#ProjComm

[choconancywhite]

Gearing up for Confusiasm

We are doing that last minute craziness, trying to add enough structure and space for enough emergence, coordinate across the facilitation/tutor team and across time and distance. We live what we are learning!

[giokardashian]

Day 1; T.E.A.M

I am writing this on the 10th september, however my first lesson of Project communities was yesterday. We sat in groups and received an assignment, associated to an NGO. Our assignment was for the Gogorobi Foundation, and we have to come up with a fundraiser idea that they can use to diffuse the storytelling tradition of Curacao and the Caribbean. Our team's plan was to improve on what the foundation already has started in terms of funding, as there is always room for improvement. We would also like to make people more aware of this foundation, so that they will help the foundation more than they already have. 

As for myself, i'm an ex IB (International Baccalaureate) student. A mandatory component in the IB curriculum was CAS (Creativity, Action and Service). It consisted in spending 50 hours for each area. As part of Creativity and Service, i helped out one of my best friends to start a foundation called Save the Cat. Its aim was to help preserve and research tigers, through the Beekse Bergen Safari Park in Holland. Although this was a small foundation, as a group we had to come up with ways to make money. I think that if they can be used on a larger scale, it can be an easy way for the Gogorobi Foundation to fund its mission. I also took Visual Arts, which helped me be more creative as a person and as an artist, by pushing me to think outside the box. I think that both these skills can be useful not only in this project, but also in future ones.

The Project Communities class is "project, a community and a set of tools for using online communities and networks for enhancing the design process in any context" (Project Communities Manual, 2013). Yesterday we had a Google Hangout with 2 people who are experts in this area and we had the opportunity to ask them questions. From the first lesson i think that this class will be centered around the idea that we are a community, and will give us access to important online technology and networks. From this class i would like to learn in what ways we can use networks and online communities to aid us in our academic life and innovation design.

For now, this is all.

Such Fun!

[jennifervioni]

Online Tools on The Go

Today we were talking about online tools, what is the most effective tool to use in order to complete our projects. I think that people in this world are curious human beings who always try new things, then they’ll decide how is it useful to them, they like it or not, others are using it or not, et cetera. Social media is one of the things they always try, because it’s free; and if you don’t like it, you can just delete your account with one click, or just let it be there.

Those who tried everything even took their times to explain social media one by one. Using the most perfect example, of course. Bacon.

(credit: ooolalina.tumblr.com)

Of course one’s preferences affect the online tools he/she uses. For example, I, myself have tried almost every social media available (facebook, twitter, youtube, tumblr, instagram, myspace,—I know, lame—and reddit) and I prefer twitter and tumblr more than facebook and the others since I don’t really like facebook and twitter and tumblr are the most interesting than the others. I’ve been using those since 2011.

Believe me, tumblr is a bit complicated, but once you understand, it’s addicting.

Oh, and who says tumblr doesn’t have a national anthem?

(credit: gingershanks.tumblr.com)

Diversity is a part of the world, even not as broad as the world, a group also has diversities among the members. Different preferences led to a discussion about which social media is the most effective and the discussion itself will lead to a conclusion. My group has decided to use facebook to communicate and even though I don’t like facebook, but I must say that it is the most effective of all when it comes to sharing things. Democracy works.

Technology creates a network that expand togetherness, I’m conscious now that understanding the relations between technology and communities eliminate the chance of failure of stewardship. To create a relevant community I realise that I have to be able to spot what kind of social process that technology brings and understanding it.

Have a nice day!

[rebeckazz]

Hey Crowdsourcing

I believe that one person alone will never solve a problem in the best way. I think that the Internet and the different networks that we use have made us realize this. Some of the most successful companies on the web have made sure to let other people outside the company stand for the innovation. This is crowdsourcing. By using the network-users the companies can do things they would have paid for. Take for example Wikipedia, where people can contribute with their knowledge in order to create a mass encyclopedia. It’s a system that allows anyone to do the job and the people do it because they enjoy the feeling of being involved.

If more people corporate and interact it’s more likely that there will be a solution. However, it is not only entirely to rely on, but it’s simply that different people know different things.  The combined knowledge contained in a large group is greater than the knowledge of one or two individuals. Also, different human behavior works in various ways: some want to throw out ideas, others want to describe problems in new ways, and some are good at taking a step back and come to conclusions. Simply by looking at our group for this community project one can see a connection to the crowdsourcing idea. We are all from different backgrounds, been exposed to different knowledge and used to work in different ways. This is not always a bad thing as it gives us new insights and perspectives on how to work with this project.

