So I’ve been struggling all weekend trying to think of a unique take on the Maker Faire. Frankly I’ve given up. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it and I think it is best to point you to this Wired article. I know it’s cheap not to write my own, but frankly, if you ever been to Maker Faire, its hard to understand the concept of “Maker Faire shock.”…
Author: mark
“broken promise fatigue”
Well, Bruce Nussbaum has being making me think alot apparently, I posted yet another comment to his recent entry asking if CEO’s have “innovation fatigue.”
I think that is partly true, but I wonder if it is more about “broken promise fatigue” rather than “innovation fatigue.” Companies that you listed: the Nikes, GE’s, Apple’s of the world have all seen great returns on big bets, and can also stomach the loss they have experienced in the past as well.…
A tip o’ the Kula Ring to Bruce Nussbaum
I got an exciting little boost today when Bruce Nussbaum, Business Week’s long-time writer on innovation and design coverage, posted my entire response to his entry on “Who Is Tired of innovation?” to his blog. Thanks Bruce, my first “official” business publication. You can find it at his site under the “Clown Theory of Innovation.”
The gist is what is Innovation vs. the emerging Practice of Innovation? The second point is what do we really mean to say when we suggest that someone doesn’t “get it” ?…
There is a picture of a pretty girl on my dresser
It’s the only picture in my bedroom actually. She is in her late teens or early twenties, standing with her back to the camera, and playing the guitar next to a couple of cars. Her hair has been pinned up hastily and she is Jeans and a simple top. Obviously a casual environment. I have pictures of friends and family all over my apartment, yet this is the only one in my bedroom.…
Your Life as a Map
How many people are like me, so enamored of the latest technical plaything our personal sense of risk and reward is totally out of whack?
In what I am readily recognizing as my continuing quest to give up all privacy, I have been playing with Google My Maps feature that lets you create and make public maps that reflect your own interests. In my case, it is the start of my autobiography in map form.…
Indigenous Peoples Organization Files Court Brief to Halt Graduate Fieldwork
California (APP) April 1, 2007 – A cultural conundrum is playing out in the 9th circuit that is sure to be heard before the Supreme Court by Fall. A coalition of organizations aimed at protecting the rights of indigenous people’s has filed a motion to halt all forms of graduate student field work throughout the world. “Frankly, we’re just tired of it.” stated Jason Natuktu, an Inuit Elder of Afognak, Alaska.…
ADD is a financial asset, who knew?
We had a fellow come into the office to conduct a workshop in ergonomics. It sparked more interesting thoughts than you might think. For example, if slouching is so bad for you, why does it feel so good? Further, does it add more fodder to the growing pile of data that anything one might enjoy: bacon, sausage, beer and buffalo wings are all some form of cosmic bait and switch?
He also mentioned that a way to avoid injuries related to being a knowledge worker type is to stop working every 20 minutes, get up walk around, do some stretches, etc.…
More lessons from design
Just as “design anthropologists” are busy wringing their hands over who is or is not in the club, a recent post on Bruce Nussbaum’s blog shows that the arguments for the purity of the art are not limited to anthropology, design is engaged in its own angst. While some are lamenting that design schools are no longer teaching the basic skills of design, Bruce argues that students need classic design training, putting form and function to thought, in addition to sharper skills in design thinking.…
Teaching Anthropologists to count
Ok, maybe not just anthropologists, but there should be something here for about everyone. The Social Science Statistics Blog is a collective blog from the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. They are described as a “series of hallway conversations on the site, and it is a pretty range of topics ranging from what makes a good peer reviewer to reviews of people coming to speak at the institute.…
I am quite twtter-pated!
It's always interesting to turn questions around to ask the mirror-image. People are very concerned about the power of a connected world to threaten our given notions of privacy. But what about the mirror image of that question, what do we ask about the internet exhibitionists, like me?
You name the new on-line doohickey and I promise you I have a profile on it. From Friendster to tribe.net…
What would you do with this ethical dilemma?
Anthropologists will face ethical dilemmas throughout their careers, and we don’t always agree on what the right thing is. This entry is a case study of an ethical issue I had when I was doing my graduate fieldwork in a state prison almost 15 years ago.
Students: Try taking this entry into your class and discuss the choices I made and decide what you would do.
There was an inmate that I spoke with frequently over the course of my research, I’ll call him Jim.…
Let’s get to the meat of it, am I an anthropologist? (Part 3)
Of course I’m an anthropologist, and I’ve been doing what I do for a decade. I think I’m one of the fortunate people that since leaving graduate school I’ve never taken a job as anything but an anthropologist. The question is am I just an anthropologist and the answer is absolutely not. Frankly in my field we can’t employ people who are just experienced in anthropology, we require more areas of expertise than that.…