Spent a very cool conversational show-and-tell-y bit of time with dividual’s Dominick Chen and Takumi Endo at their new cozy studio digs. I guess Paul connected us last minute, which is basically how this whole trip has been, which is fine.

Nicolas Nova On Urban Computing from Julian Bleecker on Vimeo.

Carriers trail slime. Every bill I get for my iPhone has the evil smell of burnt sulfur. The carriers will die eventually — either that, or they’ll transform themselves or, more than likely, be run out of town by smarter, more people-centric enablers of networked sociality. Until then, though — most of us are stuck…

On Paul’s suggestion I went to the “XXI Century man” Exhibition 3 at 21_21 Design Sight in Roppongi. The exhibition theme was about the challenges posed to “man” (us living here in this world) eight years into the millennium. The question posed is where are we headed, now that we live in the century once hailed as t…

A topic near and dear to my heart, and I’m glad to rattle off some pecha kucha thoughts on this topic.

One often sees improvised power in urban contexts. Whether the “Diablitos” in Mexico or “Gato” in Portugal, tapping into the local power grid, usually from a street lamp, is pretty standard urban improvisation.

This was a peculiar sequence captured while waiting for the uptown N in New York City. This gentleman was enjoying a bit of mobile computing, composing something there while waiting for the train. I thought that in itself was intriguing — I suppose it’s not all that surprising. But, I was quite surprised that, when…

Very interesting work that Jan Chipchase and Younghee Jung have been involved in that they call “open studio.” The design approach is quite intriguing as it involves participation from on-the-ground “locals” given a particular question and allowed the freedom to explore possibilities — however preposterous it might…

Today in London Rhys Newman presented the studio’s "Homegrown" project to an audience of 150 journalists. Rhys is part of the newly minted Design Strategic Projects studio that I will be joining in a few weeks.