communication, personal letters are replaced by the superior email deliveries. In those cases, paper as the medium of communication has been eliminated.

Now with various access points for information, cheap storage devices, accessible scanners and various other forms of affordable technology, all of which are competing to drive paper out of our lives for good, what is the outlook for paper?

Professional uses

The term “paper-pusher” was coined for a reason. Knowing that, it should not be surprising that paper is far from disappearing, particularly within some of the older professions. In legal and business communities, for example, cyber security risks, as well as legal concerns still mandate paper record-keeping for a period of time.

From my own experience in a corporate setting, printing is not something you can move away from quickly. Most businesses operate from desktops, thus short of sharing your desktop – which many more tech savvy businesses do on a regular basis, one need to print off documents in order to discuss and demonstrate. Plus, even when performing numbers-related tasks, where computer applications are assets, printing documents for review is deemed mandatory as a last check-up.

Portability of paper and paper-related products

Papers cannot die because they are portable and cheap to discard. You can carry around pages without worrying about scratching an expensive device or drawing unwanted attention, or marking the pages up and down while doodling on them. You can also make printed copies of paper and distribute them at a meeting, without worrying about whether everyone has a device on hand through which they can retrieve the information.

Holding something tangible in your hands

Smart Board got big because they capitalized on our need to create something from scratch, and the ability to transport that creation into something instantly digitized, shared and easily transferrable. It captured the appeal and convenience of an old-fashioned whiteboard, while transforming it into something fitting for the 21^st century business environment.

Sociologists think our attachment to more antiquated products such as whiteboards and paper is a generational issue. And they are convinced that the up-and-coming generations will increasingly rely on none-traditional sources of media that disseminate information. Yet in the case of digital environments that attempt to replace paper, personal experiences and observations tell me that certain activities are not best performed in front of a computer.

We are visually driven on the net

The internet started off with text, but it probably won’t end with text. The traditional newspaper industry has demonstrated its ignorance by simply moving their offline contents online. It doesn’t work that way, because readers cannot effectively consume a large portion of that information online.

The internet is a visual medium. And that explains why businesses from pornography and YouTube, to the slew of lolcat-esque visually stimulating sites have taken off. Norwegian newspapers have taken advantage of this fact to largely recession-proof their online business models.

The rise of blogging

The business of blogs is now mainstream, and the trend of micro-blogging via Twitter and Facebook is becoming an unstoppable force. It seems that information is best delivered through the online medium in snippets. Bloggers are told to follow the formula of keeping posts short, for fear of losing their audiences. The cultural snobs are huddled in a corner, decrying the dummification effect of the web, and the damaging impact it has on the devolution of our attention span.

Contents that gain traction through the online space feed on our escapism (gossip blogs and entertainment blogs do extraordinarily well), or to satisfy our need for breaking news. So now all the techies are off the race, developing the next Twitter-based platform or hacking some API to break the breaking news.

We are text averse on the net

Kindle realizes that reading, particularly something as long and involved as a book, is not something you can do while hunched over the glaring screens of a device that is hardly friendly to the eyes. For most users, net-supported devices are best at delivering information that is instantly digestible, and for the most part, highly perishable. It provides the means through which we communicate and share.

But reading and thinking have traditionally been solitary and contemplative activities. Many people have decried the ways that technology has robbed us of our patience, and subsequently our ability to concentrate and tackle more involved ideas and thoughts. It is not true. As human beings, we are just as prone to philosophizing as generations past. It’s just that the form of media presented to us have done little to facilitate such activities.

Just because we can doesn’t mean we should

So perhaps the transitory process that we are going through right now will end up segmenting the ways through which information is delivered. While some are best consumed online, whether through a computer terminal or a mobile device in a just-in-time manner, there are materials best appreciated through a medium that is slower placed.

Much of Starbucks’ appeal lie in the way it packages premium coffee consumption as an experience above all else. As consumers of information, we will have to decide soon whether we want to consume the lengthier pieces of information in the form of a McDonald drive-through (that is, digitally), or savour the content in a Starbucks-like setting (in its paper, video, or audio incarnation).

Or maybe information will be sold just like the clothes. You can buy clothes through secondhand stores or Saks, and all will serve its primary function – keeping one clothed. But the fit, quality and ease of purchase differ tremendously. Instead of having quality or brands as the differentiating factor, the mode of content delivery may become the differentiating point when it comes to information products.

Just because technology has made information available to us at a marginal price of almost zero, doesn’t mean that it is the best form through which we should choose to consume it.

Follow more discussion on this post here.

picture source: vim-alex

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A lot of ink has been spilt over the future of newspapers and the journalism profession. Everyone is decrying the death of newspapers and print media. Some blogs are writing daily obituaries for professional journalists, others are squaring blames. Will the century-old tradition withstand the quick sands of the internet age?

