Hi all. This is another different edition of the newsletter. Monday we had the workshop at Munich Creative Business Week (MCBW) for the Cities of Things field lab in planning, connected to the Creative Embassy activities. With about 30 people we explored the potential locations and positioning of a field lab Cities of Things in Munich.
Preparing for this workshop took some time last week. Making the presentation, promoting, follow-up RSVPs, etc. Next to the workshop we visit some other sessions, do tours through two potential interesting neighborhoods for the ‘Reallabor’, a tour of the Design faculty of the Hochschule Munchen, and a session on smart fashion. On Wednesday I will take the train back, using that as a different type of working environment. Hopefully with fewer delays than on the way in…
ThingsCon is approaching fast too. We have been brainstorming on the latest program additions and added more sessions. Descriptions of earlier sessions are up. Tomorrow some more are added. Check the website.
Events
As mentioned I am in Munich for MCBW. I will miss however the live panel of Troy Nachtigall and others with some interesting explorations later this week on “Data enabled short range mobility DESRM” On Saturday the panel can be followed via a livestream.
Today and tomorrow you can visit the conference Public Spaces with an extensive program around this theme. Check it out.
Sensemakers is always nice to follow, this edition is on Synthetic Biology.
Into Metaverse and cities? Amsterdam is organizing a session.
News
Here are the new items I captured this week. Due to lack of time, I only share these as-is now.
| This robot’s paintings showed at the Venice Biennale, but are they actually art? ROBOTICS – “Art never exists in isolation. It always needs someone to give it ‘art’ status. That goes for work created by AIs, too.”www.fastcompany.com • Share |
| Festo introduces pneumatic cobot arm ROBOTICS – “Festo’s cobot uses six pneumatic direct drives, instead of the typical electric motors and mechanical transmission, to move.”www.therobotreport.com • Share |
| The Web3 Decentralization Debate Is Focused on the Wrong Question META – “Fixating on the degree—rather than the type—of decentralization is leading us astray.”www.wired.com • Share |
| Quantum Computing without the Hype QUANTUM – “So what can quantum computers do now that’s interesting? First, they are excellent tools for simulating quantum behavior: the behavior of subatomic particles and atoms that make up everything from semiconductors to bridges to proteins.”www.oreilly.com • Share |
| Microsoft Adaptive Mouse, Button, Hub: Details, Specs, Release Date THINGS – “The wireless system—a mouse, a button, and a hub—is designed to increase productivity for those with limited mobility.”www.wired.com • Share |
| How 10 Skin Tones Will Reshape Google’s Approach to AI ETHICS – “For years, the tech industry has relied on a six-shade scale to classify skin tones. The search giant’s open source alternative could change that.”www.wired.com • Share |
| 10 Things – Dispatches from the Future DESIGN – “Periodic interesting things gathered – to accelerate (or disrupt) social working thinking, exploring and practice with a futures/foresight lens. 10 things seems like a good amount of things…and about as much as any of us can handle at one time. (I’ve been away from doing this for awhile…but you can see previous posts of this…”socialworkfutures.com • Share |
| Designers, (Re)define Success First ETHICS – “About two and a half years ago, I introduced the idea of daily ethical design. It was born out of my frustration with the many obstacles to achieving design that’s usable and equitable; protects people’s privacy, agency, and focus; benefits society; and restores nature. I argued that we need to overcome the inconveniences that prevent us from acting ethically and that we need to elevate design ethics to a more practical level by structurally integrating it into our daily work, processes, and tools.”alistapart.com • Share |
| #182: New Noise CITIES – “There is a set of words—gentrification, hipster, neoliberalism, capitalism—that feel surprisingly difficult to use in most contexts now, provoking a variety of unpleasant responses, ranging from annoyance to outright dismissal of whatever statement encompasses the word. ”kneelingbus.substack.com • Share |
| On Design Thinking. Oh… are we still talking about this? DESIGN – “Design Thinking is dead — so the majority of my peers claim — yet there it is, smeared all over LinkedIn, peeking out from job descriptions and lurking in resumés. It crops up in conversations…”medium.com • Share |
| Google announces the Pixel Watch at I/O WEARABLES – “After false starts, rumors, and leaked photos, Google officially announced the Pixel Watch — its first smartwatch — is arriving alongside the Pixel 7 later this fall. On top of a new Wear OS UI, the watch will also debut a new Fitbit integration.”www.theverge.com • Share |
| Signs of a magnetic pole flip in company ownership OWNERSHIP – “What if the dominant model of company ownership inverts? What if we’re at the end of an era of companies being owned by external stockholders, and at the beginning of bottom-up ownership by the people who do the work – the employees? Feels unlikely I know, HOWEVER:”interconnected.org • Share |
| AI & Society | Syllabus for the TU Delft IDE master elective course ID5417 Artificial Intelligence and Society INTELLIGENCE – Useful! With lots of inspiration for the papers for the week :)“Syllabus for the TU Delft IDE master elective course ID5417 Artificial Intelligence and Society”karsalfrink.github.io • Share |
target is new 