Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Manga on the Web

My friend has launched an online service for publishing manga on the Web called MangaNovel.com. The site is unique for its ability to let you look at manga in different translations that are user-generated in a WIKI-like fashion. If you're curious about the future of manga, it's an interesting platform to checkout.

E15 Continues

It seems that every time I see my guys working on E15, something new feature has been added or refined. The guys are currently setting up my machine to program in this new system. Staying in pace with the times is certainly a full time job.

Leaks Are To Be Forgiven

Architects are not plumbers.

While MIT is busily suing Frank Gehry for issues regarding the nearby Stata Center, it gave me an opportunity to examine our own building here at the Media Lab. Indeed it's now an old building (20+ years), but in its time it was a true representation of Modern as a perfect white cube.

I was an undergrad when the Media Lab's building had just come up and was then nicknamed "the bathroom building" due to the large square white tiles that cover the exterior (and interior) of the building. Today, everytime I walk into the building, deep down inside I have a desire to hose down the entire exterior as the white tiles are now somewhat dingy like a questionable shower stall. And although the lawsuit wrt the Stata Center lists one of the issues as leaking due to inherent design flaws ... I have to say that my own office leaks every time it rains. Let's not forget that I'm in a perfectly cubic building and not within the swoopy and crumpled confines of Stata. You do the math.

So, as my alma mater and employer MIT engages in suing an architectural legend and icon, I can't help but feel it's sort of like suing Picasso for a bad painting or else like suing Paul Rand for a bad logo design. It's sort of embarrassing from my perspective as a creative really. Sure I get the whole business perspective and all ... but there isn't a single day when I see people photographing the Stata Center due to its incredibly interesting and innovative forms/moments. Innovation is by nature a risky business -- it's something I learned from MIT.

I recall the famous story of how Frank Lloyd Wright was telephoned by an angry client regarding his complaint that the home Wright had designed would leak when it rains. Wright replied to the effect, "Well then just step out of the way of the leak and you won't get wet."

Regarding the leak in my own office, I've learned how to move the electrical items away from the downpour and have managed to do just fine. IM Pei doesn't have to call his lawyer, yet (smile).

Oeno Files Un-Anonymized

I had dinner with Media Lab alums Jared Schiffman and Phillip Tiongson recently in New York where I learned they had just completed an "interactive sommelier." Wired had visited them to report on the new system, but when I opened this month's edition of Wired, Jared and Phillip's names were nowhere to be found in the article. If you happen to visit the St. Regis Hotel in New York this month, please make sure you remember Jared and Phillip when you gesture up a bottle of wine.

Remembering Muriel

There's a fantastic article by Alice Rawsthorn up at the International Herald Tribune. Muriel is not forgotten by any measure. Hooray for Muriel!

E15

Yesterday at Lynda's FlashForward conference, grad researchers Kyle Buza, Luis Blackaller, Takashi Okamoto, and Kate Hollenbach introduced the world to a new graphics environment E15. E15 attempts to bring together the best of the power intrinsic to the Web, full-performance graphics processing, and a fully interpreted environment with dynamic class loading. The introduction was met with spontaneous applause from the FlashForward conference so E15's future looks bright. More information to appear in an ongoing fashion on the new E15 site.

The Power of He(art)

I missed the recent orientation meeting for the new students here at the Lab. Apparently there was concern regarding the role of "art" here at the Media Lab. It is quite often the case for students with strong academic backgrounds to want to politely ask the question, "Is it ... okay ... to make art at the Lab?" the answer is really quite simple. The question shouldn't even be asked. Students should instead demand to make art -- without concern for what the management might say. Art does not need permission to be made.

After all, if it were instead absolutely mandatory for all students to make art ... what would be the point of it all really?

Signed,
The Management

Like Euler and Water

Today we are managing orientation for the incoming class here at MIT. It isn't often when you get to bump into faculty from other departments (like any other large university), but I had the fortune of re-meeting an esteemed colleague from the Math department. I had introduced him to my Associate Advisor Lihua Bai and there was a brief moment where we struggled to figure out what to talk about until the Math professor said to me quite proudly, "I'm going to do a special Freshman Seminar on Euler." I admit that I do not dwell much daily on the life of the great Euler with the same admiration, but do indeed enjoy the music of a similarly named person and said to the Math professor, "You should definitely add in a unit on Usher," and smiled as this was of course a little joke.

The Math professor registered with his eyes that he knew of Usher, but he sort of stood there perplexed and going into deepest thought. Lihua and I weren't sure what was happening to him at this moment and slowly stepped back. After a long silence, he replied back with complete disdain, "I'm sure you're not thinking we can compare the great accomplishments of Euler ... with ... Usher (his voice laced with contempt)." I apologized for committing this mathematical felony, and we quickly ran away.

Reboot

A week ago we celebrated commencement here at MIT. One of the advantages of being a faculty person here is that you get a great view from the podium.

Like most institutions, it is difficult to get faculty to go to commencement. There's no explicit incentive system really. And it's pretty hot sitting there. I have gone every year since I've been here, and every year I wonder why I still come back.

