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More Social Things

Between today's news from Jawbone + Fuseproject and the video below, today has been the day for the internet of things. Oh, and how the social aspects of machines will begin to shape us.

More research will go down in the coming months on the subject. In the meanwhile, the video below isn't terribly insightful (especially considering the production values and costs) and is kind of depressing, but the events it contains are around the corner...

Related news: I hope that I'm not too excited for the MoMA show Talk to Me

 

The Social Inbox

Plenty of coverage elsewhere about Facebook's email, but this video does a great job of explaining why you should care. It reminded me that Facebook is about people, and the more they remember that, the cooler and better their innovations will be.

Really nice job.

Does brainstorming work?

 This article suggests that brainstorming is detrimental to creativity. i think that brainstorming done well is additive to the power of a single creative author.

In the spirit of proving the article WRONG (and proving IDEO right) I'd like to open this up for debate. what do you say?

Planner Tools (aka, Empathy for the Human Condition)

The interview I did a few weeks ago for PSFK on planning continues. Here I was included talking about people and how technology has paradoxically brought focus back on the individual and perhaps a return to people as analog creatures vs. the masses of the previous 50 or so years.

I discuss this with referencing neither Joseph Campbell, causality, steampunk nor The Baroque Cycle.

Dammit, I did it again.

Intuiting how to be a planner

Piers Fawkes and PSFK were kind enough to have a few planners and me over for some snacks, wine and the chance to talk about great planners' skill sets. If I don't embed it on my own blog, who will? 

The PSFK link is here . Frankly I'm proud of myself that I managed to talk about intuition without namechecking Baruch Spinoza and his levels of knowledge.  Oops, I just did.

Since you brought up Spinoza (you did, didn't you?), please go read Rebecca Goldstein's wonderful Betraying Spinoza

Why Networks Matter + How They Propagate

Nicholas Christakis again, this time at the RSA in the UK.

Really good stuff on how networks work. It comes down to the fundamental human need to not only experience (emotion, events, habits, etc) but to share. By expanding our network, we expand ourselves. Particularly interesting is the bit towards the end, where he talks about the correlation between successful Broadway plays and the type of network the people working on it came from.

Shows that either threw together a bunch of people who had never worked together or people who had only worked together tend to fail.  Shows that balance the relationships between people tended to succeed. Unsurprisingly, it's not only about happiness spreading (or obesity or altruism) but also that the types of networks we form create different sorts of lives for ourselves.

Briefing is the soul of wit

via farisyakob.typepad.com

did i post this yet? i'm reminded by what good thinking this was from Gareth on digital briefing after seeing it over on Faris' blog.

Worth a look, and worth realizing just how much our craft and work have changed in an incredibly short period of time.

it's why i've gone and taken a new job in a place which has done an exceptionally good job changing with the times.

How to be a culture hacker

via @timstock

Culture Networks

Check out this presentation from Tim Stock at ScenarioDNA from a class he teaches at Parsons on trends.  

Dropping major science. I couldn't possibly have the time to do this justice, but let's just say there's a fair amount of Rapaille.

Culture Networks 2010

View more presentations from Tim Stock.

Spread this! (it's not viral)

I enjoyed this deck posted by my-almost-Planningness-presenting partner Eva Hasson

Stop Saying Viral - A Case for Spreadable Media

View more presentations from Eva Hasson.

There's a lot of rich dense intellectual topsoil there (which i mean in the best possible way), fertile ground for breeding ideas around what makes people share ideas and why anyone could be interested in spreading ideas, either on behalf of another person or, God forbid, for a brand.

Far too often, the focus is on technology, not ideas and certainly not on people.  It sounds almost obvious to say it, but in the end, all that matters is satisfying what people want.  

Obvious, but all too often neglected.