Commentary – Page 63

A New Language

Reading: Formulary for a New Urbanism We are bored in the city, there is no longer any Temple of the Sun. Between the legs of the women walking by, the dadaists imagined a monkey wrench and the surrealists a crystal cup. That’s lost. We know how to read every promise in faces — the latest … Continue reading “A New Language”

Reading:

Formulary for a New Urbanism

We are bored in the city, there is no longer any Temple of the Sun. Between the legs of the women walking by, the dadaists imagined a monkey wrench and the surrealists a crystal cup. That’s lost. We know how to read every promise in faces — the latest stage of morphology. The poetry of the billboards lasted twenty years. We are bored in the city, we really have to strain to still discover mysteries on the sidewalk billboards, the latest state of humor and poetry
…
And you, forgotten, your memories ravaged by all the consternations of two hemispheres, stranded in the Red Cellars of Pali-Kao, without music and without geography, no longer setting out for the hacienda where the roots think of the child and where the wine is finished off with fables from an old almanac. That’s all over. You’ll never see the hacienda. It doesn’t exist.

The hacienda must be built.

and then I read

The Futurist Manifesto

We have been up all night, my friends and I, beneath mosque lamps whose brass cupolas are bright as our souls, because like them they were illuminated by the internal glow of electric hearts. And trampling underfoot our native sloth on opulent Persian carpets, we have been discussing right up to the limits of logic and scrawling the paper with demented writing.
…
Then with my face covered in good factory mud, covered with metal scratches, useless sweat and celestial grime, amidst the complaint of staid fishermen and angry naturalists, we dictated our first will and testament to all the living men on earth.

They will crowd around us, panting with anguish and disappointment, and exasperated by our proud indefatigable courage, will hurl themselves forward to kill us, with all the more hatred as their hearts will be drunk with love and admiration for us. And strong healthy Injustice will shine radiantly from their eyes. For art can only be violence, cruelty, injustice.

Standing on the world’s summit we launch once again our insolent challenge to the stars!

…and I wonder whether we need a new language.

My own terse ramblings seldom compare to the florid verse which spews from these celebrated visionaries. Whatever fuels the very ink to flow from their desultory penmanship must, in some small part, be part inspiration, part perspiration and part medication.

In other words, they were off their faces when they wrote it.

Get Rid of the Crappy Stuff

I picked this up from Tadhg Kelly: Steve Jobs’s Strategy? “Get Rid of the Crappy Stuff” http://ow.ly/2S8cO (It takes courage) And the important quote, from Steve Jobs to Nike president, Mark Parker, from this Fastcompany article: “Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. Absolutely beautiful, stunning products. … Continue reading “Get Rid of the Crappy Stuff”

I picked this up from Tadhg Kelly:

Steve Jobs’s Strategy? “Get Rid of the Crappy Stuff” http://ow.ly/2S8cO (It takes courage)

And the important quote, from Steve Jobs to Nike president, Mark Parker, from this Fastcompany article:

“Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. Absolutely beautiful, stunning products. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.”

Design for Business Conference 2010

This morning I attended InvestNIs Design for Business conference. The keynote by Richard Seymour of SeymourPowell was, as you’d expect, both inspirational and obvious. My tweets from the conference with Twitpics: #DFB Design For Business conference starting soon. @timtendo on the podium soon http://twitpic.com/2wxo2o http://twitpic.com/2wxo2n #DFB Michael Thomson, DesignConnect – MC for the event. http://twitpic.com/2wxoi1 … Continue reading “Design for Business Conference 2010”

This morning I attended InvestNIs Design for Business conference. The keynote by Richard Seymour of SeymourPowell was, as you’d expect, both inspirational and obvious.

My tweets from the conference with Twitpics:

#DFB Design For Business conference starting soon. @timtendo on the podium soon http://twitpic.com/2wxo2o http://twitpic.com/2wxo2n

#DFB Michael Thomson, DesignConnect – MC for the event. http://twitpic.com/2wxoi1

#DFB Standing room only! #tweetni http://twitpic.com/2wxoxh

#DFB Promoting Design to the Wider Community @timtendo – one show only http://twitpic.com/2wxpxc

#DFB The UK had one of the best consumer electronics industries in the 1980s. Trounced on quality, technology, design.

#DFB Design differentiates Innovative companies

#DFB InvestNI have a whole new programme of design supports for client companies.

#DFB Design being highlighted as a strategic business tool at the European Commission level.

#DFB Richard Seymour of Seymourpowell about to take the stage.