The rules are very clear. For instance there's the one, "No faculty member is allowed to go up to the railing and shake students' hands." I recall the year we had Bill Clinton (while he was President) give the commencement speech. We as faculty were told to not move at all while he was speaking, otherwise we might get taken out by the snipers watching from the roofs. I didn't move one bit and followed that order to the tee. But the rule about not going to shake students' hands -- I think that's a bit ridiculous. We all break it of course.

And it's that moment when I shake the hand of a student that oddly believes I've had even some minor impact in his or her getting to this point in their career when they've achieved an MIT degree -- I feel it's all worthwhile. Sitting in the hot sun. Attending boring (and the occasionally spirited) faculty meetings and so forth. It all seems worthwhile. That something good has been done, that will result in more good in the world. Okay, I think I've convinced myself to go back next year. See you in June 2008.

Kate's Emdash

Less e-mail, more time.

Kate Hollenbach has released her new e-mail dashboard entitled emdash. It's a simple Web-app that does basic e-mail statistics visualization for you so that you can see different trends in your inbox traffic. For instance you can see the top 10 people that e-mail you and also see the cloud of words that describe all the email you have from a specific person.

No password information is stored and it's using https so security concerns are minimal. You'll need an IMAP-style e-mail server to make it work. Discover who e-mails you the most! For me it's my administrative team of the powerful Becky Bermont and Amna Carreiro, followed by my students in the wacky (and pure) PLW.

Human 2.0

Which one are you?

Per the request of my friend Mary Ellen Muckerman of Conde Nast, I have posted the scribbles I made for the recent MIT Media Lab event on Human 2.0 a suitable for desktop patterns.

You Don't Know Jack

The Daily Driscoll closes its doors.

We had an all-Lab meeting yesterday here at the Media Lab where we celebrated our Editor-in-Residence Jack Driscoll, formerly of the Boston Globe. For over ten years, Jack has sent out a daily list of pointers on the Web to our sponsor community -- on the order of 16,000 links as I understand. Jack's wisdom and kind personality have been a guiding beacon of light that will certainly be missed here at the Media Lab. Life is good when you have had the opportunity to work with such great humans like our Jack.

Free Money

Some things are free.

If you'd like to participate in researcher Amber Frid-Jimenez's "Free Money" audio service, first become a member of OPENSTUDIO and then click on the "Need Buraks?" link. Once you're in you can call up the site, leave your own plea for free Buraks ("Buraks" are our artificial currency system). You can also listen and rate other member's messages.

Robots Need Not Apply

Invent a better future with us.

If you know a person that is reminiscent of Buckaroo Banzai or else otherwise seems to know what's coming in the future, please point them to our 2007 faculty search for an audition. We're looking to hire folks that want to hang with our brand new recruit Prof. Ed Boyden to invent a better future with us here at 20 Ames Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Becky Bermont

Becky Bermont has joined my extended team here at the MIT Media Lab to develop new strategies for creating unparalleled synergies with our incredible community of sponsors. Ms. Bermont is a recent graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and formerly of Yahoo! where she was responsible for marketing virtual goods (the sale of intangibles is a passion that is near and dear to my heart). I am thankful for the passion, follow-through, velocity, and humor Becky brings to the table.

Simplicity-at-work stems from working with excellent people. So with Becky, Amna Carreiro, and the fab students (Brent, Amber, Isha, Tak, Kyle, Luis, Sang-hoon, Mariana + many more), staff, and faculty here at the Media Lab, 2007 looks like a truly winning year!

How to Do Research

It's only 18 years old. I guess it's legal.

For a long time I have held onto this document, "How to do Research at the MIT AI Lab," which I found next to a printer at the MIT AI Lab while working as an undergraduate researcher there. I was happy to find that it is alive and living on the Web. For anyone involved in the pursuit of "the other," I highly recommend the reading of this document. And now that I know this document is out there, it can now enter the recycling bucket. I've carried this document to every place I have lived. It seems sad to say good bye to it. Good bye.

Seymour

Get well Seymour!

Perspective, or Porsche

I was at a distinguished meeting of faculty here at MIT a couple years ago, where the topic was the mentoring of undergraduate students. The concern on the table was, like many top universities, the lack of direct one-to-one interactions between students and faculty members. There was a statistic pointed out that a large number of the professional staff here at MIT (i.e. not Professors) was engaged in the lion's share of the interaction.

"This is an outrage!" cried one of the leaders. "We must save the undergraduates!" exhorted another.

Then, a sheepish undergraduate representative at this meeting who really said nothing at all at previous such gatherings suddenly piped up, "I don't see anything wrong with that." All eyes turned to her.

A faculty leader said, "But ... if the Professors aren't there to mentor undergraduate's future careers ... won't they [insert equivalent of burn in h*ll]???" The room went quiet.

The student paused for a while as if to weigh what she wanted to say, eyes up to the ceiling for a second, and then shifting into perfect posture broke the news, "How can a Professor know anything about a real job? Haven't they chosen to not get a real job by being in academia?" I was happily stunned by this comment. It's the truth. Although it's also the benefit.

