David Sibbet

Could "Slow Deep" be the Next Counter Culture?

In a recent post in the Future Commons, a blog supported by The Institute for the Future with which The Grove is an affiliate, Eileen Clegg asked a wonderful question about the speed of our current culture related to on-line worlds. I responded and thought the exchange was worth posting here. Eileen wrote:

It seems like most really great work happens in collaboration over a long period of time, through many cycles, as people bump up against differences (of perspective, personal style) and come to understand each other so that diversity becomes productive.

It’s frustrating that we have amazing tools to support deep collaborative work -- but instead of “going deep,” most of us are “spreading thin” --  multiple communities, frequent team changes, hundreds of online connections. Maybe we are (or at least I am) not smart enough to figure out how to engage in a steady, meaningful way across a universe of people and possibilities.

So I’ve been reflecting on loyalty, long-term work partnerships, authenticity, sticking-it-out, patience (personal aspirations...).   I’ve been thinking maybe “deep slow work” is the new counter-culture.

TED2008-BIG VIZ Production

Here is a short video of the work I was doing at TED2008 with Tom Wujec, Kevin Richards, and  John  Schmeir of Autodesk and Phil Davidson of Perceptive Pixel. It was a tour-de-force of documentation, where we graphically illustrated all 50+ speakers on the topic of The Big Questions. The illustrations were created by Kevin and myself on Wacom tablets, and then accessed from our hard drives by the Perceptive Pixel-Multitouch wall shown in two posts ago. I made this video from photos and videos I took at the event. Tom Wujec is now making an on-line book of all our drawings that will be available at www.autodesk.com. If you want to start seeing some of the talks live, click here.

TED2008 Is Complete

650 images later Kevin Richards and I have finished our illustration of TED2008. Tom Wujec is now creating the book (and a video). All the TED talks will be posted on their web site soon. I'm exhausted,  very inspired  and wanting to share a couple photos of the Perceptive Pixel-MultiTouch Wall that we used, and some of the drawings. I plan to write a nice piece about the substance of the conference this week.

Brilliant Web 2.0 Video by Kansas State Cultural Anthropolgist

Watch this one and put on your seat belt. Who's Teaching Who?

Vizualizing Change: Creating The Future One Image at a Time

If you want to catch my free VizThink webcast on January 4 at 8:00am PST, on the topic above, register by clicking here. Register. I'll be answering some of these questions. How did National Semiconductor get 95% vision recognition worldwide during its turnaround in the 1990s? Why did HP train its engineering consultants worldwide to use Graphic Guides? Why did Adobe and Macromedia commission a graphic history when they merged two years ago? Why did Alias (now Autodesk) bring David in to teach their visual planners how to work the boards? How did he get 50 NGO and 8 foundations to collaborate in cleaning up the energy system in the upper midwest? What in the world is The Grove doing in Second Life? I'll be working on the tablet and sharing some graphics-- so come join in the fun. it's free.

Crayon Physics Is "Doodlicious!"

Josh Kaufman from CoVision tracked down this terrific game for tablet PCs that bridge simple drawing and physics!! As the post on  Gizmodo says "The Crayon Physics Deluxe must be one of the coolest touchscreen games ever. The aim is very simple: take a ball to where the start is. The tools to do it are a crayon and your imagination, since whatever you draw will automatically get recognized by the physics engine and put into motion over a piece of paper. Microsoft must buy this game and ship it with every Tablet PC. And somebody should port this to the iPhone. Pronto. [Kloonigames] Click HERE to see it.

Simple Animations Bring Commoncraft Videos Alive

Ole Qvist Sorenson, our Bigger Picture colleague in Denmark, linked me into a wonderful source of simple, animated videos that explain things like blogs, social networking and other subjects relevant to the emerging metaverse of the web. These videos replicate the experience people have working with a skilled graphic facilitator who can sketch out things like this, and go further by providing a reusable format. Thanks Ole. 

To See all of Commoncraft's video on blogs, click here.

New Year—30 Years in Business!

This year is the 30th anniversary of becoming an independent organization consultant and information designer. Thirty years! As this new years begins it’s triggered some reflections about what it means to be in “business” and where we are going with The Grove, the worldwide network of people who are working with the many methods and tools we have developed over those years. What does it mean to be in business? What does it mean to be in business for oneself, which is the way it’s put when a person gets a “DBA” (doing business as) registration and prints business cards? What does it mean to be deeply in service using business as a medium for contribution?