By on 27-10-2009 at 03:10
Wow. Another week has flown by. Last week, I was a blogger virgin. Now, after two weeks amongst the cleverest people in the world under 30, I have learned, thanks to Laurent Hoffmann, how to use WordPress, how to find and navigate the Palomar5 wiki, and how to use Facebook. (Yes, I’ve finally given in.) I’m in touch with old friends and, owing to my new network of Palomar5 residents and visiting specialists, I now have more cool friends all around the world. Truly, I must thank Los Angeles media, entertainment and tech guru (and radio host) Ken Rutkowski (www.kenradio.com) for prying opening my narrow mind to the benefits of Facebook… but I’m still resisting Twitter.
This past Friday (the 23rd) was our first “Reality Check,” where experts came to Malzfabrik and listened to teams pitch their concepts and demonstrate very early stage prototypes for a variety of innovations. I must say, as of last Wednesday, I wasn’t sure everyone would be ready. I felt like a ‘bad cop’ having a This-Is-Where-the-Rubber-Meets-the-Road conversation with some of our more philosophical residents, but I couldn’t help myself since all I want is to see everyone here succeed. Much to my delight, the presentations on Friday rocked. I never cease to be impressed by the fruits of all this collaborative creativity. The experts gave insightful, constructive criticism, and after lunch, they all made themselves available to the different teams for more personalized, direct conversation.
During those sessions, I finally began to actively participate in the dialogue, and pushed several different teams and team members to go beyond what they were thinking…to see things afresh and fearlessly. I was a little nervous at first, but was pleasantly surprised to have several residents approach me afterwards with comments like, “Hey, I didn’t know you knew so much” and “Gee, we have our own expert right here.” I say this not to be immodest, but to express how gratified I am that P5ers have embraced me, and to let everyone know that your projects excite me so much I cannot help but want to contribute in some small way. Each person came here with an idea, or great skill sets that can contribute to someone else’s idea. What I want to facilitate is real innovation – thinking about what you want to see or have happen – and then demonstrating the merit of your idea through a prototype.
The very nature of innovation requires us to think big, be bold, and change what is into what will be. So what if you don’t know how to technically achieve your vision? There are countless people in the world just waiting to solve that challenge for you. Without the big idea in the first place, there’s nothing delicious to discover. So what if the technology you need doesn’t even exist yet? Did DaVinci have the ability to actually make a helicopter? No, but he saw it in his mind and drew a prototype in a notebook. It took technology almost 500 years to produce his invention, but I use this as an example of, literally, aiming skyward.
I will continue to challenge each of you as I walk around and listen in on conversations and musings. And by the time we leave, Dennis Denisenko, you will no longer be able to talk on your mobile and simultaneously play ping-pong with me.
This past Friday (the 23rd) was our first “Reality Check,” where experts came to Malzfabrik and listened to teams pitch their concepts and demonstrate very early stage prototypes for a variety of innovations. I must say, as of last Wednesday, I wasn’t sure everyone would be ready. I felt like a ‘bad cop’ having a This-Is-Where-the-Rubber-Meets-the-Road conversation with some of our more philosophical residents, but I couldn’t help myself since all I want is to see everyone here succeed. Much to my delight, the presentations on Friday rocked. I never cease to be impressed by the fruits of all this collaborative creativity. The experts gave insightful, constructive criticism, and after lunch, they all made themselves available to the different teams for more personalized, direct conversation.
During those sessions, I finally began to actively participate in the dialogue, and pushed several different teams and team members to go beyond what they were thinking…to see things afresh and fearlessly. I was a little nervous at first, but was pleasantly surprised to have several residents approach me afterwards with comments like, “Hey, I didn’t know you knew so much” and “Gee, we have our own expert right here.” I say this not to be immodest, but to express how gratified I am that P5ers have embraced me, and to let everyone know that your projects excite me so much I cannot help but want to contribute in some small way. Each person came here with an idea, or great skill sets that can contribute to someone else’s idea. What I want to facilitate is real innovation – thinking about what you want to see or have happen – and then demonstrating the merit of your idea through a prototype.