Industry creates new products; academia, at its best, creates new perspective. Our salaries and so forth are strikingly lower than our industrial counterparts, but the benefits are high in terms of the pure intellectual challenges we get to face. Pride is the currency of being a faculty person, which can of course either be the end of you (i.e. going to the "dark side") or a source of inspirations to other (i.e. what I refer to as "intellectual philanthropy").

If the tangible symbol of "making it" in the industrial world is the newness (or oldness) of their Porsche, the oppositely intangible symbol of success for an academic is manifest as perspective. Of course I know that some faculty here at MIT have both Porsche and perspective as examples of the Do Both Principle. I'm cool with that too.

So circling back to the student that cleansed the palates of the faculty with her open, honest, and direct remark. We can say that her truthful perspective is the result of our unique education system here at MIT. "Saying it like it is," takes a lot of courage. But more importantly, "Saying what you think." I think this is more accurate, as it would be unfair to label all faculty as completely worthless in the career-mentoring arena. Ah, there goes my own professorial pride ...

Life Giving Light

Little flashlight for many hands (that need it).

I had an interesting conversation in my office with Paul Polak who at the young age of 73 is in continual pursuit of finding ways to fight poverty in developing nations He showed me this prototype flashlight that is completely solar powered (recharged in sunlight), easily constructed from common off-the-shelf parts, and can last for well over a decade of use. Paul's premise is that designing products for the extreme conditions of the third world spurs new kinds of innovations in cost-reduction and often results in a superior system (which you wouldn't expect when designing something to be ultra-low cost). Stepping back a bit, I think this suggests that superior innovations arise at the extrema of:

Design for Maximum Constraints

Design for Zero Constraints

On the one hand you can be told, "Here's all the money in the world you need to figure out the big answer. Come back when you figure it out." With zero constraints (which never happens in real life usually), I can imagine that big things can happen because your mind is free to venture where it usually is not allowed to go. On the other hand, you can be forced to operate under truly brutal conditions with every possible constraint in the book under which your mind has to work really really hard to find a solution that would not otherwise present itself. Again, you're going where your conscious and subconscious tells yourself where you cannot go.

Perhaps it is the reason why I admire Paul. He goes where most of us cannot go. Into the third world to look at problems not from a 10,000 feet-in-the-sky view but actually living and talking to these folks; at the same time he puts all of his own wealth into his project because, as he says, "It's what I want to do before I kick the bucket." These rare kind of beings that give light, both electrical and spiritual, are truly a gift to the world.

OPENSTUDIO/OPENCODE

Happy Birthday OPENSTUDIO.

There's a new article about OPENSTUDIO member-architects Amber Frid-Jimenez and Brent Fitzgerald on we make money not art. It mentions other emerging work at the PLW like OPENCODE by Kyle Buza and Takashi Okamoto. Also, new to OPENSTUDIO is a Creative Commons licensing system by PLW-er Jun Sato, visiting scientist from Toshiba.

OPENSTUDIO is a great way to waste time making cool art, and also making some cool virtual cash ...

One Laptop For Me

Tiny computer for tiny hands.

Yesterday I acquired one of the new "One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)" units to play with. It's a certainly cute machine with a wonderfully legible display (even in sunlight). At Director of Finance and Operations for OLPC Robert Fadel's un-googleable blog you can get the latest skinny on an insider's perspective on the whole project.

The Paradox of Classes

Yesterday a "Visiting Committee" was here to review our academic program. This is a tradition by academia to bring in an external review board to evaluate the performance of each of its units. I think it's a fabulous idea because it brings in some of the top minds of the world to give us their open and honest advice on how to improve.

During the process, I faced a paradox that I didn't quite know how to articulate while the meeting was going on. Maybe I understand it better by now.

Having more requirements (i.e. "classes") is good for a student because it forces them to learn an important set of specific knowledge.

But at a place like MIT where they are fed gobs of equations and so forth "like drinking from a firehose," at some point it's very easy to lose perspective on life, feeling, and creativity. Here at the Media Lab we are in the top 5% of departments that house undergraduate researchers (UROP) that don't necessarily take any classes here, but apprentice with the stellar faculty and grad students on our premises. They come not because it's a course requirement, but out of curiosity and passion.

Now, I know it's possible to take a class with passion. I've felt that before. The beauty of a structured class is that you know exactly what the goal is -- to eat. It's like having a meal plan where you are guaranteed that Monday is "Chicken Fried Steak, Carrots, Mashed Potatoes, and Applesauce," Tuesday is "Hamburger, French Fries, Celery, Apple Cobbler," and so on (school lunch in public schools was much more hearty in my days of youth). But you really can't walk on the wild side and have Thai food or something else that's not on the menu. You know what you will learn. If that's the case, if your target is to become an innovator then why learn it at all? To innovate you need to be on the edges of what is normal. And classes, the mass-broadcasting of knowledge, absolutely needs to be a normalizing experience.

Having less requirements is good for a student because it gives them more opportunities to procrastinate.

