I caused quite a stir when I talked literature in a couple of interviews a few months back and was quoted saying that in the new millennium, it will probably not be possible to write classics anymore, classics being a phenomenon of the yestermillennium.

Take Jane Austen as an example. She lived and wrote in the old millennium, producing a number of brick-sized classic books. An old millennium far from the world of any, where it was not possible for anyone, anywhere to get hold of Ms. Austen’s latest writing anytime. Where it wasn’t possible for anyone, anywhere, to write something more interesting and take the world’s attention away from the latest Austen brick. A time when people were not 2,920 times more impatient. So, Ms. Austen’s books required a long time, years, to spread around the world, and were allowed years of attention, years to build their status as a classics.

In the new millennium, anyone, anywhere can get hold of the book the very microsecond it is released, and the microsecond after, anyone, anywhere can steal the world’s attention with something even more interesting. Readers 2,920 times more impatient read minibooks via sms. And keep updated on every small progress in a drama in real time, rather than wait for the total story to unfold.

In a time when facebook keeps anyone updated on the relations and activities of anyone else anytime, a story like “Pride and Prejudice” is just your average newsfeed, one of the millions of next operas being updated every day. Just take a look at what named story would look like if Jane Austen lived in the new millennium:

http://www.much-ado.net/austenbook/

The world of any is a beautiful thing. And the recession can’t stop it. In many cases, it just advances it.

As people hold on to their wallets in the econoME recession, companies are forced to make their offers even more available, to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Anyone can open a bank account, anywhere, anytime. Fighting for customers, Spanish bank Banesto takes its offer one step further and allows anyone to choose between receiving a brand new Citroën car or Piaggio scooter if they start a long-term account with the bank. 

In the world of any, anyone can both have the cake and eat, or rather, both get the car and keep the money.

In the world of any, you can always find anything better and more interesting, like an even better product than the one you just bought, anytime, anywhere. In the face of tomorrow, with the world of any’s endless opportunities, today is worth less and requires a discount.

Just ask France Télécom. They just went public with their offer, giving 40 Euros cash upfront to anyone who keeps the cell phone (and subscription) they have today for another year.

In the world of any, where anyone can get a new, fancier phone anytime, anywhere, you have to give people 40 Euro just to stick to the cell phone they have today.

Check myspace for pictures of your house, or for missing stuff from it, and find out who’s living in your attic.

That’s what Stacey Ferrance did. On 21 year-old Stanley Carter’s myspace page, she recognized her own house. And several items on “Stanley’s christmas list” seemed familiar – iPods, garments, snacks, that had all gone missing in the last few weeks. Stacey finally realized what the source of the strange sounds from the attic was- unknowingly, they had received Stanley as a tenant.

Stanley might never have been discovered, if it weren’t for his need to stay online with the rest of the world and keep his next opera running. Yet another beautiful case of blogarazzi-bummer.

Ten days ago, Mark Gullett was laid off from his position as Marketing VP of hockey team Tampa Bay Ligtning. Today, he is known by millions of people and can choose between job offers from all over the world. That’s what happens when Generation In-Charge handles unemployment.

Ten days ago, after learning of his father’s loss of job, 14 year-old son Ben made a three-minute video, MarkbyBen, in which he in a dylanesque manner informs that his father is avaible for new positions. Within 24 hours, the youtube views approached 1,000 and hundreds of emails were sent to markbyben@verizon.net. Today, the number of views approaches 100,000, the video has been translated into Spanish, MarkbyBen’s employment hunt has been featured in media across the globe – and Mark can pick and choose between job offers.

What does this tell us? 1) Anyone can gain 15 microseconds of fame (even from becoming unemployed). 2) Anyone could get a new job in 15 microseconds (if one embraces the world of any). 3) Generation In-Charge doesn’t sit around waiting for headhunters, they take charge and go employment-hunting.

… and I liked it.
The taste of his chocolate chapstick
I kissed an Easterbunny just to try it
I hope my wife don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m in love tonight
I kissed an Easterbunny and I liked it
I liked it

I just had to try and see if it worked, did it make me happier? You see, I was in Belgium last week, which ranks as one of the world’s happiest nations. And was amazed to see all the Easterbunnies and easter eggs they were sporting, still quite a few weeks ahead of Easter. “Sure, we’re already far into the Easter precelebrations” was the answer, when I asked. And the same goes for christmas, they actually celebrate it twice (before Santa comes St Nicholas) and begin precelebrating in October.

