When people ask what it’s like to work at kwamecorp, there is no easy answer. The diversity of people and projects varies tremendously. People here are both thinkers and doers. They come from a multitude of backgrounds and have a multitude of expertise that bridges disciplines and spans industries—including automotive, medical, consumer, retail, software, technology, [...]
Some times we pause and give ourselves a few minutes to put some thoughts down. This draft is a product of one of those moments. It’s a 4.5 minute presentation… not many pictures, just a simple narrative.
I was in the audience of a presentation by Dave Neary in Dublin a few days ago. The presentation was all about managing open source projects, i.e. managing the community that creates these projects.
I was reading Ant colony based hybrid optimization for data clustering, by Amarendra Nath Sinha and started thinking about ants and web and stuff… A lonely ant is a very fragile being. Their power, just like us, lies in communicative action. I use the term communicative action very loosely, this because in ant colonies there isn’t [...]
Recently I have been thinking a lot about ecology and its relationship with digital. I’ve been engaged in some interesting projects that surfaced some of the thinking I am describing here.
Habermas once wrote, and I am not quoting here: Rationality exists in the structures of interpersonal linguistic communication rather than the structure of either the cosmos or the knowing subject. In other words: everything exists in the realm of intercourse, social intercourse. The easiest representation of how the latter may start and end is the [...]
The word on the conference beat is now ‘the internet of things’. Maps are coming back and more prevalent than ever. In order to have objects connected we need to map them. Understand their position and ‘real’ context and react accordingly.
simple commands would create news. More powerful than waiting around and going through all the hash noise produced by twitting crowds. Manipulate the mob but do it blatantly.
Where do users get their content from: On one side users get get their content from professional sources, who create and sell content. I was thinking the other day that most big broadcasters have the same setup, yet ratings vary tremendously: it comes down to the nature of content that is pushed and how aggressively it has [...]
A few years back, whilst doing some consulting for Orange I came across widgets. Looking at the evolution of interface architectures i put together this short train of thought. A book of hours. A revolutionary layout where information flourished in boxes which surfaced from wallpaper backgrounds. I’ve always loved the way cartoons organized a narrative [...]
The new iPlayer is more social, new Spotify is more social, everything and every service has gradually become more social… We’ve been working on this ‘social layer integration’ for a few years now, it’s always surprising how long it actually takes to become mainstream.
For many years we have been working under the assumption that there is a double layer between those who create and those who use/consume. The idea we’ve been toying with is one where this double layer should actually be more like a flexible membrane (see last slide). So what spawned this change? the fact that [...]
Conversation is now everywhere as more and more people become ‘users’ of some technical device which allows them to converse, to formulate opinions, to project their desires onto the digital realm. Everyone’s carrying a little mirror.
In my latest pieces i have been tinkering with a giant digestive system. Stemming from Novak’s liquid architecture where the ‘user’ creates the space simply by moving his body. Using the same line of thought, I have become fascinated by this idea of how food meanders through our bodies giving us shape and structure. What [...]
The newly redesigned Fact Mag, these are just some thoughts that drove the rebranding. Fact is for the discerning, eternally unsatisfied eclectic music lover that needs blunt, honest music reporting. It’s in your face, blunt, sharp. Everything started with the new menu. The new menu feels like a sharp tuti-fruti Multicultural, reminiscent of the 60′s. [...]
Everyday we step on a thousand chewing gums spat out by a thousand people. What if the chewing gums contained some of the essence of the people that spat them out? What if we could recreate the last words before the spiting? The following screens are an aesthetic exercise undertook by me this past summer, [...]
The problem is simple, what kind of body should the mekwa have? It’s a creature that takes your face and gets beamed from mobile to mobile, satisfying its apetite for surprise and adventure, fulfilling its owner’s wishes. I sketched two humanoid avatars and took it from there. They seemed fragile and unique. Why not? I [...]
A few months back I started observing the behaviour of some deep sea creatures. They inhabit a very large ocean that brings most of its nutrients in the form of a light drizzle of decaying matter. I have lived in london for a while now, I can relate to the slight drizzle and the very [...]
What if we were to play with an architecture of participation that at its core has desires/wishes. One that is not driven by what others have just done, but by what others will do? This is the differentiating driving force behind Mekwa. “I want you to produce for me and I will produce for you”. [...]
In order to simplify my thought process for Mekwa and other services in the making, I have started thinking about them as simple tools. A hammer is a tool. Microsoft word is a tool (a little more complex, but its core functionality can still be achieved with a mechanical typewriter, or pen and paper). Tools [...]
The hegemony of the couch and a simple broadcast model where a few produce for the many to consume is being challenged. The time we ‘waste’ apparently distracted in front of the TV, consuming, is aptly called the cognitive surplus. One way we have of carving some of this surplus is by implementing architectures of [...]
From an early age, men have striven to possess [own] the image. Today, tribes who are closer to the living habits of the ancient cave dwelling man, still hold image as sacred. The caveman used to paint the images of the beasts it needed to kill. It was a way of invoking their spirit, making [...]
A condition of order at the juncture of crowded city thoroughfares implies primarily an absence of collisions between men or vehicles that interfere with one another. Ross, E. A (1901) ‘A condition of order’, ‘A condition of order’ — makes you think. One of my offices is located in the corner between Oxford Street and [...]
The economist is running an Oxford-style debase on the following proposition: “Social networking technologies will bring large [positive] changes to educational methods, in and out of the classroom” Here’s Ewan McIntosh’s pro argument and here is Michael Bugeja’s con argument. Here are some of my thoughts on the matter. Teenagers are very curious beings, they [...]
Affordable and user friendly web browsing opens up the most important part of the global mobile service layer. Now web publishers need to convince users there is added value is accessing their websites on the move, in installing their mobile applications. Just like snake, tetris and other casual games have been relegated to the commuting [...]
The mobile computer, like any other mobile artifact must add value to the mobile user. Having established that mobile usage is at the same time dependent and independent of place has crystalized one thing: it’s really quiet simple, the swiss knife syndrome is not going away, on the contrary it will continue to grow. So [...]
The Vinyl Factory Special Edition Store is one of the latest additions to the group. Specialists in hand-crafting the very finest music and art editions, The Vinyl Factory mark assures a stamp of quality that’s often promised but rarely delivered. All our vinyl is created using the classic EMI 1400 Press at the original EMI [...]