In this paper, Beal Institute Chief Scientist Robert K. Logan and Director of Research Greg Van Alstyne explore the roles of designer, client, user, and other parties essential to the design process, and the relationships between them. The authors interrogate the interactions between bottom-up processes of emergence and those characteristically top-down activities of the designer that together give rise to a design ecosystem, capable of supporting the emergence of innovative design. They describe that environment in which the designer operates and characterize the design ecosystem’s dynamic, interdependent processes. Finally, they seek to understand the design of successful innovations of the past so as to be prescriptive about the future of design.

by
Greg Van Alstyne
Director of Research, Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity
Associate Professor, Ontario College of Art and Design
and
Robert K. Logan
Chief Scientist, Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity
Emeritus Professor, Department of Physics, University of Toronto

Abstract
This paper reveals the surprising and counterintuitive truth that design is not always at the forefront of innovation; it is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the success of products and services. The authors argue that design must harness emergence, for it is only through this bottom-up and massively iterative, unfolding process that new and improved products and services are successfully refined, introduced and diffused into the marketplace.

Launched in Fall 2003, Designers in the Classroom brings professional designers into elementary and secondary school classrooms to develop design projects with students that enrich curriculum and broaden the roles of designers in their communities.

CREATE 2008
24-25 June 2008, British Computer Society, Covent Garden, London

CREATE 2008 is a 2-day conference about creating innovative interactions, whether digital consumer products, interactive services or interaction paradigms. A conference where the

I'm surprised I didn't know this one already: http://interactions.acm.org/

Interactions is a bimonthly publication of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and is distributed to all members of SIGCHI. Lots of interesting things in here and broader than I expected, e.g.:

CaseCamp along with its sponsors transform CiRCA into ground zero for Toronto’s creative communities: art, design, communications, technology, media, social change and entrepreneurship. DJs, interactive art, and the closest friends you haven’t met celebrating their passion for participatory culture, creative practice and society.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 from 9:00 PM to closing time
CiRCA

In this entertaining video/audio podcast, business author Daniel Pink argues that new economic forces are devaluing late 20th century, linear, rules-based business thinking in favour of the "artistic,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwGAKUForhM

check this out the future of computer interfaces

Here is the mapping tool that we used in class.

6.30pm Wednesday 3 October 2007
N. Katherine Hayles English and Design/Media Arts, University of
California, Los Angeles:
RFID: HUMAN AGENCY AND MEANING IN INFORMATION-INTENSIVE ENVIRONMENTS

6.30pm Friday 9 November 2007
Karim Rashid product and interior designer, New York:
FROM 15 MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE

6.30pm Wednesday 23 January 2008
Rusty Smith Auburn University School of Architecture, Alabama:
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE 'CITIZEN DESIGNER' THROUGH THE LENS OF THE RURAL STUDIO
(topic to be confirmed)

6.30pm Wednesday 6 February 2008
Rafael Fajardo Digital Media Studies, University of Denver, Colorado:
REFLECTIVE PLAY: EXPLORING THE CREATION OF GAMES AND TOYS TO RAISE CONSCIOUSNESS AND STIMULATE THINKING

6.30pm Wednesday 27 February 2008
Tali Krakowsky Director of Experience Design, Imaginary Forces, Los
Angeles:
THE EMERGING WORLD OF EXPERIENCE DESIGN: WHAT'S NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE
(topic to be confirmed)

These free talks are held in the auditorium at 100 McCaul Street and are
open to all students, faculty and the general public.