The Network Garden - Mark Sigal's Blog

True Blood : Base Instincts

As a homily to our base instincts, and how the weak give into it, Alan Ball's True Blood (on HBO) stands alone.  

Characters are fully formed and story arcs are well played.  

The storyline also has a lot of layers to it that somehow fit together (most of the time).

At the same time, it reminds me of a game that I used to play as a teen called, ‘Dawn of the Dead.’

Rather than get into detail on ‘Dawn,’ let me just say that exercising a 'Willing Suspension of Disbelief' was integral to having a good time.

In writing for the Huffington Post, Mark Blankenship, clinically dissects the Good, Bad and the Ugly of Episode 11 of True Blood, 'Frenzy' (the show before the season finale). 

Read ‘True Blood Sucker Punch: Episode 11.’  It’s a fun, articulate review, especially if you like the show.

As Blankenship notes, this week delivers great scenes.  Sookie’s admonition that “I am not weak” while at the same time wondering why the world is such a dark place is very powerful. She’s had to live it after all.  That’s just one example.

Just when you think that you know what’s gonna happen, the show knocks you off balance.

True Blue is good drama; it's graphic novel and high camp at the same time. 

I cannot wait for the Season Finale on September 13.

Related Posts:

1. Media Reasons: True Blood; and Really Good Narrative
2. Old Media, New Media: Where the Rubber Meets the Road (Guest Post @ O'Reilly Radar)

Government 2.0 & The Library of the Commons

The short (45 seconds) video post captures some thoughts on what Government 2.0 means to me.

In a nutshell, I am advocating the creation of an online library that consists of the composite knowledge base of every topic where governance plays a part, including both "official, curated" sources and “user-submitted, crowd-sourced” content, such as magazine articles, video segments, industry white papers, blogs, opinion polls and the like.

Imagine the President being able to say, "Go to the Gov 2.0 website, read our official articulated position on Health Care Policy, alongside the official positions of the Republican Party, Big Pharma, AMA and ordinary Americans, and then let us know your thoughts."

To be effective, such a system would need to have clear communal policies, like no personal attacks, clearly delineating opinions versus facts, citing and linking to referenced sources and a reasonably simple structure so those interested in just stats can get that, those interested in just white papers by the medical establishment can get that, and those interested in personal blog/life stories can get that.

Similarly, Gov 2.0 implies a dashboard of key metrics, transparency on their measures and mechanisms to amplify (tag, rate, comment) and disseminate content/positions of interest. Optimally, one system (with open APIs) would enable the Administration, Congress, Lobbyists/SIGs and Consumers to rally their base, and provide common communication paths for meetups, online engagement, capture of the outcome and follow up.

What other building blocks do you see in the evolution of Government and governance?

Related Posts:

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Touch Traveler: London, Paris and only an iPod Touch (Guest Post @ O'Reilly Radar)

Recently, I spent two weeks vacationing in London and Paris with only an iPod Touch for communications and connectivity.

Mind you, I am not suggesting that this was a wise thing to do, but it's what I did, and this post captures the good, bad and ugly of the experience.   :-)

First off, the revelation (for me) was how much the Google Mobile Maps App on iPod Touch completely changes the equation when traveling.

Moreover, Maps allows you to visually navigate in Real-Time (very different from the experience on my Blackberry), all the while push-pinning favorite destinations, and determining routes in just a few clicks.

It is the consummate reality augmentation application for travel, a sort of "magic compass."

Read the full article HERE.

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APPLE is EVIL, You're All Fanboys and other half-truths (guest post for O'Reilly Radar)

There is a meme afoot. Apple is evil. Its arrogant ways and dependence on the cult of personality are to be its demise. Developers are said to be unhappy. And, Apple Secrecy Doesn't Scale. Google-ification is the way, the RIGHT way. The Apple Way can't possibly persist ad infinitum.

