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Ideas
05.01.13: Soren Kaplan
Harnessing the Power of SurpriseBreakthroughs share three common characteristics: they challenge fundamental assumptions about existing products, services, business models, or organizations; they transform existing ways of doing business by rewriting rules or revolutionizing current practices; and they apply resources in entirely new ways, whether people, knowledge, relationships, or technology.
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09.11.12: Scott Boylston
Designing Design into SocietyA report on the Design Ethos 2012 DO-ference.
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05.01.12: Andrew Shea
Flies in Urinals: The Value of Design DisruptionsHow a disruption in routine (potentially by design) can alter the environment.
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11.21.11: Phil Patton
Audi Urban Future Summit 2011Report on one of the latest conferences to take on the global theme of the city
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09.26.11: John Thackara
5% Health: The Risk of Catabolic Collapse and Peak Fat in Modern Health SystemsThe writer, at Mayo Clinic's "Transform" conference, asks: Are high-end medical systems the best place to focus design's creative capacity?
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07.22.11: John Thackara
Ten Ways to Redesign Design CompetitionsHow to improve design competitions aimed at social good.
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07.05.11: Laura Weiss
Structured for CreativityHow to scale a nonprofit organization so it is optimized for impact.
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06.30.11: John Thackara
How to Make Systems Thinking SexyJohn Thackara's 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge keynote address.
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06.13.11: Jane Margolies
How to Start a MovementInterview with movement entrepreneur Jeremy Heimans, founder of Purpose.com.
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06.06.11: William Underhill
Transensing: Glassware for the BlindAward-winning glassware for the visually impaired.
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05.25.11: Julie Lasky
Everything Must GoA new blog speaks to our current interest in shedding material goods.
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04.05.11: The Editors
Design for the Real World ReduxTo mark the acquisition of Papanek’s archives by the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the school’s Victor J. Papanek Foundation, in partnership with the Austrian Cultural Forum New York and the Museum of Arts and Design, has announced a prize for a concept, prototype or product “that upholds Papanek’s vision of environmental and/or social responsibility.”
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02.02.11: Maria Popova
COMMONReport on Alex Bogusky and Rob Schuham's COMMON project marrying capitalism and social change.
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12.23.10: Maria Popova
Rise of the Micro-MediciOn the value of microfunding creative ideas that stem from a single mind.
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12.07.10: Ernest Beck
Cards of ChangeUnemployed workers retrofit their former business cards to send hopeful messages.
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08.09.10: Meena Kadri
Tinkers, Hackers, Farmers, CraftersInterview with Emeka Okafor, founder of Maker Faire Africa.
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07.22.10: The Editors
Neville Brody Wants YouCall for submissions to the Anti Design Festival, September 18-26, London, England.
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07.21.10: Vera Sacchetti
Virtue Rewarded: Design and Social Innovation PrizesDescriptions of nine awards programs that regularly give out $100,000 for design and social innovation projects.
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06.30.10: Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
New Visions of HomeReport on new housing models for the elderly.
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05.03.10: Roger Martin
Design Thinking Comes to the U.S. ArmyDesign is almost overnight the centerpiece of military doctrine and the U.S. Army has gotten design thinking quite right. The struggle to get design thinking ensconced in Army doctrine, though, is no easy feat.
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04.19.10: Jane Margolies
The Laugh BugIs Volkswagen's Fun Theory campaign anything more than a turbocharged marketing stunt?
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02.23.10: Julie Lasky
Sweating the Small StuffReview of TED 2010 conference, "What the World Needs Now," Long Beach, California, February 9–13.
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01.14.10: Jane Margolies
Rising CurrentsReport on "Rising Currents," an exhibition of New York City design solutions to the flooding predicted by climate change experts, which will be on view at the Museum of Modern Art, March 24–August 9, 2010.
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01.05.10: Rick Landesberg
The Bleating EdgeRick Landesberg's photo of an innovative design in Haiti for keeping goats in their place.
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12.18.09: Jay Parkinson
The Road to WellvilleRecommendations for designing a healthcare system around our nation's health needs — chronic care management, prevention and acute care treatment — not history, doctors and their profitability.
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11.20.09: Aspen Editors
Aspen Design Summit: Initial ReportInitial report on the 2009 Aspen Design Summit, sponsored by AIGA and Winterhouse Institute.
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10.13.09: Andy Chen
The Value of EmpathyAndy Chen responds to the debate between David Stairs and Valerie Casey on the recent surge of social design activity.
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10.06.09: William Drenttel
Aspen Design Summit: Program DescriptionAIGA and Winterhouse Institute are joining forces to stage the Aspen Design Summit in November 2009.
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10.01.09: Moderated by Julie Lasky
The Kindness of StrangersDebate between graphic designer David Stairs and Designers Accord founder Valerie Casey about designers' roles and limits as social activists.
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07.30.09: Julie Lasky
When Worlds CollideReport on TEDGlobal 2009, held July 21–24 in Oxford, England.
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