A speech by Mel Exon and Pats McDonald debating the nature of inspiration: do we need more time to think and dream or should we embrace hyper connectivity and constant stimulation?
Creating a dynamic learning process in the fast lane (PSDT 201411)Joris Claeys
It’s imperative to bring creativity to learning, enabling us to be innovative!
Greatest challenge to innovation: reinventing our whole way of living!
Walking the positive road!
Building the NEW! Cultivate change! Do it with passion!
PASSIONS create future!
Find strength in your uniqueness of your purpose, your gifts & your passions!
Imagine what could be, to be the future!
Happiness is a journey not a destination!
“Forget about the 'fast lane'. If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion!” ~ Oprah Winfrey
Speaking engagement at International Training & Development Summit (Circuits of Learning and Development)
Presentation for PSDT (Philippine Society for Training and Development) annual convention November 2017
www.pstd.org
For speaking and coaching engagements, contact me via ExpertFile or LinkedIn
www.expertfile.com/experts/joris.claeys
www.linkedin.com/in/knowledgenabler
You can request this presentation in PDF or PPT with full animation email at
Joris.Claeys@outlook.com
Outline for a workshop/master class on how to help grow your entrepreneurial community. Battle-tested in different formats and different settings and deeply hands-on.
05. Changing minds - interdisciplinary tools for behaviour changeMatt Postles
Behaviour change expert Dr. Fiona Spotswood outlines the key perspectives and assumptions we make when designing behaviour change interventions and introduces practical interdisciplinary tools for avoiding the pitfalls.
Reading list / link feast for 1st annual global summit of thought leaders on entrepreneurial ecosystems led by US Sourcelink (www.ussourcelink.com) and hosted at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (www.kauffman.org)
In a world of omnipresent screens, digital interfaces and technology devices, it's good to get back to simple pleasures as reading a book under the umbrella, lulled by the sea breeze of the beach. Did
you know that reading can help you overcome stress? More, reading makes you sleep better, increases your empathy, expands your vocabulary, improves memory, concentration, writing skills and imagination. Well, according to the journal Science, reading also fills your head with new bits of information, that you never know when it might come in handy, and keeps your brain sharp, preventing Alzheimer's disease among others.
Creating a dynamic learning process in the fast lane (PSDT 201411)Joris Claeys
It’s imperative to bring creativity to learning, enabling us to be innovative!
Greatest challenge to innovation: reinventing our whole way of living!
Walking the positive road!
Building the NEW! Cultivate change! Do it with passion!
PASSIONS create future!
Find strength in your uniqueness of your purpose, your gifts & your passions!
Imagine what could be, to be the future!
Happiness is a journey not a destination!
“Forget about the 'fast lane'. If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion!” ~ Oprah Winfrey
Speaking engagement at International Training & Development Summit (Circuits of Learning and Development)
Presentation for PSDT (Philippine Society for Training and Development) annual convention November 2017
www.pstd.org
For speaking and coaching engagements, contact me via ExpertFile or LinkedIn
www.expertfile.com/experts/joris.claeys
www.linkedin.com/in/knowledgenabler
You can request this presentation in PDF or PPT with full animation email at
Joris.Claeys@outlook.com
Outline for a workshop/master class on how to help grow your entrepreneurial community. Battle-tested in different formats and different settings and deeply hands-on.
05. Changing minds - interdisciplinary tools for behaviour changeMatt Postles
Behaviour change expert Dr. Fiona Spotswood outlines the key perspectives and assumptions we make when designing behaviour change interventions and introduces practical interdisciplinary tools for avoiding the pitfalls.
Reading list / link feast for 1st annual global summit of thought leaders on entrepreneurial ecosystems led by US Sourcelink (www.ussourcelink.com) and hosted at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (www.kauffman.org)
In a world of omnipresent screens, digital interfaces and technology devices, it's good to get back to simple pleasures as reading a book under the umbrella, lulled by the sea breeze of the beach. Did
you know that reading can help you overcome stress? More, reading makes you sleep better, increases your empathy, expands your vocabulary, improves memory, concentration, writing skills and imagination. Well, according to the journal Science, reading also fills your head with new bits of information, that you never know when it might come in handy, and keeps your brain sharp, preventing Alzheimer's disease among others.
