The Idea Feed Notes, links and ideas on the creative economy
Technology
Huff and Puff on Free Culture
There’s a neat debate going on at Huffington Post following and article by Bevin Carnes on the real cost of Free Culture. The article itself is short and doesn’t offer anything in terms of real solutions to a real problem but the comment chain that follows is an interesting read for anyone looking for a [...]
The end of the age of free | Media | The Observer
As a big promoter of the creative economy I think it is important to understand the full gamut of implications that shifting to a creative industry based economy would imply. In this Guardian article which discusses the potential end of the free internet there is a nugget on how the internet, and the creative economy, [...]
International Conference Discusses IP
Here is a conference to keep an eye on. It will be looking at new models of IP protection that establish simple usage rights for creatives. The best thing currently going that lets creative workers determine their own usage rights is the Creative Commons. Until we have simple terms and usage the creative industries will [...]
MPAA promoting creative industry changes
There are two issues in this Variety Magazine article that need to be urgently addressed in the United States. At a meeting yesterday in Washington DC, Dan Glickman, head of the MPAA, spoke to the need for innovative creative industry policy in the United States. “The American film and television industry is a national community [...]
Michigan is experiencing growing pains
Michigan is in the throes of a downward economic spiral. Not a day goes by without a reminder of the poor state of the auto industry. But there is hope. A few visionary souls saw the potential of the creative industries and launched a tax incentive support structure to lure the film industry to shores [...]
Developing online creative communities
Harnessing the power of social networking to enhance the development of the creative industries is one of the major conclusions from my report on the Creative Revolution, How British Creative Industry Policy is Chaninging the World. The sooner creative networks begin to apply technology to their financial, business and support services models the sooner and [...]
The Creative, Digital Economy is on the Move
The UK is announcing plans to move their economy more towards the creative and digital sectors. This isn’t a surprise announcement, its a policy statement that has been a long time in the making. My report “Creative Revolution,” makes it clear how the British are approaching the development of a new sector and preparing for [...]
Copyright on Pirate’s Bay
The future and success of the creative economy largely depends on our common ability to protect author’s legal rights pertaining to their work. Copyright has traditionally been the legal territory where an artist found protection and monetary gain from their creative expressions. Copyright law has evolved since its inception to accept and accommodate new forms [...]
Preparing for a Different Kind of Economy
The Prime Minister of England, Gordon Brown, is banking on the green revolution to help reinvent England. I agree with most of the direction he hopes to take the country. He also recognises the importance of the creative industries in rebuilding the economy. My hope is that he will also put a similar amount of [...]
Sneak Peak Into the Apple App Store Business Model
It seems like everyone is talking about the Iphone these days. It is a neat trans media device. I use mine much more as a hand held laptop than a phone. I like the wifi connection, the camera and the ever growing app store. I downloaded the mason’s level just the other day. I’m not [...]
An Industry is Born
I found two versions of this article online with slightly different twists. On Deutschland Online the text relates to the importance of developing the creative industries to the German economy. It states, “the cultural and creative economy is regarded as a growth factor and an engine of innovation. Germany is at the forefront of this [...]
Build Community as You Would Host a House Party
I can’t seem to get off A List Apart this morning. I found another article worth posting on social networking. After listing several best practices gained from developing the Flickr community, author George Oates states simply, “treat your place like your home: welcome people, fix them a drink and make them feel comfortable. Before you [...]
Social Networking Coaching
Here’s a great article on coaching a social network from A List Apart. I obviously read this from the application of these technologies towards creative communities but I think these rules apply to all communities. They say “in the end, we’re talking about fundamental social principles of mutual respect, open communication, and effective incentives.“ Very [...]
Sony Unveils Second Edition of Reader Digital Book
…Eight levels of gray scale provide for crisp and clear text, images, and graphics. “For people on the go, this device is compelling because it allows them to carry a wide variety of reading materials whether they are on a cross-country flight, in a doctor’s office waiting room, or at a beach resort,” said Steve [...]
On Demand Books
… On Demand Books LLC. is planning to become the first company to globally deploy a low cost, totally automatic book machine (The Espresso Book Machine), which can produce 15 – 20 library quality paperback books per hour, in any language, in quantities of one, without any human intervention. This technology and process will produce [...]
The Future of the Workplace: No Office, Headquarters in Cyberspace
… “These days we do so much by teleconference it really doesn’t matter where you are,” Flavin said. Like 42 percent of IBM’s 350,000 employees, Flavin rarely comes in to an IBM office. “We don’t care where and how you get your work done,” said Dan Pelino, general manager of IBM’s global health care and [...]
Good Copy Bad Copy
A very cool online documentary about copyright and our ever expanding remix culture, directed by Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke. If you are interested in the creative industries and watch one online movie this year this better be it. It features interviews with Danger Mouse, Girl Talk, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Lawrence Lessig, and many [...]
A new way of selling digital downloads
DiscRevolt is a way to sell digital downloads at the merch table via band-specific download cards. You upload songs to our site and design artwork for a plastic card. We print the cards with a special access code on the back, and you sell them to fans at live shows. Fans enter that access code [...]
The revolution is coming
By SAM ROBERTS With the number of nonwhite Americans above 100 million for the first time, demographers are identifying an emerging racial generation gap. That development may portend a nation split between an older, whiter electorate and a younger overall population that is more Hispanic, black and Asian and that presses sometimes competing agendas and [...]
Design for the other 90%
“What’s so exciting about this show is that it marks a sea change,†says Cynthia E. Smith, who curated the exhibition, which opens May 4. “It surveys the trend toward more socially responsible design. A whole range of nonprofits and for-profits, community groups and international organizations are getting involved to create products that can lift [...]
Top of the charts from a home studio
“Acoustic guitarist Kate Walsh has knocked Take That off the top of the iTunes download album chart – but does not even own an iPod. The 23-year-old guitarist recorded her album in a friend’s bedroom and named it Tim’s House in his honour. The homemade album has proved a unexpected hit with iPod fans who [...]
Rock the net for your Music listening rights
…”Sensing a revolution in the way Internet traffic is managed, rock musicians find themselves in the unusual position of defending the status quo. Independent, lesser-known musicians and smaller record labels launched a nationwide campaign Tuesday to support the idea that all Internet traffic should be treated equally, which they said is under fire from providers [...]
US CD sales plummet as people turn to digital music downloads
…”Consumers are sending a message to artists that “while you may have put a lot of thought into the sequence of the album, I only like these three songs,” said digital music industry analyst Michael McGuire of Gartner Research. “It comes back to consumers being in complete control of their media experience, and that is [...]
IHT – Charles Saatchi draws Chinese artists to his gallery’s retooled Web site
…”Saatchi is fixated these days on Chinese artists, the hottest sector of the global market. And when he saw these shyly tentative Web postings, something clicked. “There are so many artists in China who want their work to be seen,” he said in a recent interview at his London home, pausing every now and then [...]
A Creative Industry Primer
The creative economy movement started in the UK in 1994. Follow the links to understand how cultural policy, became creative industry policy and how its now changing the world.