When it comes to online spaces on the Internet I would say that I primarily use it as an individual and don’t interact with others online. I like to have defined and bounded groups when I do interact with people because I have never had the need to interact with others in the wider network. I use Facebook, for example, to talk to my friends, especially friends that I don’t live close to but want to keep contact with. I use of Facebook because my friends use it. If none of my friends used it, then it wouldn’t be a point in me using it.

The tools that I want to use are tools that I don’t need to look in a manual in order to figure out how they work. It has to be intuitive. Some tools are just so complicated, you end up all frustrated and mad and feel like you want to give up on technology all together. I’m sorry to say this but The Hague Universitys website might be a good example of this. Just to find basic information can be really tricky- going from the HHS homepage to Blackboard to Webber. Just the first week I couldn’t figure out how to find my schedule because you needed to go in and do something really unnecessary, complicated stuff… Im still little confused to be honest.   And so here again the crowdsourcing comes in. What if the school could actually ask for the students’ preferences? What we like to use, what we think are good solutions and what can make it easier, usable and even enjoyable.  

I think that there are always smarter people outside any community; you just have to figure out how they can help. Crowdsourcing is suitable for situations when you go out into the unknown, to projects in the forefront of innovation.

[justinlimboxofthoughts-blog]

First Step: The Ripples Of Change

Good Morning, Afternoon, Evening. Wherever you happen to be.

This blog is going to record each of my steps towards the future as on open innovator. As such it is going to give you some insight to my mind, my thoughts and my goals. It will allow you to follow me on this journey to become something. And so, with no further ado I present you my first step, taken on Monday, the 9th of September 2013.

Prior to tackling the new challenges presented in life, or actually just this course, one should always ask themselves; What am I doing here, what do I have to achieve, and lastly: Do I even know what is to be achieved ? Simple answer: No. But there is always the method of trying to understand.

Presented with the class' ideals and the lecturer's thoughts on our growth, what I as an aspiring open innovator perceive, and understand, is that the class goal is that we should grow, share, create and expand ideas as a team, not in isolation. From anywhere in the world, accessible anytime, anywhere, to incorporate the notion of using an online community as one base to work together with.

Individual ideas are great and the start of something big, but an individual alone has not much power. Say you have an idea. You put it on paper. Voilá, you're stuck, because you cannot figure out how and where to place that tiny little screw without changing everything. Or say you're a genius and finished a design. Wow, that would be incredible. However, you can't build it because the funding needed isn't usually just lying around in your bank account. Usually. Stick to the idea with me you lucky rich lad.

For the first problem you have crowd-sourcing, A community of designers you have found, created or joined who help you. You can also say that because you may not know it all, but together many minds can create something. The idea of incorporating online communities, partners, contacts as one or the base as the future of our work is an interesting notion. That as itself is something I wish to learn and explore about. Every step I take from hereon is basically laying the foundations of my, your, our future to innovate and change our workflow. From crowd-sourcing to teamwork, crowd-funding to marketing. In each and every step of visualization to creation, I wish to learn how to use online communities as the key to finding and inspiring changes for the world.

From the first day on, we, Group 6, all met our client and his company:  Maarten N. from the company Solidaridad Network.(Well in a sense, do short online videos count?) Someone who is like us, aspiring to change the world. Someone who wants us to help him change and create his own personal community to help, and communicate on how to change the world. His company is a ecumenical company working hard on changing the world on economical, political and global level. With the latter focusing on globalization. Based on his, and his company wishes, we will have to design, create a platform, and it's interface to suit the company and it's partners. A great challenge that we have to face, seeing as how this company is working to change current situation on many layers. This isn't something one can easily design and present. Seeing it's multi-layered activity on a global scale, this is a challenge to be thought thoroughly and carefully.

What I would like to see as the optimal outcome for our team's project is the implementation and success of the design our team creates for the interface of his platform. I wish to see that having a platform designed by us, which helps Solidaridad Network connect and effectively and efficiently communicate with employees and partners, successfully playing a part in the path of their goal. That would be the outcome I would wish to unfold itself upon me. To achieve that speck of light I have set upon myself, I bring in motivation to walk the talk. Tenacity to see this through harder times. No matter what shall happen, the special quality I bring in is going to put me and Group 6 through good and especially hard times, days and moments, so we shall all share my vision, and pat ourselves on the back saying: "Yeah, that was something we created together, this is the thing we share for the world."

