Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

myGengo interviewed on Pokya!

Joseph Tame graciously interviewed Rob and I for a podcast piece on myGengo. I think this is my first podcast interview, evah. We had a lot of fun – those of you who have visited Co-lab know about the nice roof-top terrace, which is where we did the recording.
We discuss everything from doing [...]

myGengo Talk : Resources on Translation

One of our very talented Interns has been hard at work on both myGengo Talk and the myGengo Blog – a repository of resources for translators, and news summaries on the translation industry, respectively. There is so much valuable and interesting information for polyglots and multicultural personalities alike, it’s fascinating. Research on many [...]

Crisis of Nihilism

In December of 2005 I had the opportunity to invite Umair Haque – who was then running a consultancy called Bubble Generation – to Sony during an internal week-long technology and strategy sharing event. I had been following Umair via his blog and felt Sony should hear what he was saying. Thanks to a skeptical [...]

Boss Diversity

From “‘Dilbert’ on how to save your career”, an interview with Scott Adams:

Q. I know you don’t like to give advice, but do you have any general thoughts on how to cope with hard times?
A. The best plan now is to have as many bosses as possible. I call it boss diversity. If you work [...]

A List Apart Survey

ee日本コミュニティーサイト誕生！

皆さん、お疲れさまです！いよいよ米国で普及しているExpressionEngine (エクスプレッションエンジン、以下「ee」)のコミュニティーサイトがオープンしました。去年から使いまくっているこのブログとCMSのプラットフォーム、大変お勧めします^^ 次世代のウェブサービス開発や、コンテンツの多いウェブサイトの管理に困っているエンジニアーに向いているプラットフォームだけではありません！コンテンツ作者や、デザインを中心にしている方の人生も楽にしてくれます（笑）。
今回のデザインは Moresided からです。システム設計は（株）マジです、そしてブログやサポートしてくださっているのはもぎゃさん。
まだまだオープンしたばかりですので、これからユーザーガイドやウィキも追加していくつもりです。是非力を合わせてeeを使いこなして行きましょう！

Eric Alterman: “The death and life of the American newspaper”

The always enriching New Yorker has a fascinating article in the March 31st issue by Eric Alterman, titled “Out Of Print: The death and life of the American newspaper“. While covering the trials and tribulations of the current newspaper / print-media industry and “that sucking sound” caused by the Internet, one snippet stood out because [...]

Umair at HBS

Back in 2005 I invited Umair Haque to come speak at an employee-only 3-day lecture series in Sony. He gave a wonderful presentation about edge-economies, peer production, and how Sony could – if it had the guts – be an industry leader in democratizing innovation. Hack-able Aibos and an open-API for Cybershots were just the [...]

*sigh*, the music industry

A twit (I forget which one I have so many; distractions!) pointed me towards the announcement of Sell-A-Band receiving a new round of funding.
Since one of my current projects is 音レボ (Otorevo), which despite the struggles is growing organically, I eagerly read through the comments. Two in particular that made me think:
commenter 1:

the problem with [...]

Music Industry First – Major Label releases tracks under Creative Commons!

My current project, Otorevo, which I’ve written about before here, here, and here, has decided to release the winning band’s vocal tracks under a Creative Commons license. You can read the Japanese introduction and download the tracks. We’re running a remix contest for the next 6 weeks, so be sure to submit your work!
Supposedly this [...]