Giving Thanks and Living for Good
Morning Muse from Futurepeak
The first thoughts in my mind this morning pictured a bike-pedaled-parent-pumping-swing-ride for kids that I saw at the Maker Faire last summer. Green technology, and blissed out kids, I think of it as a great metaphor for the ideal life.
There were four parents riding four bikes attached to four spokes of a very large gear in the center. The gears powered the hub of a sort of umbrella contraption which had swings on chains at the end of crane arms, and it all circled round like a merry go round. The smiles on those kids flying in their swings, plus the not always smiling faces of their parents powering their flight... all I can say is unforgettable.
For me, this is a symbol of the kind of philanthropy the web can empower. We can put a few strong people together, and that can help their favorite free riders to have a really positive experience. It is not charity, although it is a gift. It is a loving way to bring joy to others, but it takes a bit of work. That work is easier with the help of others. There is a match between people who are willing to be strong together for a good cause, and people who may grow into the next generation of strength.
There are no strings attached in this symbol, as the parents are willing to power the ride in faith that their efforts will benefit the children. And the children are free to be ungreatful in the long run, but we hope that the joy of the memory will be part of their own wisdom; And when they grow up, they will choose in a loving way to take their turns on the parental seats.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Invisible Design
Design is invisible when it works. The interface on my Macintosh is very carefully designed, but I don't even notice it. If it was buggy or poorly designed, I would notice it. It would annoy me and I wouldn't think much of the product. Without good design Macintosh wouldn't exist. (What about Windows, you might ask?) Getting back to the subject...
Good design IS invisible. We see it in nature all the time. The design of how trees branch works perfectly every time. You don't see some trees branching at the wrong angle or 'attempting' to branch. That design is built into the design of a whole system that extends not just to trees but also to nervous systems and coral reefs and root systems and neighborhoods.
We're talking about real objects here, but their design can be reduced to numbers or a c ode, just like the DNA code, which is a meta-program. In the case of trees branching, the code sequence is called the Fibonacci sequence. It is named after the man who invented it in the 12th century.
At some point a designer reaches a threshold where they realize that they cannot actually execute an idea that mimics nature without understanding math and programming. If you want to create an animation where trees branch realistically, then one way to do it is to simulate it visually on screen. But if you want to apply the meta-pattern to snowflakes, or raindrops or showing growth on a tree, it might be easier to figure out the code for it once, and then use it again and again. Similarly, if you want to change or impact the design of human consciousness, the meta-code you might turn to is DNA. The code of language impacts all of the above, and this code is more elusive, because we think we know what words mean. But it isn't called "spell" for nothing.
Good design is also visible in many everyday objects around us, frying pans, paper clips, wheels, cars. We are not stirred by the novelty of their design anymore because we're so used to them, but they are examples of good design that works. Our understanding of how to design things better has evolved, and keeps evolving over millennia because that's in the grand plan or 'design' of things. (Who designed that, you might ask?)
At different eras in human history the focus or emphasis was on different things-- Cave men were designing tools with stone, today it's more complex. But still design. Some designs have been perfected in their function, but stylistic differences keep evolving, like toasters, or bows and arrows. Others seem to evolve infinitely, like star systems or computer systems.
In our time, the design of the way we interact with our world and our environment is up for change. Massive change. The design of cities, transportation, economies and lifestyles will be completely overturend by the year 2050 if life on earth is to be sustained. And our best model for sustainable design is the invisible design of nature that has stood the test of billions of years.
Good design IS invisible. We see it in nature all the time. The design of how trees branch works perfectly every time. You don't see some trees branching at the wrong angle or 'attempting' to branch. That design is built into the design of a whole system that extends not just to trees but also to nervous systems and coral reefs and root systems and neighborhoods.
We're talking about real objects here, but their design can be reduced to numbers or a c ode, just like the DNA code, which is a meta-program. In the case of trees branching, the code sequence is called the Fibonacci sequence. It is named after the man who invented it in the 12th century.
At some point a designer reaches a threshold where they realize that they cannot actually execute an idea that mimics nature without understanding math and programming. If you want to create an animation where trees branch realistically, then one way to do it is to simulate it visually on screen. But if you want to apply the meta-pattern to snowflakes, or raindrops or showing growth on a tree, it might be easier to figure out the code for it once, and then use it again and again. Similarly, if you want to change or impact the design of human consciousness, the meta-code you might turn to is DNA. The code of language impacts all of the above, and this code is more elusive, because we think we know what words mean. But it isn't called "spell" for nothing.
