Digital_Heirloom

“Networks are everywhere. The brain is a network of nerve cells connected by axons, and cells themselves are networks of molecules connected by biochemical reactions. Societies, too, are networks of people linked by friendships, familial relationships and professional ties. On a larger scale, food webs and ecosystems can be represented as networks of species. And networks pervade technology: the Internet, power grids and transportation systems are but a few examples. Even the language we are using to convey these thoughts to you is a network, made up of words connected by syntactic relationships.”

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We shape our tools and our tools shape us.” As more of the tools we live with every day become digital instead of physical, our opportunity – and responsibility – as designers is multiplying. We live in a world of screens, and we are the ones who decide what goes on them. We are in a unique position to have an impact – one that lasts longer than the next redesign or the latest technology. What happens when we stop thinking of ourselves not just as developers or experience designers, and take up the mantle as a new generation of product designers for a digital world?

Wilson Miner

On 8 November 2011, the Global Pulse team briefed the United Nations General Assembly on its Research Projects, Technology Toolkit, country-based Pulse Labs and its plans for the coming year. The briefing also featured a keynote address by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. This video is an edited version of the full 1.5 hour event and provides a summary of Global Pulse’s work in 2010.

Charlie Rose, journalist, and Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media, chat about media and advertising, including that the future most often happens with crackpots who are pre-startup, not with startups, and that successful enthusiasts are once-in-a-generation.

Creativity isn’t magic. Part three of this four-part series explores how innovations truly happen.

How can we let users guide design? frog Creative Director Thomas Sutton spoke on Open Innovation on the main stage at the Lift conference in Geneva, Switzerland. As opposed to focusing on tests and techniques to research and define exact consumer needs, Sutton explores the importance of cultivating empty spaces where people can innovate for themselves in a guided yet unconstrained process.

A reflection on what it means to be creative.

Gamestorming is a set of best practices compiled from the world’s most innovative people and companies, condensed into a lightweight, low-tech toolkit that applies tools and rules to the problems of collaboration and teamwork. The approach is a mashup of game principles, game mechanics and work. It’s a set of methods for inventors, explorers, and change agents. A practice made of people, paper and passion.

Gamestorm

What can extreme surfing and World of Warcraft teach the enterprise? Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge and former Xerox PARC Chief Scientist John Seely Brown holds them as examples of the power of frequent benchmarking and full industry info-share. He also uses them to show how the core ecosystem can be made stronger by sharing knowledge gathered from learning on the edge. In addition, Seely Brown touches upon his theory of a monumental economic shift from a push to a pull economy as outlaid in his 2010 book, The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion.

 

PSFK’s latest ‘Future Of’ report presents key trends in the mobile tagging space, so as to inspire marketers and their creative agencies about their future use of technologies that include QR codes, barcodes and Microsoft Tags in their branding activity and communication campaigns.

Mobile tags offer a unique opportunity for brands and their agencies to interact with potential and existing customers. These two dimensional barcodes can be applied to almost any surface and the information contained within them can be leveraged to create incentives and drivers that lead consumers along the purchase path.

By bridging the online-offline divide with a click of a mobile phone button, mobile tags can drive a brand or product’s awareness. In this report we look at how companies are using competitions and gaming to engage a new audience.