Open Colony

Introducing Member: John Alderman

mrhungry — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:01:51 +0000

Company: self
Position: Communication Strategist
Country: USA
State: CA
City: San Francisco
Cultural Ambassador: no
Interests: Agile and/or Rapid Application Development and Design, Cross-Cultural Business, Design (Visual, Interactive, UXD, Environmental), Media, Writing

Questions and Answers

What will you say about the work you’ve done at the end of your career?

It was really fun getting to know and work with so many amazing people. I hope you enjoy the retrospective. I think the soundtrack really pulls it all together nicely, don’t you?

Where do you go for inspiration?

To a deep place that I can get to either with collaborators, personal introspection, or a stream of sources that I work hard to keep coming. I am a strong believer in personal cultivation. I like to mix more long-term commitment, with more unexpected inputs to see what comes out.

How do you build resilience into your work & company?

By encouraging others to cultivate, grow, and challenge themselves, and reward them when they do so.

What keeps you up at night?

Caffeine.

What gets you up in the morning?

To harvest all the seeds I planted the day before, usually these days sprouting up as email to read.

How is your work cross-cultural?

I’ve lived and worked in many countries: UK, France, and Japan especially. And within the US I’ve been a part of many sub-cultures. That has let to both a respect for others’ points of view, as well as a flexibility of thinking that doesn’t see the way things are done as the way they necessarily should be done.

Bio:

As a creative director, editor and communication strategist, my work combines deep experience and strong perspectives on information, persuasion, conversation, brand, and technology.

My areas of consultation include many overlapping fields that fall under creative and user experience: concepting, branding, editorial, social strategy, copywriting, e-commerce, and video. I conduct research, interviews, and workshops to determine client needs and goals, develop winning ideas and strategies, and then work with clients to implement them.

Introducing Member: Kate Holmes

kate — Tue, 17 May 2011 05:07:09 +0000

Company: self employed
Position: consultant
Country: USA
State: CA
City: San Francisco
Cultural Ambassador: yes
Interests: Cross-Cultural Business, Design (Visual, Interactive, UXD, Environmental), Organizational Design, Sociology of Work, Sustainable models for business, design and development, Technology, Writing

Questions and Answers

What will you say about the work you’ve done at the end of your career?

It made a difference.

Where do you go for inspiration?

Anywhere and everywhere in the Mission…. the greatest open air public art project in the country.

How do you build resilience into your work & company?

Always check in. With values, goals, new ideas, comrades in arms.

What keeps you up at night?

My Kindle.

What gets you up in the morning?

My son…. and De la Paz Mission Blend.

How is your work cross-cultural?

Every system, microcosm, group, and pattern has its own culture. My work interests center on helping different groups communicate–and understand– each other.

Bio:

I like to help designers talk to engineers. To help engineers talk to business folk. Users understand a product, a value proposition.

Observation and analysis can help clarify the definition of a system, but understanding why it works and how one system works with another is my art.

Introducing Member: Larisa Dzwonczyk

ldzwonczyk — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 19:29:55 +0000

Company: The Art Institute of California-San Francisco
Position: Career Services Advisor
Country: USA
State: CA
City: San Francisco
Cultural Ambassador: no
Interests: Cross-Cultural Business, Design (Visual, Interactive, UXD, Environmental), Innovative HR, Media, Organizational Design, Sociology of Work

Questions and Answers

What will you say about the work you’ve done at the end of your career?

I hope to say that I’ve had a career rich and diverse in experiences. I hope to say that I’ve been intellectually challenged and grown beyond what I thought possible. Ultimately, I hope to say that I’ve helped people – whether that’s in motivating them to strive for a job/career that they’re passionate about or in providing companies with exceptional talent.

Where do you go for inspiration?

Running! Golden Gate Park, Marina Green, Presidio, Embarcadero.

How do you build resilience into your work & company?

By keeping my focus on the outcomes and goals I want to achieve and being flexible/creative/open to the ways in which I can get there.

What keeps you up at night?

So much! Generally the “little things” – unsettling emails received that day, unfinished things at work, etc.

What gets you up in the morning?

The opportunity to get things done. The hope of receiving positive news or making progress.

How is your work cross-cultural?

I work with candidates and employers from a variety of educational, socio-economic, international, and cultural backgrounds. I navigate these differences and similarities on a daily basis.

Bio:

I am a Career Services Advisor at The Art Institute of California – San Francisco. In this role, I advise students and graduates in the Graphic Design, Advertising and Digital Filmmaking & Video Production programs. I work with students on internship search, resume revision, interview prep and portfolio compilation. I also work heavily with graduates to find employment in the field after graduation and with employers to connect them with qualified candidates.

Introducing Member: Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino

designswarm — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:02:10 +0000

Company: designswarm.com
Position: Principal
Country: United Kingdom
State: N/A
City: London
Cultural Ambassador: N/A
Interests: Agile and/or Rapid Application Development and Design, Cross-Cultural Business, Design (Visual, Interactive, UXD, Environmental), Organizational Design, Sustainable models for business, design and development, Start-Ups

Questions and Answers

What will you say about the work you’ve done at the end of your career?

