DISQUS

Jake is correct. Asia in this context refers to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.

For more on measuring mobile leadership on a country-by-country basis, and in particular why the U.S. is behind, I'd recommend this great post from Tomi Ahonen that was sparked by some questions I had asked in the Forum Oxford message board:
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/20...

If you look beyond the pure technological advances and look at usage, you'll actually find a tremendous amount of similarity between developing countries and the most advanced Asian countries--far more in common than with the United States.

Take mobile payment for example. In Japan and South Korea, you can buy a large number of products and services with your phone. In India, utility companies give 5% discounts for paying via mobile.

Or simply look at the percentage of people accessing the Internet via mobile devices vs. PCs. In developing countries and in the Asian countries above, more people access the Internet via mobile than traditional desktop devices.

So yes, when we refer to Asia being two years ahead, we're referring to a subset of Asian countries--particularly when it comes to the infrastructure and handset technology.

At the same time, a compelling argument can be made that developing countries may also be ahead when it comes to usage of mobile phones for transactions and business because of the fact that it acts as a leap frog technology.

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the kind words about my Cup Noodle talk. Looks like Betsy already provided the url to one of the videos. This other video has an angle that makes it easier to see the slides.

If anyone is interested, the book about Cup Noodle is one of the best business case studies I've read. It is part of a series of Japanese Manga called Project X Challenger. Each one follows a story of business innovation. I'm not normally a fan of manga, but these books are great.

Project X Challenger: Cup Noodle is $11 and available on Amazon. I highly recommend it.

@betsy you're 100% right. I had just finished reading Kerry Eggers article which covered similar areas on the Tribune, but wasn't as clear at Jaynes article.

Can't believe I fell into the Slashdot commenter trap of not following the link. :-)

The NBA sent information out to all 30 teams regarding Miles suspension. I doubt they are going to be able to narrow down who leaked the info and the reporter isn't going to tell.

And another question. Why can't I write coherent blog comments?

Rick in a cheerleader skirt? That image is going one I'm going to have to burn out of my memory.

Why do you have to keep saying things I can't unhear? :-)

Yep, that's Rick. I was the one trilling in the audience when he got on stage. :-)

BTW, Rick always associates himself with Silicon Florist, but doesn't ever mention that he actually has a job and tries to make a living as one of the founders of Return (http://returncorp.com/), blogs at More than a Living (http://morethanaliving.com/blog/), and has a side project called Hello Kumquat (http://hellokumquat.com/).

So if you like what Rick does at Silicon Florist, check out one of his other projects as well or hire him for your work.

I had to say all of the above because Rick will never say it for himself. And that's why we like him.

One of the more interesting things I read recently was a person talking about how we can optimize data processing to be distributed geographically based on which data centers have excess processing and energy capacity. It is a fascinating idea.

Hi Jake,

Thanks for the kind words about my presentation. I consciously try to minimize the number of bullet points. But even in this presentation, there was some information that had to be conveyed in bullet points. Sometimes they are unavoidable.

But the main thing I try to do is make sure my presentations have a story. The slides have to have a narrative arc.

I also believe passion and enthusiasm are important. If you're passionate about your topic, your audience will become engaged in what you are saying.

Friday night I got the opportunity to thank Jeffrey Veen for inspiring me with his presentation from five years ago at Web Visions. Since then, I've been trying to be half as good of a presenter as he is. He wrote about his thoughts on presentations here:
http://www.veen.com/jeff/archives/000483.html

Thank you again for attending the session. I'm glad you enjoyed it.