Lets Evo Innovation Group http://www.lets-evo.net Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:34:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 en http://www.lets-evo.nethttp://www.lets-evo.net/buttons/button-lets-evo-logo.jpgwww.lets-evo.net An object without a proper name, yet. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/415120604/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/10/08/an-object-without-a-proper-name-yet/#comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:29:30 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/10/08/an-object-without-a-proper-name-yet/ Untitled Art work, 2005 - Henrique Mattar Monnerat
Choosing a name for an artistic object can be quite challenging actually. Maybe that’s why there are so many untitled art works out there, or maybe all other artists who name their artworks Untitled just don’t give a F@&k about names after all. Well I give a f@&k, and that’s why I’m here theorizing about the names and not names of objects.

Although I am positive that the name of an art work doesn’t make it an better art piece, I do think it’s important. Picture yourself, wondering through a contemporary art gallery, imagine you know nothing about Art (at least you didn’t study it), you stand in front of an contemporary art installation, you are puzzled thinking: what the Hell? now you go to the name plate and it says: Untitled, 1998 Mr. Artist - Rocks; sand and marshmallow. F@&k! Houston we have a problem. I have been there too! People get angry, many feel very bad. The name was the only clue to bring some understanding to the object without post graduating in the history of arts. What a sad story, at least I think.

I am starting today a movement against Untitled artworks, for the sake of the mere mortals who don’t have a degree in Art but who just want to have a go in understanding the story being told by the artist, on the fly, on the spot. No, please, lets not come up with sticker tags, or barcodes…that after you scaning it with your iphone, link to the wikipedia article of that art work. Lets give this artists some homework to do!

I didn’t do my homework I have to confess, ’cause the art object up there still features the Untitled flag. Well, ok, at least I am here, writing about it.

But the problem of my Untitled art object is still not solved.

Here is what I propose:

I tell you what motivated me to build the object above, what I want to say with it. I will tell you the names I already came up with but ain’t entirely satisfied with and if then, you feel like participating…still…you shout a name you think the art piece should have.

Deal?

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/10/08/an-object-without-a-proper-name-yet/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/10/08/an-object-without-a-proper-name-yet/ Neptuno Submarine, a small step towards a more natural way of exploring the oceans - Part 2 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/413212457/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/10/07/neptuno-submarine-a-small-step-towards-a-more-natural-way-of-exploring-the-oceans-part-2/#comments Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:39:50 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/10/07/neptuno-submarine-a-small-step-towards-a-more-natural-way-of-exploring-the-oceans-part-2/ In part 2 of this series of posts, I will be explaining some of aspects of nature’s design that appeared during the research phase of the Neptuno Submarine. How many fins should a fin propelled submarine feature and how are they arranged? such question can only be answered when we stat to understand the evolution of maritime swimmers and their behavior. Lets begin with: Form, Kinematics and Stiffness.

Finding the Right FORM

Looking at nature for the best Form for a fin propelled submarine can be quite overwhelming at first. Trying to define a specific fin shape for the Neptuno Submarine was no easy task giving into to account the HUGE number of different forms and configurations marine creatures have. Thanks to biology research, a lot has been written on this subject.

Form Specialization - (Illustration: A.Kesel 1997 adapted from P.Webb 1984)

Form Specialization - (Illustration: A.Kesel 1997 adapted from P.Webb 1984)

Every maritime biological being has passed through various stages of adaptation in the course of its evolution. Thus optimization to different living conditions eventually led to various forms and characteristics. This illustration from Prof. Dr. A. Kesel shows a comparison chart between fish shapes and their behavior characteristics (read strenghts). On the top we see fishes who can accelerate very quickly,on the left fishes which can maintain very high speeds for long distances and on the right of the chart, fishes that can maneuver very precisely.

How many Fins?

When we look closer to a fish, we see that there are many different fins, and that each one of them has a different function. This seems quite obvious, but understanding their functions can bring key insights for design decisions for future vessels.

Fish Fins Illustration

Tail Fin: Is the mail propeller for a fish, It has also the function of controlling the direction of the swim.
Pectoral Fin: In most of the fishes, pectoral fins help them control their level (maneuvering up and down) but some coral reef fish have very strong pectoral fins that act as the main propulsion system (i.e. Box Fish).
Dorsal Fin:The Dorsal fin acts like a stability aid, keeping the body from oscillating to much when accelerating.
Pelvic Fin:This fin act like an hydrodynamic parachute help fish to brake and slow down.
Anal Fin:the Anal fin has the same function as the dorsal fin, it is there to keep the ride stable.

