Lift Asia will be happening in a couple of weeks and I encourage you to attend if you are at all able to. (I promised myself Ars Electronica this year, which conflicts, unfortunately.) The line-up is a fantastic list of creative all-stars, as well as what sounds like a great queue of “locals” from Korea. This is an exciting time for Lift as it expands geographically and, more importantly, expands its audience. This is significant. There are still lots of productive and fruitful bridges to be created. It’s not an “unexploited territory” kind of exploration. Rather, despite Friedman’s assertions to the contrary, “flatness” does not exist. In China, it’s not Facebook. It’s QQ. In Korea, it’s Cyworld, not MySpace. This is intriguing — what are the local distinctions and specific ways in which online social practices create communities. Can’t all be the same, right? There really isn’t just one canonical Googlenet, right? Go to Lift Asia and find out what’s really going on, plus a whole lot more.
Thanks for the post, shame you can’t come! We’ll push the date a bit next year in order to avoid the conflict with Ars Electronica, and I’m sure we’ll find a way to have you with us!