Who's afraid of 2009?

There's a lot of doom and gloom among the financial soothsayers. Purpose-less business are being put to the sword.
My (Huntingdon, Cambs) High St Woolworths went last week. Which as far as I can think means the only place left where you could buy a cd on Huntingdon High St is WHSmiths.

And you have to fear for the likes of Smiths in the current climate. Like woolies, it lacks a purpose. For me its become a Christmas shop. I visit it once a year.
If smiths stopped selling CDs there would be no where left on the High St to sell them.

And this illustrates the reality and illusion of fear of 2009: Music is being enjoyed as much, if not more than ever. It isn't music that's at risk in a recession, it is a business model - one which packages up, stacks on racks and locks out co-creation.

The illusion is that all is at risk. The reality is that business models which don't fit the networked world are at risk. (image courtesy)

I spent New Years Eve playing Guitar Hero with friends - a glimpse of how new value gets created in a supply web (the artists get paid for their music, and the coders and game designers and interaction designers etc get paid for their contributions.

£300 of console. £175 of game and equipment. Wild guess: more than you've spent on CDs or downloads in the last year?

And way more fun.

People playing together co-creating an outcome they want. It's what multi-player gaming has always been about.

It's what the business models that need have no fear of 2009 must also be about.

Those that have purpose, those that engage with the power of the network; 2009 - and the future - welcomes them.

Those that persist with the broadcast mindset, with command and control, with centre over edge, those do face a tough 2009 - and no future.

As Christmas 2008 fades into memory, like Scrooge, while there's life, there's still time to change. May the ghosts of Woolworths and Zavvi do the trick.

Best not wait for the ghost of Christmas-Yet-To-Come to show your business to its grave.

Good and bad at spy games

Love this: GCHQ (Britain's spy HQ) are recruiting their next James Bonds through an in-game advertising campaign.

Not sure from the report whether you actually have to prove yourself to be a half-decent virtual spy before being offered details about a real world role you could fulfil.

That would make sense to me - show your mettle at problem solving, negotiation, participation (ie get a Hi Score) and then you get - as a pretty special reward - an invite to a spy recruitment day at GCHQ. Now that would be cool...

Wii-lly annoying

The Nintendo Wii has now officially launched in Europe, with parents and consumers all lining up to get their hands on the new console as the clocks chimed midnight in the UK. Certainly in the nearest supermarket to the office, there was a queue formed by 6.30pm, and it wasn't just stereotypical geeks lining up for a five hour wait.

But the console is also getting a cult comedy following. Besides the usual hardware problems which affect the launch of any new product, the innovative control system also has one flaw. The fact that people have managed to destroy their TV's, windows, and far more as the Wiimote flies free from their hand. Several reports point the blame at the wrist strap snapping, and the President of Nintendo admits they are looking into it.

It's an amusing reminder that users will not only find flaws with your products, but can now post, blog, or set up a dedicated website within minutes to publicise their problems.

See more Wiimotes making a bid for freedom

As an avid gamer, I'll be keeping up with the latest developments and getting a Wii bit of feedback from some early adopters at The Way of the Web.

UPDATE: Nintendo issue recall, December 15: HERE

First glimpse of a new economy...

Online gamers have long talked about 'gold farms', but they have now been captured on film for the first time. In basic terms, they are sweatshops dedicated to procuring exclusive items from a variety of online games, which are then sold on auction sites and forums for real cash.
MTV was actually the first place to air the clip from a new documentary film which looks into the phenomenon.
You can watch the film here: http://chinesegoldfarmers.com/Index.html.

It's certainly evidence of a change in the global economy, with the young generation of blue collar workers now beginning to spend their working lives in repetitive virtual employment, rather than simply walking to the nearest factory every morning to work on a real-world production line.

What CMS?

A certain Mr J Adams gave me the tip off about a useful site. Assuming you're ever in a position to choose your CMS, rather than it being handed to you, it's worth taking a look at:

http://www.cmsmatrix.org/


You can compare and contrast most available offerings, although you may need to find a grown-up web nerd to explain the more complex terminology. Then again it's cheaper than hiring in experts to tell you what you could find out for yourself


And if you're one of the two people in the entire world who might care about the future of online competitive gaming..(told you), there's a new rambling missive on http://thewayoftheweb.blogspot.com.