Thor Ter Kulve Hacking The Public Realm

Graduate Thor Ter Kulve has produced a collection of ingenious ‘interventions’ that hack and remodel the public space, turning previously benign objects into thoughtful comments on our use of the public realm. Thor writes “For my graduation I designed a collection of products that reshapes and redefines our public space. By using well known products I want to show what is possible with what already exists”. His work draws attention to our transient relationship with public spaces, where city and town planning is geared towards strict codes of conduct. A model that clearly defines the distinction between transit and play; the footpath and the park, and draws heavy onto our public landscape the commercial arteries…

ReMake Detroit Cities For The People

Feeling a real sense of something important happening in Detroit and there Maker Spaces. Remake Detroit is a little film about what happens to communities in a post industrial landscape. Where the power shifts from mass manufacturing and the economies of scale to the micro economies of knowledge sharing and personal/community empowerment.

Now Then Magazine Impossible Project

Earlier this year I interviewed Impossible Project Co-founder Florean Kaps for my article in Now Then Magazine about rise of analogue media and the business opportunities it presents to those with vision and commitment to a project. “We see our products creating and forming a unique niche market for passionate people, who choose our products besides everything the digital market is offering them.” Florean Kaps, Impossible Project co-founder. Its snapshot heritage is steeped in the nostalgia of the coffee table photo album, its square edges capturing the faded sepia tones of childhood and the painterly sun-drenched landscapes of winding road trips. The instant clunk and wind of a Polaroid camera, a sturdy and mechanical action reassuring in its weighty…

Collaborative Consumption Thoughts On Co-spaces

Crowdsourcing and mapping. There have been some incredible open access crowdsourced mapping projects happening recently, which take data from public sources and willing participants to create useful and interactive ways to share information. From Aid organisations to artists programmers the humble map has now become an inventive and sometimes radical tool in the arsenal of community focused users. Some interesting projects that have caught my eye include What Was There a social history project where users upload personal images and map the events and stories which happen within their towns and cities. On a larger scale RDTN.org is interactive map documenting radiation levels across Japan after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster. The project pulls information from the The Japanese…

Simple Philanthropy Built Into Your Business Model

A brilliant idea. 1% of Nothing. So simple its scary. Encourageing philanthropy in business from day one, 1% of Nothing connects startups and founders to causes to which they can donate 1% of their equity. If and when that company gets acquired, goes public, etc., that equity then turns into cash for that cause, instantly. The idea was hought up by Matt Galligan and Shervin Pishevar after strolling into the wrong talk at a conference, a serendipitous story which can read here on their site. The reason I get excited about projects like this is because they ignore old models and change the way we think about doing business. The quietly understood mantra of old is to ‘get yours before you…

Creativity In Education You’re Doing It Wrong

With over 7 million hits this 2006 TED talk from Sir Ken Robinson has struck a cord with people the world over. The topic is EDUCATION and the stake couldn’t be higher. Here Sir Ken talks about the importance of creativity in our schools, the smart people understand that its through creativity that our passions and in tern our businesses can flourish. Now I work with a lot of business people who get very nervous about the word ‘creativity’ they like the word ‘innovation’ but seem bemused at the thought that innovations have to come from somewhere other than a 5 minute monday morning feedback session after the yawn stiffling 2 hour management meeting. In…

Seth Godin Marketing In Bite Size Chunks

So next up on the list of tasty brain snacks is Seth Godin. I wouldn’t recommend trying to eat him up whole but you can find his ideas shared in the easily digestible formats of book / blog / video and audio book. A mixture of marketing genius and self help guru Seth Godin has offered frameworks that support our understanding of the post TV read/write world. A world where advertisers can no longer command our attention simply by asking for it, a world where the consumer demands respect and authenticity. He developed the burgeoning idea of permission marketing and refined the thesis in his book Permission marketing: turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers…

Fast Company. Great Reads Over Coffee

FastCompany.com is a regular read for me in the morning with a coffee. With its simple clean format and unique editorial focus on innovation in technology, ethonomics (ethical economics), leadership and design, Fast Company dish out generous servings of forward thinking content that highlights new and emerging business practices and game changing innovations. Heres a taster (also a plug for Google+) but a great story all the same. The Dalai Lama’s Social Network Of Choice “A few weeks ago, the Dalai Lama was invited to Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday party. The South African government, however, had other ideas, and denied him a visa to visit the country. The government refused to give an answer, but…

Inspiration From The Do Lectures

Inspiration from the Do Lectures. The idea is simple, DO. The Do Lectures which are freely available online are jam packed full of inspiring stories, well earned wisdom and advice. This tiny band of Do People come together every year on a small farm in Cardigan, Wales to talk about how they do what they do. These are people who make ACTION the only logical step after the IDEA. People who can’t sit on their hands, who have to move to keep motivated and Do to get to the next level. In this world the only way forward is to strive to constantly do it better. Each speaker takes us on a journey through there personal, business,…

Royal Society Journal Archive Free Online

The Royal Society has announced that its world-famous historical journal archive has been made permanently free to access online.  The archive includes the first ever peer-reviewed scientific journal ’Philosophical Transactions’ pub 1665. Other gems include works by Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday and Charles Babbage. As history dictates, the list of women authors is perhaps not as lengthy. Although founded in 1660, women were not permitted to become fellows of the Royal Society until 285 years later in 1945, rather behind the times as women over the age of 30 had won the vote nearly 30 years earlier, in 1918. That said although not documented widely in terms of contribution women played a key role on the development of scientific inquiry….