Design by Community. Do the public really know best?

Picked this story up on one of my favourite mobile sites, the superb All About Symbian. Apparently Nokia are running a campaign on their site Nokia Conversations site to let the public have their voice on what they would like to see on future phones. I really have to ask though, do the public really know what they want OR even know what makes a good product? I’m not having a go at Nokia here, this is apparently “just a bit of fun” but it seems everyone from Musicians to blue chip companies are asking YOU..what do you want? Frankly I can’t think of anything MORE STUPID. THe public have NO idea. So stop asking them, lead and they will follow. We have become a society of people/companies who hedge their bets. Better not make a decision so let the public decide, then they can blame the public when it flops, and they don’t have to stand up and justify why. The public have NO IDEA!. No product or invention HAS ever come from the public. As always lead and they will follow, just ask Apple.

Fashionable Technology: The Intersection of Design, Fashion, Science and Technology

Published by Springer, Source Excerpt:
Buy here from Amazon UK
Buy here from Amazon US

Fashionable Technology
The Intersection of Design,
Fashion, Science, and Technology

by Sabine Seymour

The
interplay of electronic textiles and wearable technology, wearable’s for
short, and fashion, design and science is a highly promising and
topical subject. Offered here is a compact survey of the theory
involved and an explanation of the role technology plays in a fabric or
article of clothing. The practical application is explained in detail
and numerous illustrations serve as clarification. Over 50 well-known
designers, research institutes, companies and artists, among them
Philips, Burton, MIT Media Lab, XS Labs, New York University, Hussein
Chalayan, Cute Circuit or International Fashion Machines are introduced
by means of their latest, often still unpublished, project, and a
survey of their work to date. Given for the first time is a list of all
the relevant information on research institutes, materials,
publications etc. A must for all those wishing to know everything about
fashionable technology.

Via We Make Money Not Art

THE CHARGE BOX

Some day you just find your ideas everywhere.  Woosh, yes he who spends more time than me on the web and who should really have his own blog, but then I might get short of stories, cheers mate!! Anyway he saw another idea we had come up with on The Cool Hunter  dude, we should really spend more time doing rather than just talking!

Sports Buddies

Well as someone who is having trouble keeping motivated when running I thought what i needed was a running partner.  After trawling round the web where I found little helpful I came up with the idea of a nationwide web site where the end user posts by geographical location and then by activity for a sport buddy.  Perhaps there could also be a level of competence for that particular event so people can see the ability of the other.  Like all social web sites it depends on how many people use it but personally as someone in the same predicament it would be incredibly useful!