Topobo’s kinetic memory toys which I’ve known about since 2004 is finally available for a limited production purchase.  Check out the video above or website to learn more.  I played around with them while at the MIT medialab in 2004-5, and must say, they are addictive! Congrats Hayes and Amanda for inventing, sharing, and bringing this idea to life!

RISD’s first “What We Do” Event is going on today, April 11th. Head on down.. I’ll be there!

“What We Do is a new, student-run, RISD event designed to bridge departmental gaps and create new connections through the sharing of ideas.

On Saturday, April 11th, 100 members of the RISD community (students, faculty, staff, and alums) will share something that they do with the rest of the RISD community and the larger surrounding community of Providence.

Leading up to the day of the event, 8 site-specific “spaces” will be created by members of every department at RISD; majors paired up to encourage cross-departmental collaboration. The spaces that they build will house the day’s events creating a street-fair environment for the open sharing of how people at RISD spend their time and energy. ”

update: some pics of the event after the jump.
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The Career Evolution in Advertising! haha, so very true…
via RocketBoom

Behance and Coolhunting bring to us their very first conference “99%” which “focuses less on inspiration, and more on how idea generation and organization come together to make ideas happen.” It all takes place next week at the The Times Center building  NYC, April 16-17, 2009… I’ll be there, so get your tickets here while they last!

A few of the speakers:
- Michael Bierut of Pentagram
- Cheryl Dorsey at Echoing Green
- Seth Godin of  Squidoo, and several Books (purple cow, tribes, marketers are liars)
- Ji Lee of Google and Bubble Project
- Jeffrey Kalmikoff and Jake Nickell at Threadless
- Scott Thomas of Obama for America
- full list here.

This curiosity video made me smile. Reminded me that in life, if you dont try, you’ll never know. If you never know, you don’t discover…. discovery is where the fun innovative stuff is. Reward curiosity (sometimes failures) as knowledge more than accomplishments.

Daniel DeSure makes some pretty cool LED lights. I think all LED messages should scatter. Reminds me of Tom Hulberts(ideo) led wall installation.

I love it when an everyday object is turned into an entirely different emotional object. A bar of soap, foaming gel, or perhaps some soap leaves!
via BookofJoe
Buy at Wrapables, 20 soap leaves, $13

Cut&Paste Digital Design Tournament 2007 from Cut&Paste on Vimeo.

Cut & Paste is storming Boston this Saturday night, March 17th, hosting their visual battle sessions in 2D, 3D, and motion graphics while projecing contestants screens on large projectors as crowds of creatives watch on in Iron Chef fashion jamming to music. The events kick offs at 7pm and tickets can be found via their website. They hold events all over the world so check out their listing for upcoming battles! (NYC, Toronto, Chicago, Europe, Asia) I’ll be in the Boston location. Let me know if your there!

some pics from the event after the jump.
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Kreol – play music by typing from Kreol Music on Vimeo.

My long time buddy Mike Block (cellist guru) sent his latest side project Kreol, which turns any laptop keyboard into a musical instrument. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen keyboard instruments, but there are a few unique elements that set him apart using the mouse and collaborative group jams. Check the Kreol video above.

Really interesting discussion if your into the future in digital mobile social networking.

“http://www.weforum.org
01.30.2009

The Next Digital Experience
Social networking applications and sophisticated mobile devices are combining elements of the real and virtual worlds, and delivering an augmented experience of reality.

How is this digital experience changing consumers and communities?

Hamid Akhavan: Chief Executive Officer, T-Mobile International, Germany
Eric K. Clemons: Professor of Operations and Information Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Chad Hurley: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, YouTube, USA
Craig Mundie: Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation, USA
Shantanu Narayen: President and Chief Executive Officer, Adobe Systems, USA
Mark Zuckerberg: Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Facebook, USA

Moderated by
Michael Arrington, Founder and Editor, TechCrunch, USA”

I stopped by Brown Univesities EP (Entrepreneurship Program) this weekend in providence and was plesantly inspired by the 4 speakers who spoke. A few mental notes:

- Kiva.org: I learned from co-founder Matt Flannery that he worked at Tivo before, wrote down an idea a day for about a   month, then quit his job to work at a donut shop, while starting up Kiva, with several people saying you can’t just loan money to outside countries legally. Anyone can be your business partner! Kiva now get over 1Million dollars in loans every 10 days! via BrownEP

- Starbucks: Ted Garcia (Ex VP). Starbucks went from having 17 stores total to 5 stores opening each day up to an astounding 16,000 stores total in about 10 years! Starbucks success comes from 3 things. Performance, People, and Luck. Starbucks success was in having a constant open dialogue with all employees, and bringing up issues when employees did not perform as needed. via BrownEP

- Mark Victor Hansen: Spend, create ideas, do ideas, only you can make something happen. Don’t wait for it to come to you. Don’t do something to make money, or save the world. Do it to make the world better.  via BrownEP

- David Shrier: old school marketing techniques still work and can easily be measured in all channels. Some of the best examples are Ronco and Proactiv. Advertising money is not just to get to consumers, but also to reach largers distributions. I’m not a huge believer in older techniques, but David gave some very convincing examples.  via BrownEP

” I wish you would use all means at your disposal — films! expeditions! the web! more! — to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.”
- Sylvia Earle

This is the TEDwish that made me promise to cut back on seafood (and sushi consumption) this year, though I’ve learned it’s better to eat smaller fish that reproduce faster from a previous lecture on ocean life as well. Also helping out will be the free release in the astonishing documentary OCEANS (youtube) by Jacques Perrin (Winged Migration) to help educate people about the ocean sometime this year.
via TEDprize