The Next Potterdammerung: Harry Potter’s World is Back

And apparently J.K. Rowling is writing a script for the film.  It’s going to be based on the textbook “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them,” which isn’t a half-bad idea, though I do sense a bit of dead-horse kinetic application here.  I also sense that the title is very appealing in the wake of “How To Train Your Dragon.”

So I guess Harry Potter’s world is back . . .

Interesting to see where this goes – because it may also give ideas to other franchises or push them out of the way.

– Steven Savage

Link Roundup 9/11/2013

Career:

Job seekers recruited via Social Media more likely to be hired. Not surprising really, but worth thinking about.

Culture:

Steve found this about Meritocracy – this blog post notes it came from a satire, before going on to eviscerate sexism/classism/racism in text.  Remember that next time someone says they’re in a Meritocracy.

Publishing:

Lulu is adding new features – They include new templates and, according to their press release, “four new solutions for publishing e-books, each allowing authors to make their books available quickly and easily on tablets and e-readers through the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble’s NOOK Bookstore and the Lulu Marketplace.” Notice that Amazon is conspicuous by its absence.

Try and follow this.  Tumblr’s book club picks a novel about a fangirl as it’s first book club pick.  First, congrats to the author on promoting such a subject and I’ve heard some good things on it, secondly Tumblr has a book club.  Wow.

Technology:

Tivo moves to the cloud.  Sure it’s experimental, but they’ve got some foundation, lead, and alliances – and a need to save themselves from market changes.  Probably worth watching and there might be some good opportunities – though since everyone else is doing the streaming/TV/cloud thing who knows . . .

Video Games:

Ouya’s “Free The Games” is a bit of a debacle.  More here.  I’ll say again I treated the Ouya as more a milestone or experiment.  But this is kind of sad.

– Steven Savage

The Bronies Have The Investor Report

The bronies over at Equestria Daily got info on Hasbro’s Investor Report, and wow.  It roughly boils down to Ponies, Transformers, and money with some stunning brand growth, and apparently success for the fandom-controversial Equestria Girls.

Kinda makes me want to see other reports on geeky things.

Also remember, we are having a serious discussion of ponies, transformers, and investor reports.

– Steven Savage