Wait, I once wrote about this procrastination bit. At least I'm consistent with my own form of procrastination by writing this. On to the pile of work on my desk ...

The Complexity of Race

Communication helps communication.

This is my third year on the MIT Committee on Campus Race Relations (CCRR). For my first two years on the committee I was learning the ropes, and this year I became Chair. At a recent meeting this week I learned how I still have a great deal to learn about the complexity of race relations at an academic institution.

An undergraduate student was upset about the handling of an article he wrote for the greater campus community on issues of race. In the end, he felt blocked and personally affronted. As a result he wanted to present his case to CCRR for discussion. His presentation went well, and we will have some general ideas to develop as a committee for action items. Unfortunately the tradition of flaming is still one of the number one ways to build a solid foundation for misunderstanding in the year 2006. You would think with all this wonderful digital communication technology today we'd at least get communicating with one another finally right.

The student made a point about differentiating racism as experienced by immigrant cultures versus indigenous people or victims of slavery. My eyebrows went up when I heard this. "I never thought of this difference." And my eyes suddenly got big. Not that I believe by any means in the validity of a "my racism experience is bigger (worse) than yours" kind of world. I guess until that point I thought of all racism as equally bad. My opinion hasn't changed. But now I can see how people might rightfully feel more pain. I wish there were less.

Trick or Treat

Emma on Relationships Begins

A new collaboration between Media Lab Graduate Researcher Amber Frid-Jimenez and Undergraduate Artist Emma Lindsay launched last week. The premise is simple: Tag an online movie with audiotags using the telephone. But it's not just *any* movie. It's the world debut in English (with Japanese subtitles courtesy of Visiting Researcher Jun Sato) of Emma's short documentary film entitled, "How Do Average Guys Get With Hot Girls?." Please join Episode 1 of Emma on Relationships and leave a 7-second audio comment for one of the characters.

The Up Side of Down

Today I learned from my trusty, and sometimes brutally honest (thankfully), assistant that reviews for my current MIT undergraduate class were poor. This was a revelation for me as I enjoy teaching and interacting with undergrads. My first reaction was the classic failure reaction of difficulty in breathing and massive reduction of my already abnormally-low blood pressure. That was two hours ago now, and I'm happy to say that I can breathe more regularly at the present time.

I am certain that the students' discomfort is grounded. I've grown a bit cautious about teaching too many facts and skills. Instead I am now passionate about teaching feeling. But you really can't teach someone how to feel. So perhaps it's an unachievable goal.

Undergraduate life here at MIT can be brutal with the incredible 24/7 onslaught of problem sets. This term I chose to administer the experience of uncertainty and awkwardedness in their weekly problem solving. I consulted Amber on my current problem, to which she contributed, "They (the MIT students) are used to a certain kind of learning pain at an enormously high dosage level; but you're administering a different kind of learning pain that although less, actually hurts more." The light went on in my head. If you're used to taking it in the face all the time, your ready for another; but when you get your toes stepped on for the first time it's going to hurt because the pain is brand new.

In conclusion, the way to get beyond my issue at hand is to attempt simplification by establishing trust with the students that my process may not be flawed. That will certainly not be easy. But that is what will make it interesting, and ultimately simpler, for all of us.

In response to this post, a former student advises me of the following, "Having just finished my first quarter at Wharton, I have been thinking about the differences between upenn and mit. At MIT, there is an implicit assumption that you are brilliant. Consequently the problem sets *are* brutal as they ask critical questions that go beyond understanding, way past synthesis and border on new territory. Maybe you just need to reframe their expectations. Let them know that you expect their brilliance to show in a whole different and unexpected direction." One can never stop learning from their students.

Lucky 13

The Return of FatBits

Media Lab researchers Brent Fitzgerald and Luis Blackaller have launched a simplicity-themed collaborative drawing service called Tiny. There's a whole lot of expression in a little 13 by 13 canvas, for sure. A screencast is posted here.

The Bermuda Quadrilateral

Today is the first day of my course here at MIT. As it is my tenth year of teaching here, I am a bit reflective. Over the years I've found it amusing how there's animosity between engineers and scientists, much in the same manner of how artists and designers approach each other. One side looks at themselves as more "pure" than the other yet often dirty themselves with the wickedness of the applied. On the other side, the view is one of a more responsible approach to life in the applied, yet there's always a secret wish to float into the freedom of no constraints. Being a young student amidst this constant and common family feud found in both art and technology skills can be quite confusing.

I've never been to the Bermuda Triangle which is perhaps the reason why I'm still here. Today I compose a map of the "Bermuda Quadrilateral" -- which is a simple way to navigate the disciplinary divides that litter my particular corner of academia.

Any system that you observe with the tightest scrutiny reveals the distinctiveness of the elements. But when you step way back away from the divisions, you see that it is all really the same. Art, Design, Science, Engineering. They are all wonderful activities that we humans who are privileged with a roof over our heads and a full stomach can engage with passion and hope.