Good design is also visible in many everyday objects around us, frying pans, paper clips, wheels, cars. We are not stirred by the novelty of their design anymore because we're so used to them, but they are examples of good design that works. Our understanding of how to design things better has evolved, and keeps evolving over millennia because that's in the grand plan or 'design' of things. (Who designed that, you might ask?)
At different eras in human history the focus or emphasis was on different things-- Cave men were designing tools with stone, today it's more complex. But still design. Some designs have been perfected in their function, but stylistic differences keep evolving, like toasters, or bows and arrows. Others seem to evolve infinitely, like star systems or computer systems.
In our time, the design of the way we interact with our world and our environment is up for change. Massive change. The design of cities, transportation, economies and lifestyles will be completely overturend by the year 2050 if life on earth is to be sustained. And our best model for sustainable design is the invisible design of nature that has stood the test of billions of years.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Design Renaissance: A Future Scenario
The word “Renaissance” means “Rebirth.” It images by connotation that something is dead, or to put it more positively, something is waiting to be born. For me, the word Renaissance brings back memories of the birth of a new creative spirit in Santa Cruz that stimulated us all to collaborate and create dynamic design solutions to some of the problems we face collectively and globally.
The idea that first put the Santa Cruz Design Center on the map in 2008 was their redefinition of “Design” as first and foremost a problem-solving discipline. They had their first international DESIGN RENAISSANCE SUMMIT in 2008. It was definitely a peak experience for me.
The summit had a unique format, guaranteed to provoke new ideas and collaborations. At the heart of it is the definition of a major design problem — usually a global issue — whatever’s current. In 2008 it was design solutions to make products more energy-efficient, in 2009 it was education, in 2010 it was the design of cities, and so on. The thing is, the problem was large enough that it called for the expertise of many different disciplines to solve it: design of new products, digital technologies, communications design. It was not a problem that could be solved by any one individual.
Working with IDEO—the design firm renowned for it’s expertise in creating innovative teams, and UCSC, the Santa Cruz Design Center put together a team of 12 “experts” in various fields from around the world, who were there to try and find solutions to the problem of the moment. SCDC hosted them at their flagship multimedia CREATIVE LAB which is a giant meeting room and state-of-the-art multimedia lab where the teams work together. The mass of people in the room ebbs and flows, as anybody attending the conference can walk in and contribute to a Brainstorming Session at the lab. Sessions have different members of the 12-team facilitating, so that new ideas keep moving.
Santa Cruz doesn’t have a conference center. Hence the whole town is a campus, with venues scattered all around: UCSC, Downtown, the West side, the Attic. There is a lively flow of “professional” tourists on Pacific Avenue going from venue to venue by shuttle bus. Apart from the 12 Around 1 team, there are DESIGN workshops, SPEAKER sessions, CREATIVE REJUVENATION spas, and of course, the highlight of the event, the thing that brought me to Santa Cruz in 2008, a design competition called HATCH YOUR IDEA which awards a 2-year free incubator ride, access to the Fab Lab, business advice and market launch services for the company with the best product design idea and business plan.
In 2008, the award was given to me, Jon Trice, and my company INSOLAR for our invisible solar cells made with nano-molecules. We pioneered a more efficient way to harness renewable energy, and also revolutionized architecture. We had been trying to get funded but everyone thought we were too risky. Like so many pioneering solutions ours went unrecognized at first—it needed that panel of global experts to recognize that our idea was a great one, We couldn’t have gone to market with the speed and efficiency and certainty that we did without the resources SCDC created for our start-up to hatch in. We moved out of the incubator in 2010, but none of us wanted to leave Santa Cruz, so our new offices are on the West side, just minutes from everything, including the beach.
How did SCDC pay for all this, you might ask? Well, their idea was very well “designed”, timely and universal enough in its application that it won a major industry/university federal grant for its launch. Today, while still functioning on grants, the SCDC also gets a percentage of the profits of the companies it “hatched”, not to mention membership fees. And these days everyone wants to be a member of the SCDC.
2012 is the 5-year celebration of the SCDC Renaissance. A shuttle bus goes by with the slogan DESIGN RENAISSANCE painted on the side. People are wearing DESIGN RENAISSANCE t-shirts and caps, many of them created by local artists who uniquely interpret the idea in their own style. DESIGN RENAISSANCE has been adopted by Santa Cruzers and visitors alike.
After all, who wouldn’t want to be part of a Renaissance?
I wrote this in 2006, when I was a part of the Vision Team for the Santa Cruz Design Innovation Center. It still holds true for me today.
The idea that first put the Santa Cruz Design Center on the map in 2008 was their redefinition of “Design” as first and foremost a problem-solving discipline. They had their first international DESIGN RENAISSANCE SUMMIT in 2008. It was definitely a peak experience for me.
