Google Chrome for Korea (an IE extension)

via chrome.google.com

In Korea people the web world is designed so people need IE to run many of the major websites and in fact, to do any online payment as far as I know. I hear that to buy a mac online in Korea you need to have a PC to do so for this very reason.

In any case, this situation has caused many potential Korean Chrome users to shy away, knowing they would have to use two browsers regularly. This option however, an extension for Chrome which enables it to display IE webpages seems to be quite a lovely work around, and may well let people avoid ever having to undergo the embarrassment of opening IE.

I hope it works!

Posted via web from Mark Whiting's posterous

Meaning or Infrastructure for Local Information

In some parts of the world they do not use street names in common communication for navigation, or for that matter, anything else really. Korea and Japan are two such countries, however China is mostly not that way now days, as far as I have experienced at least. I do not know about other examples but I am sure they exist. In any case, in Korea, we do not generally know the name of any streets and we do not use them to explane how to get places. This is a reasonably big change for me because all my life my world has been oriented about streets that have some nomenclature, a name or a number. So, in Krorea, instead of streets, they use points of significance, such as shopping centers, apartment blocks, or region names. Then for more granular instructions, people will say something like "walk towards the coffee shop then make your second left, then walk about 100m and we live just there." As you can imagine this sometimes ends in tears and yet more often ends in numerous phone calls and eventually the resident or a local going out and finding the visitor who is lost in the streets near by. In Seoul if you live 10 minutes walk from a train station, it is almost impossible to give instructions to a foreign visitor, but also in general. People thus often create meeting points, for example, "Lets meet at the 5th exit of the train station" and accordingly will show the way to their destination. 

This system intrigues me for various reasons. It means that signs with content (as opposed to signs with infrastructure), i.e. what business is where and what building is where, are very important as they are the primary mechanism by which people can recognise a location. It also means that there is a very valuable body of knowledge held by locals about the local area and that people are more likely to ask others in an effort to use this knowledge. The interesting conclusion however is that this system is meaning based, as opposed to infrastructure based as it would be in most other countries. That is to say, everything known about where something is is also meaningful knowledge about the area around the something. In the infrastructure based system, we generally do not know what stores are where and what kind of apartment is in which area of town, instead we know a system of meaningless infrastructural information which lets us navigate alone, and generally not understand our surroundings. So, the Korean system encourages interaction and knowledge of businesses and localities while the street address system encourages isolation from others and from an understanding of any locality, in some cases, even one's own. 

I think the Korean system has a distinct advantage, however it is hard for new visitors, especially foreigners, and it is probably a little slower than using street addresses. Similarly I think creating an abstract infrastructure reduces the movement of knowledge, a notable disadvantage. However, I think given an awareness of the Korean method and its benefits, I think places could be designed to optimally use this system, over simply instituting a crowded area, which as far as I understand, accurately summarises design principal currently in place in most Korean developments. Perhaps one example of a well designed system like this is Disney Land where many areas do not have infrastructural nomenclature but most places are findable due to the numerous destinations that people have awareness of. 

What principals do you think we could use to build better location information systems while avoiding creating a separate infrastructure to represent the information?

The images attempt to depict the situation of navigation of several Korean cities including Daejeon, Seoul and Busan. Notice that image of a map does not include any street names but simply landmarks of some kind or another. 

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Mark Whiting's posterous

노래방 - Learning to Sing Again

In korea 노래방 (norebang) which literally means singing room and translates to Karaoke (which does not mean singing room in japanese interestingly) is rather popular and people often go late in the evenings and sing with their friends in private rooms. Several interesting things emerge from this.

1. People often start singing at a young age and practice frequently. One friend told me she used to practice songs hundreds of times each in order to be able to sing them well. In any case, the result is that some singers are exceptionally good. Several of my friends are so good that hearing them has a physiological affect. This is not just party tallent this is incredible, well practiced expertise with years of practice to back it. In some cases I think the 10000 hour mark would have been met. 
2. Because in Korea there is a strong connection between business succes and night time activities, drinking and the like, it is expected that you will be able to sing well with your colleagues. For this reason there are 노래방 schools designed to teach lader climbing executives to sing more competitively. 
3. There are many levels of quality and expense for singing rooms and there are various nefarious activities which sometimes occur within, however, an interesting fact is that there are even very small singing rooms, for one or perhaps two people. These are often found in arcades or a similarly game oriented kind of location. I have yet to try this but it seems interesting and good for practising. 

