DLD09 live

Monday, January 26

1. 

   Nicole Simon
   What you can do with a hidden camera during an event like DLD09

   January 27, 2009
   02:21 PM

   Update on the photo session

   Tags: dld· dld09  -  1 comment

   On Sunday attendees where introduced to the idea that artist Jürgen Scriba will use a kind of hidden camera to take a lot of pictures during the event in order to make one great collage.

   "There are all kind of people there, doing marketing for their products, some people are more happy than other people - it is good they all have badges so you can find out who that was."

   Jokingly he said four members put in "150 hours of 'photoshop slave labour' powered by chocolate cookies." to make everything happen. The short presentation on the screen already looked intruiging, and once we do have the photographs to give you an example, we will update you with them!

2. 

   Nicole Simon
   Taking the idea of the Black Mountain Colleage and ideas to bring it to the 21st century

   January 26, 2009
   07:22 PM

   Panel: A Black Mountain College for the 21st Century

   Tags: dld· dld09  -  0 comments

   This session will see different presentations from the participants which Thomas Praus and I will be covering in two entries, read Thomas' entry here.

   You can read more about the Black Mountain College on Wikipedia.
   and on the site. The presenters are:

   • Piero Golia
     
   • Carsten Höller
     
   • Rem Koolhaas
     
   • Thomas Demand
     
   • Maja Hoffmann
     
   • Moderation: Hans Ulrich Obrist
     
   
   

   What will change everything will be to question it.

   

   Notes from Piero Golia

   
   
   • started the "Mountain School of Arts, an educational institution that rapidly became a new spot on the cultural map of the city of Los Angeles"
     
   • got two emails on the first month of the website - was okay because they where not prepared yet for any students
     
   • started the school in the backroom of a china bar
     
   • after they removed the spam filter in their mails, they got way more applications
     
   • decided to have a 3 months programme for 12 student
     
   • selection are difficult and was going against the idea of the school
     
   • still in the bar from 6-9 in the evening
     
   • they still dream of more but reality is rough shit to deal with
     
   • first teachers where friends who wanted to help
     
   • name of the school comes from the name of the bar and has a nice connection to the black mountain college
     
   • still not a lot of budget, but there are free drinks for the speakers
     
   • 6 americans and 6 students from Europe which get free housing
     
   • after 5 years they have 20-25 people "working" on it (considering still nobody gets paid), with processes in place
     
   • it takes 7 minutes to tell, but a lot of trouble to make it
     
     
     
   
   
   
   
   
   Collector and Producer Maja Hoffmann on the Luma Foundation and the project of the Parc de Ateliers

   

   The LUMA Foundation began the master planning that will bring forward one of the major cultural sites in Europe, the Parc des Ateliers in Arles. This project was imagined and developed in cooperation with Frank Gehry and a core group of artists, curators, academics, art historians, scientists and business leaders. It will be a multi-purpose cultural park within the cityscape, creating a campus and public garden in the city centre and providing infrastructure for activities varying from exhibitions and festivals to educational and archival facilities and artists' residencies.

   • the project is currently in the planing stages with a core group
   • 4.5 acre will be dedicated to the arts
   • Arts have been excluded from the cities development in the past
   • already have opened up the place where the Parc will be for festivals and exhibitions
   • located on an industrial heritage site, related to the history of the railways
   • the zone has been unoccupied since the 1980s
   • will be a campus and recreational garden in the city centre
   • it means to recreate the garden which was there before
   • organize think tanks at the moment
   • Andreas Szantos: "we all know that architecture freezes certain kind of model into a place .. and the result can be like a straight jacket"
   • question of the moment is: what will be the DNA of this project? Of its structure?
   • How does this get expressed? In the architecture or the creative process?
   • how private, how public, how selective should it be?
   • who will decide?
   • what kind of impact will such a site have, now and in the future?
   • There is no existing model one can use.
   • Black Mountain College seem to be the only model which was working because it was a school, a place for exchange and knowledge building.
   • Core group invites people in order to install it in Arles but it will take years to build it.
3. 

   Thomas Praus
   Black Mountain college was an interdisciplinary university for arts. Contemporary approaches to art are discussed by several artists.

   January 26, 2009
   06:26 PM

   A Black Mountain College for the 21st Century

   Tags: dld· dld09  -  2 comments

   

   The original Black Mountain college was founded in 1933 as an interdisciplinary university for arts. Hans Ulrich Obrist explains in the opening statement that this session is about exploring how a contemporary approach to this idea could look like.

   I will cover this session together with Nicole, you can read her postings here.

   Different artists will introduce their current projects, first is Thomas Demand. Demand is sculptor and photographer. He rebuilds rooms by memory or based on fotos with paper. He then fotographs the rebuilt room which is then the final peice of art. It assembles the original foto but leaves a feel of irritation because it is slightly different, more abstract because the details are missing. In this session he shows a project about the Oval Office. He rebuilt the Oval Office and took pictures and by this iconizes the symbols of American presidents: the flag, the books, the photos.

   

   Both pictures were taken from thomasdemand.de and actually show Demand's paper model of the oval office. Who'd figured that!?
   
   Carsten Höller
   Carsten Höller's art often treats with interactions between people, he thinks the art school of the future needs to be about social context.
   (picture taken from Gagosian gallery)
   He presents his latest project, the double club (watch a video by the Guardian or read a Times article) which is about juxtaposis and involves a bar, a restaurant and a discoteque in London. The places are divided into a Western part and a Congolese part, the chairs, the food (oysters and fumbwa) the people and even the music at the discoteque. Black and white bouncers, black and white waiters, black and white djs.

   Why Kongolese and Western then, why the division? The juxtaposis is the key element of this project: First a bar can be everywhere, where people go out and sit together to communicate. Guests often don't know about the concept and start asking questions about the setting and the meaning behind. The double club is half an art installation and half a normal going out experience.

   Schöller chose Kongo because he likes the country and the music, moreover Kongo is similarly sized like Western Europe. Although made for dancing, Kongolese music is very seldomely heard in Western Europe and is thus perfect for the desired effect of contrasting.

   Rem Koolhaas
   Rem Koolhaas is up now and talks about the growing city of Shenzen and Chinese architecture. The output of Chinese architects is much bigger than its Western collegues although he/she earns much less. Kohlhaas has not much time to speak so now everybody is looking forward to the group discussion.

   Contemporary art school group discussion
   To be honest, a discussion about the contemporary art school in between artists starts with a lot of defining and is actually more fun if you do it yourself. So, instead of me writing down what is said on stage, why don't you post your view of a contemporary art school here? Is the name even appropriate? Is it a matter of culture and is location important?

   Here is the full video from the Black Mountain College panel at DLD09:
   

4. 

   Andrea Vascellari
   Platforms. Evolution, Trends, Roadblocks

   January 26, 2009
   06:10 PM

   Software

   Tags: Daniel Ek· DLD· DLD09· Fog Creek Software· germany· Globals Inc· Google· Hendrik Speck· Joel Spolsky· Marissa Mayer· Max Levchin· munich· Slide.com· software· Spotify· Suhas Gopinath· University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern  -  0 comments

   Max Levchin (Slide.com)
   Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software)
   Daniel Ek (Spotify)
   Suhas Gopinath (Globals Inc)
   Hendrik Speck (University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern)
   Moderation: Marissa Mayer (Google)

   To offer you a better live coverage during this session I'll focus on Max Levchin (Slide.com), Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software). At the same time Oliver Gassner will publish content related to Daniel Ek (Spotify), Suhas Gopinath (Globals Inc), Hendrik Speck (University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern).
   
   User trends in platforms

   Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): In the past majority of people didn't care about their user interface (UI). Then Windows and Apple started to develop nicer and easier to use UI. today platforms are evolving and shifting to the web.

   Marissa Mayer (Google): So are we going to see Photoshop online?

   Max Levchin (Slide.com): Probably we are still far from having full Photoshop functionality on the web, but today development costs are much cheaper and it's possible to over a much wider variety of products.

   Success of platforms. Can it be predicted?

   Max Levchin (Slide.com): Not easy to do but we can see trends among developers, like the 'free distribution' that we have seen lately through open social, open APIs etc.
   The other side of it is that distribution needs to have a clear path. Once we distributed it needs to drive to business. Path to direct consumer monetization is the next step.

   Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): We don't have to focus on 'Apple store' platforms, that's not the only model.

   Max Levchin (Slide.com): Young developers are in posses of huge audiences. This can be an advantage point for smaller entities.

   So far we talked about what can make a platform famous among developers, but what makes a platform popular among users?

   Max Levchin (Slide.com): [linking to what Hendrik Speck pointed out about success related to platform business models]
   Someone has to pay, either via advertisement or subscription models. Consumer oriented models are rising and ad models are gradually going down.

   Portable devices and portable data. Which are the roadblock to portability?

   Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): People don't care about it as long as they can export data. We have to enter this new order of ideas in which we see the user as content owner.

   About privacy violation.
   With privacy violation there's a lost of trust.
   Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): Probably Facebook would be a great application for CIA agents. People should be educated to use different passwords on different networks.

   Software development is about people. What do we have to keep in mind when we look at development teams?
   Max Levchin (Slide.com): Drive it's really important.
   Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): Differentiation plays an important role. Why Facebook is so successful although it has many competitors? Because it's fairly easy to plug with other algorithms, nicer/easier design (fonts, etc.)
   Max Levchin (Slide.com): It's really difficult to define what really will makes react users in the best way.
   Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): Product managers have to provide guidance to engineers and developers.