Variety is the spice of life. I always followed my instincts with projects and constantly tried to let my practice be influenced by others outside my field and learn from them.

Where do you go for inspiration?

My peers, walking in London, the internet.

How do you build resilience into your work & company?

I try to keep up with what’s going on across web, technology and product design, so that I know what language to speak to collaborators. Avoiding miss-communication and understanding where people are coming from establishes trust and long-term working relationships.

What keeps you up at night?

Not much, I’m a deep sleeper.

What gets you up in the morning?

Ideas I know I’ll have in the shower.

How is your work cross-cultural?

I guess relocating 14 times across 3 continents tends to make my work ooze out some of those experiences.

Bio:

I’ve worked across the design spectrum from web ux design and strategy to my own product design, manufacturing & distribution. I ran a design studio that worked on the intersection between the web and the real world for 4 years. I am now part evangelist for emotional robotics research, partner at design partnership RIG London and a frequent speakers on next generation design practices.

Introducing Member: David Gómez-Rosado

dahveedgr — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 18:50:08 +0000

Company: BitTorrent, Inc.
Position: Vice President, User Experience
Country: USA
State: CA
City: San Francisco
Cultural Ambassador: yes
Interests: Cross-Cultural Business, Data Visualization, Design (Visual, Interactive, UXD, Environmental), Media, Organizational Design, Start-Ups, Writing,

Questions and Answers

What will you say about the work you’ve done at the end of your career?

I solved some LITTLE problems that affected LARGE segments of the population

Where do you go for inspiration?

My kids, my friends, my family, people around, people before us… The stuff they do and make.

How do you build resilience into your work & company?

Scalability as forethought, systems-approach to small problems, built-in modularity, flexibility … and documentation & process so the solutions can be replicated over and over.

What keeps you up at night?

Love

What gets you up in the morning?

Passion for doing

How is your work cross-cultural?

I am cross-cultural

Bio:

I enjoy making life simpler and more enjoyable for people (aka users)

Usefulness is a good start, but Emotional Reward has to come soon after. With these in tandem, both adoption AND loyalty are insured.

Speaking on how to redesign your work …

cpulleyblank — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:25:03 +0000

Hope you can join us: http://aigasf.org/events/2011/03/17/dtalks_dream_jobs

Introducing Member: Josh Levine

akajoshlevine — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:19:52 +0000

Company: Great Monday
Position: Director of Strategy
Country: United States
State: CA
City: Berkeley
Cultural Ambassador: N/A
Interests: Executive Coaching, Innovative HR, Organizational Design, Sustainable models for business, design and development, Start-Ups, Writing

Questions and Answers

What will you say about the work you’ve done at the end of your career?

I helped more people be happy because of the work they do.

Where do you go for inspiration?

fffound.com

How do you build resilience into your work & company?

keep up the cash and the meaning.

What keeps you up at night?

Meaningful client work.

What gets you up in the morning?

Knowing that I’m building something important (and fun!).

How is your work cross-cultural?

que?

Bio:

I design tools that help companies live their brand.

Favorite quote in the colony this week…

cpulleyblank — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 19:51:59 +0000

” I define innovation the way I define genius. It is born from two ideas that already exist but combining them in a new way yields innovation. It takes equal proportions of the familiar and the unfamiliar and it is not fully formed. Innovation does not spring like Venus from the head of Zeus. It something I wanted to exist. It is something I will into being but when it exists it is not as I imagined it but that is great. It is part science fiction and part reality. It is never all or the other.It has a foot in both worlds. It is new by being familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.”

Introducing Member: Sean McLoughlin

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:58:58 +0000

Company:
Position:
Country:
State:
City:
Cultural Ambassador:
Interests:

Questions and Answers Unavailable

Bio:

Introducing Member: Guthrie Dolin

gdolin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:32:48 +0000

Company: Odopod
Position: Principal, Director of Strategy
Country: USA
State: CA
City: Berkeley
Cultural Ambassador: no
Interests: Cross-Cultural Business, Data Visualization, Design (Visual, Interactive, UXD, Environmental), Media, Organizational Design, Sustainable models for business, design and development, Start-Ups, Technology

Questions and Answers

What will you say about the work you’ve done at the end of your career?

I hope I will still be able to say what I’m proud to say today… That I’ve worked with amazingly talented people, contributing to meaningful and impactuful ideas across a rich spectrum of subjects.

Where do you go for inspiration?

I go home to my family.
I go to divine sanctuaries of nature and art.
I go deep into the heart of popular culture.
I go within myself for the immutable truths.

How do you build resilience into your work & company?

By focusing on shared values and clarity of purpose.

What keeps you up at night?

Self-reflection (and occasionally a good old movie).

What gets you up in the morning?

The eternal optimism that comes with every sunrise.

How is your work cross-cultural?

My work is inherently social. In our post-digital world, social is inherently global.

Bio:

I’m a seasoned creative director, connector of dots, brand and marketing strategist as well as an insatiable entrepreneur.