I meant to write this post yesterday. But I could not, as the earth stood still. There was no way I could log on to this blog, and I soon heard from people all over that chatrooms, fora, search engines and blogs were flooded.

What blacked out the internet and put the world to a halt? You know it, could not possibly have missed it. Less than 24 hours later, more than 5 million google hits refer to it, during which time it has of course been the global #1 online search:

The iPad.

Ending rumours dating back to last August, Steve Jobs went on stage on San Fransisco yesterday and announced that it will be released in March. Shorter (nextopian) demand curve than the iPhone, which ranged from January til the end of June. But more active rumour management before the stage appearance, from last August til now, end of January.

The question, now: Will the iPad top 70 million google hits before the release, and beat the 100% company value increase?

I’ve discussed Saab and their (non-)future several times here in the last year, so, of course, I must comment on the latest news, like so many others.

So before Christmas, I wrote that Saab’s demise is a true sign that we’ve entered the new millennium, where old elephant institutions must not live on forever. And still, Saab, is now resurrected. As a native Swede, I am really happy for all the people involved with the company, and am happy that the national icon lives on.

As a business professor, I am not convinced that this will keep Saab alive for very long. What will a small buyer like Spyker do for the brand? Enhance its prestige? That’s not an easy task, which Saab’s previous efforts have shown. Increase volumes? A muscular giant like GM did not manage, one wonders whether a small actor like Spyker would be better equipped? What will Saab do for Spyker? Increase its mass appeal? If Saab had mass appeal, it would not have died and been resurrected in the first place.

However, I am sure that the death and resurrection of Saab has boosted people’s opinions of and attitudes toward the company (this mirrors a research project we’ve worked on about reactance – when companies are discontinued or merged, people react by enhancing their evaluations of what is about to be lost). But how long will that last?

Will people still see a prosperous future for Saab at the end of this year, a future that is nextopian enough to boost sales now? after all, in our beautiful Expectations society, what matters is not that it is alive now, what matters is what people expect of it in the future.

What do you smart people think?

The resources devoted to the police force have been debated for, well, as long as the police has existed. There never seems to be enough time and manpower to keep crime abay and citizens safe.

But that was the yestermillennium. In the new millennium, resources need not be an issue. Time should be no problem, when you can search the entire world within microseconds and just a click of the mouse, and manpower is in abundande, when anyone, anywhere, can do police work.

In the yestermillennium, only cops had access to mug shots to help identify criminals. In the world of any, anyone can just peruse facebook to find fresh pictures and whereabouts of suspects. In the yestermillennium, only the police could book criminals, now anyone can facebook offenders.

Just ask UK party girl Jennifer Wilson, who got smashed in the face with a beer glass at a club by a girl she’d never seen before. She went to the police, who had no mug shot and did not have enough resources to talk to witnesses and conduct a search for the perpetrator. Jennifer realized that the girl had to know someone who, in turn, knew someone in Jennifer’s party gang, as they were at the same place at the same time. So, she chose one of her party friends, perused the pictures of  her facebook friends, recognized one from the club, perused that girl’s facebook friends, and – presto! – there was the perp.

Jennifer facebooked her, giving the police her identity and address. However, the police did not find the perp at her home and returned to Jennifer with news that they could make no arrest. So, Jennifer called on facebook once again, found out where the perp was right now (good ol’ status update) and informed the police, who finally booked her.

As you’re probably most aware by now, we cannot handle endings. Always living for the next, endings are not part of our outlook.

Small surprise that religion has been so important through the ages, the common denominator for most religions being unending. Religion frees us from the ultimate ending, of life, suggesting there’s a next around the corner. No wonder one of the most effective religious converters is the message “the end is near”.

But is religion facing its own end now? In the world of any, any one can keep on going and socialize any time they want, for ever and ever (thanks for the tip, Martin Hugosson!) On mywebwill, opening soon (so nextopian!), you and your loved ones will be able to keep your presence anywany you want, for any time you want even after you stop breathing, on  mydeathspace you can hang out with both friends and celebrities for all eternity, and if you hook up deathswitch, it will keep checking up on you every so often to see that you are still breathing, and once you stop responding, it takes over your life for you…

Argleton became one of the world’s most googled cities last year, reaching the levels of multicentury old destinations like New York, Paris and Tokyo. However, unlike those cities, Argleton does not have a history spanning over centuries. In fact it does not have a history at all.