   What is your unrealized software dream?
   Max Levchin (Slide.com): Understanding why Apple is so successful VS Linux.
   Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software): The idea of computer to disappear, something like and invisible computer platform.

   
   Live blogging - Work in progress...

5. 

   Oliver Gassner
   What is happening in (Online) Software?

   January 26, 2009
   06:08 PM

   Software: Hendrick Speck, Daniel Ek, Suhas Gopinath

   Tags: dld· software  -  0 comments

   I'll cover Daniel Ek, Suhas Gopinath and Hendrick Speck.
   My collegaue Andrea (I'll call him my brother after DLD09 ;) ) will cover the other panelists ;)

   The panelists:

   Max Levchin (Slide.com)
   Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software)
   Daniel Ek (Spotify)
   Suhas Gopinath (Globals Inc)
   Hendrik Speck (University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern)
   
   Moderation: Marissa Mayer (Google)

   (all quotes only roughly verbal)

   MM: What are the user trends on the social networks?

   Hendrick:
   What we do is: we crunch number and analyze the behaviour on Mypsace or Youtube.
   We can explain why Obama succeeded and the campaign of the Israeli Army on Youtube failed.

   Suhas: We shifted from Windows to web based software. (He speaks really fast, ;) watch the video ;) )

   Daniel: People listen to music or research stuff. Context switching is still complex with web apps. If you can synch devices and the cloud is also powerful.

   MM: Can you predict the success of platforms?
   
   Suhas: The platform should be a bridge between the (hard to understand),

   Hendrick: There are two trends. The tradition software development model is reduced to the advantage of opening up, APIs etc; but this way you lose control over the software. The second is that of the many possisble business models online not many are really used. There is a hype of advertising.

   Daniel: May of your users pay. But we also license content. I believe in social curreny. People can do playlists and accompany them with pictures.. I can do such a list and send it to you. Peple do want to pay for things, This is also but not only true for music.

   MM: What about the portability of data from one service to another?

   Hendrick: People really don't read he privay statements. But people become aware about privacy issues. We see that the system does not word. We ask people what they feel when they try to transfer files from an iPod to a normal MP3 player. Trust is very important here. Social networks are very vulnerable to that. Privacy will then become a value.
   
   MM: What do you look for in a team?
   
   Suhas: I hired schoolkids with the skillset that I needed, it was a kind of crowdsourcing. People who were 25 years did not want to work with a schooklid like me.

   MM: What is your dream unrealized software project?
   
   Hendrick: A fully distributed PGP encrypted social network, we are currently working on that. It has no single point of failure and avoids most of the problems we discussed today - also advertising.

   Daniel: (too fast, sorry)

   Suhas: (speaking fast and low, sorry, pls check video, noisy in the room where I am listening)

6. 

   Oliver Gassner
   Well, it is a summary ;)

   January 26, 2009
   06:01 PM

   Video Summaries of Monday Morning

   Tags: dld· dld09· monday· video  -  0 comments

   Here you go:

7. 

   Nicole Simon
   Showcase of a chinese digital manufacturer and his creative products, mostly only available in China.

   January 26, 2009
   05:59 PM

   China, Designing its Way out of the Crisis

   Tags: dld· dld09  -  0 comments

   

   Feng Jun (Aigo)
   Moderation: Thomas Crampton (Journalist)

   • Company in China, making products in China for the Chinese market
     
   • started 16 years ago on a shoestring
     
   • first success was a USB flash memory device
     
   • demonstrating the aigo pen, speaking eleven languages: pointing on the book and it will explain what is on the page, play music and more
     
   • place it on a on a map and it will tell where you are, very useful in order to give information direction in local language
     
   • works by coding over the paper
     
   • can be a very detailed photograph and it still can identify the bits of information
     
   • Aigo pen was used by many people during the Olympics to find their way around the town
     
   • The secret is a formula to be successful: if you put together 1 and 1 you have 11.
     Example: USB is popular, SD card as well. Put them together and you have a SD card with a USB connection.
     

   
   

8. 

   Thomas Praus
   Architecture, art, visions, dreams and sociology come together in this city design session.

   January 26, 2009
   05:45 PM

   City Design

   Tags: dld· dld09  -  0 comments

   

   Michael Schindhelm has the interesting, very demanding but exciting job to help shaping the culture of the boom city of Dubai. The challenge is to find a cultural nucleus in a very new city, a "sudden city" and shape ways to canalize it into public cultural space.

   He works with the Culture Authority of Dubai and their approach is to build light and temporary buildings, moreover a universal museum and a big performing arts centre which will be designed by Zaha Hadid. On top, the big cities at the Persian gulf, Abu Dabi and Dubai, are so close, they will actually be growing together (read more about Schindhelms job in Dubai from DW)

   Wolfram Putz and Thomas Willemeit from GRAFT describe current challenges in human living: people moving into the cities, population growth, slum growth, infrastructure and show some examples how to react with temporary projects and a different approach to architecture seen in layers depending on the time dimension.

   Additionally Willemeit shows his vision of Berlin's big park, the Tiergarten. They imagined a game to be played in the park where players act as animals (deers, rhinos) trying to prevent other creatures to become stone. "This is maybe an unusual way for architects to understand what the environment is like they are working with", says Willemeit and he is certainly right.

   Still, years later they were approached by the Berlin senate who wanted a concept for the city's centre - then they could draw insights from the game to visualize dreams and visions for integrating the park into the city.

   Moderation: Michaela Neumeister (PdP)
   Graftlab

   Here is the full video from the city design panel at DLD09:
   

9. 

   Andrea Vascellari
   

   January 26, 2009
   05:30 PM

   On Creative Commons - Joi Ito

   Tags: creative commons· DLD· DLD09· germany· joi ito· munich  -  0 comments

   Speaker: Joi Ito CEO of Creative Commons.

   Today we'll talk about the sharing economy.

   Joi: "I'm a technology person and I think in terms of stacks"
   In the past it was difficult to connect computers together, and even with the Internet it took a while to reach this level of global connection.
   In the past they didn't understand the potential of connecting people and make them share data and information. In the past the 99% of sharing projects failed.

   If you look at the history of copyright: it was there to protect your content. Before the Internet there was a high level of restriction.
   2 approaches to copyright:
   

   
   
   • ask permission
   
   
   • abolitionists / hackers
   
   
   
   But with Creative Commons we are shifting to a new era.
   Let's take music for example.
   By sharing music, musicians become more popular and it becomes easier for them to attract sponsors for their concerts where at the end people will by the original CD of the group.

   Another example: In Japan people can use a certain character for anything they like. So an entire business model is build around this fictional character.
   People creates music videos with the character and allow other people to comment on them and join the conversation.

   The Internet makes everything:
   

   
   
   • cheaper
   
   
   • easier to share
   
   
   
   Copyright creates friction in the sharing experience. CC wants to facilitate data sharing.

   Google , Yahoo and the other big players are already working to get CC implemented. This is order to avoid complexity.
   CC is trying to make sharing more legal and exclusive by offering different types of licenses.

   Case study:

   Starwreck - 8M downloads. They built a great community around the movie. They created also a website for merchandise which generated 1.6m $ in a week.

   Al Jazeera is releasing content under CC.

10. 

    Oliver Gassner
    The present and future of Telekom.

    January 26, 2009
    05:02 PM

    Conversation on Communications

    Tags: communication· dld· mobile· telekom  -  0 comments

    [all quotes just very rougly verbal]

    Martin Varsavsky & René Obermann
    
    
    
    

    Obermann:

    In the previous downturn 2002/2003 etc. the mobile market was resilient but that was maybe because of its growth state at that time. But outsourcing might be affected. But right now we see good business.

    The Government has consulted with indistry leaders very early. We wwere part of that and maybe we can also be a part of the solution because we invest globally.

    Of all the productivity growth came directly or indiretly from our sector: ICT.

    An example:
    - We plan to bring broadband (2 Mbit+) to Germany everywhere via cable or mobile.
    - Start investment to VDSL / Fibre to the home

    Why are some ogf the attractive products from the US not offered in germany?

    Obermann:
    We also don't offer some of the services we offer here in the US.
    Generally speaking we have been learning some lessons in europe which we learned in the US earlier: It'S about innovation.

    ?: Is the climate in the USA tougher?
    Obermann: The situation in Europe it is not sustainable: we have far too many carriers and we have consoldiation barriers. On the other side the US are very marketing driven, consumer oriented and very consumer focused and easy to understand. Europe is "too much small print".

    ?: Where are people better off as consumers Berlin or New York?

    Obermann: I don't understand the quenstion, they are best off with T-Mobile. (Laughter.) New York is harder to manage but the serviice has become far better. Berlin is easier to manage.

    ?: What will the crisis do to the finances of Telekom?
    Obermann: We are very confident that we can keep up the targets and the line we reached last year. Maybe a slightly better result. We made our homework in the last years. we took alsomost 4 billion of costs out of the operation. we are very solidly financed. Our liquidity is very good: bout 40% of our net debts. [I might have misunderstoood, don't buy or sell stock, OK? - OG]
    We recently aquired companies for 6-7 billion to rech new markets like in Southeastern (?) Europe.

    We don't do strategy once a year, more every 2-3 months. We have a long term strategy but we review it often.

    ?: What is the effect of revenues for currencies going down, like the Pound?