..with a smile.

Justin Lim taking the first step.

[i-yu-me-blog]

FusionOfMinds

I beleive, the most important factor in our group work and for our class projects in general, is to help and support each other, in the same way we should try to complement each other.

Because, like we said, we all have our strengths and weaknesses, but we can use this and for sure we can all learn from each other, at all different kinds of levels.

As for me, this whole internet-communication is quite confusing since im a nerd in this. But im doing my best to change this.

Regarding the next weeks, and what i want to learn, i can only say that i really want to understand how to use and handle all this new impressions and tasks and hopefully be ready to improve my skills and knowledge. 

Reflecting our course on monday, i have to admit that i didnt understand much of what was going on, but I enjoyed the hangout with Nancy and Alan and Im very excited about what they will let us experience and learn, and how we all will make use of this kind of communication, so we can work together on our projects and goals.

I dont think that i can name a special quality regarding my contribution, but i think this will all show up in the next weeks.

For now, i will give my best to support my group and i hope, that together we can achieve what we want to ,and be there as a team but also as individuals who can enrich the group.

+

Katinka

[chius-bubble]

The Last Breath of Excitement

As people tend to say, time passes fast when you’re having fun. I wholeheartedly agree with this saying, although might I also add that time passes even faster when you’re in distress in getting all the assignments completed before the deadline! Just like this rollercoaster ride we have all been on, my experience is this; it felt like this ride took a split second to reach the end. One lesson I have learnt is not to underestimate the great experiences even the smallest amount of time can bring us.

A successful and enjoyable roller coaster ride is not just about how many loops or drops there are; it’s about the order of the ride, where the highs and lows are, and how they all flow together as one whole ride. This ensures the building up of excitement, the time it gives you to take in that last drop take a breath to soak in all the adrenaline, while the last and final obstacle before the end of the ride is to give you the last bit of excitement before you have to take in all the dizziness and stumble down the stairs.

This is process is just like how this project went. Although it seems as though time went by so fast, we started off by being slowly mounted onto the first drop, followed with more loops and obstacles to go through. Each obstacle represents the themes of each week. It felt like these themes were being thrown at us time after time, and barely did we feel like we had time to stop and take that breath. Of course, there are obstacles in the ride that tend to not give you that rush that you desire but yet you are forced to sit through it and make the best of it; in my case this would be the weeks in which the topics were of less ability to be of help to our NGO.  This doesn’t mean there was nothing to gain out of that week. Instead, it just challenged us to try think of that specific theme, in our case this would be crowdfunding and crowdsourcing, and see how we could look at it from a different perspective and change the context a bit for it to apply to our NGO. All in all, the order in which these themes were covered each helped us understand the following theme even better. Most importantly for our team, the most important one to us was our final theme of marketing. This enabled us to cleverly use of the things we learned from online communities in the past weeks to aid us in brainstorming marketing ideas for Carl-Peter.

Now we have finally reached the last part of this roller coaster ride. We have soaked in all the information, and have come up with some results. This is the time where we get off of this ride, stumble dizzily down the stairs towards the last destination of this ride: the picture booth. Now, the picture any ride will take captures the whole ride into a picture. Our final destination would be where everything we have learnt, captured into that one video. Although we are currently stressed about the creation of the video, where peoples minds are shaky from all the stress,  this is the time when asa team we would have to help and motivate each other. This is the time where I come back to my first blog and to show the team player I thrive to be; commitment to my team, to show team support, empathy to understand and motivate each one in their own unique ways, and lastly flexible, to helping each other out and having their backs when you expect it least and when they need it most.

I enjoyed this ride, and I hope you did too.

source 

[syeenaboodesign]

BYEEEEE

Eight weeks have been and gone. We now find ourselves putting the final touches on our video and beginning to reflect on our work the past two months. Its hard to believe the times gone so fast and that we were so naïve to begin with.

Each week we have dived into a new topic whether it is crowdsourcing, technology stewardship, marketing or work teams, all have encouraged and demanded – working in/on/with an online community or network. Going into this project I had little experience with this, however I soon realised how essential and beneficial this form of work is in the innovative design industry. Its benefits stem from the concept of a smaller world where global communication is no barrier. Shared knowledge is key allowing us all to gain and pass on lessons learnt or information gained.  The increased use of online communities and networks is currently – mid-snowball effect – gaining popularity by the day. It’s a movement designers cannot ignore and in-fact is creating an entirely new way or working creatively.

