6. September 2009 by justdanika.

I find myself, sitting on this Sunday afternoon, on my tiny porch over looking the rooftops, canals and streets of Amsterdam. It smells like pancakes. The sound of the train, people laughing and a distant bagpipe band makes me smile. It is overcast giving a very European feel to my view with a perfect glaze over the chimneys.

The bike culture is just different here. I walked around the city (looking for somewhere to stop for a Heinekin) enjoying the architecture and the fashion. It is great how everyone from the hipster boys to the older couples are just biking around the streets on their cruisers.

No one here has a 1000 dollar bike (it would just end up in the bottom of the canals). They all bike on these worn out cruisers with oversize handle bars and high seats. Everyone is sitting erect just casually meandering around the streets.

My partner in crime this week, Caroline, mentioned the large number of Harley Davidson bikes and apparel we have seen here. There is a direct correlation to how the Dutch use bicycles and how they use motorcycles.

When you compare these uses to those of the Nor Cal folk who surround me on the streets on Sundays in packs, on bikes that cost more than my car wearing crazy spandex on their way to meet at a coffee shop, it is pretty polar opposite what these people have in mind.

Maybe the real differnce has to do with the difference between what coffee shops sell here and there.

Maybe…

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17. May 2009 by justdanika.

All the different tools available on the internet have allowed people to share more information, collaborate and have better, stronger opinions. The availability of information from all different points of view and from a diverse group of people has been organized and made available to the masses. This sharing of information allows for people to be more informed to make better decisions when place in a group.

Applying these new tools to a democratic system has allowed for better decisions to be made. Decisions can be made without wondering what other people are thinking. You can truly collect and aggregate information and make an informed decision that takes into account your opinions and those of people who agree and disagree with you.

If cocoons are avoided you really will get a more democratic system working. I heard in a speach once that you should always discuss your opinions with someone who does not necessarily agree with you because it will improve your own opinion by 1) forcing you to justify why you think that way and 2) force you to accept that others are going to disagree with you. Democracy is based on this aspect and the internet has allowed people to become better, more well rounded citizens.

Cocoons are truly the biggest issue I can see. People secluding themselves in bubbles, not reading the news, not seeing how other people live, making conjectures about those that are not like them, stereotyping people without asking why and certainly living in spaces that allow them to not see the outside world. All of these types of actions are what will truly break the democracy that we need to keep creating to encourage information sharing and collaboration. I think the best way to make our democracy better is by encouraging people outside of these cocoons and to see the world as it is and then make a judgement based on the actual thing.

“Its marvelous what you can see when you open your eyes.”

-Unknown

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13. May 2009 by justdanika.

I was inspired after reading about the poor ability of groups to make decisions that there are ways to make deliberation work better.

“We have to move from old to new” Sunstein says on pg 102 of Infotopia. I tore into the next chapter delighted to hear that there could be a happy ending. But when I arrived I found gambling, betting and prediction markets.

I’ll give it to Sunstein…provide an incentive and it will get people with insider information  to share that information and keep people who have no clue from voting in the first place. I think the use of the internet to pool this information is really compelling. It creates a platform (most likely anonymous) that allows people to voice what they actually believe based on the information they have because there is a monotary incentive to get the answer right.

Sunstein is telling us to move from old to new…new being the space the internet has created to pool this information. To collect a group of people with information means you can make the outcome of the group’s deliberations more accurate. Is prediction that important though? Perhaps the real use of this tool should be to collect people who have information in order to steer decisions. Get a group of people with a common thread (whatever the topic of discussion is) to collect in a space (virtual or physical) and share their knowledge to make deliberation better, not just more accurate.

I look forward to seeing what other tools Sunstein has regarding the power of the internet to create change, not just to help predict future happenings. Though I will admit, predicting the future has a nice ring to it.

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30. April 2009 by justdanika.

While reading Infotopia (Sunstein) I came across an area talking about brainstorming and discussing what types of groups can come up with good ideas. He mentioned a quote that directly contradicts what the design community believes.

“For such problems [brainstorming], deliberating groups have been found to do far less well than statisticl groups. The apparent reason is that deliberating groups discourage novelty.” He then goes on to say that you are better off to brainstorm individually and then to collaborate on decision making and judging ideas.

Deliberating groups are designed under the assumption that through deliberation they will improve judgements and predictions.

During a brainstorm there are set rules that need to be followed to encourage a good brainstorm. The first 3 are directly related to group dynamics.
1) Defer Judgement
2) Encourage wild ideas
3) Build on the ideas of others

Trust truly is the most important aspect of a group brainstorm. To feel that you are not being judged on your ideas and that you are contributing.

