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Older posts Newer posts
The Innovation Acid Test
April 14, 2008
A quick update from Butcher and Bandit…
Our various writings here over the past few months have ranged rather widely. Without initially intending to do so, we have become fascinated with and champions of the wonderful world of coworking. This is a community that we love and that we eagerly embrace.
Prior to our encounter with coworking, we [...]
Design 4
April 6, 2008
In a recent interview with Haydn Shaughnessy, gallery owner and writer for the Irish Times, I talked at length about the differences between design thinking and iconic design. As is often the case when people first encounter the somewhat vague notion of design thinking, they want to know how it differs from Design itself.
His [...]
Work, Re-Designed
March 25, 2008
For several months we have been documenting the rapid evolution of distributed work, generally, and the take-off of coworking, specifically. At this year’s SXSW Interactive, the evidence of coworking’s coming of age was clear to see.
We have used various analogies and metaphors to try and make sense of the coworking impulse, but sometimes we [...]
Note to Self… OLPC, My Starbucks Idea, NASA, Edison, Archimedes
March 24, 2008
Yves Béhar of Fuseproject pulls a 2008 Brit Insurance Design Award for his rugged, low-power laptop design for the One Laptop per Child project. I saw the laptop during a session at SXSW (pictures below). It (and the purpose it serves) rocks!
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.slideflickr.com/slide/nqLhOkuu" width="400" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Starbucks got into crowdsourcing (share/vote/discuss/see) with My [...]
Aquifer Design & Co-Innovation
March 20, 2008
A brief report from the other side of our business card: Aquifer Design.
Earlier today I was reading through the Innovation Channel at BusinessWeek.com, and I came across 2 different articles about open-innovation (Building Expertise Through Collective Innovation, and A Ripe Time for Open Innovation). Both articles address what we call co-innovation: That is, getting people from different design [...]
IDEO U.
March 17, 2008
Noel Tichy, Professor of Leadership and Management at the University of Michigan, suggests that effective leadership depends on having a teachable point of view. That is, if you don’t possess something (skill, knowledge, perspective, or some combination), then your ability to lead is greatly diminished.
Using this as a litmus test for leadership, I now realize [...]
Tribes Gather at SXSW
March 9, 2008
During a walk through the Enchanted Forest last night I blissfully reconnected with the parking lot. Drum circles, art, and incense in the air, the Burning Man/Grateful Dead tribe is well represented here at SXSW.
This triggers reflections on the connections, culturally and aesthetically, between generations and cultural movements. Many things have changed, indeed, and we have all survived [...]
The Innovation Acid Test
March 3, 2008
In the open and collaborative spaces that exist in the coworking community and other loosely formed business collectives, innovation is an organic happening. Communication and shared vision and values bring like-minded people and complimentary skills together. In large firms, it’s not so simple.
We’ve been railing here against lumbering corporate organizations that are locked [...]
‘Free’: The New Currency
February 29, 2008
In his recent Wired article, ‘Free,’ Chris Anderson talks about the economics of free. Anderson’s new book, due out in early 2009, will also be called Free, so we will hear all about this in due time. His core idea is important. How do businesses, so used to proprietary products and services, information control, and the [...]