Thinking and Working in Singapore and other more Virtual Places

How many people am I (or should I be) online?

I was reading this morning on Twitter that LinkedIn will allow status comments soon (or it already is). And over the weekend I was looking at ping.fm which allows the status updating of multiple media at once.  (there are several other services that will do this too)  So, for example, configuring your ping account means you can update facebook, twitter and tumblr (and many others) in one hit...

  Now, for some time now I have wondered about the wisdom of having stuff about me available online.  This is nothing new of course and people have, for some time now, wondered how sensible it might be for your potential new employer to see that tagged photo of you on facebook pissed out of your head.  Additionally, the facebook status of 'Carl is pissed off with his job' might not do many favors with one's current employer either....

So, I suppose over the last couple of years I've got to thinking (mistakingly I might add) that certain people may not see my facebook page, for example, and that I should try and be quite sensible and professional with this blog -  Facebook for 'fun' Carl and blog for more serious Carl.  Of course, now, those people at work who wouldn't have had a facebook account just a year or so ago now have one as its becaome more and more mainstream.  Tonight I have a Teleconference and any idle twittering about how bored I might get (although I'm sure it won't be) will be immediately updated on my facebook page and of course some of the call participants are my friends on facebook..... and so on....

So very quickly I've moved from nothing online to using different platforms that evolved from fundamentally different directions to using tools that are now encouraging me to merge these multiple personalities into one.  These tools for maintaining that 'one onlne person' across all the media are great in what they do and, at the same time, are encouraging me to think that I just have to jump in and simply be one 'online person' and stop worrying about it. 

It's probably the case that more experienced bloggers who use facbook and twitter have come to a conclusion on this some time ago on this.

I'd like comments though.

Why Mattel should look at Guitar Hero Sales

  I have just been reading about GH3 sales passing one Billion Dollars ...Not too surprising I suppose knowing how gaming is the fastest growing 'entertainment' market - It was only a few months ago that GTA IV was the fastest grossing entertainment 'product' ever in its first weekend of release (if I remember correctly).

Some nice other stats too which would serve a nice purpose in any presentation I had to do in the near future - loads of User Generated Content being created as just one example.

But, perhaps the one stat  and point of interest I liked the most was how games like GH are creating huge amounts of interest away from the virtual environment...

...sales of real guitars were also up. Griffith [not me!] said two-thirds of non-musicians exposed to music games plan to start playing a real instrument in the next couple of years, while three-fourths of musicians said they've spent more time with their instruments since picking up a music game...

I should say that I don't understand exactly what the above means and the use of the word 'plan' intrigues me to some extent (not to mention the use of the word 'fourths') but I guess we should be fairly comfortable with the bottom line message.  My point, in case you hadn't guessed already, concerns Mattel and their determination to remove Scrabulous from Facebook (last year was it?).  One can't help feeling that their fight to remove 'their game' from one of the world's largest and fastest growing internet properties with an exposure that one can only be dreamed of in more traditional advertising spaces might have been a little hasty and one they might now be regretting...