#DFB Richard Seymour – “Design is a verb, a process, not a noun” Technical functionality + Emotional functionality http://twitpic.com/2wxsd8

Video of the Virgin Galactic lifter & spacecraft. Quite inspiring. #DFB

#DFB Folding TShirt video used to demonstrate the creation of ‘minor magic’ from the banal, the boring, the mundane.

#DFB Typewriter – a laptop that prints as you type and doesn’t need plugged in.

Emergent behaviour the key #DFB

Shinjinhui? What was that word? #DFB

#DFB Good design is very cheap (per unit cost). Bad design is very expensive.

#DFB Apple is brilliant in their anthropology, not their technology.

Short, Medium, Long term all come at the same speed. Focus on the long term now.

#DFB Industrial Judo

Lasagna as a laminate. #DFB

#DFB Plan for Discontinuity. Richard Seymour reckons genetics is coming. I knew that degree would come in handy someday.

#DFB Understand the Young. Emergent behaviour starts here.

#DFB Sustainability. Embrace it or be regulated out of existence.

#DFB GET OUT MORE Broaden your perspective. AR. ASR. IoT. All coming. Flashmobs. Groups. Social. Learn, understand or perish.

#DFB Talk to someone who works there… (in the future)

#DFB Hindenberg is a legacy.

#DFB The future of packaging might be no packaging. See soap, cheese, sausages

#DFB Refill and Concentration will rise, as will counterfeit and contamination.

#DFB Start at the end, pull from the future or repeat yourself ad nauseum.

#DFB In the C21, your competitor is Jurassic. Don’t expect the old rules.

#DFB Optimism, Truth, Honour Two words propel Apple (and are not ‘Steve Jobs’) OPTIMISTIC FUTURES

Apple did MP3 better. Apple did phones better among competitors. With tablets, most other manufacturers waited to see what Apple did first.

Knights Templar Oath : BE WITHOUT FEAR…

#DFB that oath seems to be sourced from “Kingdom of Heaven” (2005)

Digital Design #DFB with Paul McKeever of FRONT http://twitpic.com/2wy6zw

So far, every speaker has mentioned the iPad. #DFB

#DFB Customers are harder to reach, don’t trust mass media, web influential FRONT throwing out the hard facts.

Value, an intangible quality, is experienced by people. #DFB

The web is text. #DFB

#DFB Very impressed with @paulmckeever ability to tease out the definition of a problem.

In the UK, the default is free and open

David Eaves writes: Yesterday, the United Kingdom made an announcement that radically reformed how it will manage what will become the government’s most important asset in the 21st century: knowledge & information. On the National Archives website, the UK Government made public its new license for managing software, documents and data created by the government. The document … Continue reading “In the UK, the default is free and open”

David Eaves writes:

Yesterday, the United Kingdom made an announcement that radically reformed how it will manage what will become the government’s most important asset in the 21st century: knowledge & information.

On the National Archives website, the UK Government made public its new license for managing software, documents and data created by the government. The document is both far reaching and forward looking. Indeed, I believe this policy may be the boldest and most progressive step taken by a government since the United States decided that documents created by the US government would directly enter the public domain and not be copyrighted.

In almost every aspect the license, the UK government will manage its “intellectual property” by setting the default to be open and free.

That should read “in most of the UK” because there will be separate discussions held by the devolved departments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

I’m happy to say that here in Northern Ireland we not only have some progressive thinkers in terms of the data but also in terms of government procurement of solutions taking advantage of that data.

Our local open data initiatives have been spearheaded by individuals in the DFP and DETI and Code4Pizza is the social working group taking advantage of the data.

Getting Involved in Open Data in NI

[Title Reference: All Your Base Are Belong To Us] Today I met with some of the team from DETI and then later, with the team responsible for CAAN. The subject of both was vaguely similar – the opening of ‘government’ data in order to stimulate economic growth. In the case of DETI, it’s regarding the … Continue reading “Getting Involved in Open Data in NI”

[Title Reference: All Your Base Are Belong To Us]

Today I met with some of the team from DETI and then later, with the team responsible for CAAN.

The subject of both was vaguely similar – the opening of ‘government’ data in order to stimulate economic growth. In the case of DETI, it’s regarding the development of a community of developers who will be able to respond quickly to government identification of unmet needs – similar to the recent calls by the TSB (which was inspired by the DETI project writeup).

All of this will be progressed later this week in a meeting which will include other departments in a non-committal and ‘no prejudice’ discussion of the value of opening select datasets to the public eye and, more importantly, to the eyes of eager developers for the construction of apps for web and mobile.

I’m interested in finding some local developers who would be interested in these datasets. We’ve begun the process with Code4Pizza and Code4Pizza will remain as the social gathering for information dissemination and hack sessions – but there needs to be a group of local developers who have a vested interest in getting access to new datasets for commercial objectives.

