Kimberly Lai

What do you see?

Can you imagine that 100 years ago, present-day technologies such as the iPhone and Google Glass would have been considered design fiction? I can’t even begin to wonder what new fictions we would have another 100 years from now.

Anyway, out of sheer curiosity, I keyed into the Google search bar “100 years into the future” and here’s what popped up:

Twenty top predictions for life 100 years from now, BBC News

Apparently, we’ll be able to:

• Communicate through thought transmission, a.k.a. synthetic telepathy (nothing like throwing in some scientific jargon to give my self-esteem a little lift)
• Live forever (like vampires – hopefully minus the bloodlust and prickly fangs)
• Travel in space elevators (I damn well hope I live to be a 120)
• Possibly control the weather (Melbourne certainly needs a handle on that!)

What are your predictions for life 100 years from now?

In today’s symposium, Elliot brought up some very interesting points, but one stood out most of all to a communications professional like myself: design fiction’s impact on the media industry. More specifically, how do these new technologies impact the way people use media? How do we, as media professionals, adapt to the evolving media landscape and milk opportunities from them?

Already, the rise of digital and social media has caused some massive shifts. The television and newspaper, who once heralded trends and dictated information flow, are now giving way to digital and social media. Social media, especially, is proving to be a real contender.

Here’s an excerpt from a Business Insider article published last August:

Bloomberg reported that Facebook, for example, is planning to charge advertisers between $US1 million and $US2.5 million dollars for 15-second video ads to play in consumers’ news feeds three times in one day.

“Every night, 88 million to 100 million people are actively using Facebook during prime-time TV hours in the United States alone,” she said during a call to investors last October.

Elliot also encouraged us to consider the role of economics in technological development. There have been social networks similar to Facebook in the past. Friendster, anyone? Myspace? Yet, none achieved the financial success Facebook has had. There are numerous factors that contribute to its success, but since we’re on the topic of economics, let’s discuss supply and demand. I reckon, Friendster and Myspace emerged at a point in time where the Internet was fairly new. They appealed to teenagers and were considerably popular social networks in their heyday. After a good few years of success, frequent Internet users had become familiar with the concept of social networks – there was demand. A great demand. So Facebook rocked up, branded itself as the cool new kid on the block and raised a storm. Facebook wasn’t a strange, foreign concept – it was simply an existing concept made much better.

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(Image: Tutor2U)

Like I’ve said, there are various factors that come into play when you consider Facebook’s success. But perhaps when you consider the role of economics, Facebook rolled into the game at a point in time where there was substantially more demand than the beginning days of Friendster and Myspace. That was perhaps a quart of the battle won already.

Design fiction is defined as “an approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling”. What it really is is professional dreaming.

For the clueless, Sterling included a super cool example of design fiction:

Corning – A Day Made of Glass from WESTERNIZED Productions on Vimeo.

It reminds me of the Iron Man movies with Tony Stark throwing virtual screens in the air.

(Image: GeekTyrant)

My classmate Dana also mentioned Google Glass as a form of design fiction. In fact, her lucky friend in New York managed to try it on! How cool is that? It’s not hard to imagine a future where everyone has these “glasses” on. However, The Drum reports 68% of people would be too embarrassed to wear Google Glass in public. These skeptics! I’m sure they will realize the folly of their ways soon enough.

(Image: SMH)

I agree with the readings – design fiction is indeed a fantastic way to recycle ideas. The sheer amount that gets binned is probably enough to tile every house in the world. So, I really advocate keeping a “creative” journal for you to spill your thoughts, ideas and whatever not. Not only does it help keep those creative juices flowing, it makes a good backlog for you to refer to whenever you need a pinch of inspiration!

(Now all I have to do is take my own advice…)

Today, I was robbed.

Literally.

This happened at approximately 2:30pm today. I was sitting in a tram, cruising along Smith Street, about to grab lunch from one of those Vietnamese bakeries. But lunch had to wait – someone decided it was a good idea to snatch my Macbook out of my very hands and dash out of the tram. At that very instant, my heart dropped and I was in a complete blank. Instinctively, I hopped off the tram and started to give chase, yelling like a madwoman as I blasted down Smith Street. Before I knew it, I had four men joining the chase (and subsequently, hunt) and running ahead of me. Soon, a family on bicycles roped in as well. But we lost the thief. He was lightning.

I grew more despondent with each second we spent turning our heads and stretching our necks in search of him. But as it turns out, luck was on my side today. Someone said they had caught him running into a bar and I followed the crowd. When I got to the bar, the first thing I saw were napkins. Piles of napkins stained with fresh, red blood. I saw a man stretched out on the ground, clutching the back of his head. He lost so much blood he couldn’t stand. But I saw no laptop, no hint of my maroon Macbook sleeve. It’s not him, some told me. A couple asked if I was alright, but I grew misty eyed and they offered to phone the police for me.

The police arrived shortly and a handful sprinted off to catch the thief. I waited in the vicinity, locked in a daze and dreading the hefty cost of replacing my Macbook. Then, by a miraculous stroke of luck, two men started walking towards me, one of them clutching a maroon Macbook sleeve. My maroon Macbook sleeve. My Macbook! I promptly hugged him and thanked the hell out of him. He said they had found it in a bush, hypothesizing the thief probably figured he wasn’t going to get away with half of Collingwood hot on his heels.