One design principle resounded with me after this project and that is “The Pareto Principle” (http://principles.adactio.com/). Perhaps because this was so applicable to our groups experience. This Principle states: “80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” Through out this project we experienced a multitude of problems, from; team management to customer interactions and even just the development of solutions.  However it was only due to these problems we encountered that we were able to innovate and come up with solutions – improving the team and the work being produced.

As for tips for next years students… COMMUNICATE! Our teams communication left a lot to be desired and it effected our working relationship. This would be my biggest tip to you along with making the effort to meet face to face, it is so much more beneficial to the efficiency and shared understanding throughout the group.

This experience is going to be invaluable, it is my first real experience working for a customer in a group or international participants. I have gotten an insight firstly into what to expect. I now know how much team work is going to be prevalent over the next 3 years and being aware of this allows me to ensure the way I interact with certain team members is beneficial to the efficiency of the group. Although I go away from this experience feeling my team could have performed better I am very proud of what we have created and thankful for all the lessons I have learnt along the way.

  So for the final time..

That’s all for this week!

Untill next time, Siras Henderson xx

[nyorgovn-blog]

WEEK 5- Work teams

Ok, Its week 5 now and everything is going pretty well. This weeks theme is team. It's always great to have a little thinking in that direction because it's the base of every organization and every company in the world. 

Let's look at our awesome group now.  I think what is really going well with us now is that we get along pretty well. There is a generally good mood among us and that helps us and motivates us to work better. On the other hand we find some trouble organizing a group meeting during the week, so we can assume that the "out of school communication" is kind of a problem for us. I actually consider this for not that big of a problem because nowadays there is facebook, emails etc. and so much sharing possibilities and if we use them well enough we'll be just fine. We have to communicate more actively and considering most of us are living pretty close to each other it should not be problem to organize a meeting for the group.  What is impact of size? Well, we can say that this is pretty obvious because we can simple say "two heads think better then one". The are more ideas incoming when we work as a team and we can always choose the best one and of course a well organized team has a lot bigger rate.  In our group there is a huge variety of different cultures. In my opinion this is beneficial when we look at the fact that we are solving a task for our NGO considering their offices around the world.  To sum up, I find my group great and full of bright minds. We will deal with all our tasks perfectly if we overcome some small problems. 

[misoo235]

Thank You all.

I'm starting to write this blog and thinking. It's over? Latest blog? The end of a long, endless Monday? Probably so. But I have to what I two months ago wouldn't even think to say.

I’ll miss this !

I remember the beginning, who caught only one word: Chaos. I feel like it was yesterday. No one knew what to do, all filled with a sense of unease and uncertainty. But today, our hourglass are almost empty and we can no longer follows the last grains of sand that slowly but surely completed the first stage at this school.

What is going on here? - We often asked, during the long and unorganized google hangouts.

But now we are at the end of a new beginning, turned about-face and see our tracks we leave.

Let's decipher them.

At the beginning I see the shortcut NGO. Honestly, I did not know what it is. However,  I already know. Thank you.

Next, I can see 'Technology Stewardship' - Yes. Technology. In fact, I felt like at home in. I have reviewed and reinforced the importance of technology as in normal everyday life and in work and communication also. 

Crowd-sourcing. For me again, hitherto unknown concept. But this lesson has helped us realize our position and role in the project.

Teamwork. I remind this class, as one of the most valuable for us, as a group. It helped us to understand the power of group-work and taught us to use it the most effectively.

Crowd-funding followed. For me personally, the most valuable and most inspiring among all.

And at the end, one of the most important topics which was Marketing. Marketing is all around us and is part of everything. I dare say that in many cases is the key. ( Simple idea of quality marketing can make a hole in the world and vice versa with bad marketing we can sink even the best of them.

And now we are here and there is only the last task. Will present our work, efforts and thoughts to client.

But. The question is. 

What is the one most important thing have you learned about using online communities and networks in innovative design?

What is the most important thing ?

That’s clear for me.The most important thing is awareness of what our online communities and networks offer and permit. It's an almost unlimited amount of information, ideas and also inspiration. Speed​​, clarity, accessibility of information! But! The simplicity is essential! I learned a long time ago just like it confirmed. Communication is to be direct and clear. Information served to make them comprehensible and easily understandable. So we can avoid misunderstandings and confusion.

Considering all you have learned and experienced through our classroom time and your work for your clients, what are your design principles for designing and fostering online communities or networks?

