Interesting Finds

Ouliers: The Story of Success
2008 book by Malcolm Gladwell author of Tipping Point and Blink... should be interesting.
http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html

Interesting articles published within the AIGA website.
(It was pulled from "DesignIntelligence, is excerpted from Richard Farson’s newest book, The Power of Design: A Force for Transforming Everything" (I just might go check these out next.)
Leadership is THE Strategic Issue
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/leadership-is-the-strategic-issue

I am currently typing up my notes on companies featured, from the Twin Cities and Toronto, in Communication Arts Magazine: Design Annual. Also typing up notes from Mpls St Paul Magazine November issue "The Best Brains".

Just Found

Charles Leadbeater on innovation and new ideas
http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/home.aspx

Philoctetes, The Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination
http://philoctetes.org/home/

Description of Exploration

The previously listed articles are, what I feel, worthy of digestion. Digestion, of what I believe, is a new industry utilizing "Design Thinking" (a term currently being brought to light at the Rotman School of Management through discovery of the combination Design, Business and Innovation). You may have heard the idea ‘today we cannot solve problems alone or by a single discipline, because these problems have become too big and/or complex’. I do believe that problems are extremely complex. I also believe this idea is redefining the Industrial era of professional categorization. This is partly from a generation that was told ‘anything is possible in the Information Age’, who are now demanding new combinations of university minor and master degrees. One example is a post-graduate school I attended, the Institute without Boundaries. A think tank for bringing together different disciplines to approach problems that are bigger than one industry can handle. Many design schools, and departments around the world are adhering this thinking, just look at Business weeks Design Schools: The Global List (http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/talenthunt/index.asp). So, where are these students getting jobs after this unique education? Is design really the strength in this new type of industry? I have multiple friends of all ages, within different ranges of creative disciplines and in different areas of the North American continent, who are searching. Searching for the answer in an opportunity for interdisciplinary, forward thinking and change creators. So, as I research this subject, I share articles for you to digest, and few comments of my own here and there. Hopefully it will be a guiding light through the mess of change.

Explorative Distractions 2 of 3

BusinessWeek.com’s Innovation section has some really great articles. I suggest these few from the past month.

IDEA: Design Award Winners, 2008
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/07/0717_idea_winners/index.htm

Special Report Oct.20.08
“Voices of Innovation 2008: This year's Voices of Innovation nominees challenge the status quo and represent the true optimistic spirit of innovation”
by Helen Walters,
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2008/id20081020_393399.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_top+stories

Book Review Oct.8.08
“Can America Close the ‘Innovation Gap’?” by Matt Vella
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2008/id2008108_987380.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_top+stories

Book Excerpt Sept.8.08 issue
“The Numerati” by Stephen Baker
“By building mathematical models of its own employees, IBM aims to improve productivity and automate management.”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_36/b4098032904806.htm

Explorative Distractions 1 of 3

Utne Reader's Nov/Dec issue "50 Visionaries" was extremely interesting. I would like to point out my favorites but I highly suggest getting the issue or checking out their blog, www.utne.com.

Utne Reader is a Minneapolis based digest "of independent ideas and alternative culture. Not right, not left, but forward thinking."

Forward Thinking and Visionary
Ashoka, www.ashoka.org
Applied Research Center, www.arc.org
Nikos Salingaros, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikos_Salingaros
Richard A. Muller, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Muller
Future of Humanity Institute, www.fhi.ox.ac.uk

Science and Sustainability
PowerUp Canada, www.powerupcanada.ca
Green for All (green-collar jobs), www.greenforall.org
Focus the Nation, www.focusthenation.org
Billy Parish (British Columbia), http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/
WattzOn:personalizing energy consumption, www.wattzon.com
Paul Stamets, mushrooms can clean our world?, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Stamets

Community Innitiatives
Sustainable South Bronx, www.ssbx.org
People's Grocery, www.peoplesgrocery.org
Black Mesa Water Coalition, www.blackmesawatercoalition.org
Neighborhoods Partnership Network
U.S. Alliance for Childhood, www.allianceforchildhood.net

Alternative Media
Free Press, www.freepress.net
Center for Independent Media, http://newjournalist.org
Prison Legal News, www.prisonlegalnews.org
The Minnesota Independent, http://minnesotaindependent.com
Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know, book and website, www.crimesofwar.org/thebook/book.html
Disposable People, book, http://dannyreviews.com/h/Disposable_People.html

Participate!
Allied Media Conference, Detroit 2009, www.alliedmediaconference.org
Instructables "the world's largest show and tell", www.instructables.com
HowToons, www.howtoons.com
Creative Commons, http://creativecommons.org

Welcome to the Twin Cities

I am welcoming myself into the Twin Cities. I have had a few past home towns... Portland OR, Toronto ON, Brandon SD, and Olomouce, CZ. It was fabulous to live in these innovative places but I now find myself in Minnesota craving design talk/exchange. So, where is the Twin Cities within the design world? Who is making their mark and where? I plan on exploring these questions and posting my finding here. Want to add to the adventure? send something my way.

Heidi