On The Frontlines of Change
Tuula Antola, Alexander Manu, Kelly Seagram
It's probable that any Nokia handset users born after 1975 are unaware that the same manufacturer that produced their cell phone also once made tissue paper, cabling and rubber boots. At this year's Helsingen Sanomat, Nokia's CEO described the company's current shift from product manufacturing to a new focus on service and software as a transformation similar in scale to the change undertaken when they cut all other products and focused solely on cell phones. Nokia's second re-invention begs the question – fifteen years from now, will Nokia's younger customers know them as a provider of cell-phone services and applications? Will cell phones themselves be obsolete? To what question will Nokia be the one and only answer?
Pursuing the Questions of Our time: Frameworks for Pre-Competitive Innovation
Alexander Manu, Matthew Jones, Richard Thomas, Sady Ducros, Michele Perras
While innovation methodologies abound, the motivation for 
innovation is rooted - and stems from - competitive pressures. Innovation for competitive advantage encourages an Innovation Problem Framework - creating a starting point for an innovation process where the limits for what can be achieved are already defined. This model is no longer sufficient or desirable.
Pursuing the Questions of Our Time: Frameworks for Pre-Competitive Innovation
THE IMAGINATION CHALLENGE
Alexander Manu (PUBLISHED DEC 21, 2006), Book, Peachpit Press
Alexander Manu’s book, The Imagination Challenge, was officially launched on January 18th at the Rotman School of Business. A capacity crowd turned out to watch Alexander Manu give an introductory presentation on the subject matter and to purchase signed copies of the exciting new book The Imagination Challenge. The event was a part of the Rotman Design Thinking Speaker Series and attracted a diverse crowd interested in learning more about the practice of Strategic Creativity and the Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity. A lively question and answer session following the presentation demonstrated the interest and excitement generated around the new book and field of opportunity.
A NEW DIALOGUE
DeSForM 2006, Eindhoven, Netherlands, 2006
Richard Thomas
Presented at the 2006 European Workshop on Design & Semantics of Form & Movement on October 26, 2006 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and peer reviewed and published in the official DeSForM 2006 Design and semantics of form and movement publication by Loe Feijs, Steven Kyffin and Bob Young.
Relevant Documents:
A New Dialogue
Official DeSForM Publication
DESIGN FOR EMERGENCE & INNOVATION: REDESIGNING DESIGN, Artifact, 2007
Greg van Alsytne & Robert K. Logan
Peer reviewed and published in The Interaction of Practice and Theory themed issue of Artifact, an international peer-reviewed academic journal targeted to researchers, practicing designers, and manufacturers.
SEX, SUICIDE & DIVINITY, Women In Games 2007
University of Wales, Newport, Wales, UK.
Annie Spencer
Spencer’s submission to the Women in Games 2007 conference focuses on controversial developments and outcomes, both through narrative and experience, in our fractured post-modern environment. There is no doubt that the opportunity for cheaper product focused at niche markets is growing – the questions are why and where is it leading us? With respect to both game content and game technology, how do we respond to the emergence of controversial or subjective interactive content now that new platforms and tools are available to consumer-creators at whim?
It is true that there has always been controversy with gambling and guns in entertainment, yet many games are founded on shooting and risk-taking principles. But when Doom caused waves and concern in the family household of the nineties, and we questioned how immersive violence in computer games would affect our teenage sons, the controversy settled in the wake of the next big game’s release to astounding commercial success, and everyone’s mother’s fervent tolerance. Though we have broken into smaller audiences, and allow people to create their own worlds, what makes our treatment at the heart of this controversy any different?
We live in a globalized culture of empowerment that, despite all its controversies, is a milestone worth celebrating in human social rights. In some ways, we may never have been able to guess that this milestone would have been achieved through video games. In other ways, it makes sense that the largest sector of the media industry is open to catering to a broad array of viewpoints – and at that Gaming is the perfect industry to provide this immersive POV expression and experience. We fought for our right to the media. Now we have it folks! This paper explores the controversial elements of the controversy itself.
Presented at the Women in Games 2007 Conference on April 20, 2007 at the University of Wales, Newport, Wales, UK.
THE GRAFITTI WRITER: LE CONFITURE – A JAM, JARRING CULTURAL PRESERVES, MIT Media In Transition 5 2007, Boston MA.
Mathew Lincez
Lincez’s paper for the MIT Media in Transition conference is a scenario based exploration of future Graffiti practices demonstrated by a technology enabled Graffiti Writer evolving his means and methods in response to a pervasive and chilling legal/DRM infrastructure and networked surveillance society in order to transform his creative desires into meaningful outcomes.
The scenario follows the “Graffiti Writer” as he establishes and maximizes empowering relationships with people, avatars, media, mediums, and technologies. In doing so the main character demonstrates how new forms of cultural-media literacy and expression might occur within a multi-contextual and transmediated landscape of Duality - where even the subtlest forms of temporary presence and participation can guarantee new forms of permanence, fame, legacy and extension.
Additionally, this scenario explores how the Graffiti Writer is inspired and motivated by a new cultural logic, sense of purpose and awareness based on a changing performer audience dynamic. This new sense of purpose and awareness is explored from the perspective of multigenerational co-creation extending itself into a new concept of participation and expression.
Presented at the MIT Media in Transition 2007 Conference on April 27 - 29, 2007 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Le Confiture (Show & Tell, December 7, 2006)
MIT Media Lab (Show & Tell, January 11, 2007)
Le Confiture (Show & Tell, March 15, 2007)