The summit had a unique format, guaranteed to provoke new ideas and collaborations. At the heart of it is the definition of a major design problem — usually a global issue — whatever’s current. In 2008 it was design solutions to make products more energy-efficient, in 2009 it was education, in 2010 it was the design of cities, and so on. The thing is, the problem was large enough that it called for the expertise of many different disciplines to solve it: design of new products, digital technologies, communications design. It was not a problem that could be solved by any one individual.
Working with IDEO—the design firm renowned for it’s expertise in creating innovative teams, and UCSC, the Santa Cruz Design Center put together a team of 12 “experts” in various fields from around the world, who were there to try and find solutions to the problem of the moment. SCDC hosted them at their flagship multimedia CREATIVE LAB which is a giant meeting room and state-of-the-art multimedia lab where the teams work together. The mass of people in the room ebbs and flows, as anybody attending the conference can walk in and contribute to a Brainstorming Session at the lab. Sessions have different members of the 12-team facilitating, so that new ideas keep moving.
Santa Cruz doesn’t have a conference center. Hence the whole town is a campus, with venues scattered all around: UCSC, Downtown, the West side, the Attic. There is a lively flow of “professional” tourists on Pacific Avenue going from venue to venue by shuttle bus. Apart from the 12 Around 1 team, there are DESIGN workshops, SPEAKER sessions, CREATIVE REJUVENATION spas, and of course, the highlight of the event, the thing that brought me to Santa Cruz in 2008, a design competition called HATCH YOUR IDEA which awards a 2-year free incubator ride, access to the Fab Lab, business advice and market launch services for the company with the best product design idea and business plan.
In 2008, the award was given to me, Jon Trice, and my company INSOLAR for our invisible solar cells made with nano-molecules. We pioneered a more efficient way to harness renewable energy, and also revolutionized architecture. We had been trying to get funded but everyone thought we were too risky. Like so many pioneering solutions ours went unrecognized at first—it needed that panel of global experts to recognize that our idea was a great one, We couldn’t have gone to market with the speed and efficiency and certainty that we did without the resources SCDC created for our start-up to hatch in. We moved out of the incubator in 2010, but none of us wanted to leave Santa Cruz, so our new offices are on the West side, just minutes from everything, including the beach.
How did SCDC pay for all this, you might ask? Well, their idea was very well “designed”, timely and universal enough in its application that it won a major industry/university federal grant for its launch. Today, while still functioning on grants, the SCDC also gets a percentage of the profits of the companies it “hatched”, not to mention membership fees. And these days everyone wants to be a member of the SCDC.
2012 is the 5-year celebration of the SCDC Renaissance. A shuttle bus goes by with the slogan DESIGN RENAISSANCE painted on the side. People are wearing DESIGN RENAISSANCE t-shirts and caps, many of them created by local artists who uniquely interpret the idea in their own style. DESIGN RENAISSANCE has been adopted by Santa Cruzers and visitors alike.
After all, who wouldn’t want to be part of a Renaissance?
I wrote this in 2006, when I was a part of the Vision Team for the Santa Cruz Design Innovation Center. It still holds true for me today.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Building a Community based Business Model
Awake Me Now!
Awake Media is an entrepreneurial startup company based in Santa Cruz California. In October 2008, we established our headquarters at the NextSpace facility on Cooper Street in downtown Santa Cruz. In January, 2009, we intend to formally declare our status as a California LLC or S-Corp, and during 2009 we intend to create media jobs in Santa Cruz, offer design and internet services, and create cutting edge entrepreneurial income opportunities, media products, and revenues from a number of media related sources.Currently, there are three principals doing business as Awake Media.
Founder and Creative Director Lakshmi Narayan is a world class internet business strategist, brand designer, art director, flash and web developer, and media professor at Cabrillo College. She has been an independent Designer/Artist and Strategic Internet Marketing Consultant with Narayan Design for 20 years, and has an impressive list of clients and a valuable body of work in her Design portfolio.
Co-Founder and Director of Business Development Marian Sun McNamee-Lundell is a producer/artist, writer/director, mentor and media entrepreneur at Virtual World Studio since 1992. She has mastered more than 100 different media production programs, produced numerous video/web/DVD and print products, and directed talent to fulfill client contracts for diverse media products and productions. She is a renaissance talent who brings a vast knowledge and experience to the business of helping clients monetize their business with digital media.
