Not So Much a Region, but an Attitude

David Card | April 27, 2007, 10:14 AM

Classic. Rather than build a product, old media is at least equally focused on patenting a technology. Yes, I'm just back from the left coast -- Pacific NWest, actually -- and feeling grumpy after meeting with a lot of smart people who are actually working on solving interesting problems.

News Corp. says it hopes to patent a technology that will allow for the digital insertion of ads and promos on Fox network and cable programs that people watch days later on a digital video recorder. News Corp. hopes to test the technology soon, says Andrew G. Setos, president of engineering for Fox Group.

What smart creative people do:

- Silicon Valley & points north: work on solving interesting problems
- Southern California: fight foolish battles between art and commerce
- East Coast: worry about office politics, where their kids will go to school, and how to get richer, while maintaining their ironic distance