Prof. Dipl.-Des. Oliver Wrede

Author: Oliver Wrede

  • Wiki added!

    So I managed to add a wiki space to this site. It will take some time to grow. You’re invited to add yourself to a list of guests or suggest topics.

  • Ruby on rails

    It is actually the first time that I blog about Ruby. I had a look at Ruby on Rails – a web application framework based on the Ruby scripting language. Ruby appears to be a very well designed scripting language (see here) for anyone who loves “quick but not dirty” programming. Ruby is very successful…

  • Realtime Wiki

    I am playing around with Wiki tools. Because Zope is the platform on my current development agenda I looked into ZWiki. It offers full Plone integration and support for the ExternalEditor Extension (which means that I can click on small pens to edit pages inside my favorite text editor instead of a textarea inside the…

  • Design + Knowledge Destruction

    Rosan Chow reflects on work by Alain Findeli. She wants to help characterize design activity by projecting a fringe view on the relation between design activity and knowledge, scientific or non-scientific. To me, the essence of design activity lies in the ontological realm and how it affects the way we are that is different than…

  • Introduction to Apple Software Design Guidelines

    Apple posts some notes on developing software for Macs. Brent Simmons recommends it not only for other developers but also for anybody who enjoys thinking about software.

  • How children can learn cognition science

    Through a posting on the simplicity weblog I came across Edward De Bonos site. He started to collect bedtime stories for children that incorporate his theories. The first (and only) one by Lorna Santín tells about De Bonos concept named “Six thinking hats” and it’s called “The Magic Hats”.

  • Computer boosts cognitive agility of pre-school children?

    CNN reports that computer use of children aged 3 to 5 scored higher on tests that gauge school readiness and cognitive development. Some earlier studies have found computer use improves children’s fine motor skills and improves recognition of numbers and letters. Is there a study that shows how extensive computer use in early childhood influences…

  • Patents can allow BigCos to annihilate open source?

    This german news item (heise.de) speculates that software patents in Europe will allow big companies like Microsoft to kill the open source movement. It forces open source projects to play according to the rules of capital. Patents are nothing more than land mines in a economic war. I can’t see why Microsoft wouldn’t use patents…

  • Former Microsoft employee switched

    Here is a little story of a former Microsoft employee that switched to MacOS X: I worked for Microsoft for eight years. I’m a long time Windows loyalist. […] Now that I can see them side by side, it’s obvious that the Macintosh provides a brighter display experience than the PC. It’s a more aesthetically…

  • Pros and Cons of Wikis in education

    Here is a summary of experiences with using a Wiki in a educational project. Obviosly a Wiki structure has some advantages over a weblog system (more focussed on content creation and hypertext structure). A Wiki is better suited to generate a set of encyclopedic pages, while a weblog works better as a messaging and news…

  • Designing success and small companies

    Maish R Nichani on elearningpost.com: Yet another article on the importance of design. This one from Inc. magazine reports that even small companies are using the design factor to gain a competitive advantage. (The May 17 issue of Business Week featured The Power of Design and the June issue of Fast Company featured Masters of…

  • Simplicity (cont.)

    Finally there is some movement on the weblog of the “simplicity” seminar. And some very good items popped up already. For instance some explanatory animations by Nigel Holmes which look pretty much like the things we did in the “density” seminar. And also I learned that John Maeda at MIT started an experimental research project…

  • The little engine that could

    Robert X. Cringely thinks that a small $70 wireless router running on Linux is a disruptive technology.

  • Learning by accident…?

    Martin Spernau’s comment on “accidental learning/teaching/sharing” got my attention. There is are lot of “non-intentional” aspects in communication and we tend to discuss and regard only the “intentional” aspects (just think of body language for example). But “by accident” is not a strategy. You can’t do anything willingly “by accident”. So I’d rather think of…

  • We saved American life

    Sometimes I accidentally surf to very strange pages that stick with me for a while. For instance here: The 2004 Veteran Manhatten Project & Symbosium which is an event organized by the “Children of the Manhatten Project“. Reading the agenda felt like going through a ghost party program: a bunch of old men (or children…

  • BlogWalk 2 – First impressions

    I am just sitting on the train back from Nuremberg to Cologne after a day of intense discussion and thinking. I met new people and I appreciated to have had a chance to learn a lot. Most of the people seemed to have a more general interest in the subject and were not trying to…

  • Informal Education

    The Encyclopedia of Informal Education seems to be a very good resource. I came there in preparation for the BlogWalk 2 meeting (which I will travel to tomorrow). Sebastian Fiedler suggested to read the article about Ivan Illich (in particular his thoughts on Learning webs). But I also think the documents on David A. Kolb…

  • Substance of Style

    Virginia Postrel is the author of The Substance of Style and The Future and Its Enemies. She also writes the “Economic Scene” column for the New York Times and maintains the Dynamist blog. In her presentation at SXSW Interactive, Postrel discussed the importance of aesthetics, how design comes into play, the role of expertise, and…

  • Copenhagen Consensus

    This week there is a conference in Copenhagen where scientists debate environmental challenges of the world. Copenhagen Consensus is based on the aim to improve prioritization of limited means. The world is faced with a countless number of challenges such as diseases, environmental degradation, armed conflicts and financial instability. Copenhagen Consensus takes a new and…

  • Contextual, Process-Centric and Community-Driven

    ZDNet recently published a Meta Group report by analyst Mike Gotta that suggests collaboration is a business strategy, not a tool strategy. Through 2004, organizations will rein in tactical collaboration products (instant messaging, teamware, and Web conferencing) for companywide deployments, driven by architecture needs, product standardization benefits, and shared infrastructure flexibility. By 2008, “contextual collaboration”…