    Obermann: I consider the Euro a great thing. It makes business easier. I hope that the Euro stays a strong currencies. The weak Dollar cost us 1 billion in revenues, but we compensated. (...)

    ?: Why hasn't pricing by the minute vanished in the 90ies? Why do borders still play a role? Will minutes and roaming disappear.

    Obermann: It will just take longer than you thought. I thought mobile (Internet?) would come in 2002. Roaming will be a way to become competitive, but mayn peple are rather protective.

    ?: Is Facebook a operating system to getr a long or even a telecom operator. Zuckerberg mentioned it was 'connecting peple'. Are the customers of T-Mobile a social network or can you make them feel that way?

    Oberman: Last wear we hat 14 Bullion SMS protected, more people keep their phones always on. In a wayx we have a community, but eventually it will be global. You can already make calls and send SMS from Facebook to t_Mobile.

    ?: Did you think of buying StudiVZ.
    O: I would not say no. But we are a partner to many comanies and not be tied to one.

    ?: Do you think Germany first?
    Obermann: With 40% Germany thius is a strong component, but it should not be dominant in our thinking.

    ?: What about Micropayment?
    Obermann: The price to add micropayment to an existing mobile contract is not a problem and it will be part of the mobile future.

    Obermann: We need enterpreneurial spirit in our force, so if you are interested in it, let's talk. Many people did not want to be part of a big company with rules and processes. But today I think we have room for entrepreneurs. Mayn of the entrepreneurs whose comapnies we acquired we were ably to retain.

    ?: Can you imagine Youtube to pay you to transport their content?
    Obermann: In a way they already do, the customers pay us to have access to the net and its content with different access devices. We want to make our customers happy. In some years we will see so much demand for bandwith the mobile carriers will sit on a scarce resource. The amount of spectrum available is not enough. We will have a mixture of ?[protocols]? and it will be hybrid.

    ?: What about netbooks? Now they are sold like mobiles.
    Obermann: Dongles and netbooks were sold extremely well. The Internet becomes mobile and will have a larger impact on peoples lies that the Internet had so far.

11. 

    Nicole Simon
    Showing different areas where Simplicity is good for your sanity and for business.

    January 26, 2009
    04:00 PM

    Simplicity

    Tags: dld· dld09  -  2 comments

    

    On the Panel for "Simplicity"
    

    
    
    • Gorden Wagener (Mercedes-Benz)
      
    • Carlo Ratti (MIT)
      
    • Christopher Schläffer (Deutsche Telekom)
      
    • Gerhard Roth (University of Bremen)
      
    • Jeff Hayzlett (Kodak)
      
    • Moderation: Adam Bly (Seed)
      

    
    Why are we talking about simplicity?
    

    
    
    • we are talking about simplicity because life is so complex, because there are so many more variables
      
    • forces us to think differently
      
    • how much do we have as an ability to deal with complexity?
      
    
    
    
    Gerhard Roth about the brain
    
    
    • the human brain is says to be the "most complex individual system in the universe"
      
    • 80 billion neurons, 500 trillion synapses each of which can take up to at least 10 different functional states
      
    • it can take everything - but at the same time it does try to simplify everything
      
    • brain tries to automatize and to form habits, so you do not need to think about it
      
    • most relevant data compression is to make sense of something
      
    • showing the example of the Kanizsa illusion: you see a triangle because it is the best data compression available for the brain
      
    • the best decision we can do are routine decisions, they are always simple
      
    • affective-impulsive are the mostly inapproprate decision
      
    • purely emotional is good at complex decisions but details are not reportable
      
    • logical-rational decision: good at simple decisions
      
    • avoid being rational at decisions
      
    • preconscious intuitive decision: tood at complex decisions, but details only partially reportable
      
    • best way of deciding a complex situation is to work through it and then let it sit overnight, because there it will be working 'in the background' and will pop up intuitivly
      
    • high power decision makers and politicians recommend this process too, let your brain do the work
      
    • what is the reason for this simplification? Brain tries to minimize processing power, and is avoiding the rational thinking
      
    • most relevant data compression is to make sense of something
      
    • showing the example of the Kanizsa illusion
      
    • basically you should avoid thinking and increase processing
      
    • find out what it important and not important
      
    • increase of action and reaction speed
      

    
    Insights from Christopher Schläffer

    • Telekom industry was a very simple business, but exploded into complexity and faces the challenge of going back to simplicity
    • Technology is a driver of innovation but also complexity
    • invention of the internet and mobile phones made our life highly complex and is different from our daily routines
    • think growth of bandwith, storage and processing power
    • all of this is suboptimal and has created a huge management challenge
    • we are loading our systems (and processors) with more than needed
    • we have to change the anti-value chain
    • we have to open up the proprietary systems and need open innovation
    • what is the key challenge: we think we need to connect the ecosystem
    • connect live and work in all areas
    • we need to open up our personal data with permission of the customers

    
    Notes from Carlo Ratti

    
    
    • maps: we keep on adding information but how do we simplify the information
      
    • (showing some great visualisations which are hard to describe)
      
    • showing data traces on a map of Rome during the night of the world cup where you can see the excitement over the italian victory
      
    • sometimes all the information we are collecting comes from the people itself, example flickr pictures with meta information
      
    • showing Europe weaking up on a global map and city gravity
      
    • Waste and the city - does volume matter?
      
    • Are we arewar how much waste we produce?
      
    • Example of CityBikes in Copenhagen
      

    
    Notes from Jeff Hayzlett

    
    
    • Show you how it feels to be in my job: how many of you have bought a film in the last 12 month? How many a digital camera? Thanks, welcome to my world
      
    • Kodak's story is about being relevant again and reinvent themselves
      
    • showing of his new video camera, brought to market in less than 5 months
      
    • Even if we screw up, we are doing it fast
      
    • 70% where non digital, now over 70% of business is now digital
      
    • half of their products did not exist some
      
    • 65% of people did not work there 5 years ago
      
    • today 8 / 10 people take pictures in default modes - made a camera which figures out on its own which situation it is.
      
    • We bring simple back
      
    • This old website does not shout simplicity or cool, it shout bargain basement sales
      
    • went to their core base of users and asked for a favour, let's show the people the value of images
      
    • examples of the inaugaration: 93 million unique visitors a day
      

    Notes from the discussion round:
    

    
    
    • we cannot forget about emotion in design
      
    • we are living in a hypercomplex environment - how is the brain dealing with this?
      
    • First is making sense, reduce to the simplest meaning
      
    • Second: when things becomes complex you either use emotion or intuition
      

    
    Presentiation by Gordon Wagener about Mercedes Benz Design before the panel
    

    • Long life design is necessity for a company like Mercedes
      
    • 400 people at headquarter for design, 100 in other places, including software and fashion designer
      
    • 20 nationalities, gives good insight in different cultures
      
    • have studios all over the world, for example Tokyo, Italy and the USA
      
    • Mercedes is not just a brand, we invented the automobile and want to be innovators
      
    • Mercedes is also tradition based, but are looking to the future as well
      
    • and all is about design
      
    • cars are always compared to people, which is why they are looking at faces of people and try to bring that to the cars as well
      
    • Mercedes is the most traditional brand in the world and abut continuity and innovation
      
    • Mercedes has to be innovative especially in design
      
    • we want to create classic style cars
      
    • new trends come up like ecology, showing a study of a fish like car
      
    • luxury is a trend, combined with green it will be "green luxury", green and luxury can go hand in hand
      
    • Sensual style: shape reminds us of things we find beautiful
      
    • avant-garde style: you have to be provocative if you want to be leader
      
    • What are future trends which affect car design?
      
    • Individuality (especially in luxury)
      
    • Authenticity: good design is authentic
      
    • Authenticity in material: wood and leather are real wood and leather
      
    • eight out of ten luxury brands come out of Europe

    • European luxury is a trend as well, and Mercedes is the ambassador
      
    • Eco Design: alternative materials, sustainability
      

    
    

12. 

    Nicole Simon
    Organic Design looks to nature as its biggest teacher to get inspiration.

    January 26, 2009
    03:37 PM

    Panel: The Future of Organic Design

    Tags: dld· dld09  -  0 comments

    

    Ross Lovegrove
    Arturo Vittori & Andreas Vogler
    (Architecture and Vision)
    Moderation: Paola Antonelli (MoMA)

    Live notes from the panel:
    

    
    
    • Nature has been the biggest teacher for design
      
    • Organic design evolved, today it is brand new and the same old at the same time
      
    • There is a strong link between learning from nature and imitation
      
    • all of the panelist have years of experience and created extraordinary art
      
    
    
    
    Ross Lovegrove about Organic Essentialism (OE)
    
    
    
    • 50% of his studio is research and self funded
      
    • you need a philosophy or you go nowhere
      
    • we should think 3 dimensional as it creates more possibilities
      
    • organic is sadly a word associated with food
      
    • organic form creation is born out of the observation of nature
      
    • essential means nothing more and nothing less what you need
      
    • in the world of nature things grow with a logic and purpose
      
    • logic an beauty go hand in hand, but it has no purpose - it adapts
      
    • it moves at a glacial speed
      
    • design should be in evolution
      
    • organic design is indifferent to scale
      
    • they don't let people like me design
      
    • there is an insanity in humanity which grounds us
      
    • he tries to leave his organic ego in a drawer
      
    • the difference between a computer rendering and reality is just money
      
    • I am notorious for going in wooden factories and say "let's make it in plastic'
      
    • I am jealous of the people going into space
      
    • why can't we open the mind of people to see how nature works
      
    • shows the example of a pod where you can look outside, but not inside - you can be naked watching the stars and nobody will notice
      
    • we can't go back to the middle ages - we should reinvent ourselves
      
    • The 60s where amazing because they where experimenting but it could not be built
      
    • sometimes it is better to have an amazing idea on paper which could be made into something

    Arturo Vittori and Andreas Vogler about Architecture and Vision
    

    
    
    • If each of us do what we know, we keep being stuck in history
      
    • (showing a design) it builds oasis in the middle of cities, to break the noise coming of cars and powered by solar panels, the reference for this project is the tree
      
    • (sowing EcoUnit) why should we as designers design toilets? Because having access to them, to hygiene, to clear water is one of the major issues for most people on the planet and very dramatic
      
    • organic design can come to their help in dealing with these ressources
      
    • building solutions for these areas can help people to reduce the effort of getting fresh water by several hours a day - which then can be used for education and other more important tasks.
      
