Dear Colleagues,
There is no need to move this thread to the DRS list.
In the debates leading up to La Clusaz, there was some
discomfort with the notion of long-term, protracted
discourse going where it will.
In the run-up to La Clusaz, Dave Durling and I had
the idea of a debate on themes related to the four
tracks of the conference. Before we had a chance to
get things moving, Chris Rust launched a provocative
and spicy thread -- Alec Robertson and others took up
the torch, and things were under way. I decided to
follow their lead, and took on the challenge of a debate
focused around the issues Chris and Alec raised.
This developed in a serious and interesting manner over
a period of several weeks. Even so, not everyone was
interested.
While some participants and readers valued the debate,
others wanted to reserve DRS for short themes and
occasional notes. (The current level of interchange on
DRS seems to be one or two notes every few weeks.
The debate saw 117, 132, and 64 messages in April,
May and June 2000. There were 20, 15, and 2 posts in
August, September abd October, figures much closer to
the earlier averages.) (In the same 3 months, Ph.D.-design
ran 93, 92, and 167 messages.)
During one of the cycles of complaint, it was suggested that
we should NOT engage in long threads or extended
debate. David and I decided together with Keith Russell
that the Ph.D.-Design list would be a fine place for deep
thinking and lengthy discourse. The list was quiet, it
offered a good open forum and it was up and running.
Most important, David and Keith are the listowners.
Everyone who comes here knows that this is the place
for wide-ranging, deep debate on design.
The issue is not that DRS can't be or shouldn't be such
a forum. The issue is that we invite a kind of discourse and a
style of discourse that was not welcome by every reader
on DRS.
It is true that Ph.D.-design began in response to the
doctoral education conference in Ohio, but it is NOT
now focused exclusively on doctoral education.
Rather, it is focused on the extended range of themes
revolving around design research at the doctoral level --
if you like, you can think of the list title as meaning
"Philosophies of Design," in the broadest sense of reflection
on a wide variety of issues.
Our ultimate plan is to restructure the list as a kind of
"philosophical transactions," delivered across multiple
threads in real time -- rendered public and immediately
accessible through the superb Mailbase archive.
So feel free to tell them -- every them you wish -- that
this thread is here. A note can, indeed, be posted on the
DRS list about the discussion on this list.
Mild vexation with failure to attend to the subject headers,
though, I am delighted by the quality and variety of discourse
here. Most important, everyone is free to grow it, add to it,
shift it, and if a thread works its way slowly through five
weeks of comments -- or through a 23-year cycle while
we work out an entirely new vocabulary of design
knowledge -- everyone knows it's OK here. No complaints.
Please DO NOT think of this as a list about doctoral education.
Think of this as a list where we can think together about the
kinds of ISSUES in design research and design practice that
form the basis of doctoral education and doctoral research.
Best regards,
Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management
+47 22.98.50.00 Telephone
+47 22.98.51.11 Telefax
Home office:
+46 (46) 53.245 Telephone
+46 (46) 53.345 Telefax
email: [log in to unmask]
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