Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Here at Invoke, many of us are Star Trek fans at heart. Watching its rebirth this weekend, we were struck by its fresh approach, yet respectful nod to the “old” universe, and the casting was spot on. But it made us ask: if we could recast Star Trek with social media personalities, who would be who?

Pete Cashmore is Capt. James T Kirk. Like Kirk, Cashmore’s good looks make him popular with the ladies. However, Mr. Cashmore is also known for his intuitions about the future of social media. He looks before he leaps, and he trusts his gut. Are his conclusions always logical? No. Is he usually right? Yes.

Guy Kawasaki is Spock. Spock’s presence spans generations and timelines. Likewise, Kawasaki bridges different eras of social media. Working with Apple in the 80s, he brought the concept of evangelism to the high tech industry. Today, he is a well-known blogger, author, and well-followed Twitterer. Like our favourite Vulcan, Kawasaki’s approach is logical, calculated — and based on decades of wisdom.

Leo Laporte is Dr. Leonard McCoy. Like divorc?© Bones, Laporte has a history — in his case, working and operating one of the first Macintosh-only bulletin board systems in the 1980s. He also helped found C|Net. Not one to linger in sick bay, Leo Laporte often joins the Away Team, mingling with natives of various social media planets. Dr. McCoy arguably delivered the best dialogue in Trek; likewise Laporte delivers wise words in his TWiT netcast. Both men offer wisdom based on years of field experience.

Andrew Sorcini is Montgomery Scott. Just like Scotty, MrBabyman keeps on transporting the goods despite adversity. Algorithm changes and Digg community backlash notwithstanding, Sorcini continues to submit one popular Digg story after another. Just when you think his abilities may be waning, he beams up another miracle Digg story, and sends it into warp drive — and nobody knows how he does it. (But perhaps, if you’re lucky, he’ll clue you in on the Drill Down podcast.)

Kevin Rose is Hikaru Sulu. Ah, Star Trek’s resident pilot. Kevin Rose, his social media counterpart, is known for piloting numerous social online ventures, including Revision3, Pownce, Digg. On his weekly DiggNation podcast, Rose can be heard dueling with Alex Albrecht. Mr. Sulu was a trained fencer. Coincidence? We think not.

iJustine is Nyota Uhura. Both these women are powerful communicators. Uhura was Star Trek’s Communications Officer. Surely, iJustine should be someone’s Communications Officer — seeing how she racked up a 300 page iPhone bill. Like Uhura, iJustine has been dismissed as eye candy. But look below the surface, and you see a pioneer. And what, exactly, has iJustine helped pioneer? Lifecasting.

Ashton Kutcher is Pavel Chekov. Chekhov was brought into Star Trek as comic relief. Some have dismissed Ashton Kutcher as comic relief in his movies and on Twitter. But wait… Chekhov proved his value in Wrath of Khan when he faced off against Khan himself. Similarly, Kutcher showed his value when he faced off against CNN on Twitter. ‘Twas an epic battle.

Supporting acts:

Steve Jobs is Capt. Christopher Pike. Capt. Pike didn’t get his own series, yet Trekkies speak about him with hushed awe. Why? Because he was the first captain of the Enterprise. Likewise, Steve Jobs doesn’t blog, tweet, or digg. Yet, his legendary Stevenotes capture the imagination of everyone waiting for “one more thing”.

eBaum is KHAAAAN! No Star Trek film is complete without a villain, and Khan Noonien Singh is the ultimate Star Trek sh*t disturber. Likewise, eBaum is seen as social media’s villain. He’s been accused of copyright infringement, hosting content without creators’ permission, and outright stealing. Khan was removed from his ship and marooned on Ceti Alpha V, where he plotted his revenge. Similarly, eBaum was removed from his site eBaumsworld.com, and marooned on eBaum Nation — where he’s plotting his revenge.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Virals, just for fun, social media, trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.