News and Analysis

Musings on Cons and Maker

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I’ve had an active two weeks. You may not have been able to tell from my posts, which are conveniently pre-queued, but I’ve done two conventions and then some.

One was Maker Faire. Maker Faire is basically “Geek DIY”, where you can hear music played on Tesla Coils, see Adam Savage (no relation that you can prove), buy hand-made soap, and see what happens when people build a dragon out of truck parts (answer: Gwar’s idea of a minivan).  Also there was at least one Naruto.

One was Anime North. Anime North is the insanely huge anime-and-more convention in Toronto I’ve been doing for ages. It looks to have broken 20K attendees this year, covers a wide variety of ground, and has a huge amount of artists, cosplayers, and more.  There were more Narutos, if you’re keeping track.

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Is It Time For Apple To Buy Facebook?

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This article pretty much blew my mind.  Go read it.

Of course when you consider it, it makes sense.  Facebook is sort of flailing left and right but has a userbase.  Apple knows they’re not good at social networks.  Facebook has talked Phones, Apple made THE Phone.  Facebook does a lot of integration – so does Apple.  The article also notes Apple could turn this around to be part of the App store.

Really, just read the article.

Anyway, what’s mind-blowing about it is twofold:

First, that it’s entirely possible.  The stock is down, it seems potentially win-win, and seriously, Apple is awash in cash.

Second, is that we’re even talking about this.  It’s a good reminder of how much money is sloshing around tech right now, and a flashback to the whole MSNBC experience of times past.  Just imagine if something like this does happen, it could easily be a trend.

Do I see it happening?  I’d put the odds at less than 50%.  But I see it as possible.

For us geekonomists, this is fascinating to be sure.  But there’s another career takeaway here: we’re playing among behemoths.  Some of them can very radically alter the course of technology and the economy.  It may or may not be a good idea, or beneficial, or wise, but it can happen.  In this case I see the sense to it, but you never know.

– Steven Savage
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

Facebook Phone? Time To Hang Up

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Yeah, if you’ve been kicking around there’s intermittent rumors about Facebook adding a phone to their repeitoire.  This probably has some of us thrilled and thinking of the career options, but let me say it’s not making a lot of sense geekonomically.

  • First, Facebook is dealing with the recent IPO debacle.  Any new radical move isn’t going to instill confidence and may not instill curiosity.
  • A move to hardware beyond a partnership is going to be insanely hard.  The competitors are established, the market’s margins aren’t the greatest, and Facebook has rep issues.  Are they honestly going to compete with, say, Apple?
  • What more can they offer that others can’t?  Just integration with their services.  They can offer that many ways.
  • They’d have to gear up to do it, and that requires burning money, making alliances, and hiring people who think this is going to work.  I’m not so sure on a lot of this.

If Facebook does indeed go for the phone, I’d be cautious in many ways.  I see a lot of strikes against them in doing this, so if that recruiter comes a-calling, be skeptical.

Oh, and imagine what happens if they try this and fail . . .

– Steven Savage