A Whole New Mind
Saw this book referenced by Tom Peters (in his new 'essentials' book on design). We're biased, of course, but it might be a good read ... It's called 'A Whole New Mind' and here's an excerpt:
"The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind - computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind - creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people - artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers - will now reap society's richest rewards and share its greatest joys."
More on Dan Pink's site
Jennie Winhall | LINK | INTERESTING READING | COMMENTS (0)
RED Film 01: Health
This short film tells the story of our two RED health projects...view film.
(9 minutes / 8.8MB - Quicktime required)
Chris Vanstone | LINK | HEALTH PROJECT | COMMENTS (0)
DMI Innovation blog
The Design Management Institute (DMI) has just launched an innovation blog. I haven't tracked much of the content as yet but the site is set to feature 'visionary guest bloggers who will drive the innovation discussion' - may be worth keeping an eye on.
Jude | LINK | MISCELLANEOUS | COMMENTS (0)
Sustainable Language
idFX Magazine featured and article in the October edition regarding the Sustainable Design Forum. It's great that this is getting coverage and to update, the revised Scoping Report will be available in the next week. I am aware that people did have trouble downloading the original draft report form the rooster link on this blog. If anyone would like a pdf emailed do email Jude. But reading this idFX article I am moved to sigh. The attitude and language of the sustainability argument is all so caught up in using less, consuming less, wasting less, cutting back, restricting this and that and stopping all of the other. For anyone who is interested in a whole new dialogue of affirmative action go listen to Michael Braungart at the RSA on Wednedsay 9th November. I have heard him speak before and no doubt many will have read Cradle to Cradle. To really bring back the spring in your sustainability step and a sense of the wonders of possibility his lectures come highly recommended. Details on the RSA website.
Jude | LINK | SUSTAINABILITY | COMMENTS (0)
The whole web a blog
Flock is the first attempt to write a web browsing programme that is inherently interactive rather than relying on bolt-on elements for the interactive function. It is part of the movement known as Web 2.0 - the next 'version' of the internet. So the potential for collaborative models of web use - Amazon, eBay, Wikipedia - will now be much more far reaching.
The full article by Paul Mason is in the extended entry for the techno geeks out there.
READ MORE..."The whole web a blog"
READ MORE..."The whole web a blog"
Jude | LINK | OPEN SOURCE | COMMENTS (0)
Future Currents: design for a changing climate
The energy project website is now live and includes the scenarios, and a policy paper and recommendations that have arisen from the design work - we are keen for feedback - please do vote on the ideas and policies or contribute your own ideas.
Jude | LINK | ENERGY PROJECT | COMMENTS (1)
Zygmunt Bauman on open societies @ the LSE
A transcript of the Zygmunt Bauman lecture is now available on the LSE website for anyone who tried but couldn't get in last night.
Jude | LINK | OPEN SOURCE | COMMENTS (1)
Zygmunt Bauman on the demons of open society @ LSE
Zygmunt Bauman is speaking on the weakness of open systems at the LSE this Thursday 20th at 6:30. Check out the LSE website for details.
The lecture is free and part of the Melting Modernity series.
Jude | LINK | EVENTS | COMMENTS (0)
Specialist blog search launched on Yahoo!
We have recieved a number of enquiries from blog readers around the world asking for directions to equivalent resources in their respective countries. We do, from time to time, do a 'heads-up' entry if we come across new and interesting design related blogs, but going one further, Yahoo! has recently included a specialist search tool that will perform a keyword search of blogs as well as mainstream news articles and display relevant sites in a seperate list. Yahoo! are currently inviting bloggers to submit their site to the Yahoo index to be included in this search.
See this link for blogging submissions
Jude | LINK | OPEN SOURCE | COMMENTS (0)
It's not more power we need but smarter energy solutions...
Long article in The Guardian last week about nuclear resurgence but the final section was interesting for us:
Beaver and lobby away as the scientists and engineers might, it may, in the end, require brilliance from an entirely different direction to make the breakthroughs needed to keep the lights burning and the C02 emissions low over the decades to come. The country could comfortably do away with any pressure to build new nuclear power stations if only we bought and used energy in a smarter way.
What may be required is genius in accounts and marketing rather than nuclear physics or aerodynamics. One of the great failures of Britain's electricity market is that the companies which supply households with electricity compete to sell electricity at the lowest price, rather than competing to power, heat and light our homes at the lowest price. It's as if restaurants competed to stuff customers with the cheapest possible food without either party noticing or caring that, each time, two-thirds of the meal was left on the plate.
"Somehow or other, we've got to find a commercial answer that makes us money and makes our customers' lives better by them consuming less energy," says Skillings. "If I knew the answer, I could go away and collect my Nobel prize right now."
Jude | LINK | ENERGY PROJECT | COMMENTS (1)
Design defined
Just trying this out for size - comments....?
To design is to give shape, structure and form to an idea. Everybody designs in their everyday lives, whether they do so consciously or not.
Professional designers are trained to shape ideas in such a way that they become useful, usable and desirable to the people who will eventually make use of them. (A piece of communication must be informative, legible and visually compelling. A commercial product must perform its given function, be easy to use and be attractive to the consumer.)
Jude | LINK | DESIGN METHODS | COMMENTS (1)
Energy Project - Website Launch
The last week has seen a farewell from the RED team to 222b Lee High Road, and a completion of the research and ideas development phase of the work. To mark the occasion we invited the neighbours and the householders who had worked with us in our initial research to an open house and invited feedback on the ideas that we have been developing.
This feedback will be included in the final output for the project - a microsite (web address to be confirmed) covering the four themes that we have identified;
1) Home monitoring - Get in control
2) Rank and Reward - Get rewards for good energy deeds
3) Peer Power - Get together to get it done
4) Hot products - Top designers rethink energy saving
The website will be live at the end of this month and we are keen that you all take part, vote on the ideas and policies and contribute your own ideas. Please visit the website (details and link will be included here from the 14th October) or click "Contact RED" and send your contact details to be included in the launch emails which will direct you to the site.
Nick Morton | LINK | ENERGY PROJECT | COMMENTS (0)
From Andrew Taylor
I just heard Jennie Winhall interviewed on the Smart City radio show.
And one of the projects she described reminded me of another creative effort many years ago. She was discussing the effort to make home energy use more observable to homeowners, in an effort to reduce total emissions. It recalled a competition a while back to design a new home energy meter that would provide a more friendly and intuitive interface to a home's energy use. Here's a Wired article on some of the winners of the competition.
I was particularly intrigued with the Wattbug, which seemed an elegant way of attaching a personality to the energy feedback, and therefore encourage homeowners (especially children) to change their energy-use behaviors.
Just thought you and the team would want to know about this effort, if you didn't already.
Andrew Taylor
School of Business
University of Wisconsin-Madison
http://www.bolzcenter.org/taylor/
Jude | LINK | ENERGY PROJECT | COMMENTS (0)
