1David Castillo

Hey Noah,

A good way to go about getting people interested in writing a post for your blog might be to hold a vote of what your readers favorite post of the month was (ala Russell Davies) and then get someone to write another post on the same topic that digs deeper or focus more on that subject. I think that would be rad. I would offer up my services for sure!

March 26, 2007

2amber

i like the long table idea! at my office, we're growing so much we're practically on top of each other, hence our impending move. In some ways I know i'll miss not being able to simply talk across the aisle to people, but on the other hand, here are some things I will not miss:

1 - not ever being able to hear anyone on a conference call
2 - being on a call, and having rowdy coworkers yell out embarrassing things, which i then have to explain on the phone
3 - if people can see you, they assume you're not busy, for some reason, which means constant interruptions
4 - having to put on my headphones whenever i want to think or write anything without hearing It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time! played on YouTube over and over.
5 - and so on.

But i do like the long table way too! i'm torn. maybe i just need more respectful co-workers?

here's my half baked idea - I think i want to start another blog dedicated to decorating and interior design, since I love it so much. are there too many out there already? I'm not sure. Since most of those types of blogs are just picture clippings, with price info, I'd want to make mine a little more in-depth. Like maybe I'd highlight stuff I've made? i don't know yet - i guess that's more like 1/4 baked.

Oh, and I'd totally write something for you! I have to warn you, i usually go for the funny, which is not to everyone's taste.

March 26, 2007

3candice

I would vote against having other posters on a regular basis. It's your voice here that we're here for. I've seen that approach degrade the content on some sites that I used to quite like. Hate to see it happen to you.

March 27, 2007

4Bonnie in Albuquerque

First I would definetly visit a blog on decorating and interior design...do it amber! :)

The long table thing sounds really nice. Unfortunately I work in an office with 2 people, not much of a long table :) There was a great article in Training and Development last month (I think...i will look when I get to the office) that showed how this insurance agency in the midwest was having a high turnover and apathy among its employees and that most people did not even know each other. The company was spread on 4 different floors and they decided to combine 3 floors into one in a way that would encourage community, It was very interesting how they went about this....We kinda did the same thing at our family's company which had 3 office buildings in chicago spread around and corporate did not know manufacturing..etc...we created areas that people had to interact and did not divide the sections up by job. We also created more open spaces so that people did not have big cubicles. It worked really well. I always used to think about spaciality in my classrooms and how I want the students to sit and how this changes for each type of lesson. And the last musing on the long table is that one place i miss most after moving from new york is sitting at the long table at Pain Quotidien near Hunter or the one on Grand..such good cafe au lait...we do have pasquales in santa fe with the long community table which offers such a different social experience and I always leave with 2 or 3 phone number of people who I seemed to network with and have social or professional things in common. Some of these meetings have turned into business opportunities.

On the guest poster, I think maybe once a month, not a week. i agree with candice but also find myself if I really am intersted in someones comment, clicking on their name to see what kind of site or blog they have. I have gotten very into some peoples sites from this so I would be interested in hearing what others have to say....I am not in a similar field as most of the posters on your site, but some of the stuff I write on my work website for our online journal might be of interest to people :)
I think this is way too long and will post my half-baked ideas next time to you inquire about them :)

March 27, 2007

5Mike

Two of the best things about working for a small company are the long table and the iPod cradle. Is there anything better than sitting at the head of the table and listening to your own iPod all day?

Its a good idea to have other people post -> very engaging, but you have to be careful what you let out.

March 27, 2007

6MIchael Karnjanaprakorn

Just wrote a post on same topic. Collected a bunch of research.

Creative Spaces

March 27, 2007

7Charles

Howdy Noah,

I love the communal authoring idea. I say you mix it up a bit, and make some guidelines that will let more people contribute. For example:

You start with a two sentence post, and then pick a word or phrase and make it bold. Then, someone else writes another two sentences based on the bold words from the previous one (while continuing the thread by making bold words of their own). The idea is to have a "train of thought", that's like a comment trail only a bit more "curated". Until you've got some fancy pants programming to support this, you could ask readers to email you the sentences, and you could choose which ones would be "posted". People would need to keep checking back to see if there was a new sentence to work with. That way, the final product is a nice mix of you and your community.