Chief Networking Director Allan Lundell is a long time silicon valley journalist, videographer, computer guru, technology researcher, creative consultant, and high tech talent scout. As Co-Founder and CEO of Virtual World Studio, he has kept the company on the cutting edge of new technology innovation, and he has cultivated quite a reputation for his “video verite” style of real life video documentary. He is a networker’s networker, and has collaborated on creating, documenting, and webcasting many conferences, websites, virtual worlds, and visionary media projects. In his spare time, he is also the co-founder (with Bruce Damer), and chief video archivist of the DigiBarn Computer Museum in Boulder Creek.
AwakeMedia, Roots in the Future
At Awake Media, we have been defining our business strategy and relationships during 2008, and have been making ourselves ready to join forces for the future development of our efforts in 2009. At this time, our most important clients at Awake Media are a number of local businesses and educational non-profits who need our help to design their web presence and marketing strategy, and cultivate the ability to use video in their community organizing and business development. We have clients who would like to offer their products and services via the internet, learn the appropriate media skills, and who would like to develop a way to monetize these activities, and also cultivate an online social network to establish and expand their business.
We have several opportunities to create a strong client base with enduring long term revenues, and we would like to capitalize the business for the first two years so we could have a staff of computer professionals to fulfill the needs of our clients. As our existing crew of media professionals is comprised of the talent to perform the work, direct others, and teach people to acquire these skills, we are in a good position to develop a strong talent pool for an expanding opportunity.
We intend to bootstrap our way to a recession-proof business using a revenue model which brings a lot of wealth, success, and entrepreneurial support to our Santa Cruz community. We will be facilitating the creation of a new kind of business model which will serve our own organization, and simultaneously, many clients who will join in our circle of networked small businesses who support each other’s success.
Our business model.
There are a number of components to our business model. First, there is the Professional Social Network. People are familiar with this term from MySpace and Facebook, but there are new refinements in this concept that are ripening even as we speak. For our purposes, a professional social network is a group of people who join a membership circle which is devoted to helping drive business to the members of that social network. The members can benefit by providing products, services, customers, and opportunities for strategic alliance and profitable collaborations to others in the network. It is easier to find the local people you need when there is a local referral network to search, and when you can ask someone you know for a recommendation. Additionally, it is easier to develop a custom team of specialists that can work together and fulfill your needs as your business needs grow. These will be the benefits of our social networks over a more generic social group such as Facebook.
Next, there are the online business opportunities. Every member of the Awake Media professional network will be able to establish an online business which they can use to deliver products, services, live events, and cross marketing referrals. We will design and educate ourselves to create many revenue streams among the member businesses.
We will make use of the Wholelife.com internet business support technologies to offer any or all of these turn-key online storefronts. The Wholelife model offers Commerce Nodes, Media Nodes, Community Nodes, Philanthropy Nodes and Personal Nodes as off the shelf templates for doing business directly through the internet. These nodes are "ready to go" to help individuals gather contacts for an online marketing mailing list or subscriber base. The faces of these nodes are easy to customize in order to offer products and services for sale online. Affiliate marketing of Brands and Product lines are supported in the commerce networks. Commerce node online orders can be delivered locally by courier services, or they can be delivered anywhere in the world via traditional mail services. Media node seminars and events can be delivered live to a subscription audience who can attend via computer, and ultimately also by cel phone. Community awareness, political activism, and philanthropy campaigns can be supported with online strategies that connect communicators with their people networks. And the personal nodes, like Facebook, will allow people to keep track of their friends, families, and cohorts with live feeds and shared posting spaces.
Awake Media, the Business
We offer knowledge, know-how, contacts, and customization. Our job is to consult with clients, design their online strategy, create their unique brand image and web presence, develop their media products, and support their efforts with online tools. We are a one stop shop, and we will attach the talent needed for every aspect of the job.
Our Awake Media professionals and customizable design templates will be available (at a discounted price for Wholelife Social Network members) to fulfill the design and customization needs of our client’s online businesses. Our commerce clients can use our help to get their products online, and to grow the online components of their business. Our media clients can use our services to produce and sell books, DVDs, live events, and other media products. Our philanthropy and activist networks can use our offerings to solicit charity, or bring attention to their current activities with as much or as little help from our staff as needed..
Awake Media is a resource for audio and video support for budding media nodes. We can consult and set up a client’s web/video studio by providing a gear list and budget, or we can offer use of our own video studio by appointment for local podcasters, or we can provide a video crew for live coverage of on location events.
The great thing about Awake Media is that our business grows step by step with our client’s success. We are all connected. The internet is here to serve the web of life, and we are happy to help create a win win scenario where we can all invest in the success of our community, our locality, and our planet. That is our vision.
Posted by Sun MacNamee for Strategic Alliance Meeting with Wholelife Connect, Inc.
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