Time for TED (TEDxSeoul)

This week TEDMed is happening in San Diego in California and of course I wish I could be there, however, TEDxSeoul, an even I have been working on for a few months with a great team is priming to hold our first event on November 28th.

We will have onsite realtime translation to English and Korean depending on the language of the speaker and we will be live streaming the event online. I will post more details when we have opened registration but for now if you are interested, follow us on twitter and join our facebook group. 

The video is just a TED teaser which I am sure most of you are familiar with. If you are new to TED, please get watching.

Posted via email from Mark Whiting's posterous

And Google will make Waves

There is something great about people who try and people who speak up to start change and end ongoing issues that are sucking the blood of everyone around them. In so many cases, these kinds of issue are ignored or avoided by everyone. Those who turn around and make waves are the ones who are remembered. 

Google, one of my favourite ideas, organisations, and brands,  is one of those groups who consistently makes waves in all areas of their business and the business of the world. As many people know they do it with a simple motivating mantra, "Don't Be Evil" and sometimes we can see this notion being implemented with deadly accuracy. There are of course many great examples however this article relating to comments on the Google Voice product from AT&T is a rather elegant extreme. 

If there is one blog you should read it is the Google Public Policy Blog. 

The images are from Google's Logo repository. They make meaning, alongside their waves, and they also make something they call Google Wave which I am starting to use to run projects in. 

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Mark Whiting's posterous

Nonspecific Definitions

via metropolismag.com

Recently, in my classes at KAIST we have discussed fundamental definitions of key terms, like research, knowledge, and of course design. This process is quite interesting and has occasionally led to some really interesting perspectives. However this process has also repeatedly reminded me that we can not make good definitions and clean models for everything, and sometimes it is not worth it to try.

In the Tim Brown article this image comes from he discusses what design thinking is really about and interestingly, in doing so, lets us see a fundamental notion of design... one kind of design.

What he has done is good however it reminds me that I think there is a better model than always trying to know and trying to put things in their place. I think that a lack of understanding and a vagueness of notion allows growth and for areas like design, that can be important.

Today, in a discussion on this matter I claimed that Design is sometimes a little like Religion. If we try to know too much it stops being important and becomes something else. Both have had significant roles in society and human development.

This is of course just one perspective, but I think it might be an interesting one for some kinds of thinking.

What do other people think about this?

Posted via web from Mark Whiting's posterous

Creating Creative Communities

via lookbook.nu

For those who do not know, I am working on my masters in Korea at a university called KAIST. The topic I am looking at right now (still being in early stages of the overal degree it is still not fixed) is related to the methods of integrating and working with external creativity from users and other external components of a company. With a strong interest in Design Management and Innovation Strategy, I want to think about how we can optimally integrate and facilitate this external creativity.

In any case, today, while reading through Google Reader and stopping at an interesting peice from NussbaumOnDesign, I was introduced to what seems to be a great success in the construction of a creative communities.

Lookbook.nu is a simple site that lets young fashion thinkers show their work in a simple yet integrated community. I particularly like how Nussbaum discribes this setting in his post.

Anyway, I am interested to think of how to make good communities and good integration between companies and external creative communities. Any ideas would be treated with kindness.

Posted via web from Mark Whiting's posterous