oung, tech-savvy South Koreans are making coupon clipping a thing of the past and turning to their mobile phones instead.

Some of the fastest-growing mobile phone services in the country let retailers send discount coupons and users send gift certificates for anything from lattes to movie tickets through their handsets.

The merchandise vouchers have a barcode embedded in the message. Users show the coupon on the screen and retailers scan the barcode to apply the discount. […]

SK Telecom rolled out a service a little more than a year ago called a “gifticon” that allows users to send gift vouchers for items such as convenience store merchandise and pizzas via mobile phones. The sender is billed for the cost of the goods.

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In 2005-2006, France Telecom created two structures, the Explocentre and the Technocentre, which work in close collaboration with the R&D laboratories installed all over the world, but are run by the Strategic Marketing Department, which provides the group’s orientations and knowledge of the market.

The Explocentre is an “incubator for R&D projects” and “concentrates on nurturing highly innovative concepts with strong potential, but that could be deemed too risky to be placed directly on the market”. The Explocentre determines their feasibility and potential, and tests new uses and technological breakthroughs before market launch. Interestingly, the centre works with “new methods based on co-creation with customers and partners, using design to drive innovation. Ideas for services are investigated, tested and re-worked with customers to find real value potential.”

Once explored, the most promising concepts are submitted to the Technocentre, which deals with the implementation of these “mature” projects. The Technocentre is responsible for turning them into products ready for the market, either by industrialising them for a commercial launch or by transferring to a spin-off or joint venture for development. The centre brings together around 30 teams consisting of a marketing specialist, a researcher and a network engineer.

So at the one end of France Telecom’s innovation chain there are ideas coming in from R&D, and the company’s industrial partners and employees. Those ideas with high development potential go to the exploration centre, where they are analysed and tested. The integrated strategic marketing in the innovation chain then takes over marketing the product within the technocentre. Finally, agreed projects are integrated into the Group’s Product Roadmap and 3-year plan, which is the other end of its innovation process.

After working on five books as an editor or co-author, Lou Rosenfeld became disenchanted with the traditional book publishing model. So, in late 2005, he founded Rosenfeld Media, a new publishing house that develops short, practical, useful books on user experience design. Rosenfeld Media published their first book, Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior, in early 2008. I recently had the opportunity to interview Lou—along with Liz Danzico, Senior Development Editor at Rosenfeld Media—about starting a new publishing house and “eating their own dog food.”

Lou is also an active member of the board of directors of UXnet, the user experience network.

Read interview

Sponsoring Organization:  Columbus chapter of Pecha Kucha 

Date & Time: May 22, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Click for more information 

Location: Drexel Theater-Grandview
Suggested donation of $2 at the door for price of venue  

What is Pecha Kucha Night?
Pecha Kucha Night is a place for young artists, architects and interactive designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each – giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show. 

Pecha Kucha (which is Japanese for the sound of conversation) has tapped into a demand for a forum in which creative work can be easily and informally shown, without having to rent a gallery or chat up a magazine editor.

D’une culture à l’autre de l’ONF : Un design centré utilisateur en contexte multiculturel.

Le plus récent site Web de l’Office national du film du Canada (ONF) portant sur la diversité culturelle au Canada. En collaboration avec Idéactif Conseil.

Voici un aperçu de la conférence que j’ai présenté dans le cadre d’Intracom 2008, 8e conférence internationale de l’Association des professionnels professionnels en intranet, Internet et extranet (API).

Les ingrédients clés de la démarche ont été dévoilés et illustrés lors de cette présentation du making-of de la création du plus récent site Web de l’ONF portant sur la diversité culturelle au Canada. Un site qui retrace une histoire étonnante à travers des documents d’archives vidéos, audios et photos des années 40 à aujourd’hui, ainsi que des entrevues et vox populi spécialement conçus pour ce site.

Utilisabilité, accessibilité, standards Web, respect des normes et standards ouverts, SEO, et mesure sont au rendez-vous.

Vous pouvez consulter ci-dessous le fichier powerpoint de ma présentation. Il ne rend compte évidemment que d’une partie de ma communication, mais ça donne tout de même un bon aperçu.

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Atsushi Hasegawa of Concent will host the annual IA Summt Redux at Concent in Yoyogi, Shibuya in free of charge. Please RSVP at entry at iaaj.org. (Max Limits are 25 people, for the space capacity.)

