Interesting Reading 10/27
A Better World By Design - Upcoming Conference
http://www.abetterworldbydesign.com/
Design is a powerful tool. It makes technology accessible to the masses.
It sets apart innovative companies from also-rans. It is the single
leading force in the modern creative economy. But a growing number of
designers, engineers, and economists are suddenly realizing design's
massive potential to make the world a better place.
Of the 6.7 billion people on planet earth, half live on less than $2 a
day. One third lacks access to basic sanitation. This is a problem of
massive proportions. But most shocking is the realization that the design
solution is simpler and cheaper than any product designed for the
developed world.
At the same time, we notice with increasing alarm the rapidity of
environmental degradation. Climate change, deforestation, and pollution
challenge designers to consider sustainability at the core of their
practice. When approached with careful consideration, ecological design
has generated some of the most elegant works of our time.
What are designers doing to address these critical issues facing today's
world? How are engineers developing new technologies to improve life on
earth? Where are entrepreneurs finding surprising opportunities in this
mess? A Better World by Design will attempt to address these questions by
demonstrating what professionals and academics are doing to promote
sustainable development and change the world for the better.
Over three days, you will hear from dozens of industry leaders about novel
approaches and solutions to extreme poverty, access to basic resources,
and environmental degradation. Workshops will put theory to practice in
the spirit of engineering. And at night, get ready to let loose at our
mixer and gala!
Design for a better world is often user-centered, affordable, and simple.
As E.F. Schumacher famously put it, "small is beautiful." The urgency of
today's global crises is making this approach to appropriate technology
more relevant than ever.
--------
Microsoft Goes Far Afield to Study Emerging Markets
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/technology/companies/27microsoft.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin
Some of Microsoft's top researchers spend their time thinking about
complex software, algorithms and security systems. Others contemplate
azolla - an aquatic fern fed to cattle in the hopes of increasing milk
production.
The azolla experts are part of a nine-person team at Microsoft Research
India that approaches the technology of emerging markets in unconventional
ways. These computer scientists say they have the freedom to forget about
PCs and software altogether as they tackle problems. Most often, they rely
on a mix of sociology and empirical testing to see whether quirky ideas
can make technology useful to those who have heretofore lived without it.
A project called Digital Green, for instance, flourished only after
Microsoft tried a "Farmer Idol" approach - a rather rustic take on the
"American Idol" singing contest featuring local farmers.
--------
A Workbook on Doing Disruptive Innovation Effectively
http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/10/23/a-workbook-on-doing-disruptive-innovation-effectively/
The Innovator's Guide to Growth is the newest installment in a series of
books articulating and explicating Prof. Clay Christensen's theory of
disruptive innovation. This hands on guide packages some of the insights
developed as an outgrowth of the consulting work of Innosight, LLC, the
consulting firm founded by Christensen to pursue the practical insights
from his research at the Harvard Business School. If innovation is part of
your current or prospective job description, this needs to be on your
shelf (after you've read it, of course).
Christensen's theories of disruptive innovation appeared first with the
publication of The Innovator's Dilemma in 1997. During the worst excesses
of the dotcom boom, every start up business plan including an obligatory
head nod to Christensen and an assertion that their business model was
truly disruptive. Who doesn't want to be innovative; ideally disruptively
so. Christensen and his colleagues have continued to develop his theories
in The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth,
Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry
Change, and now The Innovator's Guide to Growth.
--------
What is a Design Attitude and Why Would a Manager Care?
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/fred-collopy/manage-designing/what-design-attitude-and-why-would-manager-care
Becoming a professional includes cultivating certain attitudes. And part
of what it means for managers to be designers in addition to being
analysts, leaders, and deciders is to cultivate an attitude that
complements the attitudes they have developed in those other roles. In the
opening chapter of Managing as Designing (Stanford University Press 2004),
Dick Boland and I summarized Nobel laureate Herbert Simon's arguments for
cultivating such an attitude.
"To summarize Simon's argument very briefly, humans have a limited
cognitive capacity for reasoning when searching for a solution within a
problem space. Given the relatively small size of our brain's working
memory, we can only consider a few aspects of any situation and can only
analyze them in a few ways. This is also true of computers, although the
constraints are less obvious. The problem space that a manager deals with
in her mind or in her computer is dependent on the way she represents the
situation that she faces. The first step in any problem-solving episode is
representing the problem, and to a large extent, that representation has
the solution hidden within it (pp. 8-9)."
In an article recently published in Organization Studies ("Uncovering
Design Attitude: Inside the Culture of Designers," 2008, pp. 373-392),
Kamil Michlewski reports on interviews that he did with 14 people at IDEO,
Philips Design, Nissan Design and Wolff Olins. His interview subjects had
training in industrial and interaction design (nine of them) and
management (three); one studied experimental psychology and computer
science and another was an historian and entrepreneur. The goal of the
interviews was to ascertain the characteristics of a design attitude. In
coding the interviews he came up with five core categories or themes.
Taken together they provide an interesting picture of what it means to
take on a design attitude.
The first theme is related to the role that designers play in
consolidating and reconciling contradictory meanings and objectives. This
includes blending the analytic and synthetic or balancing deep humanistic
understandings with technical considerationsÂ…
--------
Icharts - Public Beta Release
http://www.icharts.net/
I have previously mentioned ICharts. These are flash-based embeddable
charts that can be manipulated by users. The beta is now available where
you can view and manipulated sample charts.
--------
Tech Knowledge Key in Today's Workplace
http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/2008/10/27/technology-knowledge-key-in-todays-workplace/
New technologies have been the main catalyst for workplace changes since
2005. Demographic change (including a talent crunch) and the rise of the
knowledge economy are also key components but it was not until mobile
technology became powerful that major changes became more commonplace.
Technology enables workplaces to be flexible and workers to be mobile.
Demographic change and the rise of the creative economy makes this
desirable as maximizing the productivity and creative process of every
worker is essential - even or especially during economic slow down.
The International Association of Administrative Professionals offers tips
that actually apply to almost anyone working in a creative of
knowledge-based industry today. Everyone needs to understand the
technologies in the office, the tools and information available on the
Internet, and how to harness all of this.
