GEL2007 - Day 2 - Session 4

Dan Dubno was joined by Greg Harper to present a quick and wild overview of technology gadgets while simultaneously delivering and reinforcing the point that “youthful experimentation is an important part of creativity”. Jim Baumgardner is interested in randomness, complexity, usefulness and uselessness. “Randomness us complexity that we don’t understand.” He referenced John Whitney, incremental drift, then he had the crowd participate in the Whitney Music box, a wild and wonderful experience. Robert Fox, Danish film maker, is putting together a film documentary on the Thule airbase built in northern Greenland and operated by the US during the cold war years. There was a nuclear disaster there for which they evacuated many of the natives. One of the natives has come forward with his own camera footage of life in and around Thule over the years. 30 years of 8mm film footage that is priceless in its story telling. Ira Glass, writer, producer of This American Life He spoke of excitement, that the passion comes from within, that seriousness and funniness can never collide. That the world is a place where surprise and joy exist. Ira looks to portray people at exactly their human scale. He spoke about the structure of the story. To be interesting, it must carry well. The sequence of action is not about logic, it is about motion. Just start the action, then you’re in the middle and can’t get out. Cringe; the human body moving in fear for an instant. Jump to the bigger moment. What’s the bigger universal story. Action, action, action, thought He closed with a story of Mary Zimmerman, director of The Arabian Nights, how Scheherazade told a tale daily and eventually saved her own life. The power of narrative is a back door to deep inside of us.

GEL2007 - Day 2 - Session 3

Phil Terry spoke briefly to endorse the copy of Bit Literacy; Mark Hurst’s new book which was included in our GEL bag. Mark has been working towards this concept for sometime and has finally published his writings in a book format. It is now on my reading list. Charlie Todd, founder of Improv Everywhere, reviewed highlights from the Slo’ Mo Home Depot event. It was hilarious. John Williams, founder of Frog’s Leap Winery, told the story on how the winery came together, how they operate, how they are green. All to the backdrop of a slide show with scenes from the winery. Erin McKean, Editor in Chief of United States Dictionaries for Oxford University Press (one of the youngest editors in chief of one of the five major American dictionaries). Erin presented a quick recap of her afternoon session on Day 1 where they created words. The winning word? It was crappyjack 'any kind of empty, snacky junk food', created by Karen Watts. The two runners-up were drunch 'to consume alcoholic beverages with like-minded individuals between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sunday', coined by Lizzy Klein, and mispronoonce 'a jocular way of saying 'mispronounce', to be used in the first person after a particularly embarrassing mispronunciation: Oh, gosh, I mispronoonced that, didn't I?' which was coined by Nick Baum. Erin posted the full listing of the words created on one of her blogs. You can find that here. ES made a wonderfully crafted natural presentation. She used/referenced almost every presentation thus far in her brief but insightful talk. “There is spiritual crappyjack.” There has been a sacred meal in all societies through out all time. She told the story of meeting with Nathaniel, a would be mugger, on 28th Street. How she avoided being mugged, and their relationship after that critical time. John McDowell John was the composer for the music soundtrack of “Born into Brothels”, the Oscar winning documentary in 2006. His group played wonderfully to close out this session. It was appropriate to close here. No one could have followed that experience.

GEL2007 - Day 2 - Session 2

Robin Burgener is the creator of the 20Q ball and 20Q.net. The game is really the normal 20 questions just some simple coding to help the logic actually learn via a neural network. 90% of all the games center on 100 objects; this is better than the 80-20 rule. The number one object is a carrot. The game (online version at least) is built by every use. There was a challenge to restructure the code to fit within the confines of the ball but they overcame those challenges and it works well. 50 million games had been played online by the time the conference was held. Marie Lorenz talked about her water taxi service located in NYC, the “Tide and Current Taxi”. It is stilted somewhat in her favor. The riders don’t always get where they want to but she always gets a story. Her service lives on the edge of what is permitted. Henning Rubsam talked about Sensedance, his effort to bring a better awareness to dance and how body language can be effectively used and appreciated. He spoke in a number of ways to be aware of and open to the senses. With our arms by our side, we are contained. With our arms extended, brought forward, we are reaching and at the same time giving. Doug Quin had us listen. Yes, listen. The lights in the theater were dimmed to take away the visual distractions and enable us to concentrate on what he played for us. He had recorded a variety of birds in the wild, deep in the jungles, and walruses/seals under the ice in Antarctica. The sounds were amazing. His point was simply to be aware of the sounds around us.

