This week has been full of exciting and inspiring energy news. I was first excited to see the 60 Minutes piece on the Bloom Box Bloom Energy Server, they publicly announced their product at a press conference earlier today. Bloom’s solution certainly seems like a viable part of the energy solution and already has major customers lending it credibility. Bloom is exciting and my plan was to write this post on them but then Bill Gates changed my mind.

The solutions wont come from ineffective legislation or meaningless UN conventions, it will come from someone’s garage. We are on our own.

Bill Gates recently spoke at TED 2010, and like his last appearance it was incredibly interesting (although sans mosquitos). His talk revolves around the above equation, making the point that to stop climate change the result of the equation has to be zero. This simple equation creates a painfully clear picture of what has to happen, assuming you can handle basic arithmetic. There is a bigger message in this formula though, and it has been in part illustrated by the setting, and audience of the speech as well as this week’s announcement by Bloom Energy. We no longer live in the time of the Manhattan Project or the Space Race. The days of the government getting together with intellectuals and intrepidly solving the great problems of our day are over. Solutions wont come from ineffective legislation or meaningless UN conventions, it will come from someone’s garage. For various reasons there is nothing the government can really do about any part of the equation. Sure we can regulate consumption or services or energy and pollution, even population has been regulated, but none of these factors can truly be controlled by a government. In fact Gate’s point is that the only truly controllable part of the equation is CO2 per energy unit and this takes a new innovation, something sadly our government nor any other seems capable of spurring.

go to Bloom Energy

We need to develop a platform where we can quickly and easily set up a site to track data, events and feelings on any issue. This platform could act as a sort of social conscience for a group.

Not to get too political but most recently I have been pondering the Cash for Clunkers program. While I applaud attempts at lowering emissions and oil consumption I can’t help but have some serious reservations. It’s the prefect example for this I want to know more than how much is being spent by the government. I want to know how much overall mileage has been reduced and what the energy and resource use is for disposing of the old cars, also are there any resulting changes in the production of new cars? I want to know how many of the clunkers were serviceable, how old were they on average, has this worked elsewhere? I want to know what we think of the program as a country. In summary I want all this data and more available for me to decide whether or not it was worth it and if we should renew it, say, for a third time.

Such a platform could be applied to any issue you could think of Detention of Guantanamo Detainees to your bowling team’s uniform. This could help us to make better decisions as a society (or bowling team), preventing us from repeating mistakes (or someone else)by clearly aggregating the decisions and their effects. It just needs to be built.

This is not a book about environmentalism. It will not tell you to use soy ink and CFLs to make your studio green. This is a book about sustainability, a distinction of utmost importance.

This distinction takes us down the road of environmentalism but also brings along it’s siblings social and financial change. These tag-alongs are necessary because if real solutions are to take hold it’s not good enough to find the “most green” alternative. The questions of product life cycle, usability/adaptability and marketability have to be asked. Is an alternative really better if it contributes to another problem by virtue of its source materials, or no one can use it, or if no one will buy it? These questions are addressed in this book, alongside how to sell them to the people writing the checks. This gives this book the distinction of advocating practicality and sustainability (even if they are one and the same).

Nathan Shedroff, is chair of the MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco. So it is no surprise that this is one of the most practical books on implementing sustainability into business practices out there. It focuses on making your existing processes, products and services more sustainable, certainly there is a encyclopedic gathering of environmental frameworks, but the real genius of this book is the focus on integrating these with what already exists.

If I have any complaints it’s one of the complaints I have about a many of the books from Rosenfeld Media. The pasion that marks the introduction and conclusion of the book seems to be missing from much of what is in-between. I’m not sure why, but this seems to be a characteristic from this publisher. The exhaustive amount information may have something to do with it as well as the separation of real-world examples from the main text through the use of side bars. But this does leave you with a feeling of wanting more, and not in a good way.

It’s hard to accept any thing other than the ideal solution, but experience tells us the opportunities to completely throw something out and start from scratch are rare. One of the real takeaways from this book is not only that design has helped to create the problem, but by actively railing against producers design has not helped the problem. William McDonough and Michael Braungart say we shouldn’t settle for the least harmful alternative, and they are right. But we still need to work with producers to make change, Design is the Problem gets this.

Design Is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable
by Nathan Shedroff
Publisher: Rosenfeld Media; 1ST edition (2009)
ISBN-10: 1933820004
ISBN-13: 978-1933820002
Pages: 352

U of M ICON House

The annual U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is a “competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house”. Twenty universities from around the world are competing to help determine the future of sustainable housing.

Most of the houses meet the second requirement, they run on solar power during the day and either store the power or put it back in the grid. All are energy efficient. It’s the first requirement that is the real obstacle for adoption. For solar houses to be widely adopted people have to like living in them. Aesthetics in this type of competition usually take back seat to engineering.

The University of Minnesota renowned for it’s solar car program is tackling not only the engineering problems but the aesthetic ones as well. They are designing a gable roofed house that is “influenced by traditions that surround us daily. Our love for using what already exists has lead us to take the concept of a gable roof and ‘solarize’ it!” More on their sites here, and here. This integration of design at the beginning of an engineering project is a step in the right direction for adoption of alternative energies.

The recent events of the Iranian elections have shown the true power of the internet as a communication medium and more important the power this system can have in changing the world. Clay Shirky in the Ted talk talks about how this medium not only makes the others obsolete but fundamentally changes the way the users interact with not only the technology but the producers of content (aka business or those in power).