But, you know what? It’s a crock. In the here and now, Apple's success is unparalleled, and the engine is humming better than ever on multiple vectors - products, margins, developers, profits and consumer engagement.

Read the full post HERE.

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Environment Variables: On Surplus, Scarcity, Fear & Greed

I am a big believer that markets gravitate between FEAR and GREED, and that industries are driven by core assumptions about the SCARCITY or SURPLUS of enabling resources.

Think about the stock market in terms of the former (it's heavily outlook driven), and the evolution of computing, as afforded by the latter (i.e., the commoditization of processing, storage and bandwidth).

With that in mind, here's a riddle for you:

If you were to ruminate on what type of economy you thrive best in, and the type of company/industry that you gravitate towards, where would it fit on the following 2 * 2 matrix:

On the X axis, you have MARKET UPTAKE DRIVERS; namely, whether customer-buying decisions are driven by Greed (the belief that tomorrow will be better than today) or Fear (the belief that rainy days are ahead);

On the Y axis, you have RESOURCE AVAILABILITY ASSUMPTIONS; namely, whether the industry's success is predicated on resource Scarcity or resource Surplus (commoditization).

Based on the resulting four quadrants (i.e., Surplus/Fear; Scarcity/Fear; Scarcity/Greed; Surplus/Greed), I have plugged in one example type of company/industry for each quadrant.

Given the above, what type of economy do you thrive best in, and what other examples come to mind for each quadrant?

Similarly, what types of products or services can you imagine as the offspring of each of these quadrants?

Media Reasons: True Blood; and Really Good Narrative

True Blood begins with a compelling premise.  Vampire Culture meets Deep South, with a touch of the Outer Limits. 

Last season focused on introducing this universe, and anchored it with a 'Serial Killer meets Sookie Stackhouse' storyline.

This season delves deeper into Vampire Inc. (it’s a corporate and political machine). It also peels back the onion (so to speak) on vampire metabolics.

The anchor this year, however, is pretty mind-blowing.  There is a Satan-like character named Maryann. Maryann can take over the minds of people and turn them into obedient animals (their eyes become black saucers when this occurs - pretty freaky).

Maryann seems hell-bent (pun intended) in getting revenge against Sam Merlotte, a shape-shifter, and the proprietor of Merlotte’s Grill.  Sam's a good guy and a survivor, though.

Plus, wouldn't you figure that the vampires would have some say on how all of this plays out?

In terms of narrative and visual presentation, True Blood is well-produced, richly-executed entertainment that is worthy of DVR’ing (and plugging in to your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad). 

Alan Ball, who created American Beauty and Six Feet Under, is behind the show.

What follows are some story streams from last night’s episode (TRUE BLOOD 21: I WILL RISE UP) to give a sense of the show's myriad story arcs:

Godric, the Sheriff vampire and Eric's Maker, dies at sunrise. It is a very Zen, Bardo-like moment.  Sookie, Bill and Eric are now fully in a vampire love triangle. Maryann is ready to reveal herself. 

Can Lafayette (Tara’s cousin; and highly sketched character) and Lettie Mae (Tara’s alcoholic Mom) get Tara back or will they get sucked in to Maryann's lair as well? 

Earlier, Lafayette showed a fortune telling card to Tara that suggested she'd have to make some kind of choice, some sacrifice.

Will Sam (almost literally sacrificed a week before) evade Maryann, and working in tandem with Andy Bellefleur (down on his luck, suspended police detective), can they make a difference?

Next Week: It’s Jason Stackhouse’s (Sookie's brother) rally cry "This is the war that I have been training for" versus Tara’s black-eyed cackling "He's gonna kill us all."

Check out HBO's True Blood HERE.  Three more episodes left to the season finale.

Related Posts: A three-item Topic 360 Degrees on 'Algorithmic Improvement' 

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2. "Right Here Now" Services: weaving a real-time web around status
3. The Programmable Fan Site: A New Media/Ad Unit Model