Kinematics

the correlation of form and function is clear as you look deeply in to the matter, but there is also one other aspect the greatly influence the performance of swimming, its their body movement.

Kinematics of fish and maritime mammals

Most importantly, there is a distinction between the actuating angle of the movements between fish and aquatic mammals. Probably because of their need to come back to the surface for air, aquatic mammals have their fin swinging in the vertical plane, making them more agile in that case. Fish have their bodies swinging in the horizontal plane (there are exceptions like the Plaicefish).

What also varies a lot between species, is the amount of body which swing and the type of curvature that it makes. Basically there are fish that use almost the whole body, and there movement is characterized by a wave that travels through the whole body. Which is often called ondulating movement. One example of this kind of kinematics is found by the eel. What is interesting in these kind of fish is the ability to switch the curve direction of their body movement to swim backwards. These fish are very precise in maneuvering but aren’t that efficient when it comes to speed.
On the other hand, Fish like the Tuna, can achieve enormous speeds underwater (up to almost 100 km/h), by having a partial undulating movement of their bodies which on the end of each swing cause a oscillating movement of the tip of their fin (thus called sub-undulating). Their highly hydrodynamic bodies and stiff/narrow fins make up the perfect combination of high speed swimming for long distances in the many situations when it has to swim in open water looking for food.
By contrast, some fish leaving in the narrow environments like coral reefs have the necessity to maneuver very precisely in very small paths, some times even swim backwards. The box fish for example, uses mainly their pectoral fins for propulsion leaving there caudal fins almost exclusively for steering, there fin Oscillate from side to side, almost as if it were pivoted in one point.

Flexibility X Stiffness

Researchers of the MIT working on this subject of flexible fin propellers have come to many achievements regarding the developments towards a more efficient and quite way of propelling vessels underwater. Their Robotuna project served as a platform for testing different functional aspects aroung the theme.

One particular study caught my attention, which was the study from Michael S. Triantafyllou, Alexandra H. Techet, and Franz S. Hover, entitled: Review of Experimental Work in Biomimetic Foils*. This study tell us a bit about the effects of stiffness in the efficiency of such propulsion systems, drawing the conclusion, that with every different swing frequency/amplitude ratio, a specific stiffness of the fin would bring the best results regarding the consumption of energy. This suggested that there was another variable to be taken into account when designing flexible fin propulsion systems, which is the flexibility of the body of the submarine. * IEEE JOURNAL OF OCEANIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 29, NO. 3, JULY 2004

Wraping it up for now

These were some of the aspects that I considered most important and to keep in mind during the next phase, the conceptual phase. On the next post I will be writing about the design strategies I developed after this analysis and I will also tell a bit about the festo pneumatic muscle technology which I used as starting point for my proposal.

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/10/07/neptuno-submarine-a-small-step-towards-a-more-natural-way-of-exploring-the-oceans-part-2/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/10/07/neptuno-submarine-a-small-step-towards-a-more-natural-way-of-exploring-the-oceans-part-2/ Neptuno Submarine, a small step towards a more natural way of exploring the oceans - Part 1 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/400251719/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/09/23/neptuno-submarine-a-small-step-towards-a-more-natural-way-of-exploring-the-oceans-part-1/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:44:30 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/09/23/neptuno-submarine-a-small-step-towards-a-more-natural-way-of-exploring-the-oceans-part-1/ Some weeks ago I received an email from Thomas Brien, a Marine Design student at Massey University Auckland, New Zealand, who wants some help with his ongoing graduation project, two-person submarine. After writing back and forth I am posting here some detailed info about the Neptuno project, an experiment into to the development of a design concept for future submarines and their propulsion systems. It may help Thomas or anyone else in the pursuit of the little mermaid as I like to put it.

The Neptuno Submarine Concept submarine was my graduation project at the School of Arts and Design in Offenbach, Germany. I time where the letsevo website was not yet existent. It was first presented in the 17 of February of 2005. My supervisors for this project were: my great mentor Prof. Dieter Mankau (HfG Offenbach) and Dr. -Ing. Robert Mayr. The work was sponsored by the german automatization company Festo AG, which had interest in applications for there Pneumatic Muscle Technology.

