It looks like it's experiment time – new publishing methods, new platforms for Valve, and more! Put on your lab coat and geek out to the must-know news for professional geeks, fans, and otaku!
First off, The New York Times wants to hire a dozen techs and a social media guru. Agree with some of their paywall/metered plans or not, this could be a great opportunity . . .
Career:
Good networking is all about followup. Very true. Good advice, especially for those of you working to build networking skills.
How job seekers are leveraging social media. Some useful ideas for you!
Economics:
Must Read: The Atlantic looks at the impact of the recession on culture and country in America. Lots of information here, so as soon as you finish this news report go read this.
The EU sounds like it's backing assistance for Greece during it's economic problems (though those seem largely self-induced). This is a big deal geekonomically, because if the EU can effectively survive the troubles of some of it's members, and build institutions to help it navigate future problems, it's economic stability – and unity – is assured. Coping with the problems of member nations effectively makes membership something more will want and few will want to leave. A failure on the other hand . . .
Consumers leveraging more credit – Which may, despite how it sounds, be a sign of more spending and possible growth. I'm not too sure here. A bit more from Econompic.
Media:
The folks behind Techmeme and Memorandum roll out a new media-news aggregator, Mediagazer. Looks indespensible to those of you working in media and related industries – you'll want to bookmark this one.
Movies:
Nope, Avatar didn't get best picture in the Oscars, though you did get Ben Stiller in Na'vi makeup. A roundup here at io9. Not as geeky a group of winners as we predicted (even if it was a hyper-geeky amount of nominees) – and I'm sure there will be many an argument over the choices. A fun roundup of interesting Oscar losers for consideration. Congrats to the winners – there were a lot of good films here.
Publishing:
Barnes and noble to bundle print AND e-books together? Pretty much buy-print-get-the-e-book-discounted deal, but it'll be interesting to see if it works for sales or provides any insights. Those of you in publishing, stay tuned. They also have some leadership changes that seem pro-digital.
Technology:
DataXu raises $11 million dollars. Never heard of them? They make ad bidding/optimization engines – and we all know there's money in online ads. Might be worth a resume if you're in Boston.
OK developers, here's what HTML 5 will mean to you. Heavy going if you're not at least mildly code/HTMl savvy, but informative. However the author predicts full adaption is five to ten years away . . .
Time Warner to sign deals with Verizon, AT&T? Apparently to use their heavy presence to help them provide better service (AT&T is apparently quite overloaded in New York). Another part of the Everything Wars goes to an . . . Everything peace? Could be good news for all involved, and may be an exaple of good cooperation. This also might be used as an example of the importance of net neutrality as well.
Sony to update PS3 for 3D – specifically games and movies. Interesting bit of news in the recent 3d craze. Not sure entirely what it means – but hey, it's Sony.
Video Games:
Game studio Cling files for Bankrupcy. They are known for Little King's Story and Hotel Dusk.
Ubisoft's controversial DRM fails due to DRM server downtime, leaving players angry. Not a good thing for the attempts at powerful DRM. Ubisoft is claiming the servers were the victim of an attack, which will likely be used as an example in the future of why these methods are too vulnerable to failure. So what's the future of this DRM?
Mochi Media develops new platform for game developers that makes it easier to make social – and monetizable – games. It's in private beta now, but you game devs will want to keep track of it – and it seems obvious Mochi has concerns about Facebook in mind.
Valve brings Steam distribution to the Mac. Mac gaming is an oft-ignored market, and this sounds like a savy move – Mac users tend to appreciate being remembered.
QUESTION: What's next for DRM efforts after the Ubisoft incident?
– Steven Savage