China and Japan: So Close But Yet So Far
The Pew Global Attitudes Project recently conducted a survey of citizens of Japan, China, Pakistan, and India. Conclusion: These people don’t like each other all that much. Between contested territories, …
Culture
Soccer vs. Football, via ESPN
I always have wondered what Europeans would call US football if and when it became popular over there. Apparently, I’m not alone and ESPN has a solution to that pesky …
Think Globally; Wait Locally
The New York Times has an entertaining piece on culture and its role in how long people are apt to wait in line. The article focuses on the new Disney …
Australia is “Strongest Nation Brand”; US is Slipping
The second installment of the Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index is out and the rankings have changed significantly, largely due to the fact that the survey now includes more countries (25 …
The Globalization of Punctuation
Do you display your phone number with dashes or periods? ie: 555.555.5555 or 555-555-5555 The punctuation you choose says a lot about your company (or maybe just your choice of …
What’s Your Nation Brand Index?
Simon Anholt is the author of Another One Bites The Grass and Brand New Justice, two books that don’t get nearly the amount of attention they should. I’m glad to …
Disney Acting Local in Hong Kong
The NY Times has a great article about the making of Disneyland Hong Kong It looks like Disney learned some painful but important lessons about the importance of localization from …
The Book is Flat: A Review of “The World is Flat”
Perhaps I expected too much. I loved The Lexus and the Olive Tree, and when I heard the title of Tom Friedman’s new book back in the fall, I got …
Welcome to Gaeltacht
What is it about the resurgence in “minority” languages around the world? Probably the inevitable backlash against the spread of globalization in general and English in particular. Now it is …
Hawaiian Language Hip Again
Here’s an interesting article about the resurgence of the Hawaiian language. I’ve seeing similar instances of this phenomenon in other parts of the world. It seems that just when a …
When Colors Clash
An interesting article in the Times (now locked down, I’m afraid) on the role that color is playing in social and political revolutions around the globe. The Ukraine revolution became …
Globalization Hurts; Globalization Helps
Here’s a good article on the upsides and downsides of this thing called globalization. And a few excerpts that jumped out at me: In recent years, about 100,000 software-writing jobs …
Getting to Know Global IA
I’m at the IA Summit in Montreal and have been pleased to find that IA (information architecture) professionals are tackling the challenges of content globalization in a big way. And …
To Every Country A Sesame Street
According to the AP, a “Bengali version of the longrunning American children’s programme Sesame Street will be broadcast from April featuring Muppet characters drawn from Bangladeshi folklore.” Sesame Street is …