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Design Challenge and Online Communities

If I had to face with a design challenge I would use all of the tools that can be helpful. I would join a community which is closed to my design challenge. I would do this, because as we know, in these communities we can change experience and ideas, take an inspiration or just helpful advises and opinions. If you participate in community you expand your horizon and your creativity. You can enrich yourself with many different and new thing from totally different people and points of view. This might be really helpful for you and bring you many efficient results while working on your design challenge. The online communities are another positive and good way of development of your skills and knowledge. It a excellent strategy for solving design issue and very successful technique.   

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The use of the online interactions

This week I will reflect on the use of the online interactions. I will do that, because I do not work in group in the project Communities and I need to work only on our personal blog prompt. Unfortunately, this week it's linked to the group work, so I will share my opinion about the online interactions.

Online interaction provide a great deal to its participants. It's really useful, because you can get objective opinions and advises from people who you don't know. And you can be sure that they are very honest, because they are strangers for you and they share exactly what they think.

Another thing that is really important and significant is that you can enrich yourself and your perceptions by the online interaction. Always you can ask for help or advise in order to get familiar with unknown thing and situations. You can improve your skills and develop your knowledge as sharing and taking experience with others in the online spaces.  

The online interaction is a multi-functional process. It includes many of the things you need to develop yourself and your skills in order to become successful in your future career. You can improve your behavior and attitude when interact with other different people. You can get an important information or just to learn some helpful tactics and techniques which will support your goals. The most important is that you can meet people who can help your career and be your main supporters in your business or career.

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Online Facilitation

Online facilitation can be described as the act of managing the learners and the learning through an online medium. In online learning this managing is usually done by a teacher or tutor. Usually it help the impact of online mediums on teacher and student roles, facilitation strategies and theories.

I think that the traditional and online teaching are quite the same. But the online facilitation has some specific traits. The interaction between the students isn't complete. There is a distance and some mechanic working process. The working atmosphere isn't the same, you cannot feel it. It's difficult to change experience and sometimes people get wrong your ideas. 

The greatest trait of the facilitation is that the facilitator (teacher) gives you direction in which you should go and develop. He gives you significant advises and support in order to develop yourself and your goal in an appropriate way and get efficient results. And the interaction with the other group members is important because you learn how to speak in a similar language with them. You develop your tolerance and enrich yourself and your skills learning from their experience. 

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How can we choose the best technology?

I would say that for me, the personal preferences plays main role in choosing tools. The choice of the tools you work with depends on your business and what you want to reach as well. I always choose technologies which best suits to my goals and I can easily get efficient results.

Everybody's free to use the tools which they prefer. They have the right to use the technology which perfectly can solve the issues of their individual work and be an  appropriate supporter. But when working in a group we all must respect the desires and preferences of the others. The team must discuss the best tools and technologies for their business, project or ect. And finally, they must pick the best ones and use them.

As a technology steward I would proceed as I do some investigations on the technological needs of our project goal or business and the technological needs of my team. Based on the main needs and the wanted results, I would choose the technologies which can easily and more succesfully support our goal and provide us more efficiency. Then carefully I would discuss them with the others and put them into practice.

Looking at the preferences and perspectives of the others would give me some new knowledge for a technology. It would provide me a new point of view of working principle and other opportunities. But I do not really think that it will change my view as tech-steward. It is because I best can choose the technology for my goal.

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The teamwork

As I do not work in a group for this project and I cannot reflect on 'our team work till now', I am going to answer the question about the size and the usability of a team and the qualities which should own in order to reach the desired goal in the open and innovative design.

Based on my personal experience with the project teams from the previous projects, I have learn many things which will be really useful for me and my professional future career. I have learned that it is important to build a team from people with  totally different views, qualities and skills, but with the same interest. 

My rule says that: "If the team members are different, the team is more completed." Because when they have different skills they completely round out the team work and get really efficient results.

Especially, for a team in the open & innovative design, for example, it is really important that every member is quite good in defined field. The perfect design team needs an artist, who can visualize the final ideas, an explorer who can investigate important issues about the design. A Communicator who can connect the design with different users or just to present it. And last but not at least, a person who has business knowledge and technician who can create a prototype of the design.

Every team must hear and respect the ideas of the other team members in order to create a harmonic atmosphere for work. Only then the team can come up with good ideas and develop them. The secret is to hear every single idea, then to discuss it and as a group to choose the best one.

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How do we use the social networks?

My social networks are: Facebook, YouTube, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter and ect. But the most important for me are three of them because they keep me informed for an information and activities which I cannot find anywhere else. For example, Facebook keeps me in touch with my family and friends. And I can easily contact with people for working issues. It is quite good supporter for investigations and surveys ( very huge source of information). In one word - it is multifunctional. It allows to interact with many different people or just to use it as an individual - for personal issues.

The second is Google. I use this network only for finding information. It is really helpful significant for me. Because you can find between 80 - 90 % of the information which you are looking for without undue effort. The information is frequently updated which makes it better than the books the library. It has faster, easier and smarter process of work. It saves time as well. This is the reason I chose Google.

Last but not at least are LinedIn and YouTube. LinkedIn is more like a community. It is really helpful and provides opportunities for establishing new contacts with people in your professional sphere. It is also comfortable for sharing experience and changing ideas with other people. I use my LinkedIn account to connect with different people from different parts of the world in order to enrich my professional skills and perceptions. Because I want to see and understand other points of view. And to refresh my ideas, to share them as well and get some inspiration and make contacts with people on higher level in the same field.

YouTube is a great network which can cheer you up everytime you need or just when you want to learn something new. It is huge and helpful social network, which is good for finding information or promoting products ... sharing ideas. I use it more individually.

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What do we learn from the online communities and networks?

While exploring the online spaces and communities we aim to find new inspiration for ourselves and our creativity. Frequently, we visit these communities in order to share ideas and experience on similar topics. These communities are something like a connecting point for people united from same interests. 

In the communities for open innovation and design I find a small world where the meaning of life is innovation and design. On the surface of it seems that the people are the same and their thoughts  as well. But if you look at their ideas and try to understand them carefully, you will find out that they are quite different. And actually they could enrich yourself with new techniques or develop your imagination and inspiration.

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The Social Medias play a huge role in the business !!

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Promotion of the products on the market via online marketing

The online marketing helps the designers to reach their users easily and widely. It because of the high popularity and usability of the Internet. Using Internet the designer and his product can reach the markets and groups of users all over the world only for a second. This simplifies the process of promoting and provides more successful results. The online marketing is a strategy, which introduce a product to many new, different markets. And get involve more new and different users. It is faster and cheaper promotion for a product and successful technique for a designer.

For example, the small clothing business can use the online community 'Polyvore' to share ideas for fashion and presents their new creations in the website. It is actually really helpful, because the sets of Polyvore are really famous and successful among the world. They could be found in Facebook as well. The sets impress more and more people with the well-chosen combination of cloths and accessories and they start searching for the products of the fashion brand. Easy, Cheap and Successful. 

http://www.polyvore.com/

http://nl.linkedin.com/- another example !!

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The small things in life are the reason of the true moments.

- NLS