Terminally Excited

Today Yulius from Singapore shared with me some visual work on the laws-of-simplicity theme from his recent year one undergrad class. There's nothing like freshmen to make you smile -- I begin teaching my undergrad course at MIT next week and look forward to the experience of working with the most plastic of brains. At MIT the faculty are smarter than you, the students are smarter than you, and as we learned in the movie Good Will Hunting even the custodians are smarter than you. Being humble is a full time job here -- whether you like it or not.

Tortares Have More Fun

New ML researcher Kyle Buza pointed me to this commentary regarding the future direction of the Media Lab. The original article in the our town's main newspaper, The Boston Globe, appeared here.

Being directly involved with the sponsored research mechanism through leading the SIMPLICITY consortium here at the Lab, I felt that the issues and questions raised in the article and commentary are for the most part valid. In my pre-MBA incarnation of early 2002, I thought a bit about this dilemma of industry vs. academia with no clear conclusions. There really are still no clear answers today in 2006 in my post-MBA self so I still have many open questions.

For academia to live in a completely protective bubble and invent new media for the sake of inventing seemed like a good idea in the 80s and 90s. At the time it was academia that had more computing power and expertise in new media than industry. Today industry, and also incoming MIT freshmen, outgun academic computing Labs in quantity and quality of computing power. Add to this the awesome might of a few kids in Peoria and countless grown ups in Bangalore (and their kids) with Xeon servers crunching in their basement and living rooms and the equation of power is clearly tilted in favor of the free world over your run-of-the-mill "computer lab" at school.

Clearly a lot can get done now in digital media without the help of academia. Websites can get built, cool mashups get born every day, computers get faster, and the polar ice caps melt more vigorously as an indirect result of the incredible pace we are afforded with modern technology. Industry is optimized for performance; progress in academia is generally as slow as molasses. When ROI is measured in days versus decades, a conflict in viewpoint is a natural outcome.

Perhaps Aesop's fable of the tortoise and the hare gives us some insight as to the paradox of how moving slowly and steadily can get you to the finish line faster than the fastest of competitors. In the modern Media Lab I think we're part tortoise and hare. Call us a "tortare" or a "hoise." Errr, maybe not. We do listen to the kind of problems our sponsors face as a way to get up to speed on what's most important to industry and then throw development muscle into the space. At the same time we have some slow moving work that continues to develop in spite of all the AJAX-infused flashy stuff that snap-crackle-pops its way across your display screen. Like any realistic organization, here at the Lab we're just doing both as a means to stay relevant and ecclectic. After all it's not just blondes -- tortares have more fun too.

SGAT

Tags from the past.

Media Lab graduate researcher Brent Fitzgerald has added a simple but important revision to OPENSTUDIO (developed by the PLW) system: tag histories. With the simple adjustment of the tag timeline, you can browse how images in OS have changed over time. 165 days ago the top tags were "figurative, light, abstract" to 101 days ago when they were "abstract, cool, food" to more recently "abstract, bloody, cute."

Ethereal and adoring violence has become fashionable. I yearn for the good old days ...

Live from SIGGRAPH

Click on ORGANIZE.

My students have been at SIGGRAPH this week. SIGGRAPH is the big computer graphics conference that occurs every year in a different city -- Boston is the host for this year.

New Media Lab researcher Tak Okamoto computationally designed our new visually-focused Web-based broadcasting station PLWire to be as simple as possible. The site is currently in alpha but please feel free to visit. I certainly appreciate the simplicity of it all -- pure visual food.

When you click on ORGANIZE you can see the emerging stack of SIGGRAPH documentary videos shot by another new Media Lab researcher Luis Blackaller. More videos will trickle up over the next few weeks.

Simplicity Media Survey

Undergrad researchers Adrienne Bolger and Lihua Bai are doing a quick online study of digital media usage. If you have a moment please take their survey! You'll get this nice little badge for doing so. Thank you.

Simple Thesis Tips

I've finished my tenth year of thesis supervising. There are a certain set of things I wish I knew ten years ago. But I'll probably say the same thing in ten years from now. Getting older has its benefits.

An MIT thesis generally has five components:

1. intro
2. background to the experiments
3. experimental setup
4. analysis and discussion
5. conclusion

What changes every year is the nature of the student that attacks this pentathlon with different strengths and weaknesses. Their success is usually determined by their ability to handle the three compulsory exercises:

1. making an outline
2. selecting a title
3. writing an abstract

Three other ongoing aspects (which are akin to breathing and eating) of the thesis game are:

1. acquiring figures
2. registering bibliography entries
3. the goal of making a beautifully designed thesis

Allow me to provide some tips on thesis writing for the academic athlete out there that plans to compete in the Thesis Olympics of 2007.

First, about the ongoing aspects of the thesis game:

1. acquiring figures / Do not worry about getting the highest-resolution image, or making the vector illustration that will get you into the MoMA collection. As long as the visual communicates well, low-rez or low-frills is fine. Move on. You are unlikely to use these images again in your life so don't waste too much time here.
   