    • Showing DesertSeal: inflatable, uses wind to make a habitat cooler; uses space technologies
      
    • Showing Moonbase: inflatable building, usable for space explaration
      

13. 

    Oliver Gassner
    Deep Diving, ...

    January 26, 2009
    03:26 PM

    Hot Earth, Deep Sea

    Tags: diving· dld· dld08· sea  -  0 comments

    (liveblogging in process)
    Hot Earth & Deep Sea
    
    Herbert Nitsch
    
    Fabien Cousteau
    
    (Ocean Futures Society)
    
    Sebastian Copeland (Photographer)
    
    Mike Horn (Pangaea)

    Herbert Nitsch, freediver, explains to us how to dive without oxygen 100 meters deep.
    Security, biology and stress management are essential. And he trans on his home trainer, riding his training bike while only beathing every 30 seconds. When you do this you have to hold your breath for 10 minutes.
    For enjoyment he does soemtimes 120 dives a day of 1 minute each. You can do what every scuba diver does and in the long run you can stay underwater much longer. Without a loud apparatus the fish are not afraid from you.

    When you train to do this you can double your performance within a week. It is like teaching your body something that it has forgotten.

    There is a no-limits type: here you go down at high speed with a sled. You 'fall' at 3 m/sec and rise at 4 m/sec. At 25 m you have to remove all air from your lungs, which for some reasons only works with a coke bottle.
    He has a normal lung volue of 10 liters with extra 5 liters.
    He goes down to up to 214. On the way back there is a decompression stop.
    There is a detailed safety plan for each scenario.

    There is now a prototype of a faster sled to decrease the time under 100 meters, 1000 feet is the goal, that is 305 meters.
    ***
    Fabien Cousteau, presents a condensed version of the family album of the Cousteau family. They are deep sea reserachers starting with Fabien's grandfather Jaques.

    Earth should be called "Planet Ocean". Only little more than 20% are coverd with solid soil. The depth of the sea at 11,000 m dwarf the highest mountains. There is 4 kg of gld for each person on earth solved in sea water. It is rich in species.

    What is left to discover?

    Only 5% of our oceans have been researched. (That is an intersteing kind of job security.)

    As a kid Fabien was fascinated with sharks and "Jaws" irritated more than scared him, as the film contraticted that what he new. The misconception about this being because of the media persists. Many shark are killed for their fins - which are actually full of arsenic, PCBs etc. While shark cases create unnatural behavior. So he designed a one man submesible that was noiseless and moved like a shark. The idea came from a Tintin 'bande dessinee'.

    The result was an unique ocean documentary.

    Details:
    - the shark had no safety features
    - Fabien was less worried abut the sharks and more about human error
    - the base ship was called 'Captain Jack'
    - some people in Fabeins team were rather pessimistic of the endeavor

    Fabien: "It was rather risky and a logistical nightmare."

    Marine sanctuaries only comprise 1% of the oceans. 5-10% should be protected. Orcas get cancer - something that was never occuring before.
    The climate change is destroying the coral reefs. And we still dump lange amounts of garbage and poison into the sea.

    The sea is our one and only life protect system. We should protect what we love.

    Sebastian Copeland:
    Nothing communicates global climate change so much as melting ice. So he traveled the arctics on numoerous occasions.

    A personal commitment to fight for the protection of the environment has led Sebastian to a seat on the Board of Directors of Global Green (the US arm of President Gorbachev's Green Cross International) and a relentless pursuit of a sustainable future. Sebastian also holds a seat on the Board of Directors of Shine On Sierra Leone, an NGO providing an educational platform for children of war-torn nations.
    As an international speaker on climate crisis for over a decade, Sebastian has been featured on television and radio (Larry King Live, NPR, Air America) and has addressed audiences at the United Nations, the World Affairs Council, the General Assembly on Climate in New Orleans, the George Eastman House, Google Headquarters and to Apple's Senior Design Team.
    In 2008, Sebastian was named one of German GQ's Man of the Year in the "Engagement" category. Sebastian currently lives in Los Angeles and drives a hybrid.

    Our future lives are affected by the change in these regions. We are just one in 30 million species.
    With Green Cross international he did a photo project to save the inuit.

    Human bodies formed the letters SOS both in the Arctric and Antarctic.
    Kids were brought as ambassadors to the arctic regions. Cracks that were never there before. Kids did homestays with Inuit. Kids from Germany, Kenya, Italy,France etc. took part and the journey took one month.

    Ice shelves keep breaking at a record rate - thus the oceans rise and endanger 80% of the global population living in coastal cities.

    By 2013 scientists believe the sea ice in the arctic summer will be gone totally.
    This was predicted 1.5 years ago to happen in 2025.

    Inuit babies have been diagnosed with residuents of industrial processes that are usually not found in the arctic. The poison is aggregating in the food chain and eaten by the mothers of the Inuit babies.

    We need to invest in a renewable and sustainambe market., We are at a crossroads to a virus that spreads and destroys us and our planet. We all can have an impact on our planet - individually. And specially companies can educate workforce, partners and consumers and change e.g. their fleet of vehicles etc.

    ***

    
    
    
    Mike Horn:
    Is travelling near the south pole. He usues any vehicle - as long as it has no motor. He is a South African Adventurer. He swam down the Amazon.

    He created a program called "The young Explorers".
    The sailing boat 'Pangaia' will sail the world for four years.
    Young adults between 16 and 22 years were trained in Switzerland. The ship sailed from Argentine to Antarctica.

    Participant: "If you see something in its rawest form it changes you."

    Alexandra Ledilly(?) represents Mike. She met Mike at his conference and decided to apply for his team. She was interested in environmental issues before. Preparation included both body fitness and science skills to analyze snow samples. She was one of the final 6 people crew (selected from 12).

    Se felt very bad when she came back cause she was seperated from the team. Reality was a shock. But now she feels good about sharing her experience: Everyone can contribute to a better environment.

    Mike Horn is 'with us' via a recording done yesterday via sattelite to Antarctica.

14. 

    Thomas Praus
    Organic design, inspired by nature, based on sustainable ressources and grown with patience.

    January 26, 2009
    03:21 PM

    The Future of Organic Design

    Tags: dld· dld09  -  0 comments

    Ross Lovegrove, Arturo Vittori, Andreas Vogler, (Architecture and Vision), and moderator Paola Antonelli (MoMA) discuss totally different approaches to industry design: organic design.

    After introducing the subject roughly, Paolo Antonelli presents Ross Lovegrove who has some very quotable sentcemces: "I am anti-oil", "Airplanes and cars move with violence", "Organic dematerialization is a gift to nature", "It's all matter of money and money is virtual anyway".

    Lovegrove is known for soft, round, nature inspired design (some interviews and pictures on Designboom) with sustainable materials and in this session shows some of visionary architecture (bubbly, modular buildings), products (car on a stick) which could well be produced, according to him it is just a matter of funding.

    
    

15. 

    Thomas Praus
    How can a luxury brand be presented online? Xavier Court, Marc Ecko and Susann Remke discuss image, brand and community.

    January 26, 2009
    02:22 PM

    Fashion and business

    Tags: dld· dld09· Fashion  -  0 comments

    First, Xavier Court introduces the audience to vente-privee.com. The idea of the platform is to sell overstock brand products (in average 5-10% of every brand's production per year is overstock) to an invitation-only community to keep the luxury image of the brands. Products are only sold in a limited time window.
    Ventee privee launched in 2001 and now has over 7 million members in different European markets.

    Preserving the image of a brand is key focus for Vente Privée, they have a Creative Director, designers, musicians and video editors to offer a visually attractive presentation of the brands.

    Marc Ecko is introduced by Susann Remke who explains how she met him at his office which is actually a basket ball court filled with art. Ecko does not only take care of artists (and Rhinos), but also paints and fights NYC mayor Bloomberg's grafitti law in court.

    Marc is known for his impressive and well-shaped self-confidence, owns several fashion brands (Ecko, Zoo York e.g.) which he successfully marketed to stars (Justin Timberland, 50 Cent, Adam Sandler...) who serve as testimonials and fosters since he started making t-shirts 15 years ago. "Marc, you're the Steve Jobs of fashion!" states Remke.
    The discussion continues about atomized target groups, street culture and identification.

    So what has the internet to do with Marc Eckos success? His most famous action was to tag the Airforce One. This was of course a guerilla stunt where they painted a plane looking like the airforce one and leaked the video on the internet which was forwarded and blogged many times as one of the first huge viral video success.

