I've been following a series of discussions lately, all of which revolve around the concept of "localization". I suppose I should make clear some of my definitions up front:- Location - A physical place which has psychological resonance with people living and working in that place.
- Localization – Specific materials, place brands, website content, etc., that capitalize on a location’s psychological resonance with its inhabitants
- Geographies – The boundaries that separate locations from each other. These boundaries are often physical and more often are psychological due to localization factors.
However, until we make teleportation as cheap and dependable as broadband, I and most everyone else suffers the following limitation:
I can get the world into my computer but I can't get myself into the world.
This is a serious drawback when you want to give someone a sense of location. Let me give you some examples:
- Seeing the Sistine Chapter on screen is nice, being there? So much better!
- Seeing the King's Table on the Isle of Skye on screen? So-so. Walking it? Whoa!
- Seeing a video or image of Greenland lit by the moon as seen from a jet flying 30,000 feet above on a screen? The mere thought makes me laugh. Seeing it from the jet? My throat still chokes up.
- Seeing the Grand Canyon, even in IMAX? Yeah, it's breathtaking. Seeing it from it's own edge? Just forget about breathing for a while.
- Seeing the Northern Lights on TV or YouTube or some such? Yeah, it's nice. Seeing it from our property? You can believe the Inuit tales of SnowWalker.
The box of the mind, however? Infinite capacity.
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
I'll be speaking at the San Francisco April '07 Emetrics Summit on Quantifying and Optimizing the Human Side of Online Marketing on May 7, 2007. Come on by and say hello.
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