My Design principles ?

Yes. I have them. These are the words which I deeply enthusiastic in myself and who are trying to to follow the, whenever I do something / product. Design is the only way to communicate with people. People need to understand you. Needs a clear message read by every product of carries. The message is encoded in a single word-Design-

People still do not like things they do not understand. Quite the contrary. Do they ??

Maybe I can consider these  ten principles for good design of Dieter Rams , as mine as well. 

Finally in this blog I would like to express a big frankly Thank You to Marteen for guiding, tutoring but mostly for his positive energy and the mood which brings to our group and of course to 8 great, awesome people whom I had the honor during these 2 months to get to know.

I am glad that I can say that Project Community gave me really a lot. As new knowledge, experience, overview of the most forward word friends. It was fun and useful experience, so I look forward to more projects!

And for you to prospective students. Start will be messy but life is not always easy. That each of us knows. So what tips would I give to prospective students? Be prepared! And enjoy your ride!

BYe

[viktoriyadespotova-blog]

Week 8

 If I have to be honest, I cannot believe that this is our final week. I just gained confidence about my work for developing the project and suddenly this was our last chance to put all our effort to further develop our presentation. Still, I feel confident about our group work. I think this Monday was most useful, because the topic was very interesting to me. We were talking about multi-media and audio-visual presentations and the different techniques we can use to make them more interesting to the audience. In my opinion, the thing that made me and the other group members from group 6 think about our visual outlook of the presentation were the examples shown by the teacher. This way we became aware of the mistakes we can make, i.e. the pitfalls. For example, we understood that our presentation was five minutes longer than required so we started working on making it shorter.

As usual, after the presentation we divided into smaller groups and worked on different tasks. I really liked the idea that two of the group members thought of. They decided to change the design of the presentation completely, because ours was too simple. They came up with the great idea to make it like a railway and each section of the presentation will be a train station. In my opinion, this is a very original idea and in this way it would definitely be more interesting.

Through your research, what is the one most important thing you have learned about using online communities and networks in innovative design?

Honestly, I had no idea that methods like Crowdsourcing and Crowd funding exist. The most important thing that I learned about using online communities and networks is that they are extremely useful and can only benefit you. The Internet is one enormous space, where people communicate, share ideas, videos, pictures, etc. Nowadays, almost everyone is using the internet for one reason or another. When it comes to developing a better business it is extremely important for one to have an online community, since in this way you have a bigger audience, e.g. a lot of people look for customers or investors online. I think that it is also a smart place to look for great designs, because as I already said, everyone is using the internet and online networks are one of the main places, where artists promote their work.

Considering all you have learned and experienced through our classroom time and your work for your clients, what are your design principles for designing and fostering online communities or networks?

The first thing that makes an impression on me in a website is the visual outlook. I think that it is best if it is simple, but still original. This is why one of my design principles is Simplicity.

It is also very important for me, a website to be well structured and accessible. I personally have visited a lot of websites, which have great visual outlook, but are extremely hard to use, because the information is put in the wrong place. The second design principle which I choose is Accessibility.

Last but not least – Tolerance. In my opinion, EVERYONE should listen and even if accept not, then at least tolerate the opinion of others.

My advice for next-year students? When you decide what to study, don’t consider the opinion of your parents, because when you transfer after a few weeks and you go to Project Community class, it might come as a shock to you. Just kidding.

My advice is to get to know your task and the different websites you will need as soon as possible, because then it will be much easier. At first, everything is very unclear, but when you get to know what is expected from you and when you make sure that you have asked all the relevant questions, it becomes quite easy. After all, we are not doing rocket science, and I think that if you put some effort, everything will be alright.

[jennifervioni]

Communities & Networks and Us

Everything starts someplace and this week marks the start of Project Communities. For me, the highlight of the day is how communities and networks affect us. First thing first, I would like to share how communities & networks can support us as students and designers for the world.

Communities

I think that communities can help us learn, not just "what to learn" but "how to learn". Because I know all too well sometimes we just don't know how to study, how to learn the basics, and get frustrated like in high school, in the middle of the night before the tests, and crying and eating a massive amount of foods; so many phases.

Exactly.

What I have learnt is that the communities need us, they need designers who can form the future, they need students who they can teach, and vice versa. In a nutshell, they are the ones who can push us.

Okay, I meant a good pushing. They will provide us with some of their complains of what they think this world is lacking, expectations (as in the gadgets or inventions that can fill the world's "weaknesses"). From there we can see what the goals are, what do we need to do, what can we do about this issue, how to please people, the communities itself.

