- BERG London Week 328 — we’re a design company, with a design culture built over 6 years, yet we’re having to cultivate a new engineering culture that sits within it and alongside it, and the two have different crystal grains. It’s good that they do—engineering through a design process can feel harried and for some projects that does not lead to good outcomes. And vice versa. But it throws up all kinds of questions for me: do we really want two domains of engineering and design; what is the common protocol—the common language—of engineering culture, and indeed of our design culture; how do these lattices touch and interact where they meet; how do we go from an unthought process to one chosen deliberately; how is change (the group understanding of, and agreement with a common language) to be brought about, and what will it feel like as it happens. I think more and more businesses will have to explicitly confront the challenge of reconciling design with engineering, novelty with constancy, innovation with repetition. Science is doing something once in a way that others might able to reproduce, however long it takes. Business is doing it the same way a million times, as fast as possible.
- Why We Love The Things We Build — psychological research to look at people valuing the things they build. Lots of interesting findings: participants thought others would value their origami creations highly, despite assigning little value to the amateur creations of others and incomplete items were not valued as highly as completed items. (via BoingBoing)
- Gut Flora Social Network (New Scientist) — although there’s real science behind it, I think it’s mostly a callous play to get web journalists to say “this social network is a bit shit”. (via Dave Moskowitz)
- The Unintended Consequences of Cyberbullying Rhetoric (danah boyd) — actual research on bullying and cyberbullying, indicating that those involved in cyberbullying don’t think of what they’re involved in as bullying, because that implies power relationships they don’t want to acknowledge. Instead it’s all part of the “drama” of high-school.
"Innovation" entries
Announcing Make's Hardware Innovation Workshop
The Hardware Innovation Workshop will be held May 15-16.
We're announcing the Hardware Innovation Workshop, a new business conference being held during the week of Maker Faire.
The give and take between e-publishing standards and innovation
Bill McCoy on EPUB 3 and keeping pace with innovation.
In this video interview, Bill McCoy, executive director of the IDPF, says it's important to emphasize and encourage the innovative aspects of building upon EPUB 3, as long as that innovation doesn't lock consumers in to one closed silo.
Open innovation works in the public sector, say federal CTOs
In his last day in office, federal CTO Aneesh Chopra released an open innovation toolkit.
Speaking at a recent forum in Washington, federal CTO Aneesh Chopra said that the open innovation approach that can be seen across industry, from social networking to pharmaceuticals to manufacturing, has proven to be effective in the public sector. CTOs from HHS and the VA offered more case studies in success.
Top Stories: January 9-14, 2012
Big data explained and exploited (in a good way), the goals of a chief innovation officer, and why it's a good time for publishing startups.
This week on O'Reilly: Edd Dumbill explained what big data means and how organizations can put it to use, Maryland's first chief innovation officer discussed his job and his goals, and Justo Hidalgo offered three reasons why it's a good time to be a publishing startup.
Congress considers anti-piracy bills that could cripple Internet industries
SOPA and PROTECT IP would harm innovation.
In a time when the American economy needs to catalyze innovation to compete in a global marketplace, members of the United States Congress have advanced legislation that could cripple the Internet industry, damage cybersecurity and harm freedom of expression online.
The maker movement's potential for education, jobs and innovation is growing
"MAKE" founder Dale Dougherty was named a "Champion of Change" by the White House.
Dale Dougherty, one of the co-founders of O'Reilly Media, was honored by the White House as a "Champion of Change" for his work on "MAKE" Magazine, MakerFaire and the broader DIY movement.
On Dennis Ritchie: A conversation with Brian Kernighan
Brian Kernighan discusses Dennis Ritchie.
I talked on Friday with Brian Kernighan about Dennis Ritchie, who sadly passed away two weeks ago at the age of 70. To a large extent, Ritchie completed what he started.
Four short links: 26 September 2011
Design and Engineering Culture, Homemade Love, Code Tools, and Cyberbullying
Four short links: 23 September 2011
Visualizing Populations, Hardware Futures, Radio Different, and Kooky Javascript
- How Many Really? — project by BERG and BBC to help make sense of large numbers of people, in the context of your social network. Clever! (via BERG London)
- Why the Best Days of Open Hardware Are Yet To Come (Bunnie Huang) — as Moore’s law decelerates, there is a potential for greater standardization of platforms. A provocative picture of life in a world where Moore’s Law is breaking up. A must-read.
- Ira Glass on RadioLab — fascinating analysis of a product that’s the result of skilled creators with high standards and a desire to do things differently. Lessons for all who would be different. (via Courtney Johnston)
- Scripting Photoshop with Javascript — Javascript is the new BASIC. (via Brett Taylor)
Putting innovation and tech to work against breast cancer
A new health challenge is taking on breast cancer.
A $100-million challenge will pursue new approaches to fighting breast cancer through data, technology and innovation.