HEAD BLOG

I’ve written about the possible dangers of Apple becoming the gatekeeper to entertainment. To me, the rise of the corporate State is a big, hairy and deeply scary shift in global politics. That one company can be the arbiter of morality above and beyond any nationally or internationally agreed laws is increasingly becoming a reality and shifting our sense of what democracy can acheive just at the very time when global democracy is moving within our reach.

This post isn’t, however, about politics. At least, not entirely.

It is about Apple and its attitude towards development and, more specifically about how ideas and innovation is fostered within the new one party State.

A post by the well respected Dan Grigsby of Mobile Orchard got me thinking. At first his claims of operating on the edge chimed with my sense of how creativity should work that great ideas are not born from control and order. but between the cracks; wild and wilful; the result of non-conformity.

That’s what want to believe. I want to believe that the approval system imposed by Apple is the antithesis of creativity and that it will end in a steady stream of stilted, unoriginal products that will ultimately turn people away from iTunes.

Only I don’t.

I don’t believe that at all.

I wish I did of course. I like the idea and I completely respect Mr Grigsby’s decision to quit iPhone development. It’s principled and therefore admirable. I like that a lot.

I just think it isn’t accurate. I think great ideas come from necessity. We all operate under some kind of structure imposed upon us. All of publishing works the same way; films, books, music – if you want to be heard then you generally have to follow the rules, even if breaking those rules is another one of the rules. Getting product in front of consumers takes money, even in these days of the long tail and the people who have the money are, by and large, interested in ROI and minimising risk. To them, innovation is useful only as a means to an ends.

Look at the studio system in Hollywood – great films still come out of that. Books are different but the economic pressures are no less (and increasing all the time). Games certainly operate under very strict control systems which companies such as Apple are merely emulating (ok, and strengthening).

Great things still happen. Great films, books, games – they all come out and on a regular basis. Ideas can’t be controlled no matter what systems gatekeeper companies such as Apple put in place. Ideas flow around such barriers.

Maybe there will be a corral of wild ideas for the iPhone. Maybe Apple will empower greater freedom for developers so they can experiment. I can’t see this happening if it threatens stability and control but maybe it will, in some form, happen.

If that happens it could be because all the real innovators have left to pursue other platforms. Most likely, however, it will be because it seems like a good idea.

I have a two year old son who sometimes pauses in his play and makes a show of stroking his chin or tapping one finger against his head before turning to me to say, “I’ve an idea.”

He’ll then gesture largely, with a follow-me motion of his arm. “Come with me Dadda” he’ll urge before leading me into the kitchen and pointing to the biscuit tin.

As ideas go, getting a biscuit isn’t a bad one. Not MY biscuits obviously but one of the drier, slightly out of date ones… well that’s a fine idea for any son.

The trouble is, having the idea is only half the battle. To make it work it needs someone tall enough to reach the biscuit barrel.

Of course you know where I’m going with this. It could be a paean to working with the right people, employing the right talent to make ideas work.

Only it’s not.

It’s simpler than that.

Lately there have been a fair few ideas flying around Head First. Some of them have been for projects we’ve been hired to work on but many have been ideas that some people might term as “blue sky”. These are ideas we think would suit a particular company (or even ourselves) as a way to open up a new revenue stream, bolster a traditionally quiet period of business or boost a brand into a new consumer sphere. Generally speaking the ideas are unsolicited but, so far at least, very much welcomed.

As ideas go, they are turning out pretty well.

But the other half of the battle isn’t talent, it’s courage. A great idea is just an idea unless you have the courage to stand up and risk it not working in the first place.

I love reading things of which I know nothing about. What’s more, I love reading things I don’t and can’t possibly understand.

Take this for example. A single wiki page outlining Dirac’s Equation. Do you know what Dirac’s Equation is? I don’t. Even after reading that I’m none the wiser. Not really.

I could flick through the pages of New Scientist (why new?) and marvel at how little I know of the world. How little I actually understand.

And yet I love reading these articles. They fill me with the urge to know more, to understand more because in everything I don’t know, I see wonder and beauty and I hear a call from the wild. I want to follow the call and witness the wonder and explain what I see to others.

And I know I will have to find new words to explain these wonders to others. New words that were not there when I began my journey for if they were then I might not have needed to travel so far to see, to
understand the wonders.

What a journey that would be. Begun out of ignorance and ending in wonder.

Ignorance really is bliss.

You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. How many times do we tell ourselves this? How many times do we sit around telling other people? Well yesterday was one of those days for me. Read more…

A useful exercise for those not wishing to get fat on their own self-righteousness involves stepping into someone else’s pants.

Pick a subject that you wouldn’t be seen dead in. Maybe it’s gardening, maybe it’s the music of Frank Sinatra or maybe it’s the joy of playing Barbie. It has to be something you just don’t understand, something way out there. It ought to feel alien. Ok, confession time. For me a couple of years back it was MySpace. It had just started and I couldn’t “get” why people would have such a simple page that often looked ugly, often practically unreadable. I knew that I had been shown something aimed at a new generation of “me”. Read more…