How entrepreneurial ecosystems and entrepreneur mindsets co-evolveNorris Krueger
Great case of how Aalto University's killer entrepreneurship programs were designed, developed and delivered by students (the Aalto Entrepreneur Society or AaltoES) in partnership with the entrep community. Fun to see how the entrepreneurial mindset grew and co-evolved as the entrepreneurial ecosystem grew. The REAL work was done by Tua Bjorklund, scholar in residence at the Aalto Design Factory. The final version of this draft is forthcoming in the Journal of Enterprising Communities!
[1 hr Lecture] Designing a Culture of Co-CreationTeresa Brazen
My talk at the Big (D)esign Conference 2012. Synopsis below.
Design doesn’t happen inside a vacuum. It happens inside teams, inside the context of relationships, inside physical spaces, inside organizations with very particular cultures. Ignore that intricate ecosystem, and you might as well give your project a death sentence.
Teresa Brazen will draw from her experience bringing this holistic outlook to the design process. Pulling from methods used in filmmaking, fine art, design research, facilitation, improv, and UX design, she crafts “intentional environments” for her teams and clients. These literal and figurative environments cultivate work that is actionable, co-created, co-owned, and much more likely to succeed in the world.
She’ll discuss the benefits of intentional environments, walk you through how to design them and share methods for keeping them activated throughout the design process. You’ll walk away understanding how to cultivate intentionality and inspire teams and clients along the way. But more importantly, you’ll have a powerful new framework that will enrich your entire design process.
Leuphana Conference on Entrepreneurship 2015Norris Krueger
Great newer conference that focuses on creativity & innovation at Leuphana University in Luneberg! Silke Tegtmeier and her team has done a great job again thus year:
http://www.leuphana.de/zentren/rce/konferenz.html
My keynote on the entrepreneurial mindset: We talk about it all the time but never really define it :) So... how do we better understand it? Define it? Measure it? Change it? Ping me if you want to join the discussion! (And ACTION!)
How to Grow, er, DEFRAG Idaho's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in 1, 2, 3, 4 "Easy...Norris Krueger
Energy Connected speed presentation March 4, 2015:
How to Grow, er, DEFRAG Idaho's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in 1, 2, 3, 4 "Easy" Steps! :)
The latest, greatest Idaho Tech Council /Idaho National Lab confab, the Energy Connected' symposium is March 3-4, 2015 and features a series of Ignite/pecha kucha style speed presentations. These are my overly-cluttered draft slides for this presentation - lots of embedded links but not enough plugs for my great friends who want to grow great entrepreneurial communities! Like US SourceLink, the OECD entrep crew, Klaus Sailer's Coneeect, World Entrepreneurship Forum & Junior WEF, and of course the Kauffman Foundation!
the art of creativity: asking provocative questionsJoyce Hostyn
Since we live in the world our questions create, "the most interesting thing you can do in life... is to call into question the rules of the game.” Questions make the impossible possible, help the unknown become known, and transform paradigms. To transform yourself, transform your organization, or transform the world learn the art of asking provocative questions.
With this paper discover an easy to use framework to facilitate the emergence of great company culture, especially here a company culture of innovation. The same condition would apply to a positive and constructive company culture, the core elements being in both cases trust and self-leadership.
Presentation prepared for a webinar hosted by the International Association for Information & Data Quality (www.iaidq.org)
It looks a a few low cost, high practicality approaches to driving Information Quality change in your organisation.
A lecture I did at Temple University that explored advertising's role in the academic world of developmental psychology, and also psychology's role in the creative world of advertising.
How entrepreneurial ecosystems and entrepreneur mindsets co-evolveNorris Krueger
Great case of how Aalto University's killer entrepreneurship programs were designed, developed and delivered by students (the Aalto Entrepreneur Society or AaltoES) in partnership with the entrep community. Fun to see how the entrepreneurial mindset grew and co-evolved as the entrepreneurial ecosystem grew. The REAL work was done by Tua Bjorklund, scholar in residence at the Aalto Design Factory. The final version of this draft is forthcoming in the Journal of Enterprising Communities!
[1 hr Lecture] Designing a Culture of Co-CreationTeresa Brazen
My talk at the Big (D)esign Conference 2012. Synopsis below.
