Joi Ito's Web

Just in Tokyo released under CC license »

Mar 04, 2004 - 20:25 UTC »

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Justin Hall's guide to Tokyo, "Just in Tokyo" has just been released under a Creative Commons license. It's great for people who want to just dive into Tokyo.

Thanks Justin!

The sound of market share »

Joichi Ito

Mar 04, 2004 - 18:44 UTC »

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When I was traveling in Europe this trip, I heard the default ringtone of the Nokia 6600 everywhere I went and it was confusing because I always thought it was my phone. I mentioned this to someone and they said, "that's the sound of market share." ;-)

PS Does anyone know where / how to get a mp3 of the Nokia 6600 default ring tone?

Sacked by SMS »

Joichi Ito

Mar 04, 2004 - 18:32 UTC »

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Newsweek
"What a convenient world we live in - for the management, that is." A union member at a South Korean credit-card company that sacked 161 employees via mobile-phone text messages.

Carriers should be context providers »

Joichi Ito

Mar 04, 2004 - 18:04 UTC »

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As the thought of paying $3500 for a month of gprs sinks in and I think about the speech I'm going to give at MILIA to the carriers and content providers in the audience, I'm thinking more and more about how I think it might be a bad idea for the carriers to get into the content business.

I think that as broadband becomes a standard part of households, more and more people will fill up their iPods and mobile devices with all the content they need from their flat-fee low-cost pipe. Most content isn't THAT time sensitive. I don't see any reason to have to download content on-the-go over expensive gprs when devices can talk wifi or bluetooth and have enough storage to allow you to carry content around.

The main value that always-on provides is presence information, short messages and time sensitive stuff like news. I don't really see the need to have broadband to do that. I think the carriers should focus their energies on stuff like identity, payment systems, IM and presence and leave the content business up to people who know how to move large volumes of bits around at low cost. The problem with most telephone companies is that they have spent their whole lives worrying about quality of service, but moving large volumes of data around is not about quality of service. You can afford to drop a few bits if they're not time sensitive and it's a completely different game than the circuit business.

I realize that 3G networks are supposed to provide us with a cheaper way to provide mobile broadband, but I just can't imagine the cost of all of the roaming deals, the metering systems and the BigCo overhead ever being able to compete with the simplicity of the Internet and wifi. I am not convinced that there is a market for broadband mobile content.

This may seem obvious to Internet folks, but I think the mobile operators are seriously considering broadband content over mobile phone networks as "the next big thing".

Off to Tokyo »

Joichi Ito

Mar 03, 2004 - 13:40 UTC »

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See ya later Zell am See and thanks for all the wienerschnitzel. Sorry about the sparse blogging the last few days.

Dan Gillmor Tokyo blogger gathering »

Joichi Ito

Mar 02, 2004 - 03:13 UTC »

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Dan Gillmor's organizing a Tokyo bloggers meeting. Unfortunately, I will be in Austria, but Tokyo bloggers, please sign up and show him a good time.

Dan Gillmor
Tokyo Blogger Gathering?

Arrived in Tokyo last night for a few days. Considering a blogger gathering on Tuesday evening, probably in Akasaka. Shoot me an e-mail, or post a comment below, if you think you can make it.

Ethan and Ben »

Joichi Ito

Feb 29, 2004 - 12:58 UTC »

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ethanben
That' me holding Ben

Dan Gillmor
Ethan and Ben

At the Emerging Tech conference, more than one person noted the striking resemblance between Ethan Zuckerman and Benjamin Franklin. Coincidence? You decide.

A lot of the people working on emergent democracy look founding fatherish. I wonder if you start looking like a founding father after you start pondering or whether looking in the mirror each day causes you to go down the "pondering about democracy" path. Where does that put me?

Mustached Japanese soldiers in Iraq and Oshin »

Joichi Ito

Feb 28, 2004 - 23:38 UTC »

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Interesting article by Mike Rogers describing the influence of the popular Japanese TV drama Oshin and mustached Japanese soldiers in Iraq. Also some interesting perspectives about the ability to identify with suffering and Japan's relationship with the Middle East.

Alright, think about Oshin. Think about that story and that kind of suffering. I don't think Americans can relate to that. Of course Japanese can.
And, get this: Oshin has been broadcast in most Middle Eastern countries for at least the last 12 years. Iran? Sure. According to the Nikkei Shimbun News Oshin scores a remarkable 82% viewer rating; Iraq? Of course 76.7%; Thailand? 81.6%; China!? I thought most Chinese people hate Japanese because of the war! Yeah, well, maybe so, but they love Oshin! 75.9% viewer rating in China; Poland? 70%.

Gee, I wonder if the people in the Middle East can relate to this kind of starvation, suffering, and pain? Of course they can.

Which brings me to the next part of this puzzle: The Japanese military has ordered all troops in Iraq to grow beards and moustaches. Weird, eh? Well, no... Smart. Besides understanding the ways of society in the Middle-East, Oshin's husband has a moustache. Don't believe me? Check this out:

* Japanese army opts for new form of camouflage

Via Bob

A text message from Iran »

Joichi Ito

Feb 28, 2004 - 23:11 UTC »

Categories:

Newsweek
"We will not take part in the funeral for freedom."
A cell-phone text message circulated in Iran to protest against a clampdown on reformists in last weeks of parliamentary elections.

Avantouinti! »

Joichi Ito

Feb 28, 2004 - 21:30 UTC »

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I woke up this morning with a headache and decided I needed to get my circulation going. I told Marko and he suggested avantouinti. Hmmm...

Marko took me to the Finnish Sauna Society sauna where we hung out in traditional smoke saunas for awhile with a bunch of naked Finnish men. The saunas were covered in soot from the way they prepare them using real wood fires. The experience was about as similar to saunas back home as eating real sushi in Japan is similar to eating California supermarket sushi.

After we were thoroughly heated, we sauntered out to a hole in the ocean and jumped in. Avantouinti! ("ice hole swimming" in Finnish) For a moment I lost touch with my limbs and wasn't sure I'd make it out, but I survived. Then, we did a rinse, heat, repeat. The second time around was much easier and thoroughly enjoyable and it did indeed get my circulation going.

One funny thing I noticed was that every time something strange was about to happen, Marko would say, "this is VERY traditional." I remember when I was taking Marko around Japan, that's what I would say to him when I was about to feed him something pretty weird.

Anyway, Marko may have been trying to get me back for feeding him snapping turtle in Kyoto, but I enjoyed my avantouinti very much and recommend it to anyone who gets a chance.

Joi Ito's Web

Joi Ito's conversation with the living web.

Just in Tokyo released under CC license »

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The sound of market share »

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Sacked by SMS »

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Carriers should be context providers »

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Off to Tokyo »

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Dan Gillmor Tokyo blogger gathering »

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Ethan and Ben »

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Mustached Japanese soldiers in Iraq and Oshin »

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A text message from Iran »

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Avantouinti! »

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