For example, I saw several tweets from people around the globe about their demands of a portable wi-fi, so they can go anywhere and still get a wi-fi signal. Some even gave designers ideas, for instance: a wi-fi bracelet, a wi-fi necklace, a wi-fi hat (it sounds crazy, but those are ideas); and a company named "Bolt" in Indonesia took the chance to make a working 4G portable wi-fi. How do the public react? Psyched.

I have tried it, works like stereotypical wi-fi. Sometimes even better with their 4G networks (most Indonesian networks are still 3Gs)

Networks

I will delineate "networks" as connections that we have, a group or system of interconnected people or things. I think that the bigger the networks that we have the better, people need to connect, either professionally or personally. As human beings, we are social creatures, pack creatures. We need connections to cope with our surroundings, otherwise it would be chaotic.

Knowing what is happening around us is important. So reach out, there are so many features in today's technologies: facebook, twitter, tumblr. The communities there will help us build networks. As designers: "Hey, check out this new thing!" "Oh, that so nice, who made that?" "*Inserts your name* did!" 

As students we can learn from the professional designers our friends show us earlier from the social networks.

Conclusion: Communities and networks will definitely help us grow and learn, either it's baby steps or tall guy with stilts's steps. It doesn't matter, what matters is we are growing together if we know how to reach out to them.

Oh, and have a confusiasm, it is important to be confused with an enthusiasm otherwise you would look like this.

That is a confusion caused by too much focus, so yeah, be confused! With enthusiasms.

Have a nice day!

[maartenwielers-blog]

Week 8 Assignment

What is the one most important thing I have learned about using online communities and networks in innovative design?

This is a pretty simple question to answer as I had little knowledge about online communities and networks. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the difference between crowdfunding and crowdsourcing. The most important thing I have learned is probably that, as a designer you are no longer alone, you don’t sit in a room all by yourself talking to no one. Instead by being open-minded, people all over the world may access your design ideas on the web and vice versa. This makes it simpler to gain insight on how your design is viewed on both a regional aspect as well as on a cultural. If the idea is successful one can, using crowdfunding invest in startup capital to eventual nurture his design as they grow.

Another thing that I found out is crucial in making a successful design is teamwork. Sometimes you do not need to go online. Instead, especially with a group like we had we already had a mixture of multicultural backgrounds. This means that teamwork is on a smaller scale is a representation of online communities, as our group became a small community. This applied directly to our NGO as the business is spread over multiple regions and require a means of improve communication between these regions. This was very similar to our group as communication was an area we lacked in. However when communication was on point so were our ideas and this lead to a great design.

  What are your design principles for designing and fostering online communities or networks?

I personally am split between these two design principles: Good design is as little design as possible and Good design is innovative. I believe that it is true that the possibilities for innovation are not exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. However it is also true that a good design is as little design as possible, this is because it concentrates on the essential aspects and it removes all the non-essentials only displaying the core. This sometimes means that something that is simple is not necessarily easy, as work needs to be put in to remove the non-essentials.

https://www.vitsoe.com/us/about/good-design

  What would you tell next year’s class about the course?

 For those who will be doing this study I would tell them: you will be very confused for the first few weeks but just keep trying and don’t be afraid to say any ideas that come to mind. The most important aspect however is teamwork it would make working a lot more efficient if roles are distributed depending on what each member wants to do. This is because people will work on what they, themselves chose to do.

[justinlimboxofthoughts-blog]

It's The Final Countdown

Yes, it has arrived. The fated time has come. We are nearing the end of our course. Buckle up for the final countdown, this will be the last ride.

Over the course of this course, I have learned much more than initially predicted. I could write you an essay regarding every dirty little detail, but let's keep this relevant to the task. Foremost: What is the most important thing I have learned regarding utilizing online communities ?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JIV7bmyoGm0/UW1lRAXkXVI/AAAAAAAAHnM/0lB_2QatSPs/s1600/Fragile.png

Online communities and networks are double edged blades. There can be no doubt about the amount of incredible information, ideas an aspiring open-innovator such as I will gain from using these modern opportunities. However, therein lies the problem as well. An excess of information leaves much to doubt about the authenticity of given information. Or relevancy of information, where the gems are hidden beneath the dirt. Therefore, one should always choose carefully. "Where to ask it", "When to ask it", "Whom to ask", and "How to ask."

