musings of a social architect

Cultural Differences between Japanese and American families

I just finished up an exhausting but fascinating 2-day meeting with a team from Square Enix, a major Japanese game creator. Square is best known for the Final Fantasy series and for Kingdom Hearts, a successful collaboration with Disney. Square is now applying their considerable creative talents to the mobile space, and I'm helping them create new games & applications for cellphones.

During our meetings, we discussed the cultural differences between Japanese and American families, and it got me thinking about the communication style of many American families that I know (inlcluding my own) where both parents work. The husband and wife will typically talk several times a day, often exchanging rather mundane schedule or errand-based info (e.g. 'Honey, can you please pickup some milk and lettuce on your way home?'). Whereas in Japan, the husband and wife often lead more distinctly parallel lives, and their roles are more clearly defined.

In general, I relish the complexity and richness of my working-Mom lifestyle... but sometimes, I yearn for a simpler life, where the roles are more clearly defined, and I don't need to spend so much time and overhead scheduling, juggling, and communicating with my spouse. Then I shake myself out of my reverie and remember my Mom's experience being an under-appreciated housewife with kids, and her yearning to use her intelligence towards something other than figuring out what to cook for dinner. And I remember why I went to graduate school, and chose a man to marry who supported my career aspirations.

There's no 'corrent way' to live your life - it's all about striking a balance that feels right for you, and playing the hand you're dealt as best you can. I'm tremendously grateful to have interesting work, great clients, and a loving family. It just gets so darn *complicated* sometimes...

I-gizmo Hosts Weekly Photo Contest

Earlier this year, I came up with an idea for a 'community app' for mobile -- a daily (or weekly) cameraphone photo contest, with the winning entries voted on by users. I've always loved user-created entertainment (hence my Karaoke obsession) and cameraphones seem like a great device for this kind of app. After sketching out a design spec and initial business plan, I concluded that it's too early to develop this as a for-profit service. So I put the idea aside and moved on.

Lo and behold - here's a cool site called i-gizmo that's doing almost exactly what I had in mind, but for the Web (rather than for mobile). Each week, they announce a 'theme' and then people submit photos and vote on each other's work. I've been enjoying the contests tremendously - in a similar way to how I enjoy a night out at a karaoke bar.

I STILL think it'd be really great if this type of service could be delivered on my mobile phone. It's too early, but someday... someday...

Looking for mobile developers

I'm working on several great projects right now, including a female-centric mobile game for Digital Chocolate. I can't say much publically yet, but the game is VERY cool - I can't wait to tell you all about it once it's launched! Happily, this will happen in a few *months* (as opposed to *years* in the MMP world from whence I came). Gotta love those short, iterative development cycles :-)

BTW -- Digital Chocolate is looking for top-notch J2ME engineers -- so if you know of any good candidates, please send 'em my way. Here are the details.

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J2ME Engineer: Do you have what it takes to be a chocoholic?

We are looking for dedicated and passionate individuals to contribute to the development of Digital Chocolate J2ME applications. Responsibilities will include:

* Develop and maintain J2ME application.
* Port existing BREW application to J2ME.
* Contribute to our J2ME toolkit

Minimum Qualifications: 
* 3+ years of Java software engineering experience.
* At least 2+ year working experience with J2ME and ant.
* Working knowledge of mobile technologies (WAP, SMS, MMS) and web technologies (XML, SOAP, web services).
* Expertise building and deploying C/C++ and J2ME applications on mobile handsets or wireless devices.
* Knowledgable about handsets differences.
* Strong communication skills
* BS or MS degree in CS
* Previous startup experience preferred
* Local to Bay Area only

Digital Chocolate develops and publishes innovative and creative wireless games and applications. Founded by Trip Hawkins and backed by Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Ventures, Digital Chocolate is a home for people with passion and talent. We welcome applicants who wish to live in the heart of the much anticipated wireless revolution, working in an environment that fosters creativity and learning among staff, and quality and craftsmanship as the measures of success in our execution.

Bob Metcalfe discovers wireless!

According to this article in Business 2.0, Bob Metcalfe (inventor of EtherNet) - who's now a VC -- is pouring all of his time and energy into exploring the wireless space. As the article says, "...if there's one other thing history can teach us, it's that it makes sense to listen to Metcalfe."

Online soap opera returns from the dead

Cnet reports that the long-dormant online soap opera 'The Spot' is once again alive and is being delivered via the Internet and mobile phones. From what I can tell, the only revenue model in place are the mobile charges.

Back from our Camping Trip

We're back from our camping trip - Gabe had a blast, playing in the wilderness and making up elaborate spy games with the other kids. We especially enjoyed sitting down to communal dinners with the whole gang -- we were all dusty and tired, but so happy (that's Gabe in the lower left of the picture, in the blue shirt, making the silly face)

The highlight for me was staying up late after the kids were asleep, drinking wine and chatting with the other Moms. Reminds me of late-night dorm conversations, only with MUCH better stories, based on years of living and learning and watching your naive youthful hopes and dreams turn into the mixed-bag reality of Grown-Up-Life.

The evolution of Ecommerce community features

The NYTimes included an interesting article exploring how ecommerce sites are adding 'community features' to encourage repeat visits. Bottom line is that sites are focusing on user-generated content like ratings and reviews, and backing off from the more traditional 'community features' like messages boards and chat rooms. I've been noticing this trend for awhile, it's good to see it covered in the mainstream press.

Forecast: Light Posting, expected to continue...

I've been very busy lately (in a good way) with design work and family fun, and that's going to continue for the next few weeks. I guess I'm settling into my summer posting mode :-)

Last week, my Mom visited for a few days, which was loverly. It was gray and overcast, so we spent lots of time indoors by the fire, playing board games and drinking warm beverages. In addition to playing about 963 games of Chutes and Ladders with Gabe, Mom taught him to play Scrabble, which we eventually turned into a team sport. A good time was had by all :-)

Gabe and I are about to leave for a 3-day Mommy/Son camping trip to Coastanoa with some friends -- thereby giving Daddy Scott some time to kick ass on looming work deadlines. Go Daddy-O Go! We'll be thinking of you while we're hiking in the hills and singing 'round the campfire.

Location-based cellphone blogging

Good article at Cnet on location-based cell phone blogging using WaveMarket's technology. Early adopters include Canada's Bell Mobility and Korea's SK telecom -- but (relatively) high data costs are slowing down widespread adoption of these services.

Escape-A-Date with your mobile phone

Check out this new mobile phone service from Cingular Wireless -- I wish I'd had this back when I was dating.

Update: here's more details about how people are using this feature.

Dan Enthoven, director of marketing for BeVocal, the California company that designs complex voice-driven software for the telecom market, said the number of rescue calls go up on weekends, especially Fridays at about 8 p.m. BeVocal's two rescue-call clients in North America, Cingular and Virgin Mobile, generate at least 10,000 calls a month.