Take my word for it – celebrating Lucia after December 13th did not work when I tried it at my kids’ kindergarten. But kissing an Easterbunny a month ahead of Easter worked like magic. I’ve been high on Easter expectations ever since. No wonder the Belgians are so happy.

Now, go kiss an Easterbunny!

OK folks, MD’s back. And so the philosophical level plunges, after guest-blogger Jonas Blomqvist’s high-flying posts last week. Jonas, thanks a lot for bringing this blog in totally new directions last week! And for making people wonder, what directions will it go to next…

So, here’s my warm-up. As been noted for quite som time now, money seems to be travelling east. Last week, I realized that it’s only natural – we’ll all be travelling east. It’s called zoning. Warp consumption has reached our travel behaviors just like our eating and reading. After miniburgers and minibooks come minivacations. Fuelled by the econoME (“I can’t afford a two-week vacation”), people go on a number of minivacations instead of one or two big ones. The perfect format is a daycation, back and forth in the same day, and the perfect direction is east.

By zoning east, you can use the time zones to your advantage. Leave at 7 in the morning, travel two hours east, arrive at 11 when the sun is high, and everyone and everything’s running. Stay ’til 9 pm, when the sun and everyone and everythings settles down, leave and be homein good time by 9 pm.

See you tomorrow, when I’ll get dirty…

In the word of any – watching any TV show any time is basic. With the rapid spreading of DVRs, more and more people fast forward through the ads at 6 x speed. In Sweden, MMS (the supplier of TV audience data) will start to measure time-shift viewing this year. Normal people, i.e. not advertising nerds like myself, see the advertising breaks as interruption from the TV show and hit fast forward to get passed the advertising as fast as possible.

The interesting thing is that people adjust to the faster pace, research show. When fast-forwarding, viewers are more focused since they are alert to see when the advertising break is over. Ads communicate, even at 6 x speed. For ads that we have seen before, the 5 second minisode of a 30 second commmercial gives a repetion of the original spot. However, the short time and the absence of sound limits the possibilities to communicate. It resembles low involvement processesing, when the brain is involved to a lesser extent and able to recognise the ad, but not necessarily recall it  spontaneously.

This finish my guest appearance here on Nextopia. It’s been a pleasure, and I look forward to Micael’s return next week. I know for a fact he’s got some really sharp insights for us.

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. ”
   
Aldous Huxley

SKI, Swedish Quality Index, measures quality trough surveys in a number of industries every year. The quality Index is composed of several component, among which Expectations (together with Loyalty) stand out for most brands in most categories as being the strongest explanation of Quality

The question is which came first? Do people rationalize their experiences so that they experience the quality they expected? Or are expectations based on experiences of quality – own or others?

A classic example is an experiment where students where given information about a lecturer in a coming class. Some student where told he was exceptionally good, some that he was average and some that he was rather lousy. All participants then visited the same lecture, and those with high expectations also the rated the lecturer’s performance the highest, whereas those who were told he was bad, also rated the lecturer low. So expectations do influence the experience.

When our expectations are confronted with the actual product or service, the flaws we didn’t think of becomes evident, and the quality experience was not as good as we expected. But that’s all right, because we have already started to consume one with higher quality – the next one.

“And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

Genesis 1:27

Religion is founded on absence of facts, just like Nextopia. Religion is the residual. What can’t be explained in our model of the world, we explain with religion. (We still only have a model; we for example don’t know how many dimensions our world has) Thor, with his thundering carriage and his sparkling hammer, was the explanation for thunder, Ra carried the sun across the sky everyday and God developed the species. Finding the facts undermine the base for authorities, based on controlling the unknown, like Galileo Galilei experienced.

The promises of the future has long been the USP for religion. Where do we go when we die, how will the crop turn out, will it rain – all challenges for which religion has provided the answer. What cruel deeds have not been created in the name of religion – all driven by depraved leaders offering The Right Way to Nextopia.

Maybe Man created God in his (idealized) image. Man’s image of himself, once he has overcome his human weaknesses – in Nextopia

PS. Don’t get me wrong. Religion can be a wonderful positive thing, but sometimes it is misused. In these sad exceptions, the connection to Nextopia is unpleasently clear.