2. registering bibliography entries / Do this as you go. The effort you put into it while you are in the process of doing background research is well spent. Think of it like tying your shoes regularly -- you will stumble later if you aren't careful.
3. the goal of making a beautifully designed thesis / If you are the elite of most elite, make it beautiful. If you're not, then settle with a thesis that communicates. I always recommend that students use LaTeX because you don't have to think about layout. It's basically "good enough" outsourcing of the task of designing your thesis.

With regards to the compulsory exercises:

1. making an outline / You are unlikely to do this right in the first pass. Put the wheels down on the ground, build the car, and start moving forward. Momentum is more important than building an intellectual automobile that looks and sounds like a Ferrari. Transportation is transportation.
2. selecting a title / This can easily lead to the vain ritual of combing your hair in the mirror and fussing to find the right style. Select something clear, and good enough.
3. writing an abstract / Take everything you have outlined, and write it in plain English or whatever language your thesis needs to be written in. Again, don't worry if it's perfect. You have time to completely fix it in the last hours before you turn in your thesis.

My caddy skills aren't perfect, but let me show you the way through the course:

1. intro / Save this for the end. Don't do it from the start -- even though it's how the whole thesis starts. When you come back to work on this section, be sure to make your contributions clear so that the person reading your thesis knows that it's worth spending time to read or skim.
2. background to the experiments / I tell my students that this is the biggest and baddest sand trap of the course. It's the easiest to do because it's primarily mechanical, yet at the same time the hardest because lots of legwork is required. Cap the time (I recommend maximum one month) you will spend on this section as it can take up all your game time and simply depress you. Everyone's done stuff before you. Yes you are wrong. Get over it and keep on going. Formulate some basic terminology or axes of reasoning in this section. Highlight this vocabulary you develop in boldface or italics. Think of it as defining the ingredients to the meal to be used in later sections.
3. experimental setup / Define your experiment within the framework of terminology and axes as you've defined and developed in your background section. Reiterate this terminology with annoying boldface or italics. Basically you are taking the ingredients and cooking the meal here. Feel free to dip your finger into the cooking to see how it tastes. But don't eat the meal yet! Remind the audience of the ingredients. But keep your focus on the meal whenever possible.
4. analysis and discussion / Okay, now sit down at the table. Get a glass of wine and eat the meal. How does it taste? How do others think it tastes? How does it stand up to the original ingredient list, and also all the other cooks that came in the past? Support all claims with data whenever possible.
5. conclusion / Go and write the intro section now. You finally know what you're introducing in the clearest terms. Come back here when you're finished with the intro and wonder what you would have done differently. Or what you're glad you didn't do differently. Reward yourself for sticking to your guns. Or shoot yourself in the foot for the ridiculous mistakes you made. Take us back through the key ingredients, the development of the meal, and the lovely tastes. Talk about the meals that you are likely to cook in the future. Be positive. Be optimistic. Everyone loves to look forward to the future.

And when this is all over and you have graduated, consider getting yet another degree when you are ready!

Simplicity For Hire

I am in immediate need of a program assistant for our Simplicity program here at the MIT Media Lab. If you know of anyone looking for a challenging and fun job in the New England area, please point them towards this job posting. We are looking to fill the job in the next few weeks. Thank you for your help.

Sorry Brent

Brent's is on the left.

OPENSTUDIO is beginning to move forward with the alpha version having come alive last week. Those people that were lucky enough to get their hands on a postcard with the special codes imprinted on them distributed at the AIGA conference can now engage in the fine art of buying and selling fine art.

OPENSTUDIO is an interesting platform to play with the idea of authorship, art, and economics. Upon witnessing a recent incident regarding digital thievery, I engaged in my own innocent experiment. PLW-er Brent Fitzgerald had created an illustration of a floating little man that I simply fell in love with ... yet he did not offer it up for sale. Eventually he did, but it was out of my price range. It then occured to me -- I can just make my own copy. And I did. Brent's was better of course. But the damage was already done. I had committed artistic adultery. The effects were twofold: Brent eventually lowered his price, and I managed to make a profit on the sale of my counterfeit guy. Of course I did this all in the name of research, yet I still feel bad.

Perhaps the fortune in today's fortune cookie says it all, "No man ever yet became great by imitation." I think my counterfeiting days can now be considered over.

Teach Less, Learn More

From my recent class in finance, I learned an important concept about the art of teaching.

Four months ago, I almost died in my accounting class. The terminology and concepts made little sense to me, and I found myself asking tens of questions for every hour of study. My instructor was an angel and would take each of my questions and answer them in complete form. I was in heaven.

In my finance class however, I would get answers akin to, "The answer is in the book." And that was that. Naturally I was not happy with the instructor. Yet by the end of the term I realized something odd. Because the prof gave me so little information, I found myself working ten times as hard to learn the material. Whereas when I had the answers spoon-fed to me during accounting, I didn't really have to put up much of an effort.

It then dawned upon me -- the less you teach, the more one learns. This of course does not translate to supporting the idea that teachers should be lazy. Giving the student the right lesser amount of information is better than handing over the right more amount of information. Thus I shall end right here.

