INVITATION
From John Thackara
Greetings,
This is an invitation to join us in Bangalore this coming December for a
"working party" to celebrate the tenth birthday of Doors of Perception.
We see DoorsEast as a unique and timely opportunity to re-connect with our
friends and associates, in the exciting context of an emerging innovation
city, and to discuss how we might collectively shape the design of
tomorrow's services in a sustainable information society.
DoorsEast 2003 is a cluster of events on the theme: "Local knowledge:
design and innovation of tomorrow's services". Our partners in the event
are the Centre for Knowledge Societies (CKS) and the National Institute of
Design, in India, and Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, and Nokia, in
Europe.
The main event in December is a two-day international encounter - part
conference, part open space workshop - on 11 and 12 December. It will
address the question: “how do we design new services, enabled by ICT, that
are based on local knowledge, and use local content?”
We will compare diverse scenarios from both India and Europe that use
location based information (GIS / GPS), groups, unit-to-unit broadcast,
short audio messaging, text-to-speech, WiFi networks and other innovative
approaches. Tools and methodologies for mapping local knowledge will be
presented and compared. Speakers will share lessons learned about the way
new business models, and wireless communications, are changing the ways we
design for mobility, geography, and access.
The main event has three components: morning plenary presentations;
afternoon small-group knowledge exchanges; and informal evening events in
and around the city. Oh yes, and the birthday party on Friday night.
DoorsEast will bring together designers, technologists, entrepreneurs, and
grassroots people involved in projects, from India, and Europe/USA.
Presenters and participants we already know are coming include: grassroots
innovators from India and South Asia; designers of future service
scenarios from MediaLab, Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, and others;
Jussi Angesleva, the winner of Open Doors in 2002; Webby Award winner,
Marcel van der Drift; Gillian Crampton Smith, Director, Interaction Design
Institute Ivrea; Derrick de Kerckhove, McLuhan Program director; Darlie O
Koshy, Director, National Institute of Design in India; Open Doors
peoples’ choice Live|Work, from London; Ezio Manzini, Milan Polytechnic
University; the philosopher Patricia de Martelaere; Dutch e-democracy
expert Bert Mulder; future services designers from Nokia; research and
design leaders from leading international universities; Jogi Panghaal,
Principal, DoorsEast; Aditya Dev Sood, CEO Center for Knowled!
ge Societies, Bangalore; Marco Susani, Manager of Advanced Concepts, Motorola; plus me, John Thackara, and my colleagues from Doors of Perception and the Centre for Knowledge Societies.
I emphasize that DoorsEast 2003 is not about aid, or development. We all
have knowledge the other needs. The event is about innovation and
collaborative value creation among a design community committed to
sustainability and social quality. Tech-push is over as a driver of
innovation and we need to find new ways to exploit the broadband
communications, smart materials, wearable and pervasive computing, and
connected appliances, that we’re unleashing upon the world.
India has a lot to teach us about shared-use models of communication. Many
new ways of using, and paying for, devices and networks, have been
designed there. India is also a country in which people are not always
treated as a cost, as they tend to be in what Bolo Bolo author “P.M” calls
“wrongly developed” countries. India, with one fifth of the world’s
population, is a good place to explore what it might mean to design
services that employ more people, not less.
Since 1993 Doors of Perception has addressed the question: “we have seen
what ‘tech’ can do, but what it is for?” During the last ten years we have
also learned that the world is made of many highly interconnected parts,
over many scales – and that gaps between disciplines, between researchers
and business, and between cultural contexts, hinder the transition to
sustainability.
Doors bridges those gaps. In our second ten years, beginning with
DoorsEast2, we want to accelerate sharply the development of a design and
innovation networking which we learn how to design services, enabled by
ICT, that meet basic needs in new ways. We will share this knowledge with
citizens, innovators, industry, and professionals.
Do join us!
A fuller description and the registration page and a travel page are at:
http://www.doorseast.com/
REGISTRATION Registration costs 350 euros. This fee covers your
participation, lunch, documentation, and the party. All international
participants pay the same fee. Field trips and visits earlier that week
will be extra (but not expensive).
WHEN TO COME If you prefer to make it a short trip, we advise you to
arrive in Bangalore by Wednesday 10 December and to aim to leave on
Saturday 13th or later. We are also organising informal show-and-tell
workshops, presentations, visits, and field trips around the city and
region ahead of the event, especially for the days 8, 9 and 10 December.
If you would like to join one of those activities, we suggest you plan to
arrive in Bangalore by Sunday 7 December.
TRAVEL We strongly advise you to book your travel to India as soon as
possible. I know it’s more than three months away, but flights to India
sell out, especially towards Christmas time. Our colleagues at CKS in
Bangalore have nominated the following travel agent to organise your
travel and accommodation (if you don’t want to do it via your own agent):
Imperial Interserve Travels Pvt Ltd (contact: Rumi) Email:
[log in to unmask] http://www.interservetravel.com Rumi
will also offer you accommodation options. These are not so time-sensitive
as flights, and Rumi will recommend hotels or places to stay at different
price levels. These have been selected so that we are not unduly
dispersed.
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