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
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
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?
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?
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.
It's usually worth getting into a conversation with Dr. Joe Webb. Even if you disagree that chances are that you'll learn something. This morning I found Dr Joe talking about Graphic Arts Education.
Since I was both an admin and a faculty member at a prestigious NY design school, I'm going to put on my educator hat. Since I no longer have to walk the walk, it's a lot easier to talk the talk.
Title of the section is Stepping Back... Where to Focus. You can read the full column here.
He says: If yesterday is being starved, what kind of tomorrow must be fed? The latest trends in our industry are fairly clear.
Printing is becoming more digital in every aspect, and that's not a surprise. Web-to-print, digital workflows, plate imaging, printing devices and process management, and postpress are more digital than ever. Postpress is the area facing the greatest digital challenges. Slow adoption of JDF and other automation does not help the situation. Graphics programs must become more saturated with information technology management, including both automation and the production of new media, highlighting integration of new media with print from strategic and tactical perspectives.
I say: "Graphics programs" is no longer the best word, even though it's the one we all use. I suggest Print Technology. That's the word they use in India. From Vinodh Kamar at PrintCeoBlog
I am from India and the discussion posted in this thread is of more interest worldwide to young professionals like me in the industry. To give a breif background, I have done a engineering degree in Printing Technology and relatively a young professional(27 years old) with five years of experience in the industry.
The thing is that while art and production are meshing in the real world, in most schools the "art" faculties or "design" colleges have little respect for production. A University is an organization like any other. Groups fighting for respect and resources. Since the explosion of enrollment in Graphic Design, the Graphic Design or Communication Design Departments get the benefit of larger enrollments. In the University, those who put the kids in chairs are those who get attention. Those who get attention get resources.
Thus the recent title change on my blog. Forget Graphic Communications and Graphic Design. Replace it with Print Technology and Commercial Art.
If Print Technology concentrations have a track called Commercial Art, the "art" schools won't mind. And we, educators, could get some of the benefit of Graphic Design. And the industry could get the benefit of artists who really understood commercial.
Otherwise, I've got little to add to Dr. Webb.
He says: Other areas in the print supply chain are growing as specialties of their own, including print management and logistics. Companies such as InnerWorkings coordinate multiple production specialists under a single management system using computer networking and communications.
I say: Most certainly yes. Think of Business Process Outsourcing, print brokers on steroids. The hard part here is that the real qualification to get into this career is to be smart, a great team player and have a good hard working attitude. That's not something schools are used to teaching. It can be done. There are some great examples. But in general, it's one of those nice to haves, but relatively hard to find.
He says: Print management courses must also focus on environmental issues, emphasizing the actualities of environmental compliance, trends in legislation, designing workflows that not only comply with laws but exceed their requirements, and anticipation of future changes. Students would study new ways of using and implementing print, and develop a proactive awareness of the role of print in what will be an undoubtedly more highly regulated business environment with a bias for electronic media.
I say: Most certainly yes. But it's that darn education problem again. To really get this done, that means history, economics, writing and math. What is supposed to happen, but often does not, in a Liberal Arts education. Now that our industry needs it, Print Technology departments will have to take the lead. It's a hard job, but somebody has to do it.