Sunstein goes into these during his social influences of “deliberative failures” due to the fact that people silence themselves. He says people fear their statements will be disliked or ridiculed (see Rule 1 and 2).
The problem with individual brainstorm (as Sunstein suggests as a solution) is that you can not utilize rules 3 without a group. Rule 3 states that your ideas can be enhanced and become more innovative as you hear others experiences and ideas and build off of them. A brainstorm is only as powerful as the collection of the experiences the people bring to the table. An unspoke idea or experience is useless and can not help others grow their ideas.

There are proven ways to make deliberation groups better group brainstormers and remove the lack of trust from the equation:

1) Do improv to let people relax and feel energized by the group. Work environments especially, usually encourage “normal behavior” and you need to break people out of it to get a good brainstorm.
2) Team building exercises to encourage acceptance.
3) Brainstorm on a topic not related that is suppose to be funny.
4) Talk about the opposites.Brainstorm a bug list to get people talking about the topic on a personal level.

These types of activities can break Sunstein’s suggestion that deliberation groups can not be good brainstormers. They can be but they need a some prepatory work before hand.

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27. April 2009 by justdanika.

Different technologies dot history and craft the behaviors of groups. In the past it was automobiles that allowed people to move farther from their neighbors and their place of employment. This behavior change, not the car, have changed how people live their lives now and the future of how people interact. In the future you can’t say solar power is going to save the earth from global warning because it is not about a technology. As long as people are reckless with their energy use a technology will never actually help.

Shirky states this on the cover of his book. “Revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technology, it happens when society adopts new behaviors.” This statement is driving engineers, designers, politics and other influential groups to think about how to change how people behave. A technological solution is simply a pill fix for the culture that is unsustainable.

Sustainability lies within people changing how they behave and though technology can help that or encourage it, it can not be the sole effort. Understanding groups and how they have changed is important for understanding how to create infectious action. Shirky discusses lowering transaction costs and then getting the promise-tool-bargain ratio correct to effectively form a group.

Here lies Shirky’s disconnect. There is no behavior change in this, it is just different. People have been forming groups since the beginning of time for every rhyme and reason under the sun. As he puts it, “faster is different.” Yes it is different, but it isn’t a change in behavior. All of these social tools that have been created across the world have given people new tools to achieve goals that they have always had but just have not been able to achieve due to lack of communication. I don’t see how helping people to achieve their existing goals is changing behavior.

I believe Shirky’s book title would have been accurate by saying something such as

“You can’t change behavior with just technology, but you can utilize the ease of group formation to encourage that behavior change.”

or

“Empowering groups is a 21st century phenomenon. By lowering the transaction cost of action, behavior change is no longer reliant on technology as a driving factor.”

Shirky never addresses behavior change, he just addresses the possibilities that the change in how people are organizing can lead to greater, faster impact. Not that I disagree with the statement of the cover, it is just not what Shirky’s book is about.

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20. April 2009 by justdanika.

There is something to be asked about people who are “odd” in the same way you are and if you are going to make an effort to be friends with them. There are 2 reasons these people could potentially be better friends.

1) Since they have a link that is “odd” they are more likely to have other interests that also over lap.

2) Since they share an intimate, very personal moment discussing a unique aspect of themselves, they are more likely to be friends because they have already broken down a barrier.

In my personal experiences, I would assume the second is a more likely answer. If you are at an event and you meet someone who shares a distinctive like, dislike or rarity with you, you feel compelled to share more about that experience. Perhaps this conversation is one of the few times you have ever felt truly comfortable that what you are sharing is not odd and that the listener truly understands your emotions. This exchange is something so deep, even if it is for the like of something trivial, it is still a very close connection that you perhaps have a strong personal value with. This is not a normal social interaction, it is rare and it usually invokes a feeling of excitement and passion.

“The net effect is that it’s easier to like people who are odd in the same ways you are odd, but it’s harder to find them.” Shirky, pg200

Shirky is talking about people sharing “odd” aspects of themselves as a way of forming new social groups. Truthfully, having an oddity in common is just a way of breaking down a social barrier. People don’t want to find other Xena lovers or Witches, they are just using these unique aspects of themselves to skip awkward introductions and know that they won’t be judged for what they like. They can then talk to someone openly, honestly as if they had been friends for years and years. They can be real and share personal stories all because they were able to be themselves during their first encounter discussing something that makes them “odd”.

It is a question to whether you could simulate this experience to allow people to interact with other people who they may not know more openly and remove the need to share something odd just to get past that barrier. Is there a situation or tool or product that could provide people this ice breaker?