The entire saga ended with me recording a statement and being offered lollies at the police station. And I could finally get lunch.

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Now that I’m past the initial shock, all I feel now is gratitude. I didn’t think I would have retrieved a stolen Macbook within an hour and escape unscathed! I feel immensely thankful. Thankful for the witnesses who gave chase and persevered. Thankful for those who poured forth with help and advice. I’ve been in Melbourne for almost a year and I’ve always known Melburnians to be friendly, but today, I was overwhelmed with their kindness. Each of them was a hero and I definitely wouldn’t be able to type this if not for them.

I’m thanking my stars tonight. What an adventure.

And the first week of Summer school is over. Hurray! Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely love what I’m studying, I just wish it didn’t feel like such a race against time.

Each workshop the class shares some technical how-to’s with one another. This is fantastic because it accelerates the learning process and saves me from some hysterical, caffeinated late nights. On Wednesday, I learned how to embed videos in posts, so here’s how I’m spending my Saturday night:

Never gets old!

Looks like I have to update my 2014 list of resolutions.

Notice more, intentionally.

So pals, if you find me staring at you for an inappropriate amount of time, I beg your forgiveness in advance.

The Researching Your Own Practice reading asked a lot from me. First, it asked me to notice things such as the moon. Then, it asked me to imitate my friends. Finally, it tells me to note all of that down. “Write that down!” I know I don’t sound like it, but I really enjoyed this reading. It reminded me of the Zen teachings on mindfulness and “being present”. Whatever the case, I definitely like the idea of recording. Starting tomorrow (or rather, later, when I unwillingly wake up to the 6am sunrise), I will make it my personal mission to keep a daily record of whatever I’ve noticed. Exciting!

Earlier this week, I borrowed a book from the library. Advertising guru Paul Arden’s It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be. Aptly titled like one of those Lifehacker or Zenhabits blog posts, Arden’s book is basically one of those self-help manuals to put you on the path to sunshine and success. One section in particular ties in with the Chris Argyris’ reading on double-loop learning and it’s titled If you can’t solve a problem, it’s because you’re playing by the rules.

Oh, all you rebels!

Single-loop learning occurs when given or chosen goals, values, plans and rules are operationalized rather than questioned. Let’s make this easier to digest. Example: You get a Distinction (God forbid!) on an assignment and you’re like, “Pokéballs! Why didn’t I get a HD? What did I do wrong?” You frantically check the assessment matrix and consult your tutor. You don’t quite understand why you had to do blah and blah to get a HD, but whatever, you’re still going to meet those criteria for the next assignment so you can score that HD and ice that bruised ego. Protect self and others unilaterally, check. Treating ones’ own views as obviously correct, check.

Double-loop learning, on the other hand, will have you question the matrix’s requirements instead of mindlessly complying to them. Like, “why the hell must I do blah and blah to get a HD?” or better yet, “why the hell are we graded in the first place?”. Argyris wants organizations to practice more double-loop learning. But let’s not go there today. Instead of discussing organizational development and whatever not, I want to explore the concept behind double-loop learning.

In a nutshell, Argyris wants more people to speak up, quit being prudent, challenge authority and make better progress. I see this mindset espoused so very often. There is that streak of rebellion, hint of fiery ambition. Even during my first year at university, I was constantly urged to challenge established frameworks and “denaturalize” my surroundings.  I suppose, it is this act of pushing the envelope that helps us progress as mankind and society. After all, it was how we discovered the Earth wasn’t flat. Someone somewhere had to endure others’ giggling fits when he proclaimed the Earth was round. But most people are afraid and deep down, so am I. To progress, our desire to be “good” has to outweigh our fear of being wrong. And that, my friend, makes me crap Nutella. So here is where I leave you with some timely Kerouac wisdom:

Good night!

Here I am again, sharing more infographics from one of my favourite websites, visual.ly. Chew on this!

So push came to shove, and here is a blog I can finally call my own!

I’ve always wanted a blog, but the idea of it was daunting. Is it not? To expose your thoughts and feelings to the [virtual, albeit very much real] world, to let strangers into your life so easily, to leave a virtual footprint that is likely permanent. But since I don’t have much of a choice now… howdy!

Now that we’ve established my fears of these virtual monologues, let’s move on to more pressing issues, such as this blog’s purpose and function.

There are a gazillion blogs out there. Good ones, bad ones. I, of course, want to own a “good” blog, but what exactly makes a blog “good”? Firstly, I’d have to be interested in the content. For example, I would be far from interested in a blog on electrical engineering or geothermal energy. Here are some of my favourite blogs. They are mostly personal, or semi-professional. But they all have two things in common: genuineness and consistency. These bloggers – as far as I can tell (which I am assuming is rather far… and accurate) – seem to be keeping it real, being who they are. They come across as genuine, sincere, “real”. Then, there is consistency. Who doesn’t like a regularly updated blog? It upsets me whenever a blog I’ve grown so fond of suddenly takes off for a couple of months without notice. So, genuineness and consistency: this blog’s new mantra.

Mantra aside, I haven’t picked a niche for this blog. I’m going to mull it over tomorrow with this handy infographic I found on visual.ly. Sharing it as I thought it might be useful for my fellow blogging virgins. If you need more help, my classmate Esther wrote a nifty post on Blogging 101, so be a smart person and check that out!