My Curious Life

Last night’s inaugural Ignite Portland rocked! 18 speakers, each with 20 slides and 5 minutes to present before the collective buzzer went off. The topics ranged from knitting to rewilding, giving good TXT to free beef and clean bathrooms. Unicycling, chickens, and how to be Japanese. Kudos to everyone who helped organize the event and to all of the presenters … for a first time event, it was quite impressive.

Wieden + Kennedy hosted the event in their fantastic office space downtown. The architecture of the building is wonderful, and W+K have put some nice touches on the space to make it their own. I have some questions about that, though, like what’s up with all of the “mice” on the stairs? And who are all of the people in the black ‘n whites on the entry wall? If those are the W+K staff, no wonder they’re considered an exceptional company.

Ignite was essentially a chance to be with like-minded local folks and get the ol’ grey matter fired up. The diversity of topics made for some fantastic brain food. I came home buzzing with ideas and inspiration, and while I don’t think I’ll be raising chickens anytime soon, I do have some great resources and ideas to work with for the immediate future.

All in all, a great time in a great locale with some very interesting people. I regret not mingling a bit more, but my co-conspirator Ryan did introduce me to some of the PDX Web Innovators group and start putting names with faces for a change. I’d hoped to meet Rick Turoczy of the Silicon Florist at some point and tell him thanks for keeping tabs on all the local Portland happenings, but in all that time I didn’t spot one person with a name tag that said “Rick” on it. Hey Rick, were you hiding someplace? Rick has the best collection of posts and links from the event that I’ve seen so far.

Here are links that I’ve collected to sites and presenters that were mentioned … keep your eyes on the Ignite Portland site for upcoming photos and more presentation links:

• Adam Duvander’s Simplicity Rules!
• SkinnyWhiteGirl Crystal Beasley
• Bill DeRouchey’s History of the Button (check out his slidecast from UX Week 2007)
• Urban Scout on Rewilding
• Michael Jones of the Unicycle Bastards
• Audrey Eschright on Geeks Knitting

I can’t wait to see what’s up when Ignite fires up again in January!

Streetsblog.org posted some information last week about the new sidewalk compasses that New York will be using at select major intersections and metro stations throughout the city.

Despite posing some potential pedestrian traffic flow issues, I think this is one of the more creative and useful ideas for navigating a town that I’ve seen in a long time. This just further influences my opinion that New York, for all its size, wants to be as friendly to visitors as it is to locals.

I’d like to think of myself as someone who is fairly reasonable, socially and environmentally concerned, and altogether a generally good human being. That said, this kind of thing drives me batty:

It’s petty, it’s trivial, I know, but I hate things that mete out set quantities of anything to me. It’s inflexible, arbitrary, and overly paternalistic.

My office building just installed the auto-soap dispenser and auto-towel dispenser in all of the restrooms in the building. I can understand their desire to reduce waste and minimize costs, I just hate the feeling that I have to have things doled out to me in bite-size chunks (especially if I’m trying to dry my hands … one 8″ x 8″ sheet of thin paper towel isn’t quite enough).

Sadly, it seems to be everywhere … my cell phone minutes are doled out in varying sizes, instead of allowing me to just pay for what I use. My cable bill is doled out to me in varying packages, instead of allowing me to just pay for what I use (about 9 of the hundred channels I get). I admit that there are some economies of scale that make it cheaper when you can package things, and some simplicity to providing services at specific tiers or levels of packaging, but in the current world of supposed “high tech”, why is it so difficult to provide pay-by-use services? Most commoditized utilities have been doing this for years (gas, electric, water).

I’d be so much happier with a system that rewarded people for responsible use and conservation. Expose the workings of the system a bit and let people make responsible (or irresponsible) choices of their own. In some cases (Comcast, are you listening?) I might actually spend more for flexible services and end up happier as a customer. How can you ignore a win-win like that?

Tara Hunt (a.k.a. Miss Rogue) made a request yesterday on her blog asking for answers to five questions she has about government. The answers so far, while few, are definitely interesting, and I hope that more people will comment (hint: that means you, dear reader!).

For those of you too lazy to link to Tara’s post, here are the questions she poses:

1. Do you trust government services? Local (municipal)? State/Provincial? Federal?
2. Can you name 5 government services? 10? Are they local, state or federal? (not a test)
3. Do you think it is more important for people to trust their government or for a government to trust its people? Or both? Why?
4. If you contribute to projects voluntarily, why? Would anything lead you to wanting to contribute time or effort towards government services projects?
5. What do you expect out of a government website?
6. What do you think Government Services 2.0 looks like?

So, what do you think? Please let Tara know. Oh, and if you work for a government agency, here’s an additional question that I’d love to hear the answer to:

What do you think is keeping government (local, metro, federal) from becoming Government 2.0?

I’ll forward any responses I get on to Tara in the hope that they add more character to her musings.

Chris Chiacchierini is a person who has found a way to make a difference in his own special way. He’s making a one year, one-thousand-and-one-mile journey to help children with cancer and their families.

His goal is to raise money for the Children’s Cancer Association by committing to run about 20 miles a week for the next year. Businesses and individuals can pledge a per mile amount toward his cause, and he’s journaling his runs on the website. It’s a great idea, since even a penny per mile equates to $10.01.

His journey started on September 29, 2007, and so far he’s raised a little over $4,000 in pledges and run over 50 miles.

It’s heartening to see someone take something they’re doing and use it to benefit others. It can seem so overwhelming when looking at a problem in its entirety, but by each making our own best effort to help, we can make a big difference in this world.

Chris has my best wishes, heartfelt thanks for taking the initiative, and of course, my pledge of support.

