But Google became the most sucessful because, Google simply did one key service, searching/trawling the internet’s webpages and visitors, and they did it best by combining it with the wikipedian* belief that website visitors anonymously create the most legitimate vote. They performed that one service (with the help of that crazy alogorithm or something or the other that the cofounders worked on while at Stanford) , and did it with excellence. Everything else is built on top of that.

I think also Google ‘s success, much like things like craigslist, are invested in the belief of doing good by being good. Perhaps this explains why Google has chosen such a slogan like : “don’t be evil ” , which actually betrays a slightly more ironic stance than craigslist. “don;t be evil” or “don’t be the weakest link” (pun intended).

Thirdly, I am interested in the ‘brandless’ approach that Google had chosen to take at the get go. Intuitively astute decision (and maybe for tech geeks with no time for design frills, just a natural corollary) that makes ones presence even more ubiquitous in a world teeming with brands and logos.

* Wikipedian – the beliefe that the behavior of a critical mass of visitors allows the best and most accurate information possible.

I thought Don Shillingburg’s excercise with the squares was an excellent way to start any group/team project. The square on white paper excercise as a mock ‘charette’ allows people to express a stance on an objective matter and to learn what kind of perspective or place whence each person comes. I think it is the indirectness of talking about a disposable stand in (white pieces of paper and basic shapes) that allows people to be less conscious, and maybe less inhibited about what they think and say. I lthink purely conceptual excercises like this are lacking at ITP, and for such a team/ group oriented learning culture, it would be very helpful to introduce games like this at different levels.

Random urban wayfinding thought of the day: Don’t you HATE street signs that are white text on brown? Ok so maybe they appear quaint or whatever , but they are so difficult to read from a crowded distance compared to the ones that are white text on green. This just occurred to me the other day when I was around 32nd street and 5th ave, when the sign on the other side of green and white and the one on the other side (and was actually closer to me but still less legible) was brown and white.

I find Borden’s prescribed strategies of negotiation with the city to be conducive to Simmel’s description of the Metropolis. Borden, being from the Bartlett School of the Built Environment in London, conceptulizes a city that is more conducive to Simmel’s urban paradigm. And as Ari and Rachel pointed out in class, cities such as those in China and South America that have developed in a totally different scale, i.e. as megalopolises, Simmel’s paradigm doesn’t hold up well, if at all, in these cases.

I found Borden’s 10th tactic, play to be the tactic that seemed to best encapsulates

the spirit of his entire essay, which comes across as playful. Even the font chosen for the title of the essay had a retro, 90s sensibility that reminded me of the typeface used by the UK pop band Blur in the 90s. The title”The Good Life” even seems to me a sort of socratic riff off the album title “Park Life”, which was basically observations of the changing cityscape of London in the late 90s and early 90s.

Play is a concept that is often used in opposition to ‘work’, which is a topic my group in another class is currently grappling with. I find Borden’s espousing of this tactic to be validating, if not reassuring!

I find Borden’s prescribed strategies of negotiation with the city to be conducive to Simmel’s description of the Metropolis. Borden, being from the Bartlett School of the Built Environment in London, conceptulizes a city that is more conducive to Simmel’s urban paradigm. And as Ari and Rachel pointed out in class, cities such as those in China and South America that have developed in a totally different scale, i.e. as megalopolises, Simmel’s paradigm doesn’t hold up well, if at all, in these cases.

I found Borden’s 10th tactic, play to be the tactic that seemed to best encapsulates

the spirit of his entire essay, which comes across as playful. Even the font chosen for the title of the essay had a retro, 90s sensibility that reminded me of the typeface used by the UK pop band Blur in the 90s. The title”The Good Life” even seems to me a sort of socratic riff off the album title “Park Life”, which was basically observations of the changing cityscape of London in the late 90s and early 90s.

Play is a concept that is often used in opposition to ‘work’, which is a topic my group in another class is currently grappling with. I find Borden’s espousing of this tactic to be validating, if not reassuring!

I think I heard Angela and Ari say that they took a deliberately cynical, ironic or condescending stance for their interpretation of the photos of public space submitted by the class. Just for the sake of counterpoint, I’ll take an earnest stance. While the Herald Square DMV staff clearly meant business, they were relatively attentive and friendly. I think the space reflects their pragmatic realism.

Customer service is considered a duty, if not a matter of self-preservation. The photo posted on Flickr at 3261594479_f1eeffaca3_m.jpg tells it all: DMV customer service is all about making wayfinding explicit; ‘signaging’ FAQs as a way to shift responsibility for appropriate expectations to the customer; and expediting service (to the degree it’s within DMV’s control) as a way to acknowledge others’ valuable time and the limitations of staff and institution.

3261594479_f1eeffaca3_m.jpg