From the CAAN perspective, they already publish their data in a limited fashion, restricted only by OSNI/L&PS licensing (and yes, I’d like to see some minor changes there to facilitate developer update). They, like many agencies and departments, have a revenue target to hit and I reckon that some canny developers would be interested in a revenue share in return for access to the data and some co-branding. CAAN are the body responsible for providing information on walks, cycle paths and canoeing activities in Northern Ireland. My pitch this afternoon went along the lines of they have 200 “quality” walks and they need to get more people walking them, they need more information on the people walking them and they’d like to be able to include safety and amenity information. That sounds like a perfect solution for a motivated developer.

Adding in game mechanics (Achievements!) for completing walks, gathering information on how frequently they walk them, sending out information on organised gatherings and also querying how many people are in a walking party are all activities that would be done well from an iPhone, Android phone or Blackberry. If the developer did it right.

So, if you’re interested in getting involved, then get in touch.

So, I’m back.

I’ve recovered from a bit of a hiatus here as I was trying to think about what the blog was about. It certainly wasn’t about catharsis – so I’m going to be concentrating on the things that amuse me. Related posts: Great design creates new data. People Pay More For Design Travel and the Value … Continue reading “So, I’m back.”

Trust me, I’m a Facilitator.

I work with people. When I founded Mac-Sys in 2003, I founded it on the principles that had led be through a successful career in Nortel – that “IT Support” was only 30% technology, but 70% personality. I found that dealing with people who use computers to do their work was often stressful for those … Continue reading “Trust me, I’m a Facilitator.”

I work with people.

When I founded Mac-Sys in 2003, I founded it on the principles that had led be through a successful career in Nortel – that “IT Support” was only 30% technology, but 70% personality. I found that dealing with people who use computers to do their work was often stressful for those people and my job, as much as anything, was part-technician and part-barman. Often their fear of sounding stupid or revealing that they had done something foolish would cause them to withhold information that would actually slow down the resolution of the issue. They may have glossed over something crucial not realising the significance or made some efforts to cover their tracks. Therefore it took a certain bedside manner to get the information and I seemed to be pretty good at it. Knowing what you are talking about is certainly important but being able to project that to the computer user is also important. It didn’t matter whom I was speaking to: someone new to computers or someone long in the tooth with these devices; they had to be reassured that the problem was not necessarily their fault. Accidents happen and we never develop a counter-productive blame culture.

This background made my current job a lot easier. Experience of working with some of the top designers and technology enthusiasts in the province (and beyond) with Nortel and Mac-Sys meant that I was extending my address book and not having to create it from scratch. I had sponsored the first BarCamp in Belfast (BarCampBelfast was started by Matt Keenan and Mac-Sys was the primary sponsor) and also the OCCBBQ (which was organised by Evert Bopp) before I took this job with Momentum to deliver a facilitation role for the Digital Circle. I found it relatively easy to engender trust in those around me because most of them knew me already and I wasn’t having to start those relationships. Not everyone knew me obviously and some folk have had to put up with my rough edges before we developed a friendship.

My first hiccups with trust were surrounding my day job with Digital Circle and two little things

1. This was not the first time there had been an attempt to bind together the digital content industry in Northern Ireland. I don’t know why previous attempts had not been sticky enough but I’m arrogant enough to believe that it will be a combination of people and timing that will make Digital Circle stick around. The problem was that because some people had witnessed previous attempts, there was an expectation that this one would go the same way. I still get this reaction every now and then and it is obvious to me that Digital Circle does need some driving still but I can see real evidence about how it has brought the community together.

2. My involvement as a Director of Infurious. I started Infurious with my best friend Aidan Rogers back in 2006 and though he built two great products, the choice of platform failed us due to API instability and we didn’t seem to be going where we wanted to go. Building utility software to solve hard problems is fraught with this. And having a shifting API below us didn’t help. After that, Aidan moved away and Infurious had a little bit of a reincarnation with myself, Phil and PJ after PJ came up with an amazing design for viewing comics on the iPhone. Sadly I had already taken this job with Digital Circle and I felt I had to distance myself from the company. Over the course of a number of months, I signed everything off because I couldn’t recommend Infurious for contracting work as it would be seen as ‘feathering my own nest’ and my lack of work for the company meant I was failing my duty of care as a director. I put a decent amount of money and a lot of heart into Infurious and some of the most fun times I’ve had in the last five years were sitting up late talking to my best friend about some of the cool things we could build. I think he forgives me for not making him into a millionaire. But in the end, I sacrificed a bit of a dream to ensure trust.