And in this process, I have also set myself some design principles to be noted when designing and fostering a online community, or network: Simplicity: A thoroughly well structured website, to be easily loaded, accessed. It shall not have to be burdened by unnecessary gimmicks, yet shall not prevent: Intuitive: The website has be greatly forthcoming towards the individual needs and liking of each individual user.

Structured: A clear structure to clearly allow groups of  their own interests to meet, share discuss etc.

Subtle: A website which intrudes with the life of the user is a website to be destroyed. The one community to strive, is the one to integrate subtly with the lives of the users. Forthcoming: A online community that closes it's borders shall one day run out of ideas. Opening borders, welcoming new users into the network allows people to feel home, to feel appreciated. To stay. Homely: Lastly, an online community must also want to stay, and build up as one The very design of the website must feel all of above, it must make everyone feel home, to want to log in and see what other family members have said. Only so can it withstand the test of time. We are nearing take off. This is the last check before the take-off. Looking back, what can I share with the next generation ? This course is going to be confusing. Many obstacles will be laid upon your way. Not every task will make sense, and even when they did, some were useless for the big picture: the customer's needs ( task ). I will lay it upon the next generation to focus on the biog picture. Should one try to include everything or every detail into the answer, it will entangle. Clarity first, thoroughly bend every nook and canny of the task given upon you. Make sure everyone understood the task. Communication and preparation is key. Speak to your peers, your tutors. Prepare in advance, be ahead. It allows mistakes or unnecessary details to be fostered out earlier. Yet as negatively I might have made it sound, certain details of this course will stick to me, as they are important to me. Copyright, experience with a customer and problems thrown into array. Working together as groups. This will help me grow, for a better future.  And for now, this is the final countdown. The last show on the road before we move on our path towards a future we design ourselves. This. Is. "The Final Countdown"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw See you along the road chaps.

[lucasalce]

Final Week

This Week’s class

It finally week 8, final week to prepared and complete our presentations. We were given a presentation on ways to present our work but group 6 is one step of the game. Our presentation and script is near completion but we came across one issue. We recently discovered that the length of the presentation has to be maximum of 5 minutes but we preparing to present a 10 minute presentation. We had to restructure and reduce our content to fit into a 5 minute time period. We also assessed out current presentation and realized it was not very original as we just used a popular template, so we came up with a more original theme that will fit nicely with the reduced content we now have. Because our presentation has to be a developing story, our new idea is to have a train ride and each section of our presentation will be divided into train stations until we get to our final destination. We are also working on using animations to make it more interactive and enhance the experience of our viewers.

Class was very productive, as we all seemed to be more motivated to finally complete this project. We all had our certain task to complete. We had some reducing the current script, others finalizing the proposed advice and myself with Gregory were generating ideas and creating our new presentation format. Final task is to record the narrator’s voice and put it over it and fit our reduced content onto our new presentation platform. 

Through your research, what is the one most important thing you have learned about using online communities and networks in innovative design?

From the 8 weeks, the most important theme or idea that I have meant is to take advantage of online communities and network. I believe to be successful you have to start to develop your online community before advancing with your project.

It is apparent that your online community is just as or even more important than your offline community. The new world and society are rapidly advancing and moving into the cloud within the digital age. It has become mandatory to seek your customers, stakeholders and other community members over the World Wide Web. It allows for another method to hear from more customers and stakeholders. You always have the ability to communicate and share with your online community where and when ever. Because of the shear size of the Internet, your audience is greater and has the capability to always grow at an unprecedented rate with the aid social media (communicating and sharing). With this greater audience, the chances of success are higher as your ideas become for accessible and help is always there. It is almost like a free marketing fool. You are provided with a rich, vibrant and versatile society giving you a greater option of choice. It doesn’t matter what method (crowdsourcing, crowd funding online marketing) is used to aid your project, the main message is to use them to their full potential with the aid of online communities and networks. It is a faster, simpler and more accessible method of connecting with your community. I believe that this is the future of successful innovative design and development. 

Considering all you have learned and experienced through our classroom time and your work for your clients, what are your design principles for designing and fostering online communities or networks? Don’t know what design principles are?

Even though the community is over the Internet, it is important to understand that technology does not develop communities but helps create a framework that shapes the community toward the specific goal. My design principles that I would implement include: Maintainability, Accessibility and Simplicity.

All product and services require updated and improving, as the design process is a cyclical procedure. Too keep your current customer base and grow your community at the same time, advances have to be applied at a regular bases to enhance your product. This will develop your online community and will request your community to keep on asking for more.

