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Thank you!
……………………….
Okay, okay, I know the drumrolls are only in my head, but this is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: launch a podcast series in which I talk with and learn from people here in Japan who work, live and play in tech and new media.

Here’s the long description:

The Modern Media Japan Podcast is a bi-weekly discussion with Japan-based folks about: technology, its influence on society, global commerce, personal, social, and international change, information proliferation and dissemination, ubiquitous computing, the mobile revolution, gaming, Lifehacks, how musicians, artists, designers, filmmakers are using technology to create their work and promote it, and how businesses, schools and other orgs are doing the same窶ｦ

Our panelists for this first show are:

Tsuyoshi Niwa who is a soprano sax player, played and lived around the world and worked in IT for many years.

Joseph Miller, a principal in Tokyo-based web design firm The Plant, bilingual social network space Asoboo, and nifty Web2.0 job board Joblet.
Joseph also has this handy Japanese Internet Techology in English link primer

and our guest, Akky Akimoto, the A-list blogger who created the essential Asiajin resource for non-Japanese readers/speakers, who are interested in Japan’s tech world. As their About page says:

Asiajin is a weblog focused on Asian startup companies, websites, and technology communities. Our mission is to provide timely articles about Asian Internet in English.

I was going to put up people’s photos and stuff, but on second thought, I think it’ll be better to ask our listeners to go check out each person’s site, and learn more about them and what they’re up to. I so appreciate everyone’s time on this!

I’ll just say that Skype is a challenging recording medium (I’m so used to actual studios), but it’ll get better as we go along. Thanks for your patience.

Terri

Show Notes for MMJPodcast#1:

Part 1
We talk about the Microsoft/Yahoo ‘almost-deal’; why Yahoo.co.jp is so much more popular in Japan, plus Google Japan’s interface and whether it works or not.

Part 2
Japanese video portal Nico Nico Douga (read more about their recent news, in English, here on Asiajin) and their business model - and how well it’s working (or not quite yet); My Space Karaoke is not available in the land karaoke (which, btw, is pronounced ‘kahrah-okay’ not ‘karee-okee’…grrrr:-) was born; Joblet and being bilingual in Japan; Twitter Japan launched with ads, and does it matter.

Part 3
The iPhone in Japan. Pros and Cons.

Here’s what Kent asked to help prepare for an upcoming presentation to major corporate ‘C’ level folks:

…what would you say (or do) to this audience that would hasten the future of small media? What big idea would you posit to get these very high level people to open up their checkbooks and start spending more in this space? How do you convince them it窶冱 not a fad?…

I think it’s awesome that Kent opened up the conversation: and the responses are all worth reading and thinking about.

Here’s my response:

that the rules of communication have changed: there are so many messages that even the most wired people have to walk away - when people walk away, don’t you want them to be carrying ‘you’ in their minds? don’t you want them to feel related? don’t you want them to sense that your product/service/message is a missing part of their life? don’t you want them to trust you?

thanks for the post and the comments - all great food for thought.

How would you answer the question? Please do head on over to Kent’s post and let him know.

and actually, the existence of this whole exchange is a symbol of the way things have changed. What I think remains the same is that it all starts with a story…