LG Mobile Phones is partnering with crowdSPRING and Autodesk to host a competition to define the future of personal mobile communication.

The official entry details are here.

With US$80,000 in prize money on the line, it may be worth a few moments of brainstorming. Entry into the competition is free and, of course, LG will own your revolutionary idea outright but as I always say, where there's one idea, there are one hundred more. According to their official rules, the barriers to entry in this competition should not prevent anyone from presenting something truly innovative. I like mental challenges like this. We do it all day long in many ways. As engineers and geeks, "What's next?" is something we never shy away from asking ourselves.

Ehtisham Rabbani, V.P. of product strategy and marketing for LG Electronics MobileComm, U.S.A, Inc. in LG's official press release for the competition says, “We’re very excited about this competition because it gives consumers, professionals, students and design enthusiasts all a chance to exercise their creative imaginations and have their ideas be heard. You don’t have to work for LG to make an impact on the future of mobile phones.”

Obviously, there will be thousands of entries of which 98% will be unfeasible. However, if you think about it, LG may hit the creative jackpot as the economy has many talented engineers and industrial designers sitting around with nothing to do all day. The timing of this thing is perfect and if LG finds something they can develop further, 80K is a small price to pay for that idea.

The competition closes June 7, 2009.

How do you feel about health?  Are you healthy?

DDB Worldwide Communications Group conducted a research project where they interviewed 1831 consumers and physicians in eleven countries to identify how people feel about their own attitudes towards health.  This report is available on BrandChannel.

Not surprisingly, "believing we are healthy is to believe we are in control."

Click here to download:

001_473_Health_final.pdf (1.1 MB)

(download)

Click here to download:

001_473_Health_final.pdf (1.1 MB)

Now, more than ever, we are seeing artistic, experimental media (video,
projections, embedded system control, lighting technologies, etc.) weigh
in with a heavy emphasis on the tech. Artists, like engineers, are
enamored by technology. Technology is the crowd-pleaser. Because of
that, some poetry can be lost.
 
In a piece of technological work, consider one word: sensuality.

Then, begin displacing the top-heaviness of the tech until you reach a
point of visceral sensation.
 
The infatuation becomes desire.

You will never be able to see this star
 as I saw it. You don't understand:
 it is like the heart of a heartless flower.
 
 
                                        ~ André Breton

In a post by Andrew Keen, he addresses a question that our "always-on" Internet culture has been asking: 

"What is the point of instantaneous global communication?" 

In this short post, Keen posits the notion that, instead of ideas moving around the globe at light speed, and in doing so, delivering these ideas and insight so much more efficiently, that this may not be the case.

His theory is based upon a piece by New York Times writer David Brooks who sees our new-found communication tools as creating a culture of "uniform conformity" as opposed to diversified debate. 

As we take in and process information that is "instantaneous," do we also create a void where that information is processed?  Are we in too much of a hurry to consume and then regurgitate instantaneous content as truth, fact, or norm just because, "we read it here first?"

Recently, I have questioned the long-term effects of this "global immediacy in 140 characters or less" culture we are quickly beginning to master.  I have noticed, within myself, that my eyes are teaching my brain how to process instantaneous information.  I am not so sure this hasn't affected my ability to think deeply about a topic and process alternative ideas or further discussion. 

Maybe we are just evolving.  This is all part of  a new application of thinking.  It is a new way. 

Instantaneous information leads to instantaneous decisions.  And we know the usual outcome of making decisions too quickly don't we?

I still think the media (as well as President Obama) is overlooking a very important technical limitation of this gift; that is, long-term, without the computer and software that was used to create it, the gift fails.  

If, as reported, she already uses an iPod, she obviously uses iTunes to download, save, or backup content. The fact that she now has an iPod created with another instance of iTunes makes the gift almost worthless (regardless of the content) unless she decides to either overwrite her iTunes library or, overwrite the "new" iPod.

She may elect never to sync the iPod in order to back up the content. However, if this is the case, she better hope that this particular iPod does not suffer any technical glitches other iPods the world over tend to do once in awhile.

I suppose she could send it back to the White House for syncing and/or software updates...

Jobs Save the Queen?

[I have no idea where the image above is from.  If you created it, it's awesome. Thanks.]