Necessity is the mother of invention. Two websites that focus heavily on the necessity part are halfbakery and ShouldExist (as in a space should exist between two words). Both are online idea banks with some fairly good posts and intelligent comments. At halfbakery, posters put forward their ideas and visitors then vote for or against it (with croissants, no less), often alerting the inventor of similar ideas that have already been "baked" by others. ShouldExist focuses more on problems that cry out for solutions, like the top post which wonders why a GPS device can track to within metres of area codes and radio stations but can't adjust for timezone changes.

 
The best British blog is a Scaryduck. Other winners: IMakeContent.com, Green Fairy, BlogJam, LinkMachineGo, and Plenty of Taste.

From this last site I found this link to a Wired article, Of PowerPoint and Pointlessness about Microsoft's Powerpoint making inroads in the classroom. What a shame. Too many of my university days were wasted watching incoherent, over-the-top, poorly thought out presentations done in PPT. I vowed to make my final year PPT-free, instead working up skits or running around the room (to prove a point of course) or recording myself on three separate tapes timed so that three different TVs were "conversing" with each other. Lots of work but lots of fun too - and no one dozed off.

 
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

– Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love, 1973

 
'Thou shalt worship the arts for what they are'. So says John Tusa, director of the Barbican Centre in London, in a speech transcript that laments the state of the arts - both its overabundance and undersignificance in society today. With ten commandments of his own, Tusa tackles such issues as profits, performance indicators, history, philanthropy, and the common good. Perhaps his most interesting point though has to do with the shift away from the arts as a source for inspiration...

The proposition here is that the social, political and cultural events of the 1960s created a new world, a new sensibility where the present was more important than the past; where the instant was valued more highly than the considered; where the sheer immediacy of new creation was more satisfying than any connection with the achievements of the past; and where awareness of the potential of the future was valued more than the accumulated sense of past knowledge. It was a world, too, where the availability of information became separated from understanding of that information, and a historical perspective was rejected as prescriptive and authoritarian.

Far from withdrawing from the challenge of the busy, modern world, we should think of the millions who have yet to enjoy the revelation of their first sound of Beethoven, their first sight of Picasso, their first look at Michelangelo, and who will be bowled over by the experience. We should not forget that the most radical artists of today, including composers such as Alfred Schnittke and John Adams, find essential inspiration from the past for their creation of the new.

We know that the collective experiences conjured in these places contribute to the way society feels; the ideas generated there shape the way we understand; the images created there colour the way we see. And we know that any society which cuts itself off from such a body of inspiration, does risk cutting itself off from the future. At their best, the arts are a creative test bed where the best of the past is combined with the openness of the present to produce the transformation of the new.

 
It is refreshing to see some constructive imagination push out the destructive rhetoric in the U.S. resolve to overcome the terrorist attacks of 9-11. And it is of course resilient New Yorkers leading the charge. In particular, NY Times Architecture critic Herbert Muschamp and a group of world-class architects and artists have put forward a remarkably comprehensive and impressively visionary proposal for the redevelopment of Ground Zero - the former site of the WTC towers - and the surrounding area. To boot, it's clearly presented as a whole at a smartly designed website complete with narration and conceptual drawings: Thinking Big. (via Focused Performance)

 
Here's a classic Wired article - The Economics of Ideas - about Stanford economist Paul Romer, best known for his papers on New Growth Theory - a theory that suggests non-rival goods like ideas drive economic growth instead of rival goods such as scarce resources because ideas can be leveraged infinitely. Romer was named one of America's 25 most influential people by Time magazine in 1997 and has ignited a lively discussion that is still highly relevant to the new economy.

Call Romer an economist for the technological age. The world, in Romer's view, isn't defined by scarcity and limits on growth. Instead, it's a playground of nearly unbounded opportunity, where new ideas beget new products, new markets, and new possibilities to create wealth. "Old growth theory says we have to decide how to allocate scarce resources among alternative uses," says Romer. "New growth theory says, 'Bullshit!' We're in this world, it's got some objects, sure, but it's got these ideas, too, and all that stuff about scarcity and price systems is just wrong.'"

 
A Receptive Mind (mini-essay #2). It cannot be overstated how important the simple act of asking a naïve question can be. It triggers the consideration of something altogether new. It deposits some speck of impurity into the mix. It opens up avenues that lead to new intersections. But it is only a receptive mind that is able to answer a naïve question. You have to be open to the unexpected so that if you come upon a discovery you'll recognize it and act upon it.

If DuPont scientist Stephanie Kwolek hadn't had an open mind back in 1965, she would never have discovered how to make the fiber that is used in bulletproof vests, radial tires, fiber-optic cable, suspension bridges, and spacecraft shells - a fiber five times stronger than steel. If 3M scientist Art Fry hadn’t had a receptive mind in 1980, he would never have realized the utility of a new, low-tack adhesive that a coworker, Spencer Silver, had invented as repositionable notes. If Budweiser marketing executives hadn’t had an open mind, they would never have seen the infamous “wassup” guys for cultural phenomenon that they became.

