Dear All,

Before responding to GK VanPatter’s comments to me, I wanted to review carefully the entire thread titled “The OTHER Design Thinking / Call For Participants.” This involves more than what GK labeled a “relatively simple invitation to participants.” GK and others raised several dozen issues and topics beyond the scope of the original invitation.

What made this somewhat confusing is the thread process.

The thread began with an invitation for list members to contribute to a book project. Soon after, the thread diverged from the original topic to consider and discuss additional questions and topics. Normal list practice is to identify new topics with a new or revised header. It is the common practice on discussion lists to discuss topics identified this way under the new or revised headers. In this case, the author of the original invitation post reverted all subsidiary threads to the original header. This meant that the original thread came to include a wide range of topics.

The author of the invitation – GK – has been a regular participant in this list since 2003. In addition to participating as an invited speaker to the online conferences we have occasionally held, he has posted over 160 significant comments and contributions. Given this fact, he must be aware of the list conventions surrounding postings with subject header changes. A change to subject headers indicates three things. 1) The author of such a post is aware that the topic of the post diverges from the original post. 2) The author wishes to address a specific subsidiary topic suggested by a post in the original thread. 3) The author wishes to respect the integrity of the original thread by purposely signaling the divergence with a new header.

While those of use who attempted to diverge respectfully accepted GK’s decision to revert the headers, this brought about some confusion. First, we could not address subsidiary topics under new headers. Second, the thread came to include a wide range of topics beyond the original invitation. Third, the thread rapidly shifted from “a relatively simple invitation to participants” to a free-ranging discussion on several dozen topics raised by several people — including GK himself.

The purpose of this compilation is to permit readers to swiftly review the full conversation to date. I am posting the compilation as an attachment to the list.

The contents of these contributions belongs to the original owners. I have collated them and made them accessible under the JISCMAIL Copyright Policy.

https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/copyrightissues.html

The text to all posts appears as posted. I have made some formatting and spacing changes to better fit to the pages of the PDF document. In two or three cases, I have removed repeated lines from an email sig that appears often when the last few lines of the sig alone would push the post to another page.

If you wish to review the entire thread titled "The OTHER Design Thinking / Call For Participants" from the start through December 9, you can do so in this document.

Yours,

Ken

Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished Professor | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | Mobile +61 404 830 462 | Home Page http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/people/Professor-Ken-Friedman-ID22.html<http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design>    Academia Page http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman About Me Page http://about.me/ken_friedman

Guest Professor | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China




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