Edge Conditions

Innovation happens at the edges between two or more activity spaces.
Communication happens in physical space and information space.
Information manifests in the physical space in Print or on the Screen.
When it moves to the internet cloud, info is sliced and diced.

Once sliced and diced it can recombine to create new information.
The new information is re inserted into physical space.
Once back in physical space, information affects behavior.
Real life happens in physical space.

The following were picked from the Cloud as of December 9, 2008

Cell phone is barcode scanner by Motorola
"One of the long awaited success products is integrating the cell phone with a fully functional barcode scanner and Motorola did it with the Symbol MC70 and has integrated it with other models.”
http://www.adazonusa.com/blog/barcode-scanners/symbol-bar-code-scanners

iPhone hears music
Shazam, that wonderful program for iPhone that allows us to point the phone at a sound and await identification.
http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2008/12/sherlock-holmes-in-the-digital-world.html

Multi Function Printer sits between the Cloud and Print
The full range of ACDI devices, including stored value card and currency systems, card dispenser and encoders, credit card terminals, online card systems and document output tracking solutions, are made available through the partnership.
http://copies.com/?p=455

Google Maps track disease
This is cool: Google has set up a page with a map to track search requests for terms like "flu" and "flu symptoms" around the country (using IP address data to provide a geographic fix). Voila: A map that should show very quickly how this winter's flu viruses spread from state to state.
http://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recovering_journalist/2008/11/truly-viral.html

Speech to text translation coming of age
Online video has made major strides in 2008, largely thanks to universal search. Speech-to-text translation, mobile video, and full movie/TV shows on YouTube are just getting started.
http://searchengineland.com/2008-video-search-year-in-review-15613.php
Physical space in Baghdad to the McClatchey Cloud
As usual, the work day ended and it is sunset and I am heading back from Baghdad to Fallujah.
I was in a taxi with two other passengers, and we had to wait for one more. The other two men were not going to Fallujah, but to villages along the way. One of them looked upset. I asked him, Are you ok? He answered with tears, "I want this car to start moving. I want to receive the dead bodies of my two brothers.
http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/iraq/2008/12/going-home.html

Printer organizes the Cloud and back to Print
ChromaGraphics is a commercial printer that has expanded into the rapidly growing market for electronic document retrieval, distribution and on-demand printing with the acquisition of a Santa Rosa company last month. They are a 24-employee company with $4.5 million in revenue last year
http://www.everydayprint.co.uk/print-news/printing/chromagraphics-expands-into-growing-market-for-on-demand-print.html

Picking up AOL Cloud storage accounts
ElephantDrive Inc. has announced a free and automated file transfer from AOL’s Xdrive to ElephantDrive. The offering is designed to make it easy for users of the Xdrive service to migrate to ElephantDrive before their existing accounts are closed. In the first week of availability of the automated transfer tool, ElephantDrive has delivered over one million files from Xdrive to new ElephantDrive accounts.
http://copies.com/?p=454

Bar Code scanners are one pathway between Print and the Cloud
Did you know there are more then 20 different brands of bar code scanners? The Metrologic bar code scanners are one of these brands. Many of these scanners come from over seas and are sold as cheap barcode scanners with little company backing behind them, but this is not the case with Metrologic.
http://www.adazonusa.com/blog/barcode-scanners/metrologic-bar-code-scanners

Writing in physical space, up to the Cloud, back down to Print
The students participated in the third annual Océ Future Authors Project summer writing workshop, where they compiled poetry, short stories and essays into a book they named, “Confessions of a Teenage Author.” The book was published and digitally printed by the program’s sponsor, Boca Raton-based Océ North America Production Printing Systems Division, a leading provider of digital document management and delivery solutions. http://www.graphicartsonline.com/article/CA6620021.html?nid=3827

German Post Office and personal newspapers
December 4, 2008 – D. Kulenovic) The new web-to-print portal run by the German Post Office, www.titelhelden.de, has been online since October 6. The portal, developed by People Interactive GmbH, a Cologne-based agency, places particular emphasis on usability. The new online service from the Deutsche Post (the German Post Office) permits anyone to create their own newspapers for various occasions. Layout, printing, and delivery are all handled by the Deutsche Post. The portal integrates all these processes.
http://www.beyond-print.de/site/content/en/channel_news/news_0681.html?fromRss=true

RFID, another path between Print and the Cloud
Source: UPM, 2008-Dec-04 Japanese publisher Shogakukan Inc. has implemented RFID technology in its operations to substantially reduce the return ratio of unsold books. A reduction in waste volumes was also critical.
http://www.packagingessentials.com/news.asp?id=2008-12-04-14.52.52.000000

Don't waste time on convincing people. Focus on the ones already convinced. CRM in politics.
Seth Godin has written a fabulous piece about the Obama presidential campaign and the marketing lessons we can learn from it. I believe the lessons learned provide great insight into how we can dramatically influence the educational process and how students learn as well.
http://influenceconversation.blogspot.com/2008/11/education-marketing-lessons-from-obama.html

QR Codes: another path between Print and the Cloud
John Carnell, founder and CEO of Harrogate-based Bullying UK said: "We are proud to be recognised by TalkTalk as one of the UK's most innovative charities. Eighteen months ago we identified QR codes as being key to the uptake of the mobile web and the filling in of another bit of the digital divide. Even if people are in a rush they can snap the code from the poster with their phone and get immediate help from our mobile website."
http://www.bullying.co.uk/blog/blog_item.aspx?id=39

Googlezon + Google-Mart is the Global Activity Space

Google-Mart is a business environment defined by (1) an expectation of total informational transparency and accessibility and (2) a requirement for flawless logistics and operations. Named for Google and Wal-Mart" . . . coined by Josefowicz Associates, LLC in January, 2006.