The very nature of innovation requires us to think big, be bold, and change what is into what will be. So what if you don’t know how to technically achieve your vision? There are countless people in the world just waiting to solve that challenge for you. Without the big idea in the first place, there’s nothing delicious to discover. So what if the technology you need doesn’t even exist yet? Did DaVinci have the ability to actually make a helicopter? No, but he saw it in his mind and drew a prototype in a notebook. It took technology almost 500 years to produce his invention, but I use this as an example of, literally, aiming skyward.
I will continue to challenge each of you as I walk around and listen in on conversations and musings. And by the time we leave, Dennis Denisenko, you will no longer be able to talk on your mobile and simultaneously play ping-pong with me.
7 Responses to “Great Adventure – 2”
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At last, a blog entry with some depth.
what are the ideas..
those young, cleverest under 30..doesn’t anyone of them blog here?
some of their ideas..or are they just concerned about IP and copyrights?
for now, this looks just like a buzz camp.
BTW.
fix your wordpress plugins!
wp-mollom is broken
Dear isnochys,
Thanks for your comments. We’re all working around the clock, so that accounts for the delay in reply, but please forgive for any disappointment this might have caused. I guess I don’t have the blog thing down yet because I can’t remember either my user name or my password that I registered. This is what sleep deprivation can do.
Clearly, the learning process is an on-going one. Also, I think several of the folks are, indeed, blogging, but many are doing so in their native languages for their own local/regional/national press, from what I understand — I was actually trying to find out myself today, but reaching 30 under 30, even with all technologies available, is like trying to herd cats. When I get accurate information, I’ll do what I can to pass it along. Can’t promise when. Please write back if it seems like too long. You seem to understand the creative process, so I hope you’ll be a little indulgent. RE IP, copyrights comments — we do discuss this, but it is definitely NOT the motivating factor of the people here. Most people do not like US copyright vs. Euro Creative Commons. There is an enormous generosity of spirit for sharing ideas, methods, models with everyone to provide a greater common good. The buzz around here is astonishment at the breadth of ideas floating around and which ones will gain enough traction amongst the P5ers to end up actually being big-time prototyped. Many small ideas generated out of exercise/training sessions already have been prototyped and could easily be produced. Some are clever; some are fun; some are the kind of things that make you smack your forehead and say, “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? (Or, “Oh, yeah. I thought of that but just never did anything about it.”) Finally, we’ve already had people here from BMW, FrogDesign, Burda Publishing and others who have seen P5 in action and say they have never experienced creative collaboration like this. All I can say is keep tooling around on the website since it changes daily and read and watch (please keep reading my blog!) and give us a little time to prove to you that amazing things can and will happen in 6 weeks. We’re only mid-way though week 3…as the sages and cynics both say, “Time will tell.” As for the wordpress plugins, etc., thanks for the advisory (obviously, I don’t understand if I can’t even properly sign in — sigh) but I will make sure our webmaster is aware, if he isn’t already. It’s mid-night in Berlin — hoping to make this an early night! Thanks again for writing.
why don’t you link their blogs in the blogroll here?
Wow Florie there’S a whole lot of energy coming through your posting. Nevermind any of that tec things about plugins and anything, it doesn’t matter.
Your question isnochys about ideas to spread at this stage of the p5 process, seems to come too much out of a consuming mind. We always want to know more, to be there, look behind the scenes….well what for?
I don’t think that can do anything to better the projects. What I can feel till now is an highly intense working atmosphere at p5 and it’s hard to take a minute to tell somebody not involved what happens. Might be comparable explaining a blind person what are colours.
Thanks for starting your blog Florie keep it on!
Cheers
Jormason
sp, u call me blind, not creative, ignorant, just a consumer..
nice energy u got there..
but u are unable to describe some of those ideas with your words..
it’s eso all over again..
*sigh*
next thing, u start about feng shui or astrology..
Oh c’mon isnochys