in english please!

english. a language richer, funnier and more widespread than swedish. also the language of this blog, from now on.

and sadly a language rather poorly spoken and understood in Italy. despite this slight language barrier, today we had a very interesting Skype interview with Mauro of Mutado, a neat little agency there who've done some work for MTV, among other things. this is a part of our current assignment about the digital media industry. Mauro was extremely helpful and gave us many interesting bits of information. some of the main points;

- when meeting a client in Italy, always wear a business suit and a tie
- when looking for good media schools in Italy, look abroad
- when visiting Italy to work within the digital media industry, be prepared to enjoy the food and girls more than the work

overall, we got the impression that Italy is still a bit "behind" compared to the UK and the USA within the digital media industry, and that the agencies who soak up the biggest italian clients are well-established foreign companies who open up offices in Rome or Milan. being a small, native, independent agency is, according to Mauro, an uphill struggle. the big clients just don't have enough digital media experience to trust you. Mauro also pointed to the lack of good media educations (meaning focus on the work itself rather than the theory around it) as a significant problem for the italian digital media industry.

the second very interesting experience today was listening to our CEO Mattias talk about the history and future of the digital media industry. Mattias has been around for quite some time, and he gave us a brief overview of the changing swedish attitude towards the internet, starting in the 90's. what really made my mind spin, however, was a video from an italian (!) thinktank, outlining a possible scenario for the development of the digital media up to 2051. basically, it was argued that all media would merge, copyright as a concept would become obsolete and simulations as real as reality would be available to everyone. "Experience is the new reality."

pretty amazing food for thought!

this all reminded me about a sci-fi proposition rather common today in both fiction and non-fiction (The Matrix etc.); if we assume that, in the future, mankind will be able to create simulations of reality that are as real as reality itself, then who is to say that we, and what we experience, aren't already simulations? that is, simulations of mankind in 2007, created by the future mankind. also this ties in with philosophy in general; "experience is the new reality" is hardly a new idea. but that's a topic for a different blog.

all in all, a very interesting day with lots of new impressions. good times.