Traditional Media's Global Reach

These last few weeks have been very interesting media-wise at MERECL where I work. We helped contribute to a CNN piece (Global Office) about a month ago (still available online here - http://edition.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/specials/2007/01/19/creating.a.new.you.cnn) and a colleague, Nury Vittachi, got onto the international press-wire regarding the Literary Festival that he established (which you can read about here - http://news.sawf.org/Lifestyle/33184.aspx and also on Nury's blog here - http://mrjam.typepad.com/diary/hong_kong_literary_festival/index.html).

We've been getting a lot of great responses from around the world from the CNN exposure that has led to visits, potential partnerships with our Lucid engine, and an extension research project for Lucid receiving funding. A friend of a friend who happen to be coming through Hong Kong saw the show and visited a few days later (Sam Chen who creates animated shorts - http://www.eternalgaze.com/). Nury has also been getting sympathetic e-mails from all around the world as well. I think it serves to illustrate the continued strength of traditional media forms despite the challenge of new media.

International exposure is an interesting experience. I remember a few years ago, CNN interviewed me when I was in Los Angeles for the E3 Expo. Kristie had asked me to visit their LA studio to answer a few questions to which I agreed. On the day of the interview, they had me in a small room with a camera pointed at me. It turned out, there were some delays and the camera man informed me a few minutes before the interview that it would be live and international which put me into whole new reality (one of those "ignorance is bliss" situations). It boggles the mind to think that what you say is instantly transmitted to hotel rooms and homes all around the world. Given the opportunity to say something to the whole world, what would you say? How would you say it?

I think the electromagnetic waves from that broadcast are still traveling out into space...