EFL: English as a 1st Language Round Up

Is it just me or does "poutine" sound a lot naughtier than it is? I'm having flashbacks to a Thanksgiving in Parisian sleet, wandering Champs Elysees with no command of the language. Fortunately Montreal is 48% English-speaking...

Anyone else flirting with the idea of familiarizing themselves with a foreign tongue? Check out...

• iTunes Podcast language courses (because, TL sometimes the elliptical leaves you too winded to sing all the words to Love is a Battlefield), or for a more unorthodox approach...
• How to resurrect your high school Spanish
• How to learn any language in 3 months (poor guy held up well under Q&A after being approached at a conference by MIT students speaking multiple languages to test his claim)
• The apple is red... In case you don't have a bilingual row mate on your way to your exotic locale, see if someone took a crack at it in the comments section of this guy's blog

s10an in brief

Loved Manny's wordle adventure...

Gifted Games

Inaugural post for Gamasutra scores "Expert" and "Featured" status in less than 12 hours!

Let's hear it for the 4 P's and the awesome inspirational powers of Reid!

Music Appreciation 101: The Ramones

"The Ramones have a lot of 'I want' & 'I don't want'...

I don't wanna grow up, I don't wanna go down to the basement, I wanna be your boyfriend, I don't wanna walk around with you, I don't want you, I wanna live, I wanna be well, I wanna be sedated..."

-MSK

Right. I'll skip the lyrics and stick with "music to code to" Tag's Trip on SomaFM...

Game Changers #Cyberposium

HBS out did itself this year. Notable quotes by searching twitter against #Cyberposium. What words are verboten for RIM CEO Jim Balsillie? What does YouTube CEO Chris Hurley do with his 20% time?

The highlight of my day was obviously the gaming panel.

Below with a few paraphrased takeaways. Apologies for misattribution (panel format, so a few panelists agreed with most of these statements)

• Dan Scherlis (former CEO of Turbine): "My definition of 'Genre' is a hit game and its imitators... Over the years we've only seen a dozen or so successful genres." Notes the budget, time and success rate to construct a MMO are driving a lot of the industry veterans into more casual gaming options.
• Dan Kim (Nexon America): game life cycles are a critical part of strategy. An overnight "hit" with poor retention has a different ROI than a smaller install base and retention times measured in years.
• Chris Weaver (MIT & Bethesda softworks): Social games are a way to close the divide between social groups who have been geographically separated by greater mobility. Conversely social games can facilitate making new friends (i.e. MMOs). He hints at a depth of knowledge about game company leadership, funding sources, conspiracies, and conflicts of interest.
• Rich Roberts (PlayFirst): Assures us there is a place at the table for women in gaming. Warns that social platforms structured to make money their first priority are prone to make short-sighted monetization decisions (i.e. Offerpal). There is a limit to how much one can be incented to spam one's friends. Conversely, he notes that the writing is on the wall for retail distribution.
• Rob Nashak (Bringit.com): "Zynga's business is really a glorified poke." We are still finding creative ways to monetize games, like p2p wager platforms. Nashak also blew me away moderating the panel "Trends on Digital Media and Online Entertainment."

3 cheers for Leland!

Cambridge Politics: Grad Student Wins Triple Firsts

"He is set to become the first university student, first Asian-American, and the youngest current member of the Cambridge City Council, after winning the Nov. 3 election. In January, Cheung will be sworn in for a two-year term. He says his priorities are job creation, education, affordable housing, university/community relations, and transparent government"

SIP: Kidnapping Training

We had a surprising number of personal experiences with kidnapping shared in Rigobon's "Corruption" discussion this morning. These ranged from a Sloan Fellow's sister held hostage for 2 years in Caracas to an undergrad who'd been kidnapped in the midst of a MIT project on the India-Tibet border and carted into China by the military and held for several days.

I'd throw bid points behind the "Kidnapping Training" SIP class Beatka started as a joke but became increasingly compelling with discussion. Until then, oh intrepid G-Labbers and other globe trotters:

• Don't travel in a suit
• Don't frequent red carpet/admirals/etc. clubs
• Don't enter or leave the plane first (pegs you as a "business class" high net worth droog)
• Don't carry status symbols (elite credit cards, business cards with your title)
• Don't carry checks (they can hack you and your family's holdings across all accounts from this info)
• Don't lie (your kidnappers have more info about you than they let on to)
• Don't make eye contact (if you can ID them, you're dead... makes encountering them again at the village Carnavale more awkward)
• Familiarize yourself with MIT's International SOS service