Accessibility is an important principle as this determines how easy it will be for your community to get their hands on your product. The more accessible your product is, the larger your community will be.

Simplicity is a major factor that must be taken into consideration when trying to develop your online community. Customers are not willing to in effort to learn how to use your product, so the simpler your product is, the rate in which your community with grow will increase.

Advice for next year students 

The beginning might be confusing and unclear, Try to get a grip on what the task as soon as possible. Ask your tutor as any question as you can as they will guide you though most of the course. Since there will be a great number of members in each team, set yourselfs roles and targets. The key is to be vocal and communicate with your group member and tutor and much as possible. Learn to work as a collective team.

As this is the last blog for this module, I like to say thanks to my fellow group members for putting in their effort and working collectively together. Also thank you Maarten for helping us with your advice and guiding us through is project.

[chius-bubble]

Technological adrenaline rush

So, this roller coaster is closing in to its end. It’s not a surprise that this ride has almost reached it’s 80% mark; roller coasters usually go by fast and exciting. So far, this one has been one heck of a ride…with all the ups and downs, twists and turns; but the ride has got to have its unforgettable ending right? Well that is still to come.

We have come to the point where our vision for this project has changed so many times, that we have lost track of where our tracks’ destination lies. That is why this is the time where we are supposed to stand still, look at ourselves and our progress and question ourselves once again; it’s time to dig back to the roots of the course. What are the learning goals of this project? Of course, number one would be team work. As in the design world I feel like this is not the right place to work as a one man’s field. Like I mentioned over and over, this is one of the things I do feel strongly about. The next thing would be working with online communities. Why? Just like what Nancy said in our meeting, people tend to have a high degree of knowledge of social media for personal use, however, we have not have much experience with using them for professional purposes.

So reflecting on our project so far, are we right on track? I think we are headed the right direction, but because of some obstacles leaving us all with blurred visions, resulting in a bit of an off track course. But because our whole team has realized this, we sat down and discussed our goal once again. By doing this, our team created an time overview of how many week we have left, and what the eventual result is of what we would like to present to our NGO. We now have all divided the tasks, mainly focusing on how we could advise our NGO, with the help of online communities to improve his image and business. Not surprisingly, many of the courses we are currently taking in this module came up. This had a bit to do with personal branding, as we concluded that his image and brand does not specifically help and fulfill his wants and desires for his business; and also cultural differences, as his ideal target audience is the whole of Europe, where he has to rethink how cultural differences can influence what one things of his idea of morphological design and insulation being attractive and desirable.

Designing has a two sided purpose in my vision; one in which is the visual aspect of design, and the other to be designing as a part of the system to fulfill a function in the world. In our world today, the online network plays a great role in almost everything. To me, I feel like the online community is a space where designers can seek for help, support, ideas, and basically all they need for their concept creation or for its concept realization. Connecting this all to our project, I think the way that we have to make use of online communities for BouwQuest is for its marketing purposes. A group member explained how he had used social media sites to advertise his ‘company’, and just by putting it up for a couple of days the amount of views and likes that he has created is astonishing. This is where what I wrote as a response to my previous blog post comes in. Subliminal advertising. There has been many experiments done, showing us how our everyday interaction effects our actions and judgments subconsciously. One in which, is this video in the following link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i8N5SKzRtI&channel=UltimateMinds . In this video, it is shown to us how the interaction with the outside world could affect us. However, in today’s world, since the internet plays such a great role, and could be used specifically to target certain audiences, therefore, why not advertise these ideas and concepts online? Even if people would not consciously take in the information and ideas, there’s a chance they will subconsciously and this could help advertisers in a positive way.

After 7 weeks of exploring the online community, it has opened my eyes to how much more possibilities are out there than I had initially thought. I was aware of the online community for professional uses, however I was never fond of the idea, as I always had the idea that it was slightly unprofessional, as the online world was only used for personal uses in my world. That is not the case anymore. There is so much to not only learn, but also to give, and I would like to make full use of this in the future, as this is practically a gift to be living in this generation of technology. 

In short, this project has given me the technical adrenaline to continue on not only this roller coaster, but the many more to come, to utilize what technology beholds.

source

"A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog." - Jack London

If we interpret this quote not only as helping the poor or ill, but instead interpret this as a charity of information, knowledge and ideas, this could be a sum of the image of how and why online communities are successful; by sharing.