The Good, the Bad and the Humble
design as a service to the everyday
the humble bold proposition
“Swadeshi is that spirit in us which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote.
(...) In the domain of politics, I should make use of the indigenous institutions and serve them by curing them of their proved defects. In that of economics, I should use only things that are produced by my immediate neighbours and serve those industries by making them efficient and complete where they might be found wanting.”
Mahatma Gandhi, On Economics and Bread Labour, 1916-1925
the field of the everyday
prime everyday needs
— health
— education
— work
— security
— family
— play
design is to interrogate the need to share everyday experience and knowledge in situated, ‘local’ contexts, and serve their critical evaluation against larger maps
everyday information production
information mobility of the everyday: communication over wireless and wired networked devices
data being tapped from our lives, both voluntary and in ways unbeknownst to us
the consumer-to-producer shift: ongoing digital publication (large choice of affordable tools and channels)
shared products and services: mailing lists, discussion groups, weblogs, fotologs, file sharing, massive online gaming, ‘modding’ of the desktop, phone interface and ring sound, &tc.
‘IPR’, ‘ROI’... for lives being lived?
why speak of ‘intellectual property rights’ or ‘return on investment’ in the condition of our everyday lives?
— who owns my needs?
the information commodity filled everyday is modelled after the consumer's production of ‘needs’
anti-customization: fundamental right to live an un-monitored life?
the publishing mode
pervasive publishing
extreme publishing: email spam or added nutritional elements, ‘pharmafood’, ... invasion of our prime needs and their vehicles
rendering voice: opposing the (media) industries' preposterous claims
personal publishing offers stories of lives being lived, to compete mass media monsters
the anecdotal as antidotal to the branding spectacle
read/write publishing environment
Tim Berners-Lee on his invention, the world wide web:
“...this all works only if each person makes links as he or she browses, so writing, link creation and browsing must be totally integrated”
— ‘web-for-one’
— personal web server
— download-upload symmetry
— P2P file sharing
— open editing (swiki, wiki)
— weblogs, etc.
‘writing, link creation and browsing’ leave the desktop
professional intervention in popular industry?
users produce information, they are the ultimate information industry
media networks, services and products are the support system of this new industry
locality and inter-locality: building sustainable non-local interest support groups, the larger map
design support is in connecting users amongst themselves and around information products and services — well-being, work and play — forging media literacy
design as a service to the everyday
a service is a contract, an agreement on a deliverable, between the parties involved in its performance — service is a verb
situated design position: connecting the locals and the locales
no service-product without user intervention
service in critique of the product
time-based availability and answerability of the servicable designer
[DoorsEast 2003 poster, 12 December 2003]
Jouke Kleerebezem