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From: Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]>
Message:
You are invited to the DRS discussion list!
This is an invitation for you to consider joining the DRS list. DRS is the
electronic discussion list of the Design Research Society. It enables
researchers around the world to discuss research-related design topics
through emailed messages. The DRS discussion list is hosted by the Mailbase
facility in the UK.
I am writing to you as part of an effort to broaden the participant base
and enrich our access to colleagues who share common research interests.
Most of the participants in DRS are located in departments or programs with
the term "design" in their label. These include industrial design, graphic
design, textile design, furniture design, product design, transportation
design, urban design, design leadership, design management, and strategic
design. There also seem to be a fair number of participants from programs
identified with architecture, and a few located in engineering. Design
research as a mode of inquiry involves all these.
We hope to attract more participants from design research disciplines such
as: information design, process design, interface design, systems design,
organization design, the larger disciplines of engineering, information
technology, information science, computer science, cognitive studies,
economic history, logistics, ergonomics, communication, library science,
materials science and cognitive studies.
Since June, there have been substantive threads on design theory, doctoral
education, design research methodology and a lengthy discussion on the
relationship between practice and research. There have also been specific
topic issues and conference calls.
Design research issues involve scholars and practitioners in many fields.
In daily work, however, we tend to interact with people in our own
department. When we interact outside our home department, we tend to
interact with people on out own discipline. We are often unaware of
valuable colleagues in other departments and disciplines whose work and
resources may be useful to us.
Among the many challenges we face in the design research disciplines,
several are social and informational rather than substantive or
methodological. Many of the issues we consider are addressed in other
fields than our own, often in terms quite closely resembling our own.
Access to that knowledge will save time and offer important perspectives
for our own work.
Where cognate problems have already been solved in other fields, our search
for solutions can be improved through access to prior work. Exploring prior
solutions to well understood problems is among the most powerful heuristic
methods in research. Mathematicians are frequently solve challenging
problems by working out a way to transform prior problems with solution
sets in ways that permit them to adapt the solution set to current problems.
In some cases, solutions can be translated effectively. In more cases,
solutions offer clues that can be adapted to our needs. In most cases,
problems and solution sets offer heuristic devices to aid our own research.
This can establish a base on which to build, improve our methodological
understanding and open a body of research knowledge to us that can become a
valuable resource in our own work. By enriching the interdisciplinary
nature of the list, we hope to further progress for all of us.
This past week, I had the pleasure of taking part in a Nordic research
Conference on Design Methodology. Dr Anders Ekholm organized it. Anders
works at Computer-Aided Architectural Design in the Department of
Construction and Architecture of Lund Institute of Technology. Anders and I
met online during a DRS debate on design theory. He asked me to open the
conference with a paper on philosophies of design.
At the conference, I discovered to my surprise that none of the
participants come from a classic design department or from a design school.
I was the only scholar from management studies. Most of the participants
were architects or engineers.
Several issues fascinated me. I discovered several important streams of
research of which I did not know that shed valuable light on my own
research problems. I discovered a rich tradition of design research issues
in architecture and engineering of which I knew little. Some of the
participants found the same true of what I brought. Even more interesting,
I discovered that Anders and I worked in the same building one or two days
a week for almost a year in 1998-1999! Despite the fact that I could have
run into him strolling around a corner or in the lunchroom, we only met
after we began to correspond on DRS.
Anders and I invited all conference participants to subscribe. This week,
I'm circulating a wide broadcast.
The size of a list matters. Right now, DRS list numbers just under 500
subscribers. Threads pop up like occasional nuggets of gold in a fast
flowing river, flourish for a few weeks and then drift off. This seems to
be common in lists under whatever may be a critical mass from an email
discussion.
Generating a rich discussion requires a broad range of participants from
multiple backgrounds. Within the discussion, issues of substance,
intelligence, and courtesy are essential factors. There must be a large
core group of participants with a rich commitment to discourse. They must
remain as subscribers during the cycles of quiet times and heavy debate
that occur as lists develop and grow. As a frame for discussion, therefore,
the essential factors seem to be the size, composition, and density of the
participation population.
In well-developed research fields such as communication or information
science, it is common to find lists numbering in the hundreds or even the
thousands. My hope is that you will join the design research discussion as
we grow.
To join the discussion, or simply to lurk and read, all you need to do is
join the 'DRS' mailing list. This list is unmoderated.
To join the DRS discussion list, send an email message to:
[log in to unmask]
(leave the 'subject' line blank)
In the body of the email, type a message that reads:
JOIN DRS yourFirstName yourLastName
(for example: JOIN DRS William Gates)
You can also subscribe via the Mailbase Web Site at URL:
www.mailbase.ac.uk
With best regards,
Ken Friedman
--
Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management
Box 4676 Sofienberg, N-0506 Oslo
Norway
+47 22.98.51.07 Direct line
+47 22.98.51.11 Telefax
email: [log in to unmask]
Home and home office:
Ken Friedman
Byvagen 13
S-24012 Torna Hallestad
Sweden
+46 (46) 53.245 Telephone
+46 (46) 53.345 Telefax
email: [log in to unmask]
Eleri Kyffin
Harrow Learning Resources Centre
Watford Road
Harrow
Middx HA1 3TP
0171 911 5000 X4112
FAX 0171 911 5952
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