These situations were somewhat pivotal in where I find myself now. There are people involved in the community whom I trust implicitly (and obviously for me to say this, there must be people who by their actions have made it impossible for me to trust them.) This is a difficult thing to manage because as a Facilitator, even if I don’t like you, I’ll still have to work with you. And that’s really the core of my role: I may not know, like or understand everything, but I’ll work to see things better for you in the sector anyway.

I met some folk for coffee a few days ago and the conversation came round to how people are perceived in the province: myself included. There are lots of positives and negatives around this and no-one can reasonably be expected to like everyone or be liked by everyone. But trust in itself is a different thing. I can pretend that some of the comments (second hand tales) didn’t frustrate me or in some cases offend and obviously I have felt the need to write this immense essay as some sort of catharsis but it upsets me when I am not trusted :- especially where there is injustice in the reasons for the mistrust (an accusation that I might be using ideas for my own benefit). It’s always easier to know who doesn’t like you because when they appear, as they invariably do, you can be retaliatory, conciliatory or just ignore them. I’m learning the latter approach when faced with my own personal Ahab but it’s not easy.

I live and breathe my work (a fact that frustrates my darling wife, Arlene) and I am passionate about the outcomes. I’m proud of my achievements but even more so I am proud that I get to work with some bright, talented and skilled people every day; people who have more talent in their little finger than I have in my whole body. I count them as friends and I know that they are giving me their trust when they turn up to the events I run, when they throw their efforts into the daft ideas I have and when they take time from work and family to help me build the future. I hope they get something out of it as well. You know who you are and I appreciate it, I really do.

And to those who, for some reason, mistrust? I cant help you. You have your reasons, I’m sure, real or imagined. But unless you talk to me I can’t tell you if your reasons are real or imagined and I’m sorry I’ve lost your faith and the benefit of your doubt.

I work with people but everyone is different and everyone will take a different way to work with.

RIM: Death-rattle?

Scott Olsen delivers a smackdown to the recent ‘social media is cool’ advertising by RIM: Does this remind you of anything? Yes, the claw of the cryptkeeper Nokia and their death rattle marketing of the last 5 years. Namely: multi-cultural Europeans enjoying their exciting European bonhomie, enabled somehow, unseen off-stage, by the Nokia N97. The … Continue reading “RIM: Death-rattle?”

Scott Olsen delivers a smackdown to the recent ‘social media is cool’ advertising by RIM:

Does this remind you of anything? Yes, the claw of the cryptkeeper Nokia and their death rattle marketing of the last 5 years. Namely: multi-cultural Europeans enjoying their exciting European bonhomie, enabled somehow, unseen off-stage, by the Nokia N97.

The article is very long but worth reading.

In Business: In At the Start

A StartVI-like service running in 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto – previous home of Paypal, Danger and Google. BBC iPlayer Link Related posts: Future of the Beeb? The Broadband Blueprint (re DETI Telecoms Consultation) iPlayer on my iPhone Streaming Video: who pays the cost?

A StartVI-like service running in 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto – previous home of Paypal, Danger and Google.

BBC iPlayer Link

Why did you go to university?

(This is taken from a Twitter conversation but I want to remember it) If you want to learn photoshop or PHP or whatever to land yourself a job, then go to College, not University. If, on the other hand, you want to learn to think, to be creative, to lead, to grow – then go … Continue reading “Why did you go to university?”

(This is taken from a Twitter conversation but I want to remember it)

If you want to learn photoshop or PHP or whatever to land yourself a job, then go to College, not University.

If, on the other hand, you want to learn to think, to be creative, to lead, to grow – then go to university.

Sadly employers push the university to be a source of skills, not ideas, creativity, drive. And students come out of university thinking their degree paper includes a guaranteed job.

You’re not likely to get a shelf stacking job or a burger flipping job because the employer (rightly) believes that as soon as something better comes along, you’ll be off.

You NEED to create. You NEED to use your degree. You NEED to aim at the career you want not the quick fix.

Some of the smartest guys I know have amazing jobs and no degree. I don’t have a degree in Art or Music or Computer Science – but I have a love of design, of software, of user interface, of games.

When I was in university I was president of my society, convention director twice. I started a games convention, Q-CON, which is still running in QUB even now (too many years to even consider). I played games, I designed games and I studied Genetics. I hoped – dared to hope that there would be a career in games for me – but there was no industry, no jobs and if you think there’s no jobs in software or design in Northern Ireland, consider how many there are in Genetics.

You need to make yourself impossible to ignore.

How?

Contribute. You’ve got plenty of free time so pick an open source project or log onto code4pizza and pick one of the projects and lead it. Write the web app for Translink. Learn to program an iPhone. Make something of your skills and show off your drive and talent. Keep learning. Keep striving. Keep busy.