Stardoll goes interactive fiction, Bettie White is in her own comic, and Backup tech company Backupify may want you! Welcome back from the weekend, let's check out the must-know geek career news!
Economics/Geekonomics:
Fan To Pro Crush Object Richard Florida goes mapilicious once again and maps troubled housing markets. Quick summary: Parts of California and Florida have seriously troubled housing markets.
Angel Investor Joe Caruso says startups need to focus on customers. Words of wisdom.
Geek Law:
Certification policy in South Korea may be onerous for indie game developers.
Anime/Manga:
Animation studio Office Ao filed for Bankruptcy. Apparently a lot of small and medium animation companies reported revenue drops.
Comics:
Bettie White gets her own comic – a biography. Actually an interesting idea, even if it's riding a kind of odd fad/meme (not that she's not one funny lady). The publisher's founder feels this may bring more people into comics.
Stan Lee slips on a guest appearance, it looks like there is a Doctor Strange film in the works.
Multimedia:
There's going to be a Doctor Who Wii Game. It will have a Sonic Screwdriver Wiimote. This is the kind of media synergy that brings tears of joy to my eyes. The DS will get it's own stylus.
Random House teams up with Stardoll for online story project – Including voting on direction of story, exploring the setting, competitions, and more. All I can say is AWESOME, and that a lot of other companies out there should pay attention to this as I can see it being big (or if it's not, it's a good learning experience).
Technology:
Backupify specializes in social media storage and backup technology, raised $4.5 million dollars, and is in a hiring spree. Go for it.
News in Taiwan told via animation? There's an interesting business model. Presented as a curiosity (reminds me of the manga news, actually).
Video:
Here comes Google TV, though not enough detail for my taste on the service. What does interest me is their work with Logitech and Sony, which suggests some solid hardware, and some interesting future partnership possibilites (Google TV on PS3/PS4?).
Video Games:
If you're a gamer, you know Gearbox has ressurected Duke Nukem. There will also be a demo. Between showing the game at PAX, and this, Gearbox is doing some savvy marketing – building trust with the target audience. As long as Gearbox can make a good game with some stand-out elements they're golden – and on top of this and Borderlands, well-positioned.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Random House/Stardoll teamup – experiment, half-baked, or wave of the future?
– Steven Savage