In any case, I have lived here, and in China where similar singing rooms exist, for some time now and of course I have been to the 노래방 quite many times. I have however, until recently not been very good at it. One issue is that I spent many years in voice lesons and choral groups of different kinds however I did not do much solo work and I did very little  singing of non classical or a capella music. Additionally, as a child I listened almost exclusively to classical music and thus know almost none of the english language music these venues offer.The singing rooms of course offer words however they do not offer a score or some other indication of timing and pitch so if you do not know a song it is not easy to site read it, which I could probably do in most instances.

Anyway, I am now starting to practice several songs, in the hope I can become a rich executive in Korea, with the help of some Korean friends. As soon as I am as good as the average Korean I will share a video I think. (this will probably take years) 

The images are from a highly stylised singing room I was at with 2 friends several days ago. The thing that looks like a fan, but is not, is actually a heater wich constitues of a metal paraboloid and coil that reflects eat off it into the room. These are common here, though I have not seen them in the west (granted I have only really lived in warm places, Florida, and Australia in the west). They do also often oscillate like the similarly fashioned fans do and they produce a huge amount of heat.

Tell me about your wonderful times in similar situations. 

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Mark Whiting's posterous

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

Markets and Hobbies

In Korea there is a very strong culture of early adoption and hobbyists for a number of market types. One in particular is that of photography and in certain areas of Seoul you can't go a few minutes without seeing a top end fully professional DSLR. In this market however there is also a lot of diversity and products like Lomo are quite well established. Similarly film photography is still strong.

It looks like I may do some work looking at this trend a bit later.

In Sinsa the other day, a father with a big camera and a daughter.

Living in Context

Recently while shopping at the local KAIST convenience store I noticed the clerk was getting exercise by power walking around the small store.

The KAIST Convenient Store with woman running too fast to be photographed

I think the prospect of making our living spaces and working spaces share strange unexpected values is pretty interesting. I should also add that recently in my Ubiquitous Hacking summer class we did a little thinking about combined multimode spaces for living and working. My prototype was based on the prospect of incorporating emptiness to reduce functional specificity. A little like the discussion of bathrooms I noted last time I was travelling in Korea, this concept is also highly motivated by the seeming emptiness and functional agnosticism of many traditional Korean destinations.

A simple room for work and living biased on the lack of objects to create flexibility

Cheese and Asia

A Korean made Brie. I had no knife so I used Chopsticks

Since I first started coming to Asia years ago I have always found that cheese is dealt with interestingly here. As many people know China and Mongolia have had fermented milk from early on. Nowadays  milk and yogurts are consumed on mass, however the cheese market is still small and almost exclusively premium. However, most people in Asia I meet seem to really enjoy cheese and this is no secret, as far as I can tell, to the local food industry. One Chinese friend to whom I introduced Goat cheese to in Australia commented that he wished to eat nothing else for the rest of his existence.

Packaging from one of the most common milk suppliers here. I think it is rather nice and that the name Maeil almost communicates Milk. Maeil or 매일 actually means everyday in Korean

In Asia one can buy foreign cheeses at a relatively high price but they are almost never used in foods in restaurants. Various dishes in China and Korea are starting to have cheese options but the cheese used is almost exclusively low fidelity cheddar which I think is made of plastic.

This is an amazing dish which I will comment more on later. What is important at this point is that those rice cakes are full of the previously mentioned cheddar.

A few years ago I thought it would be interesting to start an Asian cheese company which could provide for the local need and introduce more variety. Here in Korea there is a company (Sangha, a brand of Maeil) doing this and selling reasonable Camembert and Brie, still overpriced, but much less than the imported options. I tend to still buy French or Australian products as the flavour is superior but it is interesting to see the effort. This company has also released a Camembert spread which comes in a bottle, sadly it is slightly aerated.

Camembert in a Bottle. I think we should explore the possibility of making this really nice, it seems like a good idea.

