Design for the Real World

A new show at Cooper-Hewitt examines solutions for "the rest of the world" from the design perspective of "what does the person need".

Unfortunately, that sounds like a novel idea.

Design for the Developing World is an audio piece from theworld.org.
"A new exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York highlightssimple technology and design concepts that can be used to improve thelives of poor people in the developing world. "

The Cooper-Hewitt site "Design for the other 90%" has several examples of how these programs have been implemented. I'm disappointed that communications(tele) does not have its own focus area.

"Why are designers so focused on designing for the wealthiest 10%?" is covered at livemint.com.

These pieces are evocative of the foundation work done by people like Victor Papanek's reality-based thinking in Design for the Real World, Buckminster Fuller's spaceship earth canonical "design for everything" principles out of his book Critical Path, and other good practices in understanding what the Spice Girls were at with the "tell me what you want what you really really want".

This might be a good day to shift to decaf. Or not.

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Collaborative Software Initiative

I don't know bubba.... but why does every rural county run its own 911 system?

Why does every hospital have its own admissions system? Why the serious variance in quality? Why does each doctor's office have its own crappy looking low quality paper form for patient history? Even better, why would a doctor working with geriatrics have tiny, broken, print from a multiple generation photocopy?

There are days that it looks like the part of the country I live in is driven by a new democratic principle of "one building, one grant".

It's consolidation opportunity, baby!

The Collaborative Software Initiative looks to the pooled interests of "software consumers" to leverage quality and costs. The coopepetitors (my neologism, dammit...) gain the advantage of common code that's out of their strategic differentiation zone... like....

• would a school differentiate on the basis of its transcript generating system?
• how many patient history forms does a region need?
• what about the data manipulation underneath a sales-lead tracking system?

Ones' mileage may vary, but this new company, with focus upon open source software stacks (LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) looks to be getting to the headaches in the consuming business/government/educational communities. They've also secured alliances with IBM, HP, Intel, and Novell (for starters) and seem to be in the right market place to deliver great value.

Although humans look for patterns in data, (see the face in the clouds?) the Collaborative Software volk fit in with the other coolhunting I've been after:

• open source appliances such as the edgeBOX for all in one branch office solutions
• CUWiN's open source community networking using open source
• the compelling economics of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) and Open Source
• the already past but becomming more obvious effect of consumer gizmo volumes inverting the old early adopter TALC models.... but I need to wave hands on this topic at a future posting.

Wisdom of crowds.... boy howdy.

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Minitel Redux: Putting The App Into Appliance With Easy Neuf

The International Herald Tribune covers an innovative Internet Appliance developed by Neuf Cigatel - the Easy Neuf. Little box with magic.

What I like about this:

• Linux Core
• Open Source Word Processing, Browser, and Spreadsheet
• €10 preminum for "the box" and "cheap" peripherals (keyboard, tube)

A long time ago.... I described the interaction of fast reliable open networks and "thin clients" as a 'nuthin but net model. Whilst mileage may vary, the use of stable open source appliances will drive adoption by consumers and small businesses who do not (can not) manage the deathly complexity of dueling operating systems. Don't even look at the machines blinking 12:00...

As an example of the business implementation, look at Critical-Link's edgeBOX product - again using Linux core with applications nougats (firewall, email, VoIP... plus partner-provided applications).

So.... do I smell an ASP milling about. How about running payroll and sales tracking along with supporting the must-do office applications "hands free" for the customer/consumer?

Meanwhile, thank you for the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) as a brilliant design initiative to open the discussion and markets about what (ubiquity) verus how (Windows, Linux, et.al.).

The Small Business Economy

The following two pieces were provided through the courtesy of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

The Small Business Economy: 2006

A new report issued by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration, "The Small Business Economy for Data Year 2005" examines the economic contributions of small business using data from a variety of
sources.

The report released before the National Economists Club in Washington, D.C, highlights some of the following:

** Business borrowing in 2005 was at an all-time high, and commercial banks expanded lending and eased lending standards in response to competition from non-bank lenders.

** Women’s contribution to business, using multiple data sources, the most recent show that women owned 6.5 million, or 28.2 percent, of non-farm firms. These firms employed 7.1 million workers with $173.7 billion in annual payroll.

** Three economic indicators key to an analysis of the economy’s performance—output, productivity, and unemployment—were up.

To obtain a copy of the report visit:

http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/sb_econ2006.pdf, and the research summary
at http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs286.pdf. Should you need further information, please feel free to contact Chad Moutray at (202) 205-6533 or advocacy@sba.gov .

Regional Asset Indicators

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has recently unveiled an excellent resource to assess regional innovation and entrepreneurship assets. The web site hosts a variety of interesting tools for judging how your region is performingon key economic and demographic factors.It includes spreadsheets and maps that track important categories such as innovation, creative workforce, humanamenities, wealth, infrastructure, and entrepreneurship. It also includes useful articles providing further informationon each of the indicator categories.To access the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Regional Asset Indicators web page, visit http://www.kansascityfed.org/RuralCenter/Indicators/Indicators_main.htm.

In praise of The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson

Absolutely wonderful read - instructive on many levels.

Most of the reviews of Steven Johnson's "The Ghost Map" have focussed upon the map itself. The strength of the book likes in its exposition of:

• How the 1800s bureaucracy of public health had anchored upon the "miasmic" theory of disease at the cost of not seeing or considering *other* data which could point to the vector for cholera.
• The gritty analytical "hard work" done to identify the sources and courses of the epidemic
• The vivid description of the horrors of Dickens' London. As a contemporary, Dickens presumed a common point of refrence to the squalor. Mr. Johnson makes the despair and filth vivid for the contemporary reader.

What a (gritty) great read which should, I believe, augment courses in Public Health, Management Science, History, and English Literature. The meta book is the profound overall cautionary and instructive impact of his writing.