Goal of the project:
Design a submarine that makes use of new developments in maritime propulsion research, more specifically: Flexible Fin propulsion (read: Fish Propulsion). Learn from what research was telling us about flexible fin propulsion and translate that in to a design of a two person research submarine propelled only, by the means of such propulsion system.

Startpoint at that time (Jun 2004) were research results from the MIT Robotuna (2000), and the “Forelle Flossenantrieb” from the university of Saarland, Germany (1995) along with many scientific articles on the subject from brilliant minds like W. Nachtigall, R. Blickham and Dr. A. Kesel on the great Biona Report.

Neptuno Submarine, a small step towards a more natural way of exploring the oceans
Neptuno Submarine, 2005, HfG Offenbach. Design: Henrique Monnerat

In the next days, I will we writing a series of posts to explain in detail how I came to this design and what happened after my graduation, when I received a full scholarship from Festo AG to develop a working model of the propulsion system conceptualized for the Neptuno Submarine in form of a post graduation study.

Stay tuned!

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/09/23/neptuno-submarine-a-small-step-towards-a-more-natural-way-of-exploring-the-oceans-part-1/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/09/23/neptuno-submarine-a-small-step-towards-a-more-natural-way-of-exploring-the-oceans-part-1/ Letsevo ECOSK8 Artist Decks http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/381598107/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/09/02/letsevo-ecosk8-artist-decks/#comments Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:43:56 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/09/02/letsevo-ecosk8-artist-decks/ Letsevo is addicted to Art, I have to confess. And the place where art meets product design is where the Ecosk8 Artist Series wants to be. It is with great pleasure that I review here the first collaborations of Artists for what Letsevo would love to have as a future series of skateboard decks. Letsevo wants to thank and congratulate all Artists for taking the time to participate and for there amazing designs! Want to know more about the these Artists, click on.

Click here to go to the gallery site on the ECOSK8 project page

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/09/02/letsevo-ecosk8-artist-decks/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/09/02/letsevo-ecosk8-artist-decks/ Scan Heads Art Project http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/359710391/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/08/scan-heads-art-project/#comments Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:39:22 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/08/scan-heads-art-project/ Scan Heads Group

Until now, a total of 19 Artists collaborated with 36 Artworks until today, Letsevo’s Favorite Picks are:

Sextafeira from Amnd (Brazil)
~ so many possibilities ~ from opaquEpiphany (Australia)

Thanks for all contributions! It very exciting to see all of your creations! Spread the word, push the button.

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/08/scan-heads-art-project/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/08/scan-heads-art-project/ Using Yahoo Pipes to aggregate Solidworks tutorials for the e.Moped project http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/358854489/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/08/using-yahoo-pipes-to-agregate-for-solidworks-tutorials-for-the-emoped-project/#comments Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:57:22 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/08/using-yahoo-pipes-to-agregate-for-solidworks-tutorials-for-the-emoped-project/ Solidworks tutorials filtered by yahoo pipes mashup tool

This experiment can turn out to be a new section on the e.Moped project site, It’s my first attempt to use yahoo pipes mashup tool. The pipe you see above can aggregate automatically solidworks+tutorial Tags in the bookmarking service Delicious along with tutorials from the the SWX Design website into an always updating piece of Java Sript code.

The result is what you seen here, a RSS feed capable of being placed into any website. There is a whole range of possibilities with this mashup tool, even combining Flickr, Geo Data Information to Display photos on Google Earth. I see my dream “Skateboard Ramp Mapping Widget” coming soon. Got any ideas for other cool pipes? write on..

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/08/using-yahoo-pipes-to-agregate-for-solidworks-tutorials-for-the-emoped-project/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/08/using-yahoo-pipes-to-agregate-for-solidworks-tutorials-for-the-emoped-project/ Iphone Collaborative Sketching App http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/357575410/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/06/iphone-collaboration-sketching-app/#comments Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:03:18 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/06/iphone-collaboration-sketching-app/

They Had to do it. I see some people getting really stoked with this. Skate graphics, interactive VJing, Interactive walls…keep thinking what will come out of it! Give it