In any case, I have a few contacts in this area but should get more investment before tackling Asian cheese. Any ideas?

Animals at University

Here at KAIST we have some animals; Several geese, one duck (who pretends to be a goose), a collection of rabbits, the occasional dog randomly in the corridors of the design building, and various other dogs, cats and birds. Here I have linked to a gallery of examples.

Click to see big and map and other junk. 

What I can see in Korea

This is my dorm building at KAIST. In the background are apartments outside the university. 

So when I got here I wanted to start a blog relating to my stay but I have had a few reasons not to and thus it has been delayed. In any case, I am going to start documenting my stay a little more readily, and feel free to remind me to do so more in the future.

My school is quite small, about 6000 students I think, though the campus is quite large given that number.

View Larger Map

A map of KAIST.

11-11 11:11:11

From Da Zai

Me in Da Zai, we were in a mountainous hotel in room 11

11 is my favourite number which makes November 11th my favourite day. I know this conflicts with most of the world's thoughts on this day so I try not to bother people with my strange habits.

Pepero Box

Also, I should add, 11-11 is Pepero Day in Korea and Singles Day in China which are both related to love and things, a bit like valentines day.

Moving Places - Thinking Stuff - Giving Things

My New Kidneys

Firstly. I think I said previously I am looking to go to KAIST in Daejeon, Korea next year. If anyone knows anyone with input I would love to learn more. For now they have given me a scholarship pledge but we will see how other things turn out. I am also considering doing a US school. Obviously D.School is probably the most attractive for me at this point but that is also in debate.


Next. I am working with a few new people, including a group called SocialAtom.com who do social media marketing with an emerging market tilt. . I am helping them deal with the Chinese market. So far so good.


Additionally I am now also working with a web outsourcing startup in China which should be interesting. I think we are going to try to target people who want to do minimal input and minimal interaction to develop desired applications. This will be fleshed out in the next few weeks. I am not sure when we are going public yet but it should be soon.


I am also trying to get a blog off the ground with a friend here in the states. We are still not sure what we are actually writing but I think it is going to be along the lines of writing about stuff in design that people are not discussing, to our knowledge. We are interested in logic based arguments etc. I will link here when we have some posts up.


Lastly, Brittany Veitch gave me a wonderful birthday present, a pair of kidneys. They are really beautiful I think I am going to wear them with my suit. Obviously the image at the top is them. Thanks Brittany. 

Comments please.

Improving Bathrooms

Korean and Chinese and other bathrooms are really neat because they use a much more open architecture and contribute to a more designable experience for the user. I think there are a few important parts to this flexibility that make it really fun:

1. Water Room - everything is designed to get wet. It is easier and more fun. I think it could be a good design principal.
2. Feature full Floor - many bathrooms have wash racks mounted into the floor for people to do laundry. I think this could be extended to a few other features.
3. Continuous Experience - this is a bit less certain but it just seems that when I use bathrooms in Korea or China, whatever I am doing it feels that the tools are really built into the environment. I am not sure what I mean but I think it is a good feeling and I think it is something that could add to the experience of western bathrooms. Perhaps it is the really modular multi function nature of every aspect of this kind of bathroom. Each fixture seems to have distinct uses but also ends up emerging as a solution to many problems, just by the nature of the simple and elegant environment. 
4. Isolation from Dirt and enforcing Cleanliness - In these settings it is common for people to use small towels which is really nice for various reasons, and also use slip on shoes when they are in the bathroom. This is interesting because it combines to make a really fresh cleaning experience every time. That is to say; I think I feel a lot more clean after showering like this because you can concentrate on cleaning and you are sort of forced into cleaning. A small towel also works better to retain quality in your skin. 

That is all I can think of at the moment. I am trying to put together some ideas to make a bathroom design that ties a few ideas on washing together to create something that is a bit more efficient and a better experience.

Comments or stories about interesting washing experiences would be great. Especially if you know a lot about Japanese washing. 

Language for Computers not People

A post about the UNIX programer who killed his wife drove me to consider the notion of syntax heavy languages being used to avoid the large problems associated with the semantic web. I am not really sure what this would entail but I guess it is really something like the kind of pattern language issue that I was thinking about for my graduate project at RMIT.