Design doesn’t happen inside a vacuum. It happens inside teams, inside the context of relationships, inside physical spaces, inside organizations with very particular cultures. Ignore that intricate ecosystem, and you might as well give your project a death sentence.
Teresa Brazen will draw from her experience bringing this holistic outlook to the design process. Pulling from methods used in filmmaking, fine art, design research, facilitation, improv, and UX design, she crafts “intentional environments” for her teams and clients. These literal and figurative environments cultivate work that is actionable, co-created, co-owned, and much more likely to succeed in the world.
She’ll discuss the benefits of intentional environments, walk you through how to design them and share methods for keeping them activated throughout the design process. You’ll walk away understanding how to cultivate intentionality and inspire teams and clients along the way. But more importantly, you’ll have a powerful new framework that will enrich your entire design process.
Leuphana Conference on Entrepreneurship 2015Norris Krueger
Great newer conference that focuses on creativity & innovation at Leuphana University in Luneberg! Silke Tegtmeier and her team has done a great job again thus year:
http://www.leuphana.de/zentren/rce/konferenz.html
My keynote on the entrepreneurial mindset: We talk about it all the time but never really define it :) So... how do we better understand it? Define it? Measure it? Change it? Ping me if you want to join the discussion! (And ACTION!)
How to Grow, er, DEFRAG Idaho's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in 1, 2, 3, 4 "Easy...Norris Krueger
Energy Connected speed presentation March 4, 2015:
How to Grow, er, DEFRAG Idaho's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in 1, 2, 3, 4 "Easy" Steps! :)
The latest, greatest Idaho Tech Council /Idaho National Lab confab, the Energy Connected' symposium is March 3-4, 2015 and features a series of Ignite/pecha kucha style speed presentations. These are my overly-cluttered draft slides for this presentation - lots of embedded links but not enough plugs for my great friends who want to grow great entrepreneurial communities! Like US SourceLink, the OECD entrep crew, Klaus Sailer's Coneeect, World Entrepreneurship Forum & Junior WEF, and of course the Kauffman Foundation!
the art of creativity: asking provocative questionsJoyce Hostyn
Since we live in the world our questions create, "the most interesting thing you can do in life... is to call into question the rules of the game.” Questions make the impossible possible, help the unknown become known, and transform paradigms. To transform yourself, transform your organization, or transform the world learn the art of asking provocative questions.
With this paper discover an easy to use framework to facilitate the emergence of great company culture, especially here a company culture of innovation. The same condition would apply to a positive and constructive company culture, the core elements being in both cases trust and self-leadership.
Presentation prepared for a webinar hosted by the International Association for Information & Data Quality (www.iaidq.org)
It looks a a few low cost, high practicality approaches to driving Information Quality change in your organisation.
A lecture I did at Temple University that explored advertising's role in the academic world of developmental psychology, and also psychology's role in the creative world of advertising.
Keynote and workshop given at the annual NGDP conference for Local Government Association looking at how to have breakthrough ideas in the public sector. See other publications on how to create breakthrough social innovations at http://www.wecreate.cc/inspiration/publications/
5 Concepts for 21st Century HR Professionals to KnowR__Ganesh
This slide deck was used in a guest lecture at NL Dalmia Institute of Management, Mumbai to second year Master of HRD Management (MHRDM) students. It was adapted from a knowledge sharing session made to HR professionals at a global technology company
Couldn’t make it to SxSW Interactive this year? Don’t worry, the Social Media Club of Fort Worth has you covered! For our April speaker event, several SMCFW members who attended SxSW served as the presenters. Each speaker took five minutes to give their own mini presentation and talk to the group about their favorite SxSW session, speaker or conference experience.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
Elevating Tactical DDD Patterns Through Object CalisthenicsDorra BARTAGUIZ
After immersing yourself in the blue book and its red counterpart, attending DDD-focused conferences, and applying tactical patterns, you're left with a crucial question: How do I ensure my design is effective? Tactical patterns within Domain-Driven Design (DDD) serve as guiding principles for creating clear and manageable domain models. However, achieving success with these patterns requires additional guidance. Interestingly, we've observed that a set of constraints initially designed for training purposes remarkably aligns with effective pattern implementation, offering a more ‘mechanical’ approach. Let's explore together how Object Calisthenics can elevate the design of your tactical DDD patterns, offering concrete help for those venturing into DDD for the first time!
