June 2011
7 posts
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The future of libraries and research will be... →
In the 1990’s I wrote often about information dystopias. In 1994 I said:
It’s clear to me that the information highway isn’t much about information. It’s about trying to find a new basis for our economy. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like the way information is treated in that economy. We know what kind of information sells, and what doesn’t.
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How much design is too much design? →
As we await the launch of Apple’s latest attempt at creating a crediblecloud computing service, an editorial at Ars Technica asks whether Apple can really succeed at this game. Writer Timothy B. Lee argues that Apple’s “centralized, designer-driven culture can be a serious weakness when building scalable network services,” and that analysis and iteration is what is truly necessary to make these...
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The Genius of Robert Walser →
On Christmas Day, 1956, the police of the town of Herisau in eastern Switzerland were called out: children had stumbled upon the body of a man, frozen to death, in a snowy field. Arriving at the scene, the police took photographs and had the body removed.
The dead man was easily identified: Robert Walser, aged seventy-eight, missing from a local mental hospital. In his earlier years Walser had...
May 2011
4 posts
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Is there a cure for Britain's most dangerous... →
Derek and Jean Robinson were a kindly couple who lived in a neat house in Heslington, York. He was a doctor and she worked for Christian Aid. It was the early 1970s; I was a student at the university, and my father, who knew them, had urged me to make contact. I spent a pleasant hour in their kitchen, chatting over coffee, and then took my leave, promising, as one does, to see them again soon. I...
How to spot a psychopath →
It was visiting hour at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital and patients began drifting in to sit with their loved ones at tables and chairs that had been fixed to the ground. They were mostly overweight, wearing loose, comfortable T-shirts and elasticated sweatpants. There probably wasn’t much to do in Broadmoor but eat. I wondered if any of them were famous. Broadmoor was where they sent Ian...
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Why I love the Guardian homepage
As a site that I visit on many occasions in one day I have only recently thought deeply about why I like the Guardian homepage so much.
I have identified that the reason for my love of the page is simply its beautiful layout. The page is designed in such a way that I can scroll down to see new information, but I can also scroll back up and see new information too. This is achieved by a 4 column...
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Are websites elastic?
A structure is defined as “any assemblage of materials which is intended to sustain loads” when applied to a website it is redefined as “any assemblage of information which is intended to sustain access”.
The behaviour of these structures is precisely what we have been designing. The entry points, the navigation methods, the taxonomy and the labelling have all been carefully thought out and...
June 2008
1 post
Nothing but the truth
In these times of corporate funded news it is difficult to find a true voice, a voice that many may call subversive and dangerous, but that some see as part of the new wave of news, focusing on what’s really happening where it really matters, street level.
100proofTRUTH is one such publication, now on it’s 5th online edition it has a growing readership from counterculture’s web...
April 2008
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Culture in a time of waste
A lecture in three parts on and around the topics of consumption, brands and art, presented by the RSA.
Neil Boorman (Bonfire of the brands) began the evening with a spot of audience participation, he asked if anyone amongst us felt that they were unaffected by advertising and brand pulling power. A small amount of hands were stridently raised, one of these self-proclaimed “brand...