One day, an inhabitant of UK city Aughton googled his hometown, and found that it had suddenly been graced with a new neighbour on both Google maps and Google earth. Obviously not far away, he decided to take a walk to the neighbouring city he had never before heard of, only to find nothing but wide-stretched grass fields. The city of Argleton did not actually exist. It just, somehow, appeared on google one day.

Unaware that Argleton did not exist, vendors started linking their services to the city. Soon, they even began directing business there. When learning  that the city did not exist, people were not much bothered. The city did not exist yet - but businesses were already doing great.  People from all over the world had heard of the non-existing city of Argleton and wanted a piece of it, thus taking use of the supply that businesses had directed there online.

So now, the city is actually under construction out in the grass fields, and businesses and tourists are flocking, expecting that this nextopian city will be the best ever! Believe the hype!

The other day, a surprised Paul Chambers was picked up by the police at his workplace. He became even more surprised when he later learned that he faced being charged with terrorism. The reason was a tweet Paul wrote the week before:

“Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!” ”

Due to bad weather, newscasts announced that the airport from which Paul was to embark on vacation a week later had been closed. Frustrated, Paul wrote what was supposed to be a humourous tweet, but not in the age of blogarazzi-bummer.

Still, who can blame authorities for being on the look-out? Last month saw the rise of twerrorists, a new breed of terrorists who realize that in this millennium, bombs are nothing compared to cutting people off from the world of any.

Just before Christmas, the “Iranian Cyber Army” hacked Twitter, shutting down communication for twitterers all over the world with the message:

THIS SITE HAS BEEN HACKED BY IRANIAN CYBER ARMY

iRANiAN.CYBER.ARMY@GMAIL.COM

U.S.A. Think They Controlling And Managing Internet By Their Access, But THey Don’t, We Control And Manage Internet By Our Power, So Do Not Try To Stimulation Iranian Peoples To….

NOW WHICH COUNTRY IN EMBARGO LIST? IRAN? USA?
WE PUSH THEM IN EMBARGO LIST
Take Care.

A bomb has never gone off more silent, nor reverberated louder.

Last year I wrote about blogarazzi-bummers at Burger King and Domino’s, now the turn has inevitably come to fast-food giant no. 1, McDonald’s.

The other week, the boss of the (small Swedish town) Örebro McDonald’s franchise found his way to the blog of a young girl who worked at his restaurant. The blog, lo and behold, contained candid information about what goes on in the restaurant on an ordinary day. No pretty reading. And vastly exaggerated, it seemed, to make for laughs for the blog readers.

Before she knew it, the girl was fired. Blogarazzi-bummer.

The boss announced news of firing the girl on facebook, adding “…now it’s my turn to giggle”. Before he knew it, the union read his comment and made a case of it. Now maybe he will be fired, too. Blogarazzi-double-bummer.

Hey everyone, hope you had a great ending of last year (who remembers?) and expect a really good year to come.

So, a lot happened while I was away. For example, a 17-year old song became UK:s first digital download chart-topper. It became really big news in the country; not only was the no 1. spot on the UK chart old, it was the first time the top spot was not taken by traditional CD sales. Marking this transition into a new era, the music chart was, of course, the work of the new era’s very own Generation Boss.

Fed up with Simon Cowell’s habit of snatching the Christmas chart’s top spot with one of his latest expectity factory’s winners every year (this time, The X Factor’s recent winner Joe McElderry was the designated chart-topper), some friends started a facebook group called “Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No. 1″ a few weeks ahead of Christmas, touting the 17-year old song “Killing in the name”, which was only available as a digital download, as the alternative Christmas winner.

By December 24, the facebook group counted more than 1 million members and recorded sales of more than 500,000 downloads of the RATM song, enough to top the chart (McElderry’s CD sales made it to no 2) and mark the beginning of a new era in the music business. Along the way, they also raised more than 1.5 million dollars for charity. Go Generation Boss!