Two weeks have gone by and I've been missing from the blogosphere.
As goes for Brad Feld's blogging habits generally goes for me, absence usually means I'm busy at work or traveling. Right now, its the former. Lots of thoughts on what's going on in the Valley and in my favorite categories, mobile, financial services, and social enterprises which I'll try to post more about this week. AdTech starts tomorrow and I plan on stopping by the exhibition to see what's new in the world of ad networks. And despite Russel Beattie's departure from Mowser today and claim that "mobile [web] traffic just isn't there...and it won't be," I still think there's lots of interesting long-term potential for mobile browsing, particularly in places that don't have, or for people who don't typically use, PCs during the day. These markets may not be as exciting as the lucrative full-fledged web, but they might be sizable markets nonetheless.
But something else caught my eye today - Brad Feld's mom, Cecilia Feld, has an exhibition with photos from trips to Japan and India, two countries on the top of my mind this week after conversations with a friend who's spent a good deal of time in both places.
As she describes it, the countries strike a foreign observer as almost complete cultural opposites. The first being such a calm and methodically organized place, the later, a pressure cooker full of chaos and spontaneity.
Looking to history for the roots of such drastic differences, I would guess Japan's isolation and relative independence from the recurring land conquests for South Asia offer one explanation. India's geographically far-flung populace and centuries of division under alternating foreign occupiers meant it was never really one country but rather always hundreds of splintered groups. What a difference an ocean makes.
And somehow, I'm not sure I'd trade the excitement of India for all the spotless austerity of Japan...food for thought.
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