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
6. “Nostalgia for the accidental scarcity we’ve just emerged
from is just a sideshow; the main event is trying to shape
the greatest expansion of expressive capability the world
has ever known.”
Clay Shirky in reply to Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, July 2008
h/t @uberblond
7. “Day dreaming and boredom seem to be
a source for incubation and creative
discovery in the brain and one part of
the creative process”
Jonathan Schooler, Professor of Psychology,
University of California
h/t @uberblond
8. THE DEMISE OF THE DAYDREAM?
Millennials switch screens 27 times within an hour
Source: Time, Inc/Innerscope research
9. “What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand
and stare?”
W.H. Davies, “Leisure”
11. “Do interesting things and interesting things
will happen to you”
John Hegarty, BBH
image: jgonzalez.com.ar
12. “In the Darwinian environment of the hyper-relevant news
feed, content about issues like homelessness or climate
change can’t compete with goofy viral videos, celebrity
news, and kittens. The public sphere falls out of view. And
that matters, because while we can lose sight of our common
problems, they don’t lose sight of us.”
Eli Pariser, The Filter Bubble
19. “Think while you make, make while you think.”
William Owen, Made by Many
20. WHERE WE
NEED TO BE
LEAN STRATEGY:
OUR BEST GUESS
ABOUT HOW WE GET
THERE
WHERE WE
ARE TODAY
21. WHERE WE
NEED TO BE
TEST, LEARN, OPTIMISE
AGILE STRATEGY:
A BETTER GUESS
ABOUT HOW WE GET
LEAN STRATEGY:
THERE
OUR BEST GUESS
ABOUT HOW WE GET
THERE
WHERE WE
ARE TODAY
22. WHERE WE
NEED TO BE
TEST, LEARN, OPTIMISE
AGILE STRATEGY:
A BETTER GUESS
ABOUT HOW WE GET
LEAN STRATEGY:
THERE
OUR BEST GUESS
ABOUT HOW WE GET
THERE
WHERE WE
THE BRIEF AS MVP
ARE TODAY
24. “Ideas rise in crowds, as Poincaré said. They rise in liquid
networks where connection is valued more than
protection...Yes, the market has been a great engine of
innovation. But so has the reef.”
Steven Johnson
Image: Jeremie Battaglia
25.
26. SOME CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Time to daydream is time well spent
‘Fluid intelligence’ will trump learning-by-heart
Cultivate weak ties-seek out difference
Think about whether your teams are too
familiar, or not familiar enough
Design for serendipity
Remember the brief IS a prototype
Balance the architect and the crowd
Editor's Notes
\n
\nFor decades our industry revered the notion of the solitary thinker seeking an ivory tower in which inspiration might strike. \n
More recently, that has fallen by the wayside as we pursue the networked organisation, collaboration and co-creation, scrums and sprints. The agile manifesto, outlined here and the lean start up movement, with its focus on a minimal viable product or MVP have captured our imagination and changed our approach. \n
Today, while we both firmly believe there is some merit both in contemplation and in hothousing, in thinking and in doing, we’re going to take opposing sides of the argument, to debate whether we just need to lean in, adapt and enjoy the ride OR whether the pendulum has swung too far - perhaps we all need some time to stand and stare.\n
\n
STIMULATION: Today we are exposed to more interesting people, ideas and images on our way to work than we would have been in a month even four years ago.  This can only lead to more inspiration and to more interesting, diverse ideas. \n\n“Perhaps Carr is right that this time we will fail. Perhaps a medium that radically expands our ability to create and share written material will end up being bad for humanity. But that would be a first, in the three thousand years between the Phoenician alphabet and now.” (Clay Shirky)\n\nInstead, let’s consider how we might learn to cope: Jamais Cascio talks about on how fluid intelligence (ability to see patterns in data) will trump traditional ‘knowledge gathering’ and become a coping strategy: \n\n“The trouble isn’t that we have too much information at our fingertips, but that our tools for managing it are still in their infancy. Worries about “information overload” predate the rise of the Web (Alvin Toffler coined the phrase in 1970), and many of the technologies that Carr worries about were developed precisely to help us get some control over a flood of data and ideas. Google isn’t the problem; it’s the beginning of a solution.\nIn any case, there’s no going back. The information sea isn’t going to dry up, and relying on cognitive habits evolved and perfected in an era of limited information flow—and limited information access—is futile. Strengthening our fluid intelligence is the only viable approach to navigating the age of constant connectivity.”\n
