I was playing around on YouTube a couple days ago and came across this real life adaptation of the cartoon The Simpsons.

Actually, it is only a real life adaptation of the show’s introduction but it is still quite fun to watch. Anyhow, this Simpsons sketch got me thinking about how innovation allows real life to imitate art, in this case a cartoon.

It would be very cool to see a real life version of the Simpsons introduction acted out by people from various non-Western countries; for example, I wonder how someone in Iran or DPRK (North Korea) would not only interpret the introduction but also get access to Nuclear power plant footage?

I guess they might rip footage/photo from the web, perhaps from Flickr or Amazon?! The point I’m getting at has nothing to do with greater cultural understanding, but rather how Web2.0 innovations (or innovations leading up to Web2.0) have slashed open regional boarders, truly making the sharing of information a global reality.

The question is, do we really need localized content sites? Or maybe it is, can a venture like YouTube service the entire world? These are important questions especially in light of the increasing popularity of community centric sites, such as Craigslist; important because, at least in China, we are seeing countless numbers of “me-YouTube-too” type of sites (i.e. US/EU hatched, China transplanted). Perhaps the answer is localization is good for something, like personal advertisement, and bad for other things, such as video hosting (where the volume, quality and scale rule the roost).

I’ve heard the arguments that some people want to have servers based locally (why?), or foreign companies just don’t get local culture (hello, I thought we were in age of user generated content? ever heard of tagging?) but I’m not convinced, I’m fading this line of reasoning big time.

Not to be overly harsh but at this point in China’s investment/development cycle I just don’t see any upside gained from investing in a country specific (e.g. China) video/blog hosting venture(s) – so hold onto your business plans for a more sympathetic ear…

Doh!