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15. April 2009 by justdanika.

Maybe Celine Dion was a visionary…

First and fore most, the social tools that exist today have turned love from a sappy emotion into an acceptable expression. The internet has now actually reduced the effort needed to show love but it can also now have a greater impact.

The community that can now be created using the Web is vast, elastic and limitless. People are getting together and collaborating to fight for change in the Catholic Church (one of the most deeply routed organizations on the planet) and they are also getting together to create encyclopedias.

People can show their passions and love with greater impact that lasts a lot longer by being able to join up with people everywhere who share those deep emotions.The community that develops is appreciative of this love and support and enhance it. A showing of love, like entering an article on wikipedia about something you care very much about sharing, will be around for very many years to come. This is a lot longer than that pair of earrings you bought or the cupcakes you made.It will also continue to be seen by millions of people globally.

Now that is how I want to show love.

Let me break it down mathematically to you in terms of value:

1 hand written card * mom = 10,000 love pts

1 hand written card * mom * shows it to dad = 20,000 love pts

1 text * mom = 100 love pts

1 wikipedia entry = 100 love pts

1 wikipedia entry * 1000 views =  10,000 love pts.

Now imagine if that wikipedia entry reaches 10,000 views by next year or better, 1 million views. Suddenly your love has been shared and surpassed the value of anything you could have created and tried to show to 1 person.

Love can suddenly accomplish GREAT things beyond any perception humans had 10 years ago. So go on, if you have a love and need to move a mountain for it, I bet you can find other people who have the same love and combined…you can truly move that mountain.

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8. April 2009 by justdanika.

“Mass amateurization is a result of the radical spread of expressive capabilities, and the most obvious precedent is the one that gave birth to the modern world: the spread of the printing press five centuries ago” Clay Shirky - Here Comes Everybody

Mass amateurization is the hit fad right now caused by providing people with the tools to “dable” in almost anything.  It is no longer unusual to be a jack-of-all-trades. Everyone can learn, study and become conversational in almost anything.

This varies from things (wine, food, technology) to professions (travel agency-expedia, CPA-turbotax, blogging-journalism). The society we live in today provides mountains of information that can keep you busy for days endlessly wielding through websites, reading information, conversing with total strangers and developing a stong opinion on a topic.

The longer you talk about a subject (a product, service or experience) the more substance that subject now has to its name. The stronger “it’s” sense of importance becomes. People provide objects with meaning by spending time further developing their relationship with it even when they are not engaged with it.

Mass amateurization has become an every day occurrence. It is important to realize that when designing, to understand that people will want to fully understand their products. They don’t put web page addresses on objects just to take up space. Designers of those objects know that by allowing further engagement with those objects on an intimate level will further develop the “relationship” with the product.

The more people connect to an object, the more they will promote it and create a “story”, a narrative for the object, bringing it closer and closer to the life of a person. Giving the object power beyond that of the physical object.

Designers must understand this power, research it and design for it from day 1.

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6. April 2009 by justdanika.

Here is the DL

Beijing is amazing.

I got to spend 8 days in Beijing with 11 others students from Stanford and 12 Peking University Students for my Cross-Cultural Design class I am taking this Spring.

My team is working with Adobe learning about self-expression in China, how they use digital media and how they differ from American’s in how they present themselves online versus how they are in person.

You want to learn about the Chinese culture, this is how to do it.

As a culture they differ from us in where they place their priorities, and what makes them an individual. The majority of young adults also have no idea what it is like to have a brother or sister as the majority are products of the 1-child law. They also think its rude to be loud on a train(rush hour and it was nearly silent).

My stereo-types were destroyed. I didn’t see haglers and thousands of bikers or anything old either. Debatable if this is a good thing, but everything was very modern. Their public transit worked like a dream, it rivaled my Europe experiences in clenliness, ease and reliability.I felt safe, everyone was friendly and inquisitive and happy to help us with food, traveling and directions.

I am thankful very much to my new 12 PKU friends as well as my new Stanford X-Cultural friends.
It is going to be a great quarter really diving into the culture and needfinding and designing for this awesome culture!

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6. April 2009 by justdanika.

Hey Team-

1) I updated my portfolio on my website so you can see a few projects that came out pretty awesome from last quarter.

www.theorangeengineer.com

Go to Recently Added and let me know what you think.

2) Last quarter was intense. I think I slept a total of 8 hours the entire 10 weeks.

3) This quarter is not so intense. I will blog more, I promise and let me know what stuff you like and what you don’t so that I can make sure I am keeping you updated on what you care about.

4) Next blogs will be dealing more with design and my cross-cultural design class.

Love Danika

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