Geekonomics
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by Nicholas Aaron Khoo, Singapore
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X Media Lab's Pro Conference
Oct 3, 2007 08:24Here's the promised and long-awaited review of the Pro Conference put together by the great folks from X Media Labs! (So is it pronounced X or Cross?)
The notes I took were like at least 30 pages and everything's so good I simply have to put them down. So what can I do in one blog post?
There was great networking, an after-party at Ministry of Sound (MOS), great lab sessions (which I missed), and just great food and service throughout. I'll zoom in straight on some overviews and highlights of the many presentations/lectures which were intriguing for me.
Research associate professor Michael Naimark of the University of Southern California gave a really good analysis of research & development in terms of creativity vs. productivity. He also talked about how different artists and tech geeks are and what happens when you place them together in a lab. Interesting to me was the concept of "double bottom line" of financial ROI combined with social ROI, and he made a good distinction between grants, selling art, selling PR (eyeballs), selling IP, and selling external services. Good stuff, and one of my favorite sessions (apparently he gets funded by both Microsoft and Google for his research).
David Vronay of Microsoft Advanced Technology Center (Beijing) shared some really cool stuff coming out of the Microsoft labs like Photo Story 3 and Microsoft Surface. The main takeaway, though, was David's funny take on "why does Microsoft need innovation"? Since when, he said, in Microsoft's history has it ever made money from innovation? Most of the money made seems to be from stuff the company bought! Actually, he also did some good sharing on passion and persistence and how it rescued many wrongly condemned research from the grave.
I had a chance to catch up with David over beer @ the MOS after-party about life in Beijing and he shared how it's so hard to live in the US after such a cosy expat package in Beijing!
I loved the presentation by Dr Lev Manovich from the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology, author and professor of New Media Art and Theory. He must have had the most boring presentation presented in WORD document! But his study about creating a new language for new media is so relevant to me because with all this new technology and new media, we do not have a common language to describe the same things anymore! He also talked about "cultural analytics", new surfaces, locative media, and a lot more, but his study of a common language for new media was the main takeaway for me.
Jyri Salomaa of Nokia Research Centre (Beijing) talked about Nokia's view of the world and how Nokia sees business, user, and tech trends. It's interesting to know that mobile growth will now come from lower-income groups who earn less than US$2 a day and that some villagers in Africa are profiteering from sharing one mobile phone among entire villages! There're some things Jyri shared which I might want to do in a separate blog post,
Michael Yap, CEO Of Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), shared an impressive overview of MDA and our Government's strategy and approach toward the industry. I'm sure all the foreigners in the audience started to wonder if they should begin bringing their work to Singapore given such a well-thought-out development and support strategy by the Singapore Government (I did my own little survey during the networking sessions). It's good stuff, seriously, and worth blogging more about, especially on their IDM fund.
Prof Lin Hua from Tsing Hua University also shared interesting insights on "exploration into digital media art and forms of Chinese art". Although his English presentation skills weren't much to crow about, he shared interesting stuff like how Chinese art is different from Western art in terms of proportion, composition, lights and shadow, material, techniques, and how that is reflected in new digital media. I should be catching up with him in Beijing end of the month.
Ou Ning introduced us to his great show currently touring China called GetItLouder.com, featuring all sorts of art including new media. Of interest especially were the works of Second Life movie-maker China Tracy. You can find some of her work on YouTube. "Gosu" stuff.
Felix of STOMP did a great introduction to STOMP and how citizen journalism has made a significant impact on traditional news media. He cited many examples of how STOMP got the news earlier than everyone else, including photos of a Singaporean who was shot in Myanmar. STOMP has been described as a "perfect site with soul" by IFRA Cross Media Award 2007 and boasts 17 interactive and Web 2.0 features.
Suresh from Virgin Comics shared about the phenomenal success of Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation based out of Bangalore. It has been touted as the fastest-growing company in the world and boasts huge collaborations with Bollywood and Hollywood bigwigs. It's an interesting business model, and I might be tracking its development a bit.
Assia of Ministry of Sound TV (IPTV) did a great presentation explaining how MOS developed its IPTV business with consideration for target market, branding, marketing, ROI, partnership with MTV, etc., and literally walked us through an entire business development process with lessons learned. Great stuff from Assia!
There were some other presentations which I should talk about later, but one last mention--for National Library Board (NLB). It has introduced a great new service called EBIS which provides dedicated library resources to businesses as well as research, consultancy services, seminars, workshops, and I'm going to be talking about it a lot more because I think it's a great service to Singaporean businesses!
With agencies like MDA and NLB, it's easy to see how Singapore is the most condusive place in the world to do business!
Some relevant links:
Justin's Photoblog of the event
Bjorn's Live blog of the event
SGEnterprenuers Live blog of the event
X Media Lab
- Talkback
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About Nicholas Aaron Khoo
Nicknamed "Gadget Boy" by friends at age 18 because he used to scribble Grafitti on a PalmPilot faster than most would type, Nicholas Aaron Khoo is web developer turned technopreneur and Singapore tech blogger who also pretends to do strategic advisory for tech startups and 'un'Fortune 500s (when he's not pretending to be the gadget-loaded Batman). A digital nomad, his tech interests range from gadgets, games, tech trends, social media, security, and just about anything that runs on 1s and 0s. See his industry affiliations here.
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