One reader thought that here I was expressing a conservative-party opinion of "sink or swim" or "survival of the fittest." Nope. This morning I'm reading a nursery school handbook on interacting with young children that says: "Try to lead the child to a solution by suggesting alternatives. Ask 'What would happen if you tried ...' rather than using the 'This is how to do it' approach." All professors should spend some time teaching in nursery schools.

Copying is Still the Sincerest Form of Flattery

This week, out of the blue we had a special visitor to the PLW -- Lexi Alexander, director of the new independent movie Green Street Hooligans. I had seen the trailer for her movie before I knew I was ever going to actually meet her. It's hard to not notice her new movie ... it has Frodo in it. Well, not Frodo but the guy that played him in Lord of the Rings. Everyone knows I have a thing for Lord of the Rings.

Lexi was reeling from an interview from the previous evening where someone asked her how she felt about her movie being available to download for free off the Internet. First of all, she was surprised that it had happened to her movie. Second of all, she wasn't happy. Uh uh.

She demanded that PLW-er Kelly Norton locate this movie on the Internet -- for her to see with her very own eyes that this was happening. There was a slight moment of pause while Kelly quickly typed, and there it was in all "Download Now" glory. Lexi seethed with anger and turned to me to say, "John, there has to be a way to stop these people!" Granted I was aware that Lexi was a kickboxing champion so I think the survival mechanism inside me replied, "Sure Lexi, we'll find a way." I didn't have the heart to tell her the truth. And of course I asked Kelly to close his browser to avoid illegally downloading the content even though the director of the movie was essentially demanding that he do so. I felt like I was in a movie.

After Lexi departed, first year PLW-er Annie Ding summarized it all quite well, "She should be happy. That means her movie is cool enough to be copied."

Tiny Gust of Thought

Which way does the wind blow?

Engaging one's creative thoughts can often take a great deal of willpower. Tuning out the beehive of communication and the emails and the to-dos that buzz around your brain is never easy.

Being a full-time professor requires you to engage in a daily ritual of tending to the rich fields of brains that surround you. Constant watering is required, but like the care of any organic objects you must take care not to overwater your crops. And in no situation should you ever make the regrettable mistake of eating your own harvest.

It is difficult to have students work closely with you and to have them turn out different from yourself. This is something that I have always tried to do, and will keep on trying. I have met other teachers that aim to do the same. I think it is in the spirit of a naturalist that strives to leave the forest unharmed -- without a trace. Thus I move, lightly, forward.

OPENSTUDIO

The creative economy is launched.

At the AIGA National Design Conference held in Boston this week, the PLW announced our new OPENSTUDIO project. OPENSTUDIO is a system we've been working on for three years now that combines "creativity, collaboration, and capitalism" in an experimental online art exchange system. Our goals are to provide simple, extensible, creative tools for free in an open, web-based environment.

Underlying OPENSTUDIO is a currency system we call the "Burak" (named after the trustworthy Burak himself) that pervades our model of online exchange. If you like a piece created in OPENSTUDIO by a friend, you can buy it with Buraks. You can sell your own as well. What are ownership models of purely digital art? This is one of the important questions we hope to experiment with in OPENSTUDIO. And if people make a few Buraks in the process, that can't be all that bad ...

As of 2AM on September 16, 2005 OPENSTUDIO had its first gasp of air and appears to look like it will make its first step forward next month. Burak, Annie, Kate, Brent, Martini, Amber, Kelly, Isha, Connie, Mariana, and Nikki seeded the AIGA conference on Friday with specially marked cards given out to visitors with "100 Burak" credits for when OPENSTUDIO becomes online to a limited audience. A total of 20,000 Buraks seed the core of the first test of OPENSTUDIO and we are curious how these Buraks will flow within the system. I have 97.20 Buraks myself, how many do you have?

The Killer App

One of the powerful skills you must develop as an adult, is the ability to meet for long time periods. I tell this to my students often and I think they get it. It's useful to train for the eventuality of too many meetings as you age. My personal record is five hours straight in a discussion about the exact same thing going on and on. I guess it's kind of like when you are a kid and try to figure out how long you can hold your breath. I wonder how long I can hold my breath now? Let me try. Hmmm, 40 seconds. I could have held it longer but I was afraid that I might break something.

As this day ends and we greet the weekend with open arms, I reflect upon a meeting I just left about a potential proposal to the US government. My eyes registered on symbols I'm not used to seeing on digital maps: guns, explosions, and so forth. The primary question on the table was to figure out what kind of technology our government could really use to fight all sorts of unforeseen conflicts.

And then it dawned upon me. In the same way that VisiCalc was the so-called "killer app" that heralded the concept of a spreadsheet and ignited the business computing boom, I figure that another software system that is waiting to be launched as another "killer app" would be called Scapegoat 1.0. This system would be positioned to run on a normal desktop computer with 512Mb of RAM, average graphics card, standard networking, and so forth. Its purpose would be to be shift the blame away from yourself in any political fallout situation to another targeted faction with point-and-click ease. It could be used in a purely defensive manner (the so-called "Lite" version), and the Professional Edition could ship with preemptive and offensive capabilities. A service contract add-on option would be available where you could have access to real lobbyists.

