BIG IDEAS

Because she’s got the one and only one MySpace page that’s not ugly.

Check it HERE.

I’ve been told by a few of the very lucky people who got to attend last summer’s TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference in Tanzania (the first to be held in Africa) that it was a “mind-blowing” experience. That was the world they used almost universally. The more wlel-known TED Conference in the USA has become more like a much more interesting Davos. Cool people, great ideas. but also invitation-only and virtually impossible to get into. The Africa version is reportedly much more open in that regard, and as such is now open to global registration.

If you plan to be hanging out in Capetown this Fall, or want to be, this would be the reason to be there.

I could post a picture of Kwame Kilpatrick and stop there, but we should let the brother work it out and handle his business in privacy.

BUT, if privacy were a concern, why on Earth was a grown man texting another grown person?

As technologically savvy as I am, I must admit that I’ve used the text message function on my phone once and only once. That was at the Consumer Electronics Show when I was trying to organize a meeting, and the noise of the convention center made a phone call impossible. That time made sense. But that’s only once in the ten or so years that I’ve had a cellphone. It was just about the same time that I took myself off the IM list on AOL.

Am I missing something about texting? Seriously, e-mail is ineffective enough in getting across the real tone of what you’re trying to say, so of what value is even fewer words that are usually abbreviated? If you’re 15, 18, I’ll give you even up to 25 (and that’s a stretch) - hey, go and knock yourself out. You’ll get over it soon enough. But the mayor of a big city?

I’m not old and I’m everything but a technophobe, so there’s no generational bias here, but whatever happened to the notion of being quiet with your thoughts and holding them within you until an opportune time? Don’t sexy love messages have more power up close in person? I’m seriously of the mind that the greatest threat to future innovation is innovation itself. We’ll be so busy consuming media and messages on a million different platforms that we won’t have the time or free mental space to create things ourselves.

Okay, no more ranting.

But a word to the wise, unless you’re keeping up with your teenager/college student while she’s at school or on a date - make a phone call. On a landline.

Yeah, I said it…the Black Nerd is back. But is anybody paying attention? This means “you” marketers and image-makers. We’re not talking nerd minstrelry (ala Urkel) who can’t get a date to save their lives; rather the plugged in, “Blade Runner” loving, XBOX playing, afro-proud version 2.0. The fellas at Desedo have gone viral with their script on the black nerd and it’s worth a read. For my money BN’s are one more aspect of the black consumer that doesn’t get the play it should. When we talk about consumer segments at my agency it’s sub-sets like the BN that get us excited.

Where does web innovation end and invasion of privacy begin? Well, if you’re one of those folks who like to enjoy a morning cuppa au naturel you might want to stay away from the windows. Google Maps Street Views* continues to expand it’s reach, adding a number of new cities, including: Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and Tucson. For those not lucky enough to have been added yet – this thing is web maps on human growth hormone. 360 degree views at street level means casing a house has never been so easy! As the good folks at the Chicago Sun-Times have discovered you can now literally read the number on someone’s front door…or catch people unknowingly immortalized in the Googleverse. It’s not clear what the economic value of this widget is yet, except in a really (really) broad sense (i.e. I guess I’ll use maps more). Maybe something new and cool is the whole point.

Speaking of technology and Africa, if your image of the continent is still a wasteland of disease, corruption and lost opportunities, few things wake you up to the new African reality than one of our favorites, Timbuktu Chronicles, a business blog focusing on technology, products and new innovations in Africa, and written by New York entrepreneur Emeka Okafor. Not the Emeka Okafor of the Charlotte Bobcats, by the way.

There’s a vibrant technological culture brewing in many urban and rural areas, with terrain-specific innovations like solar-powered wi-fi, all-in-one stove/refrigerator/generators for rural townships, African-owned 5-star tourism opportunities, and most exciting, the rise of African food companies seriously beginning to package and market their wares internationally.

More Links:

Africa Ready for Business blog

Advances in cellphone technology have allowed African news agencies to work around the relatively slow rollout of broadband internet access across the continent. Rather than use internet connections, reporters in Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and other regions are using the Nokia N73 to film, write and send reports as part of the Voices of Africa project. Outside of the US, the N73 is the hot phone as opposed to the iPhone for reasons like this.

The initiative is sponsored by the African Interactive Media Foundation in cooperation with Africa News.

The project hopes to bring the same kind of community journalism to Africa that is considered key following the success (or lack thereof) of development projects, as well as bringing on the ground reports of political progress.

Watch Nana Kofi Acquah’s testimony

Via Timbuktu Chronicles

Of course when you have a massively uncolored convention of this sort, you’ve got to have a Black Panel. And at Comic-Con, it’s actually called The Black Panel. Hey, they make books where fists go POW! ,are you looking for subtlety?

This year’s Black Panel features new and veteran Black animation producers: Andy Horne, a producer of Fox’s 24, and an instrumental engine in producing the live action versions of Spawn and Blade. Sidney Clifton of Film Roman, Marv Wolfman (the creator of Blade), Denys Cowan from BET’s animation division and Korby Marks.

BET’s moves will be a running theme over the weekend when Reginald Hudlin, BET’s president of entertainment and Cowan 9again) announce and preview their upcoming lineup.

Other black stardom: Will Smith may or may not show for a preview of I am Legend, a remake of sorts of the underappreciated Omega Man, this time with Smith in the Charlton Heston role. Smith’s version is purportedly more faithful to the original book inspiration.

Rosario Dawson will no doubt be the centerpoint of fanboy central when she signs copies of Occult Crimes TaskForce, a comic book she created and produces.

Why is an of this important? Simple. Big bucks in the comic world, especially when you add licensing for movies, video games and merchandise. It’s huge global opportunity for Black entrepreneurs with a whole lot of imagination.

And we’ve been in the game more deeply than you might think. Check these links:

The Museum of Black Superheroes
Milestone Media

That would be “geek” in the most loving and respectful sense.

Walter Mosely, back when he took a shot at science fiction, decried the lack of black writers in the SF and fantasy genres. From his point of view, Black life seemed just “too real” for people to take their minds out of today and create new worlds within their imaginations.

Well, a trip to Comic-Con might change that notion. You won’t necessarily find teeming hordes of Black folk at Comic-Con, the international comics, film and hype fest that takes place in San Diego each year. But you will find quite a few African Americans (yes, mostly men) who are deeply – really deeply – into the world of superheroes, wizards, Japanimation and fanboydom, the state of being that lets you feel no shame in trying to pick up a woman at a bar while dressed as a Power Ranger.

But while Black geekdom always seems a little more cool than white geekdom, the brothers and sisters digging on anime still find it way too hard to get love in the mainstream Black world. Let’s face it, it’s kinda tough in a social situation where people brag about the house they just flipped and the BMW they drive to bring up your excitement about the new film version of Ironman, and how the difference between one Japanese cartoon style and another is whether or not the characters make out with with dragons. I mean, that’s tough in any situation.

But despite its more esoteric elements, the comic world these days can be much more real than one might imagine. The most popular books by far are those featuring characters with real life problems – depression, mental illness, unrequited love, disease — wrapped brilliantly into their everyday problems with spacebots destroying the planet.

And since MAD magazine and Robert Crumb paved the way, comics have long since stopped being kid stuff. There’s likely to be as many 40 year old brothers with dreads as ten year olds with skate gear.

You gotta love a comic geek. There’s some real genius in creating a new universe from scratch, if only on paper. Now if they could only get a date.

Next post: Black stuff at Comic-Con 2007