    Funny enough now both, Ecko and Court publish print magazines to drive their online business. Due to them, print magazines transport more value, plus working with artists and stars (Ecko) need print covers to "polish their egos".

16. 

    Andrea Vascellari
    What does it mean to invest? How the investment environment is changing?

    January 26, 2009
    02:09 PM

    New Realities

    Tags: DLD· DLD09· germany· investments· munich· new· realities  -  0 comments

    Martin Halusa (Apax Partners)
    Viviane Reding (European Commission)
    Theodor Weimer (HVB)
    Paul-Bernhard Kallen (Hubert Burda Media)
    David Drummond (Google)
    Lars-Hendrik Röller (ESMT)
    Moderation: Carlos Bhola(Celsius Capital)

    To offer you a better live coverage during this session I'll focus on Paul-Bernhard Kallen (Hubert Burda Media), David Drummond (Google), Lars-Hendrik Röller (ESMT). At the same time Oliver Gassner will publish content related to Martin Halusa (Apax Partners), Viviane Reding (European Commission), Theodor Weimer (HVB).

    

    What does it mean to invest? How the investment environment is changing?

    Lars-Hendrik Röller (ESMT): We are much different than US. In Europe we are trying to be more competitive and we don't want to mess it up. We are trying to keep principals alive although it's a big challenge.

    Paul-Bernhard Kallen (Hubert Burda Media): It's not about about having regulation as options. The real problem is about the amount of debt. It's not about crisis it's about de-leverage.
    The question is: 'How do we surviving the next couple of years in which the economy will be de-leveraged and how to do that without previous models or blue-prints.'

    David Drummond (Google): We have to keep in mind how things get done in our government.
    
    Comment from the audience:
    It's not matter or being optimistic or pessimistic. It's about being realistic.

    David Drummond (Google): We have infrastructure that have been lacking for years. US now are starting to understand that with this new government there is a new opportunity.

    About balance of wealth and globalization.
    Chinese was tagged in the past as one of the most de-regulated nations and today is one of the leading growing economies.

    Questions about future:

    How many people believe that there further corrections in the stock markets?
    3 yes 2 no

    When we'll see key sectors/companies grow in markets?
    Average of 2 year

    If we look at hyper growth companies during this crisis, do they keep growing at a stable level or not?
    It depends

    Are US less or more attractive for foreign investment?
    Tendency to less attractive.

    Is China less or more attractive for foreign investment?
    Less

    When we'll agree that the best ideas born in economical down-turns?
    

    
    
    • Yesterday the value creation was in the financial market, today we have new sources like for example of dealing with complexity.
    
    
    • Bigger problems represent potential new big successes.
    
    
    • During the depth of this crisis there will be value creation because people will focus more on doing business.
    
    
    • The role of Universities is extremely important in Europe.
    
    

    Questions from the audience:

    How can we redirect resources to what's good for the society?
    Trust is gone. We need to get it back.

17. 

    Oliver Gassner
    How did the crises come about? What have we learned?

    January 26, 2009
    02:03 PM

    New realities: Reding, Weimer, Halusa

    Tags: best guesses· crisis· finance· world  -  0 comments

    (all quotes just roughly verbal)

    I will be covering the following panelists:
    Martin Halusa (Apax Partners)
    Viviane Reding (European Commission)
    Theodor Weimer (HVB)

    Moderation: Carlos Bhola
    
    (Celsius Capital)

    Andrea Vascellari, my colleague will cover the other three panelists. (I will link as soon as his post is up)

    Carlos: We will try to provide best guesses in dialogue with you.

    How did we get here?
    Viviane Reding: Was cheap money and lack of government regulation the problem?
    We can lead towards an equilibrium between control and a free market.

    Martin Halusa: Private equity has profited hugely from the banking market. The greatest achievment was bringning 900 Million Chinese out of poverty through US consumers. So this cheap money created the globalized market.

    Theodor Weimer: The cycle is going be so deep and so profound that it will ensue structural changes. Debt and equity costs will be not available, their cost will increase massively. Investment banking is gone. The profitablity will be lower. The revenues will be lower. We will have huge amouints of innovation necessary to make the financial sector profitable again.

    Attendant: The discussion seems too tactical to me. The unavailablity of credit is a mayor point.

    What have we learned?

    Martin Halusa: We go through a structural change but capitalism is not dead. It's driver is greed and that is not the case today. [Explains how much money was paid for one bank and what "real" companies you could buy for that.] The stocks are so low that the machine will start again.

    Viviane Reding: The used savings to give to startups and industry. About the subsidies: They are not to keep something alive for three years and then let it die. But all this is a very balanced equilibirum between subsidizing a new industry or subsidizing to keep something alive for political reasons.

    Globalization

    Carlos: Are we experiencing the direct effects of Globalization?
    The 37% who had most of the walth of the world will experience reduction in a process of balancing.

    Halusa: To fix the crisis the governments will have to take the bad aspects out of damaged banks. Then I think Globalization is unstoppable. As soon as the finacial crises is compensated Globalization will pick up fast. But this will take 2-3 years before this happens.
    We will have both deflation and inflation. The assets are about at triple of the values of the GDP. This needs to be more balanced. First there will be deflation and then inflation. I don't see any other way.

    Viviane Reding: Before Globalization and the crisis Europe was not as united as today. Our only way out is to take care of our intenal market, to reduce barriers and regulations. And we need to deal with climate change. Together with the new US president we can bring the world to a new decision.

    Weimer: National and particularist tendencies of countries or regions are a problem in this situation. We have tried to get China into global governace structures, This is very important if we want to make positive effects of Globalization stronger.

    Will there be further corrections in the Financial Market?
    Mayority says: yes.

    When will we see the markets to grow tremedously?
    2 years, 5 years, slow rise starting end of 2009.
    Not many believe it will start between in the next 2 years.

    US less or more attracive for foreign investment.
    Panel: less, less, less, more, less, more

    China less or more attracive for foreign investment.
    less, less, more, same, less, more,less

    Are companies that have performed in the past in good years, will they plateau?
    yes if they are nnovating, after 15 years all companies reach plateau, they are investing in the future, there will be 'new Googles', it depends

    Do the best innovation occur in down values?

    Martin Halusa: The Financial market was actually creating values, this is gone, other sources will have to be looked for. The ability to handle complexity is now necessary, and this will come and it will come through IT.

    Viviane: I am against subsidies and for investment in the future. and that is innovation. With this ageing society we will have to invest in the health system. When we start to come out of the crisis, this will be a suiccess stoiry coming up. The same is true for research and innivation in energy (?: sources) and energy efficiency. I see this happening in the end of this year and in the beginning of next year.

    Weimer: Universities will play a big role in applied reserach.

18. 

    Thomas Praus
    About robots - robot snakes, flying robots, robot orchestras and discussions where all this is going

    January 26, 2009
    01:39 PM

    About Robots

    Tags: dld· dld09  -  0 comments

    In addition to Oliver's post, I would like to add some notes, pictures and videos to the "About Robots" session.

    "What's better than playing with toys all day?!" asks Amir Shapiro and laughs. It must be fascinating to work with robots, see them act autonomously and interact with each other. Robotic science has come a long way, these days we see robots floating independently in the air, playing soccer against each other at high speed, climb walls and even play instruments. This session featured some fantastic examples of contemporary robot technology,

    Raffaelo D'Andrea from ETH Zürich introduced us to the self-repairing chair (Video on YouTube) and commented on the comments on YouTube about this video. People said "Cure cancer instead!" and "This is useless!", not understanding that this project is part of basic research nobody knows yet to what ends it could lead.

    Kiva systems and their robotic warehouse with distributed intelligence is the next example.

    Sergej Lupashin (from ETH Flying Robots) then shows us their little flying robot.

    Amir Shapiro (BGU Department of Mechanical Engineering) demonstrates a robot snake and finally Roy Roth & Yaal Tevet (Roth-Tevet Experience Design Studio) tell us about the robotic orchestral installation in Jerusalem. 40 robots were put up in a citadell playing music, the audience could experience the installation by walking in between the robots.
    (Video on Metacafe)

    The session closed with a short discussion about where robotics is going? Raffaelo D'andrea states that robustness is key, it is very hard to have autonomous system working all the time without anything going wrong at some point.

    Robot ethics were another subject but not explored further. Nobody wants to develop weapons, still everybody is conscious that the military is highly interested in their resarch results.

    To continue discussion I would like to recommend reading Asimovs three laws of robotics.

    Here is the video from the About Robots session at DLD09:
    

19. 

    Oliver Gassner
    Autonomous robots can do amazing things: Climb, swim, make music, fly... and re-assemble themselves.

    January 26, 2009
    12:19 PM

    Robots: Autonomus Vehicles and Creativity

    Tags: dld· dld09· eth· israel· robots  -  1 comment

    Presenters:

    Roy Roth & Yaal Tevet (Roth-Tevet Experience Design Studio)
    Sergej Lupashin & Raffaello D'Andrea
    Amir Shapiro (BGU Department of Mechanical Engineering)
    Moderation: Dan Dubno

    We see swimming robots, flying autonomous robots, autonomous robots playing soccer.

    The ETH robot group presents:

    Amazing: A self assembling robot chair.

    Is it ok do do stuff like this before curing cancer?
    It is a step in a creative process that can lead to self repairing systems.

