Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Clay Ward, founder of thoughtandmemory.org, an on-line resource for tracking supply chains and developing user-generated ratings of companies based on social and environmental performance. The site is built off a hefty back-end where anyone can contribute reviews of companies big and small, and the reviews get ranked by […]
Category Archives: open objects
collaborative conscience
Also posted in blogogracy, marketing, possessed products, product design, supply chain, traceability
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barter for good
Inspired by the OLPC’s ‘Give one, Get one‘ campaign and Product (RED), brandnext‘s THE STORE FOR TOMORROW is an exploration of how consumerism could be transformed into a meaningful activity. The store’s only currency is time, which can be exchanged for products ranging from gadgets to travel or an ISBN number. Some examples of trades […]
Also posted in marketing, product design, retail
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one accessory per child
The brilliant Mike Lee invented a viewfinder for the OLPC‘s built-in digital camera (a perfect example of futurecraft) and has already made rapid prototypes – check them out below:
Also posted in blogogracy, children, conviviality, product design, universal design
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layered media
one of the best aspects of mashups are the way that collective intelligence can be leveraged to add meaning to web-based media. overstream is a web-based subtitle tool for youtube videos that allows anyone to contribute captions for existing videos. this has a lot of significance for the hearing impaired, as well as anyone who […]
Also posted in augmented reality, blogogracy, universal design, visualization
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greener than thou
photo mary lou jepsen invented the display that made the OLPC so power-efficient, and she presents the case for the green design of the laptop as the result of a concerted effort to address the needs of developing countries. where there is little electricity and limited tooling, the laptop had to be durable, power-efficient and […]
Also posted in energy, fabrication, product design, universal design
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renewable packaging
i just picked up this balinesian sea salt packaged in a coconut at whole foods because i couldn’t resist the packaging design (or lack thereof). never mind the idea of shipping salt, let alone from bali. the coconut packaging has three distinct advantages over the plastic, metal foil and paper that the other foods are […]
Also posted in energy, environment, fabrication, livingbreathing, marketing, materials, product design, traceability, upcycling
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design for the (tech-savvy) masses
design democracy is a yearly competition based on the belief that mass customization is a viable alternative to mass production. unlike ponoko, this competition is based on free trade in design patterns that you can then make yourself at your local highly computerized wood shop. but given that finding and manufacturing this kind of product […]
Also posted in 2d, 3d, conviviality, customization, fabrication, furniture, futurecraft, marketing, product design
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pop-up catalog
i discovered issey miyake‘s haat store in aoyama (tokyo) – a line of clothing that, unlike pleats please and APOC, is totally dependent on hand-craft. the elaborately wrought pieces are made by hand either in india or japan. the line is designed by makiko minagawa, miyake’s long-time textile designer, and the focus is on the […]