What is Design Public?
Design Public is a series of conversations about design and innovation in the public interest.This blog is curated by the Center for Knowledge Societies, the innovation consulting firm that guides the establishment of the Adianta School for Leadership and Innovation.
-
Monthly Archives: June 2011
Mobile toilets that convert waste to usable energy
San+Co.’s new technology of mobile toilets could be an answer to India’s lack of proper toilets as well as its lack of sufficient energy. Waste is stored in a cartridge, which is collected every few days, and sent to a … Continue reading
Posted in Design!publiC
Leave a comment
Spectrum of Failures
As mentioned in a previous post (Our biggest failures and what they taught us), we’ve been putting a book together here at CKS. This has required a lot of introspection and revisiting of old work in order to determine what … Continue reading
Posted in Design!publiC
Leave a comment
IT for Sustainability
Forrester undertakes research towards developing IT software for sustainability, focusing on six different models based on the needs and challenges presented by different sets of corporate customers. It’s been clear for some time that sustainability is moving from the periphery … Continue reading
Posted in Design!publiC
Leave a comment
Gandhi: Social Innovator
Over at 3quarksdaily, Aditya Dev Sood gives a compelling account of Gandhi’s life, experiments, aesthetics, and social contributions. Gandhi described an ideal social community as one in which those involved in the composition and combination of foods would have the … Continue reading
IBM Releases Software Solutions for Smarter Buildings
The latest product in a steady stream of innovative solutions towards greener buildings and cities released by IBM over the past two months. The software is designed to be an analytics and automation powerhouse that can help ramp up the … Continue reading
Posted in Design!publiC
Leave a comment
“Cheap and best” housing
Six innovative designs that could help solve housing problems in developing countries. Shelter is one of humanity’s most basic needs. But a house is a luxury beyond the wildest dreams of most people in the developed world–leading to dangerous and … Continue reading
Converting Heat to Electricity
Researchers at the University of Minnesota recently created a new alloy that can convert heat to electricity. One obvious use for this material would be in the exhaust pipes of vehicles. Several automakers are already working on heat transfer devices … Continue reading
Posted in Design!publiC
Leave a comment
Performance Reviews and Employee Feedback in Real Time
Wired features Rypple, a web-based performance review/productivity/management system. Rypple has gained some notable investors and collaborators recently, including Facebook. After a nine-month pilot project inside Facebook, Rypple on Monday is releasing the product, called Loops, to the market. “Workplace productivity … Continue reading
Posted in Design!publiC
Leave a comment
Microsoft Embraces Kinect Hackers
Via Fast Company, Microsoft has decided to encourage customers to “hack” the Kinect (motion-detecting hardware for the Xbox 360 video game system): People have been hacking the Kinect since the day it went live. Microsoft initially balked at the idea, … Continue reading
Posted in Design!publiC
Leave a comment
The Innovator’s Dilemma
Techdirt has a pithy and interesting explanation of the “Innovator’s Dilemma” (aka, Why established companies have a hard time adapting to changing markets): The UPS sponsorship is a little heavy-handed, but it’s certainly worth two minutes. techdirt – Explaining The … Continue reading
Posted in Design!publiC
Leave a comment