Detailes in Japanese:
以下の日程・場所でコンセントの長谷川さんが毎年恒例のIAサミットの報告会があります。参加希望の方は人数の関係もあるとの事で、事前にentry at iaaj.org宛にご連絡ください。

日時：6/13（金） 19:00～
場所：コンセント
渋谷区代々木1-2-9 森京ビル
http://www.concentinc.jp/function/map.html
費用：とくになし
人数：２５名程度ま

詳しくはIAAJ (Information Architecture Association Japan)のサイトをご覧ください。

• IAAJ: IA Summit 08 Redux

The study, “Like Taking Candy from a Baby: How Young Children Interact with Online Environments,” used ethnographic methods and focused on young children, ages 2½ to 8.

For the study, parents in 10 families used video cameras to keep journals, providing insights into the way children use sites such as Club Penguin, Webkinz, Nick Jr., Barbie.com and others. Footage from those journals, which can be viewed at www.youtube.com/cwwkids, illustrates how young children respond to advertising and marketing tactics online.

The digital world offers a wealth of opportunity for young children to play and learn. But even in this small sample of 10 families the study found—too easily, in several circumstances—repeated examples of attempts to manipulate children for the sake of commerce.

The study’s key findings:

• Even the very young go online.
• The Internet is a highly commercial medium.
• Web sites frequently tantalize children, presenting enticing options and even threats that their online creations will become inaccessible unless a purchase is made.
• Most of the sites observed promote the idea of consumerism.
• Logos and brand names are ubiquitous.
• Subtle branding techniques are frequently used.
• The games observed vary widely in quality, in educational value, and in their developmental match with children’s abilities.

The study’s executive summary (contained within the report download), also contains a range of recommendations for parents, publishers, and policy makers.

The report was written by Warren Buckleitner, Ph.D., an adviser to Consumer Reports WebWatch. Buckleitner is editor of Children’s Technology Review, a periodical covering children’s interactive media. He is also the founder of the Mediatech Foundation, a nonprofit public community technology center based in Flemington, N.J.

Press release
Download report (pdf, 58 pages)

An English version of the interview can be found on Greenfield’s blog.

Read interview

Sponsoring Organization: Wexner Center for the Arts, Contact ticket office

Date & Time: Saturday, May 10, 2008 | 2:00PM

(Book signing follows)

Location: Mershon Auditorium, 1871 North High Street, Columbus, Ohio

Join Bone-creator Jeff Smith and comic book artist and theorist Scott McCloud for a lively conversation about Smith’s career and each artist’s view of the practice and future of comic book art. McCloud is the author of Understanding Comics, Making Comics, and Reinventing Comics and the creator of the comic Zot!

The exhibition Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond, on view May 10 through August 3, features original comic book drawings by the Columbus-based artist and some of the comics artists who have inspired him.

Bone and Beyond and related events are presented in collaboration with Ohio State’s Cartoon Research Library.

Saturday, May 10, the Bone and Beyond exhibition is open from 11 AM until 8 PM. Jeff Smith: Before Bone, a related exhibition on view nearby at the Cartoon Research Library, is open from 1 to 5 PM. (The Cartoon Research Library is not typically open on Saturdays.)

Sponsoring Organization: The Ohio State University Digital Union 

What:  4th Annual Digital Union Showcase & Launch of Learning Collaboration Studio  

Where:  LC Studio (060 SEL) & Digital Union (370 SEL), 370 Science & Engineering Library, 175 W. 18th Ave. 

When: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 

Events:
10-10:30 - Launch of the Learning Collaboration Studio by President Gee
10:30-12 - Digital Union Fourth Anniversary Showcase 

Please join us as we celebrate the Digital Union’s 4th Anniversary with a showcase of projects from this dynamic facility’s fourth year. We are also delighted to announce the grand opening of the Digital Union’s Learning Collaboration Studio, a new joint venture between University Libraries and the Digital Union.  

The Learning Collaboration Studio is a unique space designed with radical flexibility in mind. The goal of the room is to provide a highly interactive learning space and to familiarize librarians with the opportunities and challenges faculty face. President Gordon Gee will preside over the ribbon cutting. 

The Digital Union Fourth Anniversary Showcase includes samplings of faculty and student work carried out in consultation with Digital Union staff as well as demonstrations of the latest emerging technologies including: 

* tours of TELRport Island in Second Life
* blueprints and drawings of the Digital Union 2009 expansion
* multimedia journalism on charitable giving
* collaboratively authored student wikis
* Biology rock opera by Dr. Susan Fisher
* HD documentary about Columbus’ topiary garden
* Microsoft Roundtable conferencing device
* Microsoft Zunes Mp3 players
* SMART Board interactive displays
* Apple Air laptop, iPhone and iPod Touch
* Kindle, Bookeen and Sony eReaders 

For more information, contact: digitalunion@osu.edu