All kinds of machinations flowed freely through my head (I think I saw too many spy movies as a youth), until I came back to earth to shift back to the simple reality of art and creative expression. Phew, thank goodness I'm not an elected official, and instead I am just a guy that draws "pretty pictures." I have to go draw some now.

They DID Camp

The results of our previously announced Digital Information Design Camp are now online. Campers from around the world were taken through three arduous weeks of all types of hand-to-hand combat with digital media. The results are simply lovely and visible at didcamp.media.mit.edu. I hope you enjoy them as much as I DID.

Plan of Study

I am currently working on finalizing the general structure of the 3-week online DID Camp. The paradox of learning is that we all want to learn, but don't want to have to work too hard during the process of learning. Well, I come from the school of "no pain, no gain" and currently see a rigorous format that is currently at version 0.7 right now. Weeks 1 and 2 have the same structure, and week 3 is a capstone week culminating in a team project.

You may be thinking to yourself, "Team project? I hate team projects!" Or else you may be thinking to yourself, "Team project? I love team projects!" If you are of either persuasion, I can understand and sympathize with your feelings. The camp is balanced as 2/3 individual work and 1/3 working as a smaller team. I think in the creative disciplines, this balance of 2/3:1/3 can get you (and your team) quite far. Far is where we want to go with this camp project, but you may ask far from where? Here of course ... as I like to say, wherever 'here' may be.

Love to Learn

The deadline of May 16 is slowly approaching to apply to our first Digital Information Design Camp to run during the month of July 2005 online. My concept for the camp is fairly simple—gather learners that are digitally-averse and learners that are post-digital around a virtual campfire together with some fabulous camp counselors like typography master Ellen Lupton and digital magician Martin Wattenberg. There will be no mosquitoes, cold cereal, or sore backs from a bad cot; participation is entirely remote and will not interfere with your daily livelihood.

I'm a real proponent of online learning as I am experiencing the strengths and weaknesses of it as I speak. Granted, learning is not easy and the better the learning experience, the more you are guaranteed to put in the time. In our first inception of the DID Camp, the instructors plan to create a challenging set of exercises and activities that will push both sides of your brain. For those learners that felt they learned all that is needed to in the digital realm (the post digital folks I refer to up above), this will give you a chance to pick up some of the traditional perspectives you may have missed; for those that missed the chance to pick up the digital experience in school, this will give you an opportunity to understand the underlying concepts of digital media versus just the skills. I hope to see you there.

Camping Anyone?

I never was much of a rugged person so I can't claim that I have ever gone camping in the mountains and so forth. But that doesn't mean you can't start a camp. Thus I am happy to announce a new one-month long Digital Information Design Camp in partnership with the AIGA where you never have to leave your home at all. Well, actually you can be on vacation and still come to this camp as it will all be conducted online.

Why online? Well, I'm particularly fascinated by online education. For that reason I'm halfway through an online MBA right now. It is quite a convenient way to learn some new materials no matter where you are—on the airplane, in the coffee shop, or waiting for a haircut. Learning new stuff is way better than zoning out. I have noticed over the years that there is this sort of "digital divide" that separates pre-computer creatives and post-computer creatives. This camp experience has ben specifically designed to present a kind of cross-section of traditional themes of information design with state-of-the-art themes in digital design. Enrollment is limited to 30 campers, and the application form is visible at the link provided above.

Like every early 21st century person involved in the area of arts and design, I've been fascinated by the Bauhaus school. We really haven't had one of those in this century. Everyone and everyone else's brother and sister is starting new Bauhauses, but it never seems to really get going anywhere. I believe the problem is related to travel. In the old days when Bauhaus masters could be inconsiderate of their families, they could say, "Honey, I'm going to be in Dessau for a couple of years. See you and the kids when I get back." No, that doesn't work at all in this century. Furthermore the scale of the Bauhaus will be hard to achieve today—maybe in China they will be able to do something along these lines because they move in big strides like nobody else can. However it probably isn't going to happen. Thus rather than a big super-duper school, why not start from just a little online campfire. And that's what the Digital Information Design (DID) Camp is all about. People that went there will one day be able to say, "Hey, I DID Camp in 2005."

Now, the bigger question is, "Is this a scam to bring in large amounts of money?" I have noticed that many schools are offering all kinds of summer programs for all sorts of folks. Most of these programs are targeting enhanced revenues for their primary programs. Most of these primary programs are great programs, so it is important to support them through these extra endeavors. At MIT we don't really have to do anything like this to stay afloat, so it's more of a personal experiment than anything else.

The camp I'm putting together aims to barely break even, and hopefully will place a stake in the ground as a kind of gathering place for people out there that wish to engage in a new discourse of creativity. I'm sure you've noticed all of these metal/plastic boxes that sit under desks or on top of your laps that generate great amounts of heat (which was good for the winter, and bad for the oncoming of summer). These magic boxes that we rely upon so greatly are great teleportation devices to get you to the campsite. I hope to see you there.