Inspiration comes from making new connections between the lines. One must be open, not limited by the status quo and finally, be at liberty to explore. That’s what play is all about. Playing is essentially naïve exploration. In a business context it is naïve exploration…with a purpose. Playing is a directionless journey through the unknown, the untried, the ridiculous and the random. It is a practical stroll through things that are normally considered dumb, impractical and misguided but that somehow puts in to question these judgments and assumptions and sometimes completely shifts one’s opinions and perceptions about them altogether. Play repositions old thoughts and actions in a new light, flipping black to white and forward to reverse. A receptive mind sees the world through such fresh eyes… although what is seen is inevitably shaded by the coloured glasses being worn.

 
Kids use PlayStation for high-tech homework.

 
Leading by Design: For the better part of the 20th century, the vacuum cleaner industry has used the same principle for collecting dust introduced in 1901.  Only the physical look was ``repackaged."  It took a designer to revolutionize the technology and insist that the function drive the design.

Dyson Fills a Vacuum, an @issue article about those bagless dual-cyclone vacuum cleaners, the $2 billion market they've created, and the vacuum manufacturers that were too comfortable with filter bags to recognize a fresh new design when presented with one.

 
If the Stock Exchange traded in "pasts" the way it does in futures, it would be prudent to start investing in the mid-century right about now. Keep away from Happy Days, Bob Menzies and myxomatosis; go heavily into designers like Richard Neutra, Paul Rudolph, Pierre Koenig, Charles and Ray Eames and the guys who inspired them, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Marcel Breuer.

From Australia's The Age, It's a mod, mod, mod, mod world. (via Pondlife)

 
It seems to be the season in business magazine land for special innovation issues. Harvard Business Review, Inc., Entrepreneur - and now grand-daddy The Economist, with an editorial this week titled Thanksgiving for innovation.

Governments worship at the altar of innovation these days for good reason. Far from being simply some missing factor in the growth equation, innovation is now recognised as the single most important ingredient in any modern economy—accounting for more than half of economic growth in America and Britain. In short, it is innovation—more than the application of capital or labour—that makes the world go round. And, so, after almost 160 years of puzzling over such matters, The Economist has decided that the innovators of the world are due some special recognition.

The attention in print complements their inaugural Economist Innovation Summit and Awards that was held in San Francisco two days ago. Six of the winners, in categories skewing towards the science and technology realm of innovation, are described (quite briefly actually) in the article.

 
The Smithsonian Institute's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation has a pretty cool website called Invention at Play. In addition to some simple web games, the site has some excellent stories and biographies about inventors and inventive work environments. The best part of it though is definitely a series of four (online) videos featuring interviews with several prominent figures in the world the play. Does Play Matter?

 
Tapping into much the same vein that Memepool uses with common thoughts and that Everything2 uses with definitions, HyperHistory applies cross-linking to history with great utility. The site offers a summarized history of the world - its important places, key people, significant time periods and major events - in a manner that caters to those who enjoy the occasional tangent.

 
The New York Times has an interesting article, Product Placements Go Interactive in Video Games, about the continued blurring of advertising with entertainment. Already a staple in many sports video games, product placements from such companies as Intel and McDonald's will be making their way into general interest games like The Sims. The difference with The Sims placements (among other games), however, is that the characters actually interact with the sponsored objects, even actively seeking them out for nourishment or game points.

 
Consisting of a wireless microphone, to be attached to your dog's collar, Bow-lingual, from Japan's Takara Toys (in Japanese), is an electronic device that analyzes and crudely translates each "woof" in to a set of pre-programmed phrases like "I've had enough" or "I'm a little bored, let's play."

 
The ad world loves poking fun at itself. Here is another parody film about the industry. It was produced for the One Show awards this year and brings back memories of other infamous awards show shorts like Truth in Advertising (by Toronto's Avion Films) and Reach & Frequency (by Portland's Elvis & Bonaparte, who seem to have disappeared without a trace).

 
What do you get when you combine small vegetation with scale model automobiles? CrashBonsai - bonsai plants somehow (violently) getting in the way of replica cars and trucks to amusing effect. The creation of John Rooney, a Boston area artist torn between the desire to create and destroy, die-cast models are creatively smashed and melted to create " little living car crash sculptures". (via Memepool)

 
Bioinspiration holds great potential for humans: imagine quick, superstable robots capable of entering burning buildings, or artificial muscle for prosthetic limbs. Its creative process, based on an unlikely collaboration between biologists, mathematicians, and engineers, is also particularly important. "We extract principles of how animals move that allow us to build robots that nobody has built before."

Taking design cues from the natural world, a Metropolis article accompanied by an interview with Robert Full, founder of the Poly-PEDAL Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley.

 
Founded and based in The Netherlands, World Press Photo is an independent and non-profit organization dedicated to the uncensored dissemination of high-quality photojournalistic work. Their website features winning entries to their annual contest ceebrating the best of last year's news photos. The 2001 Photo of the year, for example, depicts the body of an infant Afghan refugee boy being prepared for burial by aged and wrinkled hands. The shots, in categories ranging from children to sports to portraits, are both striking in their content matter and stunning in their composition.