    Kiva robots help in Warehouses - and were developed after doing robot soccer:

    [thos was not in the session:]
    Or perform the nutcracker suite:
    

    Other projects are:
    Flying robots that fall apart in air and reassemble on the ground.

    Autonomous quadrocopters:
    see http://flyingmachinearena.com.

    Those flying robots play badminton with other flying robots or with humans - at least they will soon.

    ***
    How can ro bots move in rough terrain?
    A snake robot from the BGU in Israel can.
    Just watch:
    

    Robots using glue or magnets can climb walls. The glue-climber is also called a 'snail inspired robot'. If you just use sticky tape on wheels it is less messy. But you can also use the cat method and give the robot 'claws'.

    Roy Roth & Yaal Tevet (Roth-Tevet Experience Design Studio), Israel:

    Their "housekeeping robot" can even handle porcellain dishes.

    Their soundscape is an area of autonomous robots that create a musical landscape and the listeners can walk through it:

    Where are robots going?

    If robots really become intelligent, there is no way to know what they will do.

    What about robots used for fighting. Do we need to be afraid of them? What about robot ethics?

    Isaac Asimov thought about the 'Three laws of robotics', but they are not applied right now. Robots are just tools, it is important what people do with them.

    Like we can heal robots will finally be able to repair themselves.

    The reward of untargeted research about robots can be great. You cannot only do trageted reserach. Flying robots are not necessarily military reserach.

    We do things with robots now that many thought impossible 10 years ago, like hovering robots that do flips.

    "What is better than playing with toys?" But: The snakes can crawl under collapsed buildings and help rescue people. In the USA robots are already used in such a way. (Carnegie Melon)
    

20. 

    Andrea Vascellari
    How traditional media is evolving by stepping into the digital landscape

    January 26, 2009
    12:10 PM

    New Media Models

    Tags: DLD· DLD09· germany· Media· Models· munich· New  -  0 comments

    
    Jeff Jarvis (Buzzmachine)
    Carolyn McCall (Guardian)
    Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
    Tyler Brulé (Monocle)
    Moderation: Jochen Wegner (FOCUS)

    

    If you would start over again, what would you do?
    Michael Arrington (TechCrunch): II would never go back to print media. Most people like pares to read them, but that volume dons't work anymore, they are stopping printing. I would start a company that does news like Techcrunch.
    Jeff Jarvis (Buzzmachine): We should focus on building platforms to succsed in what we are doing.
    Carolyn McCall (Guardian): The sustainable business model for news papers has changed. We have to keep thinking about how to not become unsustainable. It still is difficult to reach people online, if I would start a new business it would be an airline in Europe.
    Tyler Brulé (Monocle): Target on Europe. The most robust model we have at the moment is classified, it is a high margin business. Advertising is difficult to segment, it is not a great model at the moment which is why one has to look at a whole range of new models

    What is wrong with the online ad market?
    Mike Arrington: People are spending less. If he was old media, he would be looking at the cost created and look at everything and ask if it really is necessary. Think about the army of bloggers who work out of their own houses and network with others.
    Somebody contacted the city and told them that Mike Arrington was running a business out of his living room which is why he has to move now.
    Techcrunch is done like million other bloggers
    Mike Arrington: Journalist still fall back on the notions that they fall back on a certain notion of integrity, but he thinks all journalist have the same feelings. Users don't have a problem unless they feel they are being tricked.
    
    How do we see the future of journalism?
    Jeff Jarvis: It is not about how to fund journalism in 10 years, it is about how to fund it now. We are good on the content side, but not enough on the business side. It is time to flush out the old models and bring in new models form other areas. He would like to study for example German market of output, how much from this is original, how much is repeated etc.
    Michael Arrington: There's a new class of people that they don't publish nothing but they read everything and then they crosspost everywhere.
    Jeff Jarvis: The question is how to support the entire system.
    Carolyn McCall: It's about new business models. Rethinking distribution and the business itself.
    Jeff Jarvis: It's having the courage to 'force' the readers to go online.
    Tyler Brulé: We have to look at investments and respond to the needs of customers that want to pay for quality.
    Carolyn McCall: Another important thing it's diversify. For example The Guardian has a big audience from the US because it offers a different perspective on news.
    Michael Arrington: In tech it's probably more difficult to diversify because we are moving in an environment that is more global.

    How do we finance the future of journalism?
    Jeff Jarvis: Don't finance new media, finance the future of journalism. Drive money online and focus on how to mange the business online. When we shift to the online world our cost structure changes.
    Carolyn McCall: Keep in mind the different age groups and their needs/difficulties they face to interact with a totally new and different environment. In the next 10 years we'll have very difficult and diversified business models.

    Questions from the audience

    What's wrong with the old media approach? Why the old-models seem to fail if people keep buying traditional news papers?
    The point is, why not to explore new ways!

    Dr. Hubert Burda: Google has changed things but the revenue from online media is still far from the print media.

    About scarcity of online advertising:
    Jeff Jarvis:There's a new population of advertisers growing.

    Opportunities and tactics of media across mobile.
    Michael Arrington: I don't do nothing because the devices do everything for me.

    How do you reinvent what you are doing keeping in mind the fact that it goes in the opposite direction of traditional advertisement models?
    Carolyn McCall: We aim at having a closer relationship with our audience and get better and evolve on what we are doing. Advertisement is doing the same, it's changing and evolving too.
    Jeff Jarvis: This is an opportunity we have to create new and better advertisement, to reinvent advertisement. This has to be done by us and not by traditional agency.

21. 

    Andrea Vascellari
    Knowledge in today's environment. Session by David Weinberger.

    January 26, 2009
    12:08 PM

    Knowledge in the Age of Abundance

    Tags: abundance· David Weinberger· DLD· DLD09· germany· knowledge· munich  -  0 comments

    David Weinberger (Harvard University)

    

    We'll talk about knowledge because it plays and important role in our society especially when it scarce.
    
    What knowledge is?
    In our society knowledge is simple. There's a single order and things follow that order. Knowledge evolved from the times of ancient greeks. Knowledge exists as a scarce resource. Another really interesting aspect is that it's not a case that the knowledge reflects the characteristics of its medium, the books.

    We are living in a world where connectivity became really important. So let's take the Amozon Kindle as an example to understand how books and knowledge are evolving. People have access to knowledge and are able to connect with other people at the same time.

    We are dealing much better with the abundance of crap than we do with the abundance of good stuff. Society is not build for the abundance of good stuff.

    People already have twittered this morning 7000 times - this system does not scale, control does not scale either.

    We changed our strategy: Let's gather everything, it is cheaper to include than to exclude.
    If you keep all articles on Britney Spears you will be scared to look at the results.

    Things worth knowing does not include everything. Yes you do miss stuff - but that is a good thing. It is a cleaning process.

    Links have their dimension too and are generous. From each webpage you have a high number of links. In this abundance era there's is an abundance of links. In the same ways works online contribution, think about Wikipedia. On Wikipedia acknowledge its own value. It's socializing with knowledge, talking with a human voice and not with a media voice that would make lose its authority.
    Rather than deciding how people should navigate, give them tools so they can decide. This results in a very messy system - but the messier it is the better because you get a far better reflection of what is out there and you don't destroy the relationships.
    We can't overestimate the relevance of links: they display (power) relationships. Wikipedia as a good example how everything is a hyperlink, it encourages discovery. Wikipedia does not tell you how to navigate but gives you the tools to work as you would like to work, so it is a far better reflection on our knowledge.

    So what characterize knowledge in this modern era? It's not just the network itself, it's about us, it's about humans. Today the Internet more profound reflection of our society.

22. 

    Oliver Gassner
    Pekka Himanen has produced new information society strategy for the Finnish Parliament's Committee for the Future.

    January 26, 2009
    11:45 AM

    Pekka Himanen: Creative Life

    Tags: children· creativity· dld· music· passion· philisophy· trust  -  0 comments

    Prof. Pekka Himanen has produced new information society strategy for the Finnish Parliament's Committee for the Future and a national innovation strategy for the Finnish Technology Industry. He has written numerous articles for Time Magazine to The Financial Times, and hosted his own TV series, The Net Academy. Himanen's cultural figure has even inspired a provocative theater play, Cherished Disappointments in Love, performed in Finland and London (Soho Theatre).
    ***
    Pekka was running groups about philoisophy for children. We have a lot of cretaive question.

    A 4 year old asked: Are we live or on video.
    A 8 year old boy asked: What should I do later in life when I meet the woman of my life in the street? Should I shout STOP?

    A 12 year old Girl had an example for dignity: 2 years ago her grandmother was dieing. She with her mother sat besides her bed and held her hand. The last thing she heard was her granddaughter saying: Granny I love you. This is dignity.

    These groups have reminded me that we originally have a very open and creative mind asking surprising questions.
    But we also have a longing that our value is recognized.
    We can do amazing things if we feel that our dignity is recognized.

    So the question is: What characterizes creative groups at there best.
    Pekka Himanen also worked with the cretaors of Linux and leading design groups, scitific communities and others.

    In what environment am I at my best?

    The simple Pyramid is:
    

    
    Creative Passion
    Enriching Community
    Trust Trust Trust Trust Trust
    

    First you trust each other, the you help each other to go even further.

    An example is Ella Fitzgerald and a trombone player in musical dialogue.

    This shows that you also need passion to achieve extraordinary results.

    We have a hard time to hear different themes in a complex set of music. So it helps us to ask the simple questions - like Einstein did.

