Michael Roller

DAAP Seniors Network with Ning

When I was in school, we used Blogger to stay in touch with our classmates while each of us traveled off to different cities around the U.S. It worked well at the time but admittedly seems a little low-tech at this point. This year, University of Cincinnati’s Industrial Design students are using Ning to create a more powerful social network with each other and with the professional design world. Beyond just using a single blog like we did, Ning is letting them collaborate, connect, and have their own pages as well.

Students have long been the trendsetters in social media. But unlike the beautiful distraction that is Facebook, they’re taking advantage of social networks to get jobs and exposure of their work. Nice work!

Tags: social media, student work

Open Source Design Process: IDEO + BugLabs

IDEO and BugLabs recently collaborated on a conceptual exploration of the BUGbase UI. Unlike most design projects, this was one was open source, with lots of content from throughout the process posted to a blog.

Even though I understand competitive advantage and the need for secrecy, I’ve always hoped designers could find a way to share their ideas. I imagined some “designers code” in which we could help each other for mutual benefit but not share this information outside of our circle. I realize I’m dreaming a little, but this open source design process has got me excited. Any other open source, design process work like this going on that I should know about?

Via Noise Between Stations

Tags: process, social media, technology

Innovation: Not the Only Way to Survive a Recession

Amidst this recession, the design blogosphere is calling for innovation as the (only) way to save our economy. I definitely see the value in innovative products and processes, but I found myself wondering what else there might be. Thanks to someone on Twitter (I couldn’t find the original tweet), I was pointed to Dion Hinchcliffe’s blog on Web 2.0. He’s starting a series of posts entitled How to Survive and Thrive in Business Today with Web 2.0. Check out his graphic, in which innovation, along with growth, transformation, and cost reduction are listed as the four key areas.

The point I’m trying to make is that even though it’s currently popular in business, design isn’t just about innovation. Right now, I’m working on a cost-reduction project and a growth project. As a designer, I can see ways to provide value in all four of these areas, which will be very important to our function in the coming year.

Tags: business, social media

Understanding the Value of Social Media

I generally understand Twitter’s popularity. I set up an account about 6 months ago, but couldn’t commit to regular tweets and lost interest. I even interviewed Twitter founder Biz Stone for The Greener Grass to learn more about Twitter’s value. Everyone is talking about the power of social media in business, but I didn’t really get it until recently. In a couple posts over at Experience Curve, Karl Long has done a great job explaining the value of social media to business. Much better than I could ever put it, here is Karl’s take on many of the current social media companies:

…I think there are several social media companies who are valued primarily due to their amazing growth, and it’s obscuring what the real value is that they create. The problem in social media is that it amplifies network effects so brilliantly that growth drives more growth, now this is great if you have a business model that creates and captures tremendous value, but if it doesn’t your burn rate goes up and revenue is always just round the corner… until you stop growing and then it collapses. In the end this is the definition of a bubble, everyone wants to join in as long as it’s growing.

I started to understand the value of having a big network with this story. Karl created and promoted a Threadless giveaway through Twitter and here’s his account of what happened:

Now I only had 1,800 followers at the time and the result was nothing short of extraordinary. That message got retweeted or rebroadcast over 500 times, that means well over 25% the size of my network took an action to rebroadcast my message to their networks. The very first person to RT was @Coryobrien and he had 1200 people following him so I almost doubled my ‘impressions’ on the first hop. I also added 250 people to my twitter network…To be quite honest I think personal networks are the future of advertising, so forget the ‘controversy’ and focus on the revolution people.

Personal networks are the future advertising. That resonated with me. Ultimately, we’re (businesses and individuals) all in the business of creating content that enough people want to access enough times. When you’ve achieved that, you’ve built a powerful network that you can use to your benefit.

I’m nowhere close to being an expert, but I’m starting to understand the value of social media in business. Thanks, Karl.

Tags: social media