by marycw on November 3, 2007
There’s a comment that I hear frequently, when talking about social networks with folks who themselves aren’t heavy users: “What’s with those people who have hundreds of friends on their friendslist? Nobody has *that* many friends.”
The unspoken judgment is that people with “too many” names in their social network “don’t know what a real friend is” and are probably shallow and superficial in their friendships.
There are a number of reasons why some people rack up the headcount on their friendslists. (It’s well known that a few people are into the game of it, chasing the high score.) But there is a practical reason for having a lot of contacts: online social network tools are a great way to manage your weak links. [click to continue…]
by marycw on October 19, 2007
The Stanford Social Innovation Review Fall 2007 had an interesting article called “Harnessing Purity and Pragmatism” (subscription required).
The point of the article was that people who work for social change tend to fall into two camps — the “work for change from the inside” folks (the pragmatists/compromisers) and the “work for change from the outside” folks (the purists/non-compromisers). The study looked at various NFPs along that spectrum of purity-pragmatism, to look for patterns of outcomes. [click to continue…]
by marycw on September 24, 2007
There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal called Young Collectors about kids as young as age 4 who have multiple-thousand-dollar allowances for art collecting. That got me thinking: what the heck is that about, kids who can barely tie their shoelaces and the parents have them buying art? Then I thought, it’s probably the same reason my young nieces are allowed to “drive” the ranch tractor: because their parents think it’s a good learning experience.
It’s a big issue for parents: how to best prepare a child for adulthood? How to introduce children to adult activities and responsibilities? [click to continue…]
by marycw on September 12, 2007
There’s a great article on the Ikea Hackers culture that’s sprung up in the last few years: Romancing the Flat Pack: Ikea, Repurposed. (Warning: New York Times usually requires a login.)
The article talks about how people take Ikea components and create different things out of them: guitars (wow!), other furniture, art pieces, etc. A lot of these are whimsical, like a weiner-dog bench or a surfboard table. For more examples, check out this blog. An official Ikea representative was reportedly thrilled and said this was an example of people finding the Ikea brand to be friendly and fun.
This is one more way in which Ikea is Legos for adults. (Note: lots of people have made this Legos=Ikea observation before me, so I’m not being original here.) [click to continue…]
by marycw on September 6, 2007
by marycw on August 5, 2007
I’m fascinated by the New Craft / DIY, so I loved hearing Dale Dougherty speak at an open session at Xerox Parc recently.
Dale is a longtime O’Reilly Media leader and is currently editor of Make Magazine and one of the founders of Maker Faire, so he’s been watching this new wave of Craft DIY for as long as anybody.
He covered a lot of ground so I’ll just give a few highlights: [click to continue…]