    So we can ask: What are we about? Can we for example find the "theme of trust" within us? Can we expand those themes by making them stronger and increasing their reach like a musician and composer expands on a musical theme?

    What if we only have a partial grasp of what our creative passion is? Can we develop this grasp like a composer expands a theme?

    What happens if we combine the creative enegrgies of those 2 themes within us?

    Pekka Himanen is demonstrating this with the musical themes you can listen to in the video.

    How can we construct a balance in our creative pyramid between the fear if we lack trust and the dream we can achieve with creative passion?

    How is a kid influenced by a new baby that is to arrive?
    How can I help a kid in this situation to see its dignity?
    How can I help others to be more creative?
    What are the values bigger than me that I am attached to?

    Check dignity.org for more.

23. 

    Nicole Simon
    Looking at the growing markets in eastern Eastern Europe.

    January 26, 2009
    10:47 AM

    Eastern Europe

    Tags: dld· dld09· eastern europe  -  0 comments

    

    The panelists of this session:
    Vuslat Dogan (Dogan Holding)
    Zoltan Kovacs (Isobar)
    Andrew Paulson (SUP)
    Lukasz Gadowski (Team Europe Ventures)
    Moderation: Andrej Nabergoj (Noovo)

    
    Some data on Eastern Europe by Andrej Nabergoj
    

    
    
    • 23 countries of 276 million population
    
    
    • 40 million internet users
    
    
    • but of course this is a fragmented market place
    
    
    • most of them are on the verge of joining the European Union
    
    
    • Fantastic growth every year on broadband
    
    
    • online advertising spending is growing 2-6%
    
    
    • shared culture is positive
    
    
    • high growth rate encouraging
    
    
    • transition to more openess is important to overall climate
    
    
    • attitude is important: open, 'hungry', knowledge economy
    
    
    
    
    
    Some insights from Andrew Paulson:
    
    
    
    • on Predictions about Russia and Eastern Europe we'll have to wait for the end fo the year.
    
    
    • Russian internet population 40 M
    
    
    • Increasing in online advertisement
    
    
    • 70% broadband penetration
    
    
    • 80% mobile penetration
    
    
    • About his company: What you can't control who is using it and from where. They have invested a lot in Russia. Andrew and his company where the only/among the few that could have relationship with foreign countries.
    
    
    • Innovation they brought to the market: Interface between web 1.0 and web 2.0: How they can interact and drive traffic one to the other.
    
    

    Some insights of Zoltan Kovacs:
    

    
    
    • has been in digital agency business for over nine years
    
    
    • Hungary is probably being one of the closest to Western Europe
    
    
    • there is lot less competition on the market
    
    
    • users tend to use classic online properties
    
    
    
    

    Some insights from Lukasz Gadowski
    In 2002 Lukasz Gadowski founded Spreadshirt.com (currently ~300 employees worldwide, backed by Accel Europe) and was the co-founder of the Social Network "StudiVZ" (sold to Holtzbrinck in 2007, today Germanies largest website). At the beginning of 2008 Gadowski moved from the Spreadshirt Board of Directors to the Supervisory Board, where he is now chairman. Since 2007 he invested in over 50 companies.

    Main current projects:
    

    
    
    • Spreadshirt T-Shirts printing in Legnica
    
    
    • Angel investment in EPlus.Pl. (Poland)
    
    
    • Angel investment in Russian e-commerce projects
    
    
    • expand easter europe activities with special focus on Poland
    
    
    
    
    
    Some insights of Vuslat Dogan:
    Dogan Media Group m
    
    
    • ainly does Energy and Media
    
    
    • a predominently turkish group but are the leading advertising in Eastern Europe and Russia
    
    
    • 2008: 200 million ecommerce, 80 mio online advertisement
    
    
    • can group their activities into news & portals, classifieds, community, ecommerce, ad network
    
    
    • transformed traditional media successfully to online
    
    
    • aquisition is part of being more successful
      
      
      
      • Her list of "enablers of success"
      
      
      • be the first mover
      
      
      • dont resist, embrace change
      
      
      • mitivate entreprenaural action
      
      
      • sustain anc continue investment
      
      
    
    
    • that was phase 1, phase 2 brings different challenges
    
    
    • every internet company needs to grow in size
    
    
    • Innovation is key: where internet penetration is lower, you have the luxury of looking at more advanced markets and follow the successful business models
    
    
    • makes you more lazy to just copy and not innovate
    
    
    • you cannot succeed globally when you stay in that attitude, you need to step up as well< /li>
      

    
    Notes from the discussion:

    • Foreign companies. Challenges that they face, mistakes and how to overcome them.
    • At the moment there are no many acquisition going on but the main factors os influence are:
    • psychological influence
    • many entrepreneurs are not always rational
    • too high future expectations
    • overinvesting in the same market is a problem
    • finding the right people to work with at local level
    • find the right people and give them responsibility and trust

    About moving a company to new markets:
    

    
    
    
    
    • It's really important to understand before where to invest and where not to invest. In certain countries you know that you'll never get the needed resources in the upcoming years so it's better to avoid investing there.
    
    
    • When you move to new countries you might face competitors that are already leaders on the market so usually you can move in two ways:
    
    
    • - Making the market more difficult for your competitors
    
    
    • - Finding a way to cooperate and don't ignore existing local players.
    
    
    • Either ways the most important thing is to have a local entrepreneurial team to manage at best your business and not try to control with your own idea of how to run a business.
    
    

    Questions from the audience
    

    
    
    • On obstacles with a big O - do these represent a business risk?
    
    
    • will big russian internet companies to western countries? Example of buying livejournal and now expanding to India and for example UK;
    
    
    • Russia is big - ask yourself how long it took the US to look outside of the local market
    
    
    • Had a panel about "rest of the world" at Web 2,0 in San Francisco, with not much attention
    
    
    
    

24. 

    Oliver Gassner
    What makes a compelling product compelling? Why do other products go nowhere?

    January 26, 2009
    10:16 AM

    100 Million users: The Paul Potts Phenomenon

    Tags: attraction· dld· dld09· products· stickyness· users  -  1 comment

    

    [all quotes just roughly verbal]

    Chad Hurely (Youtube)
    Samir Arora (Glam)
    Mitchell Baker (Mozilla Foundation)
    Toby (Coppel?). (Yahoo)

    Moderation: Yossi Vardi

    What makes a compelling product compelling? Why do other products go nowhere?

    We are now checking which of the "4 Tenors" has more views on Youtube. Pavarotti wins: Nessun dorma.

    Toby: Yahoo is a communications platform and that is what the net is form. Yahoo helps people share the best of the web in a simple way. 140 Million users are in Yahoo Answers. 5-7% are actually answering most of the questions. People are good, they want to help other people.

    Now Yossi aks everyone to take 5 Euros out of the pocket and donate it to a cancer cause after the session.

    Chad: Paul Potts got more views of "Nessun Dorma" than Pavarotti.

    Yossi: Potts has 40 Miilion views and Pavarotti only 9 Million. Because he was an underdog? No, he connected to the emotional layer of people, and that is what the internet is about.

    The Haha-Baby had 73 Million viewers.

    Michell Baker:
    Right goal, mission, product and people and a management was good enough make the users come to mozilla.. We want to build a public asset for the internet through market and individual action. That is an emotional asset.

    Yossi:
    I read 200 books and produced 400 slides on reating a cool product. But here is no real answer.

    Chad:
    The suggested videos in the sidebar and after the video help prolong the Youtube experience.

    Samir: We gained 110 million users in 3 years. Glam is a distributed network that finds where people go and help that experience. Glam was focused on women, In December we launched a mens network. Women spend more money than men on consuer goods so we went for them first as the advertising budgets were there. We spend 0 Dollars in attracting people.

    Yossi: Mobile carrier Orange pays 30-50 Euros to acquire a customer and makes about 30 Euros per user per month.
    
    NN: We created ICQ and Winamp. We asked the users what they wanted every month in a small survey and built what most people wanted. This made people com to our services.

    Jeff Pulver: Facebook could attracted 160.000 users because it became the white pages of the Internet. My kids, when they are on vacation, still kow what heir freinds are doing. It is no longer new media, It is "now media". Facebook is all viral. you share information and make it real when meeting people. We experience an connection with humans that we never expected. And: Please Facebook: extend the friends limit over 5000. Some companies have more than that. I don't want to create a Fan-Page for that I am just a normal guy trying to network.

    Marissa Mayer: 300-500 Million users on Google. The emotional aspect is important, but also a feeling of empowerment, for example that you can share videos or chat.

    Last case -- Jason, the autistic basekball player.:
    

    Discussion:

    What is the next level? What is real collaboration?

    Michell: We have 200 people hired and thousands of people make the product.

    Samir: We have about 1000 publishers but 10.000 contributors in Glam. The secret is not in distribution but in interaction.

    Yossi: People are keen on expressive themselbes and very curious about the creativity of others.

    Chad: Youtube tried to make the things as easy as possible. The brand goes beyond the product though. And we enabled people to piut videos ontheir websites and blogs and point back to our service.

25. 

    Thomas Praus
    What's after the Obama campaign? This panel was about future developments, tools, boundaries and possibilities of politics online.

