The Times comment page: Innovators just want to know that we care
By David Rowan
Now some good news. From gaming to graphic design, iPhone app programming to interactive advertising, Britain is undergoing an extraordinary blossoming of talent-led innovation. In film and fashion, product design and public art, international taste-makers are proclaiming Britannia cool again.
Maybe it’s because so many of our new stars express themselves digitally that our analog media are missing the story. The stakes, after all, could hardly be higher: in a sector valued at $1.8 trillion globally, the UK’s share is £60 billion a year — a vital balance of payments contribution.
So a government conference starting today, promoting “creative Britain” to international business leaders and policymakers, is an opportune moment to shout about the exciting work coming out of gaming, film-making and animation hubs in Birmingham, Brighton and Bristol (and that’s just the Bs).
But a valuable opportunity to promote fresh thinking should not be stifled by old-industry debates. Policymakers need to move on from demands to pursue file sharers and fight rearguard copy-protection battles, and listen to the creatives.
Face it: the internet has only just started to disrupt the existing order. What’s happened to music and newspapers is about to hit books, TV and every other industry whose output can be reduced to zeroes and ones. When existing business models are digitally upended, the smart response is to find innovative new ways to persuade consumers to pay.
Threats to block file sharers’ internet access are less likely to benefit content-producers long term than inventive, consumer-focused new business models, such as Spotify’s £10-a-month subscription to listen to music on your phone.
The creatives themselves are experimenting to find new revenue models. What they want is government policy that encourages such innovation. Because if, say, a “freemium” revenue model is found to work for a UK start-up such as Playfish — which gives away online games but successfully charges for pixellated extras — then let’s find the tax breaks and the political goodwill to nurture 100 more.
I spent the summer curating an exhibition of British creative talent that will accompany today’s conference. The most commonly expressed frustration I heard is that Britain’s games industry — bigger than film and TV combined — is off the ministerial radar. Games developers just want a little love and fewer ill-informed politicians dismissing their work as antisocial. That would be even better news.
David Rowan is editor of Wired magazine
The Times, Comment page, October 26 2009
Now some good news. From gaming to graphic design, iPhone app programming to interactive advertising, Britain is undergoing an extraordinary blossoming of talent-led innovation. In film and fashion, product design and public art, international taste-makers are proclaiming Britannia cool again.
Maybe it’s because so many of our new stars express themselves digitally that our analog media are missing the story. The stakes, after all, could hardly be higher: in a sector valued at $1.8 trillion globally, the UK’s share is £60 billion a year — a vital balance of payments contribution.
So a government conference starting today, promoting “creative Britain” to international business leaders and policymakers, is an opportune moment to shout about the exciting work coming out of gaming, film-making and animation hubs in Birmingham, Brighton and Bristol (and that’s just the Bs).
But a valuable opportunity to promote fresh thinking should not be stifled by old-industry debates. Policymakers need to move on from demands to pursue file sharers and fight rearguard copy-protection battles, and listen to the creatives.
Face it: the internet has only just started to disrupt the existing order. What’s happened to music and newspapers is about to hit books, TV and every other industry whose output can be reduced to zeroes and ones. When existing business models are digitally upended, the smart response is to find innovative new ways to persuade consumers to pay.
Threats to block file sharers’ internet access are less likely to benefit content-producers long term than inventive, consumer-focused new business models, such as Spotify’s £10-a-month subscription to listen to music on your phone.
The creatives themselves are experimenting to find new revenue models. What they want is government policy that encourages such innovation. Because if, say, a “freemium” revenue model is found to work for a UK start-up such as Playfish — which gives away online games but successfully charges for pixellated extras — then let’s find the tax breaks and the political goodwill to nurture 100 more.
I spent the summer curating an exhibition of British creative talent that will accompany today’s conference. The most commonly expressed frustration I heard is that Britain’s games industry — bigger than film and TV combined — is off the ministerial radar. Games developers just want a little love and fewer ill-informed politicians dismissing their work as antisocial. That would be even better news.
David Rowan is editor of Wired magazine
The Times, Comment page, October 26 2009
posted by David Rowan at Monday, October 26, 2009
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