Centives

Kyle Wagner writes that soon your comic book on a tablet might come with a soundtrack:

• Marvel is experimenting with dynamic soundtracks as you turn the page.
• These tracks don’t loop. Rather they’re dependent on the context and what you’re doing. They adapt to you, rather than you being forced to adapt to them.
• The idea is to add more emotional resonance to comics. Just as in movies where the music becomes triumphant as the enemy is vanquished, so too in comic books a little background score would enhance the experience.
• Right now comic book writers suggest a colour palette when they write their script. Soon they might start recommending musical cues.

Read more about this future of comics, the two track approach that Marvel is using, some of the weaknesses of the idea, and how it will evolve over here.

Source: Gizmodo

In cities across the United States neighbourhoods have figured out an ingenious way to keep sex offenders away. Yet by doing so they’re jeopardizing their own safety writes Ian Lovett:

• In certain cities laws prohibit registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or public park.
• Those who want to keep sex offenders away then lobby to have small “parks” built – some which are barely large enough to hold a swing set – to keep sex offenders away from the community.
• One playground installation company even advertises its service as a way to keep sex offenders out.
• Yet the increasing use of this practice is leaving sex offenders with nowhere to live. And studies indicate that homeless sex offenders are more likely to commit crimes since they’re difficult to track and have nothing to lose.

Read more about what neighbourhood groups have to say, the politicians who have built their career in part due to these ‘parks’, and why it’s against homeowners interest to do this over here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

Netflix’s House of Cards has been a hit. This wasn’t a surprise to Netflix executives writes David Carr:

• Netflix has access to a lot of data. It monitors when people play, pause, rewind, and forward media. They also track the time of day that people do this and the device they do it on.
• The online streaming company noted that films directed by Mr. Fincher were popular; that Kevin Spacey’s films did well, and that people were fond of a British 90s TV show called House of Cards. These elements then went on to make Netflix’s own hit series.
• But the use of data didn’t stop there. Netflix altered its advertising strategy based on the audience. Kevin Spacey fans saw Kevin Spacey centric ads. Those fond of female characters saw trailers focused on them.

Read more about the ethics of Netflix’s practice, why this might be a threat to creative freedom, and other bits of analytics about House of Cards over here.

Source: The New York Times

We’ve previously covered some of the shaky foundations of Apple’s recent success. Now that the stock has dived by 40% in under a year analysts are trying to figure out what happened. One man believes he has the answer writes Jay Yarow:

• Apple’s success was driven by a few key engineers who helped develop its products.
• Now those individuals are considering leaving to pursue their own interests and find fame and fortune outside of the company. Their talents are wasted in developing the next incremental release of iPhone 7.
• This means that the next great invention will happen outside of Apple’s walls, forcing the company to play catch up.

Read more about Apple’s troublesome internal culture, why this is the inverse of the conventional wisdom about Apple and more over here.

Source: Business Insider

On this Tuesday, the 12^th of March 2013, 115 cardinals will gather to select the next Pope. Rome’s struggling economy is hoping that the event will boost business writes Stephan Faris:

• The last big Vatican event was the beatification of John Paul II in 2011 which is estimated to have brought in €235 million in revenue for Rome.
• Yet this year’s conclave hasn’t brought the crowds that many were hoping for. While Expedia saw the number of trips to Rome double, overall few people seem to be planning to attend.
• The surrounding shopkeepers will move quickly once the new Pope is announced. One says that they’ll have small posters of the new Pope within an hour of his announcement. Key chains and framed photographs will soon follow.

Read more about the economics of the conclave, the 5,000 journalists who will be covering the event, and the price of managing any crowds that show up over here

Source: Businessweek

China’s housing market has always fascinated us. Now David Barboza writes that before calling a realtor or posting an ad, Chinese couples file for divorce when they decide to sell their property:

• In an attempt to cool a rapidly heating housing market, the government periodically considers introducing controls such as a 20% tax on the sale of second homes.
• If a couple has two homes and they divorce, then can reasonably claim that each owns one of the homes. They can then sell one of the properties to avoid the second home tax.
• Couples normally get remarried after the sale is complete.