What makes what we say and think so hard to understand (for computers at least) apart from what we use to say it?

Is it possible to make design decisions for a language at this point and have a substantial enough effect on syntax and parsing to achieve the goal of natively supporting direct communication with computers? 

Just on the matters of designed language, in Korea they use a really really awesome alphabet called Hangul. It is highly optimised for both high speed reading and pure graphical logic. It uses simple letters that build things like syllables that become visually compressed into a character without reducing the identify-ability of the individual letters. The system was designed rather recently, 1443, with the intention of creating a better system for dealing with complex sound based languages. 

Future and Magic

Today I thought about how a big part of the things have made now the future are the things that do what would have been considered magic and are now provided by technology and science. At the same time, I think the other side of the future is undoing all the bad innovation that has lead to the strange world state we are in now. 

For those who have not seen it please watch Future Perfect's TED Talk


Today I had I took a train too and from Daejeon, about 2 hours south of Seoul where I had an interview with KAIST for a PhD. I am not sure if it is the right place for me. 

Korea is still a lot of fun however this evening I realised I had no water. I will have to find a way to get some tomorrow. 

Fixing Computers, Playing Games, Singing Songs

First, it looks like I have a place in Korea. But I am still interested in ideas in this regard. 

Next, I repaired my computer on my kitchen table here in Paris with a bunch of really inadiquate tools. It is really nice to have my main machine back up and running. 

My computer when open

Last, travel is good. I have met a few interesting people recently. Some in Sligo at IT Sligo where there is some possibility I will do some further study. They were rather nice and so on and Sligo seems like an interesting though remote and small place. Additionally I met an interesting girl on the Chunnle coming back from London to Paris. She was an RMIT Architecture student who is now doing lots of other stuff including a few greats, Zaha Hadid and Tom Barker. As most people will know I think architecture is really silly but after talking to this girl for a wile, someone who likes Zaha's work none the less, I realized a few things:

1. Architects can be nice though there is no question that they are silly.
2. Without knowing what you do it is hard to do it. I think I specialise in trying to do things that are not identifiable and spending time making it impossible to really understand what I do. Though this has some value I think I really need to make a decision and try to work at something specific, even if it is still abstract in its specificity.
3. Usually the truth ends up being good. I think designers and normal people should realise this more and use it in a few ways. Nice innovation is good design, true and honest design that works because it has been done well. Not changes that are made to take advantage of a relationship with end users that offers subtle advantages, truth is a lot nicer.

OK I need to stop being silly and get ready to do something interesting today.

The hotel in Sligo which happens to be an old mental institute. Bat shaped architecture at its best.

Paris and a few big problems

So I am in Paris.  It is pretty nice. Travel images are here. More will go on now and then but my main computer is broken now so I am not doing that so much.

I was thinking recently about the worlds problems and a conversation triggered the idea of thinking about what one would do if they were in control of the world. So I know that is a bit vague, but what would you do first if you had world power? Put answers in the comments!

I think I would put in motion systems to normalize the global economy and try to rebuild culture in culturally sparse reigns. I think I would also be interested in reducing the influence of politics in an attempt to reduce the political battels at all elvels of society that plague our systems with corruption and a lack of flexibility. 

Just one more thing. I am going to Korea in about 2 weeks and I really need a place to stay. Does anyone know some place  I could crash for free or cheap from 1st to 11th of July in Seoul. Please please tell me if you know some place.

Also, I should just say, I am not doing a lot of reading while traveling so sorry for not reblogging as much. 

Planning to Travel Around the World and Using the Google Visualisation API

So I am going to France this summer then I thought it would be nice to go overland to Korea and then to China before coming home. Here I have started to plan my movements but I have not yet checked spelling. I have also used the google data API to render this in an interactive timeline. I think it is still linked to the online data I am editing so it may change without notice.

It was not hard to use but it did take a little while to get it to work. I wish I could pipe in other data sets or something. Perhaps I can... I will see what I can do. 

Update: The timeline has stopped working for anyone now so I am going to not bother fixing it until I know some more details about my trip. The API is good but seems to be crufty and have some serious reliability issues at the moment.