DISTRACTION: The counter argument is that we are becoming addicted to distraction, losing the valuable “down time” our brains need to make intuitive leaps forward. \nProfessor Jonathan Schooler of the University of California talks about the importance of daydreaming as a source for incubation and creative discovery in the brain, while neuroscientist Jonah Lehrer identifies the area of the brain where inspiration happens-the anterior superior temporal gyrus if you will-an area best stimulated when the brain is relaxed, daydreaming, in the shower or thinking about something entirely different. \n\n
DISTRACTION: The problem is that today we have less and less downtime- staring at a screen versus staring into space. A recent survey revealed that millennial change screens 27 times within the hour. 65% carry their phones with them from room to room. There is almost no time when we are not connected, when our brains can switch off and leap. Moreover, this partial attention reduces emotional engagement which is higher, according to the research, when full attention is captured. \n\nRemember that the ultimate technophile, Bill Gates, schedules “Think weeks”-time to disconnect, switch off and ponder. Both Google and 3M embrace employee passion projects, 3M pioneering with the 15 % programme back in 1948.\n\nThere’s also interesting data showing that creativity among American children (as measured using the Torrance score) has been in decline since 1990, while IQ has risen steadily over the last 100 years or so. There’s no knowing what the correlation is of course but could it be that with all our stimulus needs met, there is less space to imagine? \n
DISTRACTION: Alternatively, as WH Davies put it: “What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?” \n
\n
THE FILTER: The beauty of the interest graph is that we can find like minded individuals who seek out content we find relevant, inspiring but surprising. Social networks include both strong and weak ties, with research demonstrating the vital role weak ties play in introducing new ideas to the network. \n\nIf you’re lacking serendipity, extend your interests, see what happens..\n
THE BUBBLE: The danger of both interest and social graphs is that they create what Eli Pariser refers to as the “filter bubble”. As Pariser puts it: \n\n“In the Darwinian environment of the hyper-relevant news feed, content about issues like homelessness or climate change can’t compete with goofy viral videos, celebrity news, and kittens. The public sphere falls out of view. And that matters, because while we can lose sight of our common problems, they don’t lose sight of us.”\n\nAs Mel says, research into social networks has revealed that loose ties play a critical role in bringing new information into the network-as our loose ties are likely to be people less similar to us than our nearest and dearest. However, the nature of filtering algorithms such as Edge Rank are that we are exposed to more information from those we interact with most-so arguably homogenity can increase over time-something Pew research suggested last year when they revealed that social network sites users were becoming less diverse in their connections than in previous years. Being constantly connected doesn’t necessarily mean being constantly connected to new or different ideas. \n
\n
OPEN: The open web offers choice, creativity and opportunity. It’s the Land of the Free, the opposite of a walled garden. Something that was hard-wired into the origin myths of the worldwide web. \n\nIt’s just a fact that a deregulated system offers more inspiration, more solutions to more problems and evolves faster and in more directions than a closed system. Messier, maybe, but we move forward faster this way. Think code libraries like JQuery, open languages like Javascript..\n
CLOSED: That’s undoubtedly true to a point. The flipside of course, is that some of the most creative businesses we admire are famously closed-no one could describe Apple as open or indeed in permanent Beta. The fundamentally different philosophies of the two behemoths of the web, Apple and Google indicate there probably isn’t a right or wrong answer here. There’s some interesting research though into the familiarity levels of successful teams, based on an analysis of successful Broadway productions, again in Jonah Lehrer’s book. Teams who are too familiar with each other don’t tend to succeed, nor do teams who aren’t familiar enough with each other. The right mix of established and new connections seems to create the optimal conditions for creativity. \n
CLOSED/OPEN? It’s also worth noting that the famously introspective Jobs consciously designed the Pixar environment to facilitate spontaneous encounters between colleagues. The stroke of genius may have been to put the bathrooms in the middle-so like it or not, people had to cross the central space and bump into each other at least once of twice a day. \n\n\n
CLOSED/OPEN? As a final thought, though, what do open sourced solutions or permanent Beta approaches mean for user experience? Users do seem drawn to the ease and quality control offered by the walled garden, much as it may trouble us ideologically. I enjoyed this thought from Brad Frost on apps versus the open web very much-his point was that while we may create best in closed, app like environments we need the open web to distribute what we make. There may be an interesting analogy here for working practices-we need both time to create in private and time to connect, share and evolve. \n