Oh, to have been at Ben’s talk at the Applied Green conference last week. Aside from all of the interesting facts and ideas about “going green”, he wrapped it up with a statement that I think gets to the essence of my frustration with both my current work environment and various industries in general:

I’m a designer. Use me better.

So many issues facing companies these days are due to a lack of design thinking … it’s too easy to either squeeze more profit (or fewer losses) from an existing process or make small, iterative changes to an existing product in order to make more money or grow an organization. The problem is, the increase in profits or growth is insanely small. You don’t get big benefits without stepping back and re-evaluating all that you do and why you do it. More often than not the answers are surprising. I’d bet that at least half of the time, the answer is, “Well, we’ve always done it that way.” A close second might be, “It’s too difficult (or costly, or bothersome, or risky, or … ?) to change that.”

The sad reality is that the costs up front to remake your process, service or product would most likely be recouped tenfold by re-envisioning the whole thing with good design in mind.

Anyone know a story of a company that’s done this well, especially if they’ve had to take apart the prior structure to do so? I’d love to have a couple of little-known, real world examples to delve into here.

For those of us in the design field, this should be a call to arms. I’m going to start finding more ways to tell others, “I’m a designer. Use me better.”

My friend and co-conspirator, Ryan Williams, has been putting together a little something he calls Local Signal for some time now. Even in its infancy, I thought Ryan was on to something, but after getting a few reviews and mentions, I’m sure of it.

There have been a number of comparisons with Goboz, even on the PDX Web Innovators discussion boards, but there’s something much simpler and more elegant about Local Signal that beats a crazy busy site like Goboz. (It’s got a cooler name, too, in my opinion, and Ryan even got help picking it out.)

If I’m traveling to a new city or just curious about what’s happening around town, I just want to peruse the news — serendipity is more useful than specific categorization and top 10 lists, as Goboz does. It’s like reading the paper … articles of interest can catch my eye that I might not otherwise have known to look for. Local Signal accomplishes that. And while I do use a feed reader (my old reliable is Bloglines), I don’t necessarily want to gather even more feeds in my feed reader than I already have just to keep up with local events and news.

I’m really hoping that Ryan sees some activity on Local Signal. With about 50 U.S. cities and counting, it’s already something I use as a regular tool. If you’ve got ideas for Local Signal, or just want to wish him well, stop by Ryan’s blog and give him feedback. You can read more about his “official” preview release on his blog as well.

First the GM strike, now Chrysler. Huge pension plans, guarantees of employment, and a market with a glut of new and used vehicles. Auto designs that haven’t inspired for years. Vehicle prices that seem to have shot through the roof. Fuel efficiency ratings that haven’t improved much in a couple of decades (at least). A lack of truly practical alternative fuel vehicles.

It’s time for a massive overhaul of the U.S. automotive industry.

I’m no expert in the issues surrounding the U.S. automotive industry, but from what I can tell, the current thinking isn’t working any more. The industry grew up in a time when the market was growing faster than production could keep up with, as more and more Americans came into middle-class incomes. The idea of a car (or two) in every driveway has, essentially, become a reality. In very simple terms, the market, at least here in the U.S., has reached capacity. The only thing left is to bank on vehicles becoming “lifestyle” items and being swapped out on a certain cycle in order to turn over your inventory and continue creating newer, more enticing vehicles. That might work in current culture if the designs coming out of Detroit every year were new, fresh and unique, but alas, they are usually minor iterative versions of past designs, tweaked for the next model year.

Here’s what I’m noticing … People in the U.S. are growing more fond of handcrafted items that are unique and designed to fit their needs. There is a growing subculture of “modders” who customize general mass-market items and make good money on doing so. More and more vehicles aren’t remaining “factory-standard” for long, with custom grilles, wheels, lightcovers and detailing becoming more mainstream (just look at the soccer mom’s with 24″ custom wheels and designer grille on their Cadillac Escalades — who would’ve thunk it?).

So my prediction is this: The next big auto maker in the U.S. won’t be a big auto maker — it will be a small car company that takes a page from Michael Dell’s playbook and starts building custom made-to-order vehicles from off-the-shelf parts with a handful of unique body styles that change every year.

A company that could pull this off would need some strong branding and a chance for consumers to get a hands-on experience with their products, without having a traditional car dealership in every town. Small, select showrooms with an online order and fulfillment system. A great online showroom with virtual models that let me see what I get for my money. A large set of aftermarket parts and accessories that could be used to customize or bundle with each vehicle. There’s a great deal of money in customization, and after-market parts often come with a much bigger markup. Why not get part of that profit in your pocket up front by customizing? It sure seems to help the computer manufacturers.

The pieces of the puzzle are all available now. Online banking and lending exist. Large order fulfillment systems are available. Transportation logistics systems are available. Build-to-order assembly line practices are out there. Parts and inventory management systems are accessible. The big risk is the initial outlay of cash to put them all together and build a brand.

A company like GM, whose attempt to start fresh with Saturn, would be a likely candidate for this type of industry overhaul. The burden of their recent commitment to the UAW and their sprawling investments in factories could shackle them, though. Chrysler, whose new status as a private company and desperate need to turn things around, might prove to be an even better candidate for starting over. Chrysler’s former dependence upon Daimler for design, engineering and parts means that they already have some sense of how to work with a separate entity for supplies and know-how. Their factory presence isn’t quite as great as GM’s, and retrofitting a factory or two to start an experimental new brand under the Chrysler umbrella might not be too difficult. Not too many years ago, Chrysler had some creative designs (PT Cruiser, Pacifica, 300, and some concept cars from 2001) as well.

It will be interesting to see if either company can escape the blinders of their own bureaucracy to start new and build for the future. Heck, even Ford could do something surprising out of a desperate sense of urgency. My bet, though, is on someone with newly minted wealth and a more entrepreneurial spirit to come in and revamp an industry that has been stagnant for too long.