Another idea would be to incorporate links somehow. Everyone ends their paragraph / sentence / post by linking somewhere. This destination could be the "topic" of discussion for the next post.

March 27, 2007

8Noah Brier

First off, I said this to someone else the other day, but I truly feel special every time someone comments here. Please don't take my lack of response as a sign of any less than full appreciation. I read every comment as soon as it comes in . . . just don't always get the chance to write back immediately.

Love all the ideas. I clearly need to think through what my own brand of allowing people to post would be. I agree with Candice, it can be quite strange when a site you knew as a single voice all of a sudden becomes lots of them.

With that said, one of my big goals for this site is to make it more communal. Hopefully that doesn't mean it loses my voice or personality, but rather it gains some of yours. I am actually sitting down with Charles (and Rob . . . who may have commented at some point in the past), to think about some of that stuff. In the same way you can sit down at a long table at Le Pain Quitodien (I think that's how it's spelled) and start chatting with someone, I would like to find ways to extend the relationships created on this site.

March 28, 2007

9Joey Roth

I'm interested in your "thoughtless tools" concept, especially because our bodies can be framed as the ultimate thoughtless tool. Determining the volume and character of a tool's voice - how noticable the tool itself is in the pathway between the user's intention and the desired result - is one of the largest challenges I face as a designer. Feedback from the tool can be a wonderful part of the user / product dialogue, but a product that speaks too loudly will quickly get frustrating. Do you prefer to use products that remove themselves from the desire / task completion pathway, or products that express themselves during use?

I touch on some of this in my recent post: Negotiating Dominance and Submission Through Industrial Design

March 28, 2007

10Noah Brier

Joey, not sure I totally understand the question. Can you give some examples?

March 29, 2007

11Joey Roth

I was curious if “invisible operation� is always desirable. I’ll use making tea as an example- if there were a way to make powdered instant tea taste as good as the best whole-leaf varieties, would you choose this faster, easier, and far more ignorable method over slow, easily fumbled traditional preparation with a teapot? In this case I think the process/ ritual is as important to the experience as the resulting tea. An easy to use tea system might be like a movie that’s easy to watch or music that’s easy to listen to. On the other hand, surgical tools that are beautiful and interesting would always be less optimal than tools that disappear into the surgeon’s consciousness, so that she can focus on the work at hand. I’m interested in products that fall between teapots and surgical tools- cell phones, cars, clothing, furniture- everyday objects for which ease-of-use and character need to be carefully balanced.

March 29, 2007

12barbara

Hey -- it occurs to me that your comfort with long tables/flattened organizations/serendipitous learning may stem from Columbus School -- you didn't sit at a separate desk until middle school. Your formative years were all in a cooperative/collaborative world :) Think about that, all you 'rows of desks' educators out there!

March 29, 2007

13Bonnie in Albuquerque

yeah Barbara :)
I have never set up a classroom in rows except when ordered during standardized testing......I think people learn and communicate better when they can see and interact with each other :)

March 30, 2007

14Adrian Lai

Gladwell article was awesome. Thanks for sharing:)

March 30, 2007

15Jarrett

I'm not a big fan of rows of desks either. Unfortunately since I am a floating teacher with no classroom to call my own. I have no control over the set up of the desks. I can't wait to have my own room. A large focus of my class is to build communication skills and that is hard to do in rows.

March 30, 2007

16barbara

Jarrett -- take 2 minutes at the beginning and end of each class to rearrange the furniture -- it's worth it! :)

March 30, 2007

17scott hazleton

they almost put walls up in the new office here - no one gave it the thumbs up. gotta keep it open.

by the way, my picks are looking amazing for sunday. harry paratestecles racing is bringing it home!!!!

March 30, 2007

18Amelia Torode

Hi there - I used to work at Naked in London. Ben R mentioned you and I think that you know my friend Johnny Vulkan. Anyway, one of the things that I thought that Naked did well was moving people around the office. When it was happening it was a bit of a pain, but you got to know everyone really well. It is the people that you are right next to that you chat most to, make cups of tea for etc

March 31, 2007

19Damiano

I'm finding the digital agencies all have open paln offices with creatives, account and management all sitting amongst each other, even the most successful sit around circular tables where creatives, web designers and producers all face each other.

March 31, 2007