The problems with old media

The key here is of course, as Clay Shirky artfully argued, that the current publishing industry is no longer solving a problem for its consumers. That problem used to be the distribution of complex pieces of information. Now with technology playing its part in leveling the dissemination process, reaching ever-more people at an ever-faster speed, traditional means of news circulation are becoming obsolete. Nothing has worked yet to save the industry because most strategies have been aimed at preserving the industry-that-was.

The web has transformed the way we get information, to the extent where we don’t need to pay for someone to tell us about an earthquake in Italy or the bombing in India anymore. Bloggers, micro-bloggers, and wired services can do more than enough in pushing that information out. Besides, how many times can you spin the same piece of data as is? Then what? The world wants to know the why, what, how behind it. If not, what would differentiate a journalist from just another amateur blogger that can Google and milk a few quotes?

Back to the newspaper business, what’s happening, is the utter transformation and re-organization of both 1) the medium of news reporting, and 2) the way people are re-assessing the value of news. Economically, this spells disaster. This is a situation where the demand of the product is low, while the cost of supplying the product is becoming increasingly unsustainable. When the bill-paying third party disperses, this model inevitably blows up.

Sorting out financing issues

First things first. Newspapers need to get rid of debt. Much of newspaper failures in recent months have to do with bad corporate management.  During the run-up to the property bubble, many holding companies piled on an excessive and ridiculous amount of debt, violating the holy tenement of sound strategy that dissuades reckless forays into areas unrelated to its core competency. Since when would newspaper businesses go into property speculation, other than for leasing and tax reasons?

Advertising

Secondly, there’s the issue of readership and advertising revenue. Anglo-American newspapers have traditionally relied more of its revenue from advertising. That’s an enviable position to be in when times are good. But when economy goes into the reverse, many European publishers now get the last laugh – they can still make money off of its subscription base. Perhaps it’s time to work out a strategy that spread the eggs around the baskets?

Where to go from here

One way to look at the problem is to figure out exactly what the publication wants to be. Clearly, treating the web as another distribution channel does not work.

The Norwegian paper Vendens Gang has found prosperity and fame by operating on a highly interactive level with its users. Digital arm of the paper operates separately from its print parent, with only 5% of duplicate content. This is smart. Because let’s see, do the same version of news need to be regurgitated multiple times through multiple channels? No. Understanding that, successful newspapers spun off their online presence as another facet of its brand.

The issue of integrity has so far barricaded industry elites from thinking outside the box. How does one introduce an alternative revenue model into a business that has for decades, relied on advertising that’s stayed out of its editorials? For obvious reasons, approaches like product placement and paid reporting would destroy reputations faster than you can say show-me-the-money.

European papers manage to somewhat circumvent this problem by making money through a number of sideline ventures. How about selling weight-loss club membership, or live-streaming wildly popular soccer matches? I have even heard suggestions that newspapers run online casinos. So there, Anglo-American capitalism, unleash your magic!

A select number of papers can perhaps leverage their brands by producing more complex and longer forms of reporting. That’s one of the reasons behind success of magazines such as Atlantic and Economist – which are still doing well despite bloodbath in the wider publishing industry. Instead of condensing its writing to appease digital readers with short attention spans, those magazines have carved out a section of their online real estate to blogs that inform, engage and entertain its readers through online media, while maintaining (and protecting) the quality (and length) of its its print content. With a healthy subscriber base and a lively online presence, those magazines can have the best of both worlds.

A multi-media future?

Perhaps the future of newspaper will phase out printed dailies, and re-segment the current publishing industry as we know it.  In its place, we will have fast-paced, up-to-date, and opinionated breaking news and analysis from a team of furious beat writers turned professional bloggers that compete with amateur bloggers. The digital platform will be supported by advertising and creative joint ventures with various relevant businesses.

Maybe this form of news/blogging will join force with the still successful cable network TV as well as the rapidly growing news aggregation services to provide on-demand, topic-specific, targeted news reporting, through both print and videos.  As leaders in the industry, why not buy up news aggregation services and nurture a community of its own? Why not publish more best-of/popular articles, and photography in books? On the other hand, we will get our in-depth, thoughtful analysis in the form of weekly and monthly magazines (spun-off from newspapers).

People still crave information. People crave quality information. But they are now getting it through different channels. And while this reorganization is taking place, the delicate matter of who is paying for what, is what we are having trouble with at the moment.

By working on more creative news delivery platforms, and exploring alternative revenue models, the future of journalism is brighter, and not dimmer. Delivery methods are varied: by joining force with aggregation services to serve highly targeted and relevant news to its readers; master the use of tags and match them with user preferences; publish topical magazines and books to save readers from news clippings, etc. As to alternative revenue models: try different things. Try what the Norwegians have done, try what the British have done. It’s hard to believe all that American entrepreneurial energy comes up empty when faced with a problem like newspapers.

Picture source: ~scribbleMe

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