    January 26, 2009
    09:22 AM

    Internet Politics

    Tags: dld· dld09  -  0 comments

    

    What comes next? After Obama, it's time to reflect on the campaign and the development of internet driven politics. The panel is moderated by Jeff Jarvis (Buzzmachine, Book: "What would Google do") and brings together Micah Sifrey, Randi Zuckerberg (Facebook), Jack Hidary and Mark Gorenberg (investor, fundraiser for democrats).

    Anecdotal examples
    Jack Hidary has a brief introduction of the power of internet driven campaigns. He talks about short brief guerilla swot teams, giving the example of a pro solar engery campaign. When government subsidies were about to end, Hidary and his team actually asked politicians in Washington DC who surprisingly said that actually no citizen had called them to state that they wanted solar energy.

    Hidary and his team formed a Facebook group and started blogging to organize people. Soon they had a reach out to more than 10 000 members which they organized into subgroups. Finally they let them call senators on different given days and ask for support for solar engery. In the end together they managed to convince politicians, so only a handful of people engaging for a cause created blogs and groups and managed to convince politicians to prolongue the solar engery support.

    Gorenberg now speaks about how important it is to target people for specific causes when asking for donations. Randi Zuckerberg, naturally, has many examples from Facebook, e.g. the causes application or the well done and very well targeted ad campaign Obama did on Facebook. While Micah Sifrey asks "Who owns all the personal data being collected? The candidates of the parties? The campaigners? Facebook?" the penal goes on to stating that the Obama campaign collected 14 millions email adresses and 4 million cell phone numbers.

    Now the future of politics in action, after the election, is discussed:
    According to Gorenberg there is at least the idea of a very open and transparent US government.
    Recently US government created a Google like search for documents. For Hidary it is very important not only to focus on the adminstration but also on "the hill", the house and the senate, thus the legislative part of the US political system which is absolutely not used to transparency. Decisions are made behind closed doors and nobody knows who senators are meeting or
    what is on their agenda. These people need to be included in a broad approach of internet politics.

    Jeff Jarvis now starts the public discussion, walks around with the microphone and questions are raised: Who owns the data being collected on Facebook? Is it not risky to rely on a system controlled by a single company to drive poltical campaigns? A difficult question nobody really knows an answer to. At least Randi Zuckerberg promises to keep this sensible issue on the agenda, promising more APIs and hoping they will not get in conflict with Chinese government. But still, she states: "A little is better than nothing"

    How can peace be organized on the internet? Sifrey admits that it 's much easier to block than to create on the internet.

    How can a disucssion on newspaper sites be canalized in a constructive way? Peer-to-peer moderation, flagging comments, setting standards.

    Johannes von Bismarckh is concerned about the internet being another mass mobilizing medium that could enable dictators like Hitler (ike he used radio), to take control: "The mass is dangerous". Both Jarvis and Sifrey disagree vehemently: Jarvis: "You cannot just take over the internet like you can take over the tv station. If you trust the people you have to trust them with the tools in their hand because the internet is in their hands." Sifrey: "The internet is about mobilization. You cannot just tell people to do what you want them to do, they need to be motivated by a cause. Dictatorship will not work like this"

    David Kirkpatrick has another good example in the end for the positive force of the people: In Italy one of the biggest groups was a fangroup for one of the biggest Mafia bosses. Soon many people gathered to form an even bigger group speaking up against the Mafia. Jarvis then closes the public part of the lively discussion which still goes on in the hallway.

    Eine deutsche Zusammenfassung der Politiksession gibt es bei Netzpolitik

    Here is the video from the internet politics session from DLD:
    

26. 

    Andrea Vascellari
    Extend the brand behind the 'one day website'

    January 26, 2009
    09:01 AM

    On Leadership

      -  0 comments

    

    Don Tapscott (Author)
    Brad Anderson &
    Michele Azar (Bestbuy)
    Moderation: Peter Hirshberg (Technorati)

    Stephanie Czerny: The Internet will change everything.

    Don Tapscott (Author): Powerful new force to transform every institution. That's people. Digital natives. As the come to society and work they have a strong impact in society.
    He wrote a book 'Grown Up Digital'. This is the first generation that grew up digital. Time online is not taking away from their everyday life but from TV.

    When they are online they don't have a passive but active experience. This is creating a different generation. They have a different brain.
    Today teenagers are authoritative.

    Today we have a 'generation lap':
    

    
    
    • They want freedom.
    
    
    • They want to customize everything.
    
    
    • They are scrutinizers.
    
    
    • They have very strong values.
    
    
    • They naturally want to collaborate.
    
    
    • They want to have fun.
    
    
    • They are a generation of innovators.
    
    

    "I gave a copy of Wikinomics to my son." Few hours later he came back saying that he enjoyed the book and he created a Facebook community and rapidly created a large community. This is self organization.

    Social networking is becoming social collaboration and social discussion.

    Introduction by the moderator: Peter Hirshberg (Technorati)
    Brad Anderson & Michele Azar (Bestbuy) join the stage.

    How is the nature of a CEO changing in today's environment?
    We came up with a strategy and we try to expand it as fast as possible. Today we have a highly competitive market so today we have to adapt really fast.

    Displaying video on topic.

    The real value is in the collective knowledge of people. It's ultimately about individuals.
    
    What was it like introducing 2.0 in merchandising?
    It was a great opportunity to open up, be more efficient, better serve our customers. This is the way to break through, fill the gap with customers frustration, offer better support and more tangible experience.

    How do you deal with the fact that some people can't get into this collaborative era.

    Don Tapscott: They simply have to understand the PFE syndorm (Proudly Found Elsewhere)

    Displaying video about collaborative work environment by using social networks, WIKIs, back channels, social tools

    It's clear that we are moving into a new collaborative dimension. We can achieve what wasn't possible in the past, but what's needed are motivated people & leaders. It's about challenging the community to generate interest and participation.
    
    About losing control by enabling employees to use social tools.
    Michele Azar: We started to hear voices that couldn't be hear before so this represents a huge benefit.
    Brad Anderson: This makes it a better place to work and it helps to have a better and more concrete vision of where we are heading.

    Displaying video about commercials

    Comparing the 'company of yesterday ' and 'today's company':
    Don Tapscott: Yesterday the company sold to customers. Today it creates experience with customers, and this can be done only with this new generation of digital natives.
    Michele Azar: Today the world can innovate in our behalf.
    
    Displaying final video

    • Extend the brand behind the 'one day website'.
    • Experts can store the knowledge and customer can have access to it and interact with it.
    • Online customer engagement through multiple channels.
    • Open up and be where customers are.
    • Gather information before moving on.
    • Get possible solutions that go far behind what we used to achieve with a traditional approach

    Opening up we have a much higher level of interactivity and this enables us to achieve better results.

    What's coming next?
    Don Tapscott : Companies can open up on the Internet and cooperate with the entire world. This is a completely different approach, it's exactly the opposite of the old school bottom-up.

    Question from the audience
    What's the ROI?
    For example you can do what's more difficult to do for retailers. We can get a much higher customer satisfaction and a better engaging experience.

    No more time for questions.

    End session.

27. 

    Andrea Vascellari
    DLD social networking breakfast with Jeff Pulver. A great way to meet new friends and contacts.

    January 26, 2009
    08:58 AM

    Real Time Social Networking Breakfast

    Tags: Breakfast· DLD· DLD09· germany· Jeff Pulver· munich· Real Time· Social Networking  -  0 comments

    
    

28. 

    Nicole Simon
    Why humans are so 'Predictably Irrational'

    January 25, 2009
    04:28 PM

    Predictably Irrational

    Tags: dan ariely· dld· dld09  -  0 comments

    

    From Dan Ariely's speaker bio about this topic

    Dan Ariely studies how people actually act in the marketplace, as opposed to how they should or would perform if they were completely rational. His interests include daily behaviors such as buying (or not), saving (or not), ordering food in restaurants, procrastination, dishonesty, and decision making under different emotional states. His experiments are consistently interesting, amusing, and informative, demonstrating the ways we are all predictably irrational.

    His book, Predictably Irrational, was selected as one of the notable books for 2008 by the New-York-Times and as the best business book for 2008 by Amazon, Hudson, and BusinessWeek. He was also named as one of the 10 new gurus for 2008 by Fortune Magazine

    Dan is giving many great examples of which I try to capture some in the notes from his talk:
    "Most people are introduced to the concept of irrationality through marriage"

    Giving examples of illusions trick our minds, like the famous example of how many times the people in the white t-shirts pass the ball to the others. (we don't want to spoil it for you).

    Visual is probably our best system, evolutionary designed to be good - and still we can fail. What about other areas where our systems are not as good as the visual system?

    Consequences of small differences: What happens when you change the sentence "check the box if you want to participate in donating your organs" to "check the box below if you don't want to participate"? People don't care and don't check the box either way - but with the second way you have a much higher percentage of people donating organs.

    The Jam story: what happens if you have six jams or 24 jams?
    People taste 1,5 jams on average but are more excited by a wider variety. Nonetheless: People are more likely to buy when there are just six jams. 30% bought when only six where available, but only 3% when there where 24%. Why? The moment you put too many choices together, you make the selection too complex.

    How adding a charge for coffee changed people choices towards the option "without coffee".

    The secret of the middle option available:Offering a middle choice makes the higher choice more desireable.

    In order to succeed when bar hopping, you should pick somebody who is a slightly more ugly version of you in order to succeed.

    We need to understand why we fail in our irrationality.

    Lessons:
    We have multiple irrational tendencies.
    We have very bad intuition.
    And if you would like to be part of his studies, he will be happy to take you on as a test subject.