Googlezon is described in the video below . . .released in November 2004 by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson with original music by Aaron McLeran. The video is 8 minutes. If you would prefer to get the story in 30 seconds, the typographic version from Wikipedia is here

.

Josefowicz Associates republishes selected news about Google and WalMart @ The Google-Mart Economy.

More?
Google-Mart in the Communication Ecology
Print in the Communication Ecology

Print Lives Outside of Time Part 2

Motion Graphics


Printed to the Screen
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y'all

War, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

Ohhh, war, I despise
Because it means destruction
Of innocent lives

War means tears
To thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go to fight
And lose their lives

I said, war, huh
Good God, y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, it ain't nothing
But a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Ooooh, war
It's an enemy to all mankind
The point of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest
Within the younger generation
Induction then destruction
Who wants to die
Aaaaah, war-huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it, say it, say it
War, huh
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again y'all
War, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
War, it's got one friend
That's the undertaker
Ooooh, war, has shattered
Many a young mans dreams
Made him disabled, bitter and mean
Life is much to short and precious
To spend fighting wars these days
War can't give life
It can only take it away

Ooooh, war, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Peace, love and understanding
Tell me, is there no place for them today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord knows there's got to be a better way

Ooooooh, war, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
You tell me
Say it, say it, say it, say it

War, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Stand up and shout it
Nothing
Same articulation, different activity space.

So, if war is anger-as-violence between nation states and tribes, what is crime? What is anger between friends? What is violence between husbands and wives and children? What is anger directed at your self?

Who benefits? Who loses? How do you eliminate anger between nation states and tribes? How do you manage anger between everyone else? How do you do anger without violence?

more?

Compare and Contrast: Money

Is it this?



or is it this?


Is it this?

The correct answer is yes.
It depends how you look at it.
You think what you think because you see what you see.
You see what you see depending on your operative information space.

Humans move through activity spaces.
Activity space is information space plus physical space.
Humans have a repertoire of information spaces.
At moments of focus one emerges.

At moments of stress only one can be chosen.
The manifested information space becomes a lens.
At moments of peace different lenses are available.
Using different lenses is how you get to "it depends".

Articulated information spaces capture more of messy reality.
Logical articulated information spaces help predict the future.
Brains transform logical narratives into logical lenses.
Print is the easiest way to communicate logical narratives.

Or is it this? (thank you, CN)

Q. Which is true?

A) Money make the world go 'round

B) The world will keep on spinnin' with or without money

A. Both

- - -

And here's why:


The answer is relative to what you perceive (your information space)

What you perceive creates what you think.

Humans have a repertoire of information spaces.

Focus = choosing to perceive a single information space

Stress focus = being forced to perceive a single information space

Contemplation focus = being able to perceive multiple information spaces

Contemplation focus is how we arrive at relativity ("it depends").

Diagrams and narratives of an information space (what you perceive) capture one (messy) reality.

Diagrams and narratives of multiple information spaces capture relativity.

Diagrams and narratives of information spaces help predict the future.

Diagrams and narratives create focus.

Print is the best way to capture diagrams and narratives,
and therefore, the best way to create focus.

I say that on the most general level, money is a conceptual construct and sometimes a designed artifact that signals the exchanges and creates strings between activity spaces. How that plays out in the space/time of the real world depends.
Huh?

What do you say?

What did you learn in school today? Not much.

Following the suggestion of Heidi Tolliver-Nigro, industry analyst, I added this email after the original post:

Me to her:
"Given the discussion about education over at WTT, I thought you might find today's post interesting. My take is the problem is not Print training. The problem is in the design of education. Same thing about admonitions for training budgets. Given that there are a gezillion sales training programs out there. How come we don't have a gezillion great sales people? Given that you can spend $750K shouldn't real training come with the box? Given that we as country spend a gezillion dollars on education, how come everyone isn't smart?

The consultants blame the customer - "If only you would give me money to train you?." The vendors blame the customer." If only they would let us educate them." Teachers blame the kids or their parents. "If only I had a better kids" or more likely "If only their parents would X, Y or Z."

Meanwhile, the printers don't want to spend money on "training" because it mostly doesn't work. And kids play hookey. And both secretly blame themselves."


Formal education was not designed for learning.
It was designed for sorting.
Separate out the smart ones.
Let the others find blue collar jobs . . . or not.

It does well what it was designed to do.
The smart ones got accepted to the top schools.
They met other smart ones.
They joined networks of smart ones.

Now the schools have to be redesigned for learning.
It's not just about skills.
It's not just about curriculum.
It's about reorganizing time and space in schools.

The problem is that it's also about power.
The currency of power is controlling time and space.
People who are used to power want to keep it.
They keep the conversation about skills and curiculums.

They focus on what to teach.
The paradox is that it's impossible to teach.
The best you can do is to maximize the chances of learning.
Only students can learn.

There is teaching on demand.
But there is no learning on demand.
Learning happens all the time in many spaces.
But it's hard to make it happen every Tuesday between 9 and 11:30.

What to do?
Consider kindergarten.
They play in groups all day doing stuff.
They acquire lots of deep skills.

In kindergarten, they learn language.
In kindergarten, they learn skills.
In kindergarten, they learn how to play nicely with others.
In kindergarten, they learn who they are.

Little kids and chimpanzees are learning machines.
They learn to live and live to learn.Chimpanzees are sometimes put in zoos.
Kids have to go to school.

The future is now, just not evenly distributed.
Some schools are great.
Most school people are smart and hard working.
But bad design is bad design.



Suggested reading:
Print in the Communication Ecology
Print Stops Time
For Print Technology Education go to IGAEA, follow the link to VC journals from here