GEL2007 - Day 2 - Session 1

Mark Hurst is creating a community of folks interested in “good experience”. This year’s theme was “food and spirit”. He talked of his visit to Napa Valley and Frog’s Leap Winery. “… some spirit infuses the goodness of the outcome…” Danny Meyer opened the Friday session talking about hospitality and how he has organically grown his business from a single restaurant to multiple restaurants in NYC. He said we are all looking to replicate the experience of when we were just born; we received eye contact, we were acknowledged, we were hugged and we received some great food. Chris Jordan is now an artist but did spend time in the corporate arena as a lawyer. He is looking to present data on some of our significant problems in a way that makes the data become emotionally engaging. Data and numbers by and large are rather dry. His art starts with a picture and then he uses PhotoShop to multiply the images to create the numerical impact. Peter Skillman is the ‘usability guy’ for Palm. He talked about learning to fail, early, and often, ultimately to create a better experience. He described a project he has taken to multiple groups from kindergartners to business school candidates. The group is given a small set of materials, some tape, dry spaghetti, a marshmallow, etc. The objective is to create the tallest structure that will support the marshmallow. The kindergartners have the record for the tallest structure and generally will create a structure more than one inch taller than the business school candidates. How do they do this? Less fear. More openness to trying something. Andrew writes songs and maintains the web site “songs to wear pants to”. He shared a dozen songs or so specifically generated from user requests. He has over 300 currently on the web site.

Dad's making dinner

Maybe it will be on YouTube or some other video source soon. Ha, I should have googled before writing that line. It is already available here. In any case, I don't like the implications of what McDonald's is claiming. The same google query shows I am also not alone. I am not loving it! When I cook dinner, the last place I would go to is McD's. Dolores is cruising through a cook book loving every recipe. We'll have plenty to try and we generally only cook dinner twice a week (on weekends when we have time and then eat the left overs later during the week).

Don't Get Cosi - South Station, Boston

Cosi opened in the South Station Food court about two weeks ago. It has been so busy I have avoided it. I figured, wait until the newness crowd wears away a little and then try it. But one day this week, I got there just before noon and as the line was the shortest amongst those in the court so I decided to give it a try. The sandwich was reasonably priced for a deli. Nice tasting, fresh bread. Not bad. So I decided to try it again today. Got there just at noon, again the line was not long but grew quickly while I waited. Now I think I understand some of the problem. The organization of the sandwich delivery process is a mess. There are several registers in front with no clear demarcation via sign above or lines on the floor as to where to stand to get in line for which register. Several seconds lost here trying to figure out who's next. Meanwhile the register person is waiting. Not very efficient. Place your order, pay at the register and they give you the bag. It has the napkin and utensil (if required) and either carrots or chips (whichever you choose with your sandwich). They also give you the receipt with your order#. But no sandwich. You'd think think the order# would be the biggest boldest thing on the slip but it is actually the same size as the change amount that the register person has already given to give you (and by the way, was prompted by the register to provide that amount). Opportunity here. Then you go around the side where you can wait with the others for the lottery (or bingo caller) to hear your number, claim your sandwich, put it into your own bag, and go off on your way. Now with all due respect to my fellow citizens, some cannot accomplish this task easily. This should be easily recognized. Some folks, elderly and others, are not going to be able to juggle their cane (or other packages) and use two hands to put the sandwich into the bag. Cosi makes an attempt to help this by positioning someone outside the counter to play match maker. Calling the numbers and assisting with placement of the sandwich in the bag. Is this really the most effective use of resources? I think not. Bottom line, I would have second thoughts about going to Cosi again. The sandwich is good but it is not that good to put up with the hassle of getting it in a timely fashion during the lunch period. There must be a better way to organize that delivery process. The process may work in a slow period but clearly does not work well in rush hour. PS - The bottom of the receipt offers $2 off the next meal if your fill out the survey at the link provided. Too many questions, too much information requested, some of it clearly inappropriate for this particular restaurant location. It is in a food court, there is no one to greet you and seat you like a normal sit down place. Too much work for too little gain, especially considering I probably won't be back there anytime soon.