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

The prime yearly event at which SHARCNET researchers (faculty members, postdocs and graduate students) can meet and get direct input on how to put the computational power of SHARCNET to work for them through invited and contributed talks showing individual paths to success, and through the chance of talking one-on-one with programmers, systems staff and experienced users to get personal advice on

KMDI Distinguished Lecture: Nigel Cross ‘Designerly Ways of Knowing: Understanding how Designers Think and Work’

Date: Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
Time: 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Place: 40 St. George St. Bahen Centre for Information Technology Room 1220 (1st floor)

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

Medialab-Prado issues a call for the submission of projects to be
carried out as part of the Interactivos?'08: Vision Play event,
which will take place from 30 May to 14 June 2008 in Madrid, Spain. Deadline: 25th April

Project development advanced workshop
Lead by: Álvaro Cassinelli, Simone Jones

With the participation of the research group Light, space and

The scheduled evening Show & Tell for Thursday, February 28th has been postponed due to a scheduling conflict.

Contribution to Jennifer Courts Work in progress:

SUSTAINABILITY AND INNOVATION:
DESIGN, PROGRESS AND INNOVATION

York University
Environmental Studies

1) Beal researchers contribute their thoughts and ideas to a collective presentation on Innovation & Sustainability. Guest contributions are welcome. (Contact: )

37 varieties of SERIOUS GAMES |

Precursor to a discussion with Rafael Fajardo – 02-06-2008

1) What is serious about serious games?

________________________________________

2) From event to game? (explain your views on Serious Games as platforms supportive of – citizen journalism – mass media and message manipulation)

How will serious games affect the time-to-market of truth, distortion, crisis, warnings, advisories, significant socioeconomic shifts? Might serious games provide for a computer, Internet and games-literate population a form of early-warning radar?

If so, do you see such an adaptation of the traditional role of media as being potentially beneficial, were the use of serious games to progress towards becoming a dominant mode of information, communications and cultural dialog/discourse? What would be some of the elements of a user experience which combines the instantaneous feedback of the news blog
with the richness, multivalency* of a 2D/3D game world?

(* “having or susceptible to many applications interpretations or meanings”)

On Friday Feb. 1st, I'll be speaking in this Ryerson University-organized international conference:

Show & Tell will feature Robert Logan presenting "What is Information?, What is Life? and How are They Connected?: BioInformatics 2.0", an exploration of the nature of all living organisms.

The attached visual essay was created and rendered in August 2007 using a personal computer.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-8855152589849404832&hl=en-CA

more to follow, in the future.

This funny and prolific group blog bills itself as a place for "DIY and open source hardware for art, education, and world domination." Tongue firmly lodged in cheek, their slogan is "Making the World a Better Place, One Evil Mad Scientist at a Time."
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/

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,

Show & Tell for Thursday, January 3rd is cancelled. Regular Show & Tell will resume Thursday, January 10th.

Show & Tell at the Beal will be cancelled on December 20th and 27th for the holiday break, and will return on Thursday January 4th. Best wishes to all for the holidays.

Google takes on Wikipedia with Knol (from Knowledge).