Read more about what experts have to say, the view from the ground, and why the government is so concerned about the property market over here.

Source: The New York Times

The Roman Catholic Church, writes the Economist, is the world’s oldest and most successful multinational with over a billion customers, a million employees, possibly the best recognized logo in the world, and a global distribution network that is finding success in emerging markets. The current CEO has just retired and the board of directors must select the next one. This new Pope will have a lot to learn from chief executives around the world:

• The new Pope will have to deal with the ongoing sex scandal. This won’t be the first time a business has had to deal with a problematic workforce. Companies have found that the best way to do so is to punish guilty employees and treat the institution’s reputation as its most valuable asset.
• The Catholic Church has also spread into too many product areas. Its core focus should be on providing spiritual goods. Yet these days it also provides banking and portfolio services. It should divest itself of these assets and focus on what it does best.
• Most of its growth is coming out of emerging markets in Latin America. But appointing a leader from there isn’t enough. Instead it must follow the lead of other companies and open a second headquarters – or at least outsource important functions – to offices set up in these states.
• The next Pope should also be concerned about start-ups. As successful as the Catholic Church has been in Latin America its market share of the faithful has declined from 90% to 72% in the past century. Pentecostalism is just one of the many rivals it faces.

Read more about how the Church can deal with these start-ups, how the Church should organize centers of excellence, and why Pope Benedict XVI was a bad choice for the top position over here.

Source: The Economist

SimCity 2013 has been slammed by various reviewers, but Adam Sneed writes that the world’s mayors could learn a thing or two from playing the game:

• In SimCity you can exploit the natural resources and conditions you start off with to find short-term success.
• But over the long run those resources could run out, leaving the potential for a sudden sharp decline.
• Changing course is hard though. You need to invest money (higher taxes for your citizens) on shoring up the economy against a threat that may or may not come to pass, in an initiative that may or may not be successful.
• This is precisely the challenge that America’s rust belt faced. That region failed to diversify away from manufacturing and as a result Detroit and Cleveland continue to struggle to this day.
• SimCity also demonstrates the importance of resilience. A small breakdown in a resource mining area, or a fire in an industrial area can have cascading effects that deeply affect the economy if not planned for.
• The United States’ East Coast saw this during Hurricane Sandy when flooded subways handicapped the city for days.

Read more about the future of smart cities, how the game developers approached the concept, and the problems of pollution over here.

Source: Slate

Business news sources are exuberant because the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has hit an all–time high. They should know better writes Jacob Goldstein:

• Any economist worth their salt knows that you need to take into account inflation adjusted changes in indices over time.
• If you do that with the latest DJIA numbers then the Dow is currently below its highs in 2000 and 2007. It’d have to rise another 10% to set the record for all-time best.
• But even if it did it wouldn’t mean much. The DJIA has several weaknesses which make it a really bad economic indicator. (Centives has previously covered some of those reasons here).
• Other, more useful stock indices such as the S&P 500, are below their highs in both nominal and inflation adjusted terms.

Read more about the weaknesses of the DJIA and more over here.

Source: NPR

Ever year companies such as Nike and Apple unveil some of the ‘secrets’ they’ve been working on. Why do we type ‘secrets’ instead of just secrets? Austin Carr writes:

• Corporations like to pretend that they’re extremely secretive and are working on projects that not even their employees are aware of.
• Yet these same companies invite the press into their ‘secret’ labs telling reporters who have tape-recorders in plain view how they don’t want anybody to know what or where they’re working.
• Companies do this because it creates an aura of mystery and intrigue around them.
• But in reality it’s just a marketing ploy. If it wasn’t they wouldn’t spend so much time talking to journalists about how secretive they are.

Read more about the ‘secrets’ of Nike, how this culture has spread to executives, and more over here.

Source: Fast Company