(To some extent, the same could be said for Here is New York, a collection of thousands of photos from one year ago).

 
PBS has a very well-done website (designed by Portland's Second Story) about the life and times of Mark Twain. Created in support of a documentary film by Ken Burns, the site masterfully chronicles the stages of Samuel Clemens' career with quotes and photos as well as audio and video clips.

 
Fast Company has a cover story this month (Hit Man) profiling Chris Albrecht, president of HBO original programming. The article sheds some light on the company and leader that has brought us such well-received shows as The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Six Feet Under. HBO's mission has been to build up a portfolio of sorts of high-quality programming that may, individually, only draw a narrow audience but together forms a unique body of work in an industry shackled to ratings and pilots.

It's a simple strategic insight that's easy to describe but exceedingly difficult to execute: Forget what's popular -- what's working now -- and start with what's good. Then ignore the conventions of the medium, and reject the received wisdom of the industry to follow the internal logic of each project. It's not a recipe for hits. It's a discipline for producing original work -- and for working productively with people who make stuff that makes a difference.

Along with the story points, [writer Alan] Ball heard another message: "She [Carolyn Strauss, Albrecht's deputy] was telling me that I don't actually have to be a bad writer here! After five years of working on a network show where you always had to put the subtext in someone's mouth -- 'Gee Dad, I guess I'm mad at you because you did X when I was 12' -- you could just let the subtext be the subtext and let the characters talk like real people. You don't have to be a hack!" It's that kind of luxury that has talented writers, directors, actors, and producers lining up to work with HBO.

 
Joey Reiman continues to get good press. Founder of Atlanta's Brighthouse and authour of the book Thinking for a Living, Reiman is featured in an article in this month's Entrepreneur magazine. Brighthouse is a business consultancy ("the ideation corporation") that aids in coming up with ideas and insights for major blue-chip clients by way of a four-step "heartstorming" process - 1) investigation, 2) incubation, 3) illumination and 4) illustration.

Most companies probably already do Steps 1 and 4. Investigation involves analyzing the project, learning everything possible about it. The last step, which often takes BrightHouse nearly three months, is putting the knowledge together into a dynamic package. But businesses often ignore incubation and illumination.

Reiman invites a diverse crowd into his ideations--say, an astrologist, a physicist and a psychologist to discuss life insurance. "If he's working with an auto manufacturer, he'll bring in an anthropologist or a sociologist--people who think beyond the borders of what you would expect, and you can really get into some fertile territory."

 
Abbey Road, a bumblebee, and the Wailing Wall - all stylized into barcodes (along with 45 other images). XOX, a portable computer industrial design concept. "Design will save the world" in 65 languages.

Just some of the cool stuff at the website for the Art Lebedev Studio in Moscow, Russia - the self-proclaimed most renowned team of Russian graphic design, website creation, interface engineering and industrial design professionals. (via Focused Performance)

 
Hardly surprising, but newsworthy nonetheless: Music Officially Ends for Napster as Company Folds.

 
Take a pictorial walk-through of some wonderfully creative interior designs, courtesy of Architectural Record.

 
If you're into global rankings, you'll want to swing by Aneki.com to peruse their somewhat large collection. You'll find out which country is the most expensive (Japan), the most polluted (Haiti), the cleanest (Finland), the most illiterate (Niger) and the most visited (France). You can also learn how many billionaires there are in the U.S. (269 - next highest was Japan with 29), how many nuclear warheads Russia has (28,240), the number of internet users in China (only 22 million), and who has the highest proportion of adults in university (Canada with 5997 per 100,000).

 
Diversity generates economic expansion. This is the central premise to a great book called The Nature of Economies by Jane Jacobs. Written as a platonic discussion amongst five friends in New York and New Jersey, the book is all about looking at economics as an ecosystem.

Jacobs argues that economic expansion relies on capturing, using and then re-using transient energy. The more successful systems are particularly adept at recycling this energy before it is discharged because they have more diverse ways of identifying it, passing it around and recycling it. This rich, diverse environment in turn grows even larger from within because of its excellent self-refueling capabilities. So for example a lush forest is a much more robust ecosystem than a semi-barren desert because of how well it processes energy received from the sun. In the forest it is absorbed and traded around while much of it bounces right back out of a desert. Likewise, large economically diverse cities tend to grow much better than single-export cities do because of their comparatively stronger internal dynamics (eg. Los Angeles’s success during the difficult exporting period of the 1940s and, conversely, Detroit’s demise as a city despite strong auto exports). “When [imports] go into settlements that are good at stretching imports, they carry with them a potential of being economic expanders. If they merely go to other simple settlements, whether domestic, foreign, or both, they lack that potential." Her overall point is that imports, and particularly how well they are “stretched” while within the conduit, are much more significant than exports (as many economists would argue).