• How to Turn Research into Innovation Gold - BusinessWeek
  "You did the interviews, got the photos, and compiled the reams of data. Now what? A Steelcase experience could guide your next innovation project"

  Not very deep but a good quick reading assignment.

  
  
  (tags: designresearch ux research methods teaching)
  
  

Ben Gaulon of Recyclism and Katherine and I are running a joint workshop at ISEA 2009 in Dublin, Ireland on August 22nd at the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art. Workshop is 30 EURO (for basic materials, etc..) or 25 EURO for Students - CHEAP!

We’ve put together this signup form so you can sign up for our workshop, please enter your info below.
Details about the workshop are here.

“DATA Workshop 4.0: Scrapyard Challenge meets E-Waste Workshops”

Participants will build simple electronic projects (both digital and analog inputs) out of found or discarded “junk” (old electronics, clothing, furniture, outdated computer equipment, appliances, turntables, monitors, gadgets, etc..) in order to create audio/visual outputs. At the end of the day, the workshop participants will demonstrate and present their creations in a performance / presentation open to the public. No electronics skills or any experience with technology is necessary to participate in the workshop

mach zehnder modulator

• David Barrie
  Metaphor is one useful link between the online and off:

  "How might online social media bridge communities and network local life in a collective way, much like an allotment site rather than a landscape of fenced private gardens?"

  
  
  (tags: metaphor community garden urban)
  
  
• 
  
  David Barrie: Urban agriculture - or fields of gold in the city
  
  
  "How about reviewing those renewal strategies based on physical, social and cultural build and write a Five Year Crop Plan?"
  
  
  (tags: agriculture architecture art culture design urban)
  --> Read more...

Web Designer extraordinaire, Jeffery Zeldman (half-seriously) reveals the secret of successful project management:

The trick to great projects, I have found, is (a.) landing clients with whom you are sympatico, and who understand language, time, and money the same way you do, and (b.) assembling teams you don’t have to lead, because everyone instinctively knows what to do.

One can only wonder what prompted the comment.

read more

thehumanprinter creates CMYK prints of your photos by hand.

Unlike any other printer thehumanprinter creates unique, individual images each time it prints. Following the same process as a digital printer, thehumanprinter generates the printed product by hand. Throughout the printing process thehumanprinter assumes the role of the machine and is therefore controlled and restricted by the process of using CMYK halftones created on the computer.

Pretty Back-to-the-Future-esque, but the church in our hometown (Medway, MA) was struck by lightning and caught on fire!  (this morning, me thinks)

Apparently moments later the the steeple FELL OFF and crashed on the ground.

Big Dig & JJ got the call while they were out having breakfast (JJ’s home for a wedding).  They ditched pancakes just in time to take this pre-steeple-collapse pic.

More pics here.

(via jonathan crowley)

Okay, the kerning is off, but it’s still pretty cool.

• Universal Everything’s Forever Video Installation Is Enchanting | Design & Innovation | Fast Company
  Beautiful public video installation.
• Apple to Rate Your Karaoke Singing on Your iPhone? – Mac Rumors
  Soon I'll be able o practice "Wanted Dead or Alive" on the subway ride to work? Yes PLEASE.
• iPhone App UX Review: NY Times vs. USA Today
  Nice walkthrough both iPhone sites.
• Location, Location, Location | mobiForge
  Great post illustrating how to pull location data into the browser. This will be big soon (via @flytip)
• 6 Gorgeous Twitter Visualizations
  Exactly what it says. I'll never get sick of Twistori, btw.
• Portland invites visitors to ask questions on Twitter – USATODAY.com
  I thought this would be a nice companion link to the story about NYC opening up its data. Excited to see more of this stuff.

Officially opens 12 July. Note that Jessica and I are also giving a talk at the Sneak Preview next Friday 10 July…

From One, Many

The Museum of Wisconsin Art is proud to showcase some of the state’s best printmakers in

“FROM ONE, MANY: Contemporary Wisconsin Prints”

This is an original MWA exhibition and the range of print media will be matched only by the diversity of artists: established practitioners will be on display beside younger, up-and-coming artists.

Sneak Preview Friday July 10th, 10:30AM featuring an artist talk with collaborating exhibitors Jessica Meuninck-Ganger and Nathaniel Stern.

Exhibit will run July 10 - Aug. 30

Attists exhibiting are:

John BALSLEY, Larry BASKY, Brad CORSO, Bob ERICKSON, Ray GLOECKLER, Lisa HECHT, John HITCHCOCK, Jayne REID JACKSON, Dara LARSON, Gregory MARTENS, Colin MATTHES, Jessica MEUNINCK-GANGER, Mark MULHEARN, Frances MEYERS, Dorota BICZEL NELSON, Michael NITSCH, Gaylord SCHANILEC, Paula SCHULZE, Jan SERR, Nathaniel STERN, Christine STYLE, Ken SWANSON, Paul YANK and Rita YOON

caro:

Weren’t some people talking yesterday about CAPTCHAs that made great band names?

I’m on Twitter… Follow me here… i update my feed more than this blog…

• @Platea: Tales from the Stweets
  from tinkerkid
  (tags: art urban publicspace)

Just got word that I have been accepted for a NEA International Media Artist/Filmmaker Residency at Squeaky Wheel for this Fall.  I’ll be creating more toys for Alchemy of Light.

• Home | RUAF - Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security
  (tags: agriculture urban sustainability food gardening development farming environment)
• Neighborgoods - Coming Soon!
  "Why buy when you can borrow? Chances are, whether it's a power drill, snowboard or margarita machine, someone you know has exactly what you need, collecting dust in their closet. Save (and earn) money by sharing stuff with your friends and neighbors."

  In alpha. Just signed up for updates.

  
  
  (tags: sustainability domestic consumption)
  --> Read more...

New York, June 30, 2009 - ­Th­e New York City Council is considering a legislative proposal, Intro. 991, that would improve public access to “raw data” held in city databases. Yesterday, in testimony before its Technology in Government Committee, headed by Council Member Gale Brewer, Connecting.nyc Inc. urged the use of the .nyc TLD in facilitating access and management of city databases.

In essence, we urged that the city think of a database as a thing, similar to a bench, a tree, a light post, or fire hydrant. And that a .nyc domain name be assigned to each database. The great thing about giving a domain name to each database (or other “thing”) is that you can then have a conversation about that database.

For example, think about the police department’s crimes database, and let’s take Mayor Bloomberg’s lead and call it “­crimes.data.nyc.” By giving it an intuitive name - http:/ /www.crimes.data.nyc - ­you facilitate the work of ­programmers, but you also create a market place for that database. So at the crimes.data.nyc­­ URL you would find: ­

• Detailed description of the data
• A link to download the raw data
• An ongoing conversation of how it “might” be used if only this or that was changed or added
  --> Read more...

Katherine and I are both invited faculty for the GOSH Summit next month at the Banff Centre in Canada. GOSH = Grounding Open Source Hardware - and it should be an interesting place to meet people involved in this growing field as well as work on some potential projects during the week. If you are going, we look forward to meeting up! More about this event as we get closer to the date.