For quite awhile now we have lived in a world where the control of technology and weapons allow a few to hold dominion over very large groups of people. The only way to overcome this has been through the slow, and often bloody, accumulation of large enough groups to wrest power. The key to creating and growing these groups is communication, which has traditionally been difficult. The typical means of getting a message out require expensive technology, professionals to run the tech and uninhibited means of delivery (not controlled by the government). The internet as Shirky points out gets rid of all but one of these hurdles. But as we’ve seen all to often (China, Iran, North Korea etc), entire parts of the internet can just be shut down. Hinder communication enough and throw in a dash (or more) of intimidation and you can quell an uprising.

This brings us back to the fundamental problems with communication. It has traditionally been one way and easily shut down, word needs to spread by mouth, which is relatively slow. While I’m as sick of the next person of hearing about it Twitter proves just how fast the internet can be. In these situations speed not only improves the chances of effectiveness but it can also save lives. Of course this is a moot point if those in power just shut down the means of communication. Which brings us to another problem with communication, it has to be mobile.

What’s needed is a moving target. A website that can hop domains easily and quickly, or be present in hundreds of locations simultaneously, and allow for the uploading and downloading of information. Coupled with a SMS system to send the location(s) of the site to people. Such a site could keep the lines of communication and collaboration open with large groups of people while being much more difficult to shut down. This creates a place where people can not only organize but also share first hand accounts with the rest of the world. There are numerous issues and holes in the logic here, maybe it relies too much on technology. Perhaps just a well researched and considered framework for organizing and mobilizing large groups made open and free to the world might be more beneficial. One thing is for sure as the world becomes more educated and gains access to the rest of the world there will be more need for these types of tools. President Obama said it perfectly when he quoted Dr. Martin Luther King the other day.

“Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

Interesting study on websites for charities/non-profits. While I usually rail against anything Jakob Nielson says (mostly because he presents his findings as hard and fast rules rather than guidelines, and rarely accounts for surrounding circumstances, but back to the subject of this post) I think there is a lot of good info here. The study indicates that the internet will be the primary vehicle for donations by 2020. With that in mind the study shows that many of the sites fail to provide key information needed when making a decision to donate. Devloping long term relationships throught the use of newsletters is also discussed. The full version of the report is here for $98.00, otherwise the overview is here. In a related post Webdesigner Depot has a post on 8 Tips to Design a  Charity Website.

Let me start out by saying I am a child of the digital age. While I am a member of what is the last generation able to remember schools without computers, I have spent the majority of my life around them (thanks to forward thinking parents). I have fully embraced the digital age and all that comes with it.

With that preface I have to say something seems to be different lately. The last election i large part was won online, newspapers are dying at the hands of their online counterparts and one of the greatest radio hosts in the country TD Mischke just started an online only radio show. Personally I have moved much of my business software to web apps replacing the desktop, my email, contacts and to-do list are available on each computer I work as well as my phone, so is Google Maps. Maybe it’s just because of the economy but it fells as if any second we are about to open the door, and enter a new larger world.

This is a long rambling way to say that this blog is going to finally recieve some changes. The focus will change (more accuratly it will finally have some focus), the design wil be thrown out and it will be organized. The hope is that as we move quickly on this soon to be encountered shift, we will shift with it. Stay tuned for more, and thanks for your readership up to now.

Ever four years (yes I know they’ll start on the new one in about a week) elections enter our lives bringing with them many things including constant tv, radio, newspaper ads and bitter family debates. Most of the election baggage is annoying but for designers there is one huge bonus, a slew of beautiful well thought out infographics. Oh beautiful infographics, ever need inspiration?, look no further. These sets of complex and dense sets of data are beautiful when done well and nauseating when not. The rise of the interactivity of the web has the ability to take infographics to eleven. While the presidential election is finally the graphics are still being pumped out for retrospective views or ongoing races/recounts (someday MN will have a senator). Below is a list of nice graphics I’ve come across this time around.

New York Times: Always a source of inspiration they’ve had some particularily good ones this year.

New York Times Election Results Page

Obama Speech, McCain Speech

Electoral Shifts

Milestones of Barack Obama

Milestone of John McCain

Dissecting the Changing Electorate

you can go here for more from the New York Times

Washington Post:

this one is really detailed Election Winners by County

Good: While not always non-partisan their graphics are always good.

The First 100 Days: Time line of the first 100 days of every president since FDR.

Voters Guide

It’s the Economy, Stupid!

Again this is just a short list of the good info design that we’ve been treated to. if you know of others post them in the comments to share with all. Here’s to the next four years.

The design of ballots has become one of the most famous examples of design’s impact on the world. Since the butterfly ballot, there has been much talk of improving the ballots, but little progress. This year’s ballots in North Carolina are not much better. The question I have is when are they going to let someone fix these? More on ballot design from the AIGA, Brennan Center For Justice, and more on the North Carolina Ballots here from the New York Times.

About the Project

Q: What is Project 10¹⁰⁰?

A: Project 10¹⁰⁰ (pronounced “Project 10 to the 100th”) is a call for ideas to change the world, in the hope of helping as many people as possible.

Q: Why is Google doing this?

A: The short answer is that we think helping people is a good thing, and empowering people to help others is an even better thing.Here’s the long answer.

Q: How many ideas are you funding?

A: We have committed $10 million to fund up to five ideas selected by our advisory board.

Q. Why the name 10¹⁰⁰?

A: 10¹⁰⁰ is another way of expressing the number “googol,” a one followed by one hundred zeroes. Our company’s very name expresses our goal of achieving great results through smart technology that starts small and scales dramatically over time to have a tremendous long-term impact. Project 10¹⁰⁰ is a similar attempt to produce those kinds of scalable results by harnessing our users’ insights and creativity. We don’t know what ideas would help the most people. This project’s premise is that maybe you do.

Find the project it here