\n
PROTOTYPING The speed at which we can make things these days however means we need agonise less over whether every output is perfect. We can prototype, iterate, pivot and optimise.\n\nGiven the speed at which popular culture moves, we no longer have the luxury of rumination. Nor is it desirable. By bringing the right people together we can solve problems more quickly, without the need for linear processes. The crucial thing is to make sure team roles and your brief or goal are clearly identified. Then start working.\n
PLANNING The ability to prototype and iterate is undoubtedly a great thing. For me, though, it doesn’t mean that we should ignore strategy, it means we should apply the principles of the lean movement to strategic development. We’re undoubtedly not going to have the luxury of time we previously had to construct elaborate-and impregnable strategic frameworks, that said I believe it is still vital that we have a destination in mind, a clear understanding of where we are today and a best working hypothesis for how we get there \n
PLANNING Our best guess may not always be right-so in the spirit of agile we will need to test, learn and optimise faster, performing small but critical strategic pivots. The only way we’ll know whether we’re right or wrong though, is by having a destination in mind-an experiment is only an experiment if we have a hypothesis. \n
PLANNING In that spirit, the brief is recast as a kind of strategic MVP-or minimal viable product-it is not a sacrosanct document, set in stone but a best working hypothesis to be tested and iterated \n
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THE CROWD It’s impossible to deny that divergent voices create more interesting outputs. By definition those voices are singular and individual, but something magical happens when we bring those voices together. Whether that’s the flood of inspiration that comes to us daily via Twitter, YouTube, vimeo; the connection to my social graph via Facebook, my interest graph via Google+... Or whether it’s start-up in orientation like Kickstarter.. Or it might be something of real, topical, social importance - like these protesters in Montreal last week. Self-organised, they take to the streets every evening to protest student tuition fees and the passing of Bill 78 in Quebec, which prohibits the act of protesting without a licence. It’s very simple: People inspire people.\n\n
THE ARCHITECT I’m a huge fan of crowdsourcing but I’d argue that the most inspiring examples of crowdsourcing happen when a conductor or inventor figure creates a framework for the crowd to populate-be that an art piece, a marketplace or an opportunity to bear witness. Thinking of Aaron Koblin’s extraordinary pieces-like The Johnny Cash Project for example-the crowd make the final output extraordinary but it’s the initial idea and the framework that enables participation which are the inspiring part for me. Likewise, something like the Ushahidi crisis mapping project-where individuals on the ground in crisis stricken areas can report incidents and have them mapped in real time-a vital resource for aid workers- is a breathtaking example of the power of the crowd but again the inspiration lies in the framework, in the architecture. \n
So, as we alluded to at the start, we don’t believe life is quite as black & white as we’ve made out....we do have a few concluding thoughts to share we were wholeheartedly agree: \n\n-Time to daydream is time well spent. As hard as it is to switch off occasionally, as much as it makes us twitch, our brains need downtime to make inspirational leaps \n\n-The flow of information won’t lessen-what we need are coping strategies. “Fluid intelligence”-the ability to see patterns in data-will trump rote learning \n\n-Weak ties play a critical role in bringing new information into networks-cultivate weak ties, ensure there are enough diverse voices in your feeds. Filtering algorithms are smart, but you can design your own filters \n\n-When you’re putting together a team, thinking about the make up of that team-do you they know each other too well to surprise or not well enough to feel comfortable? Does the team have the right mix of established partners and new blood \n\n-As counter intuitive as it sounds, design office spaces for serendipity-make sure there are collision points designed to facilitate impromptu conversations and collaborations \n\n-Prototyping doesn’t replace strategy-but our strategies need to become leaner, our briefs prototypes or MVPS\n\n-Balance the extraordinary power of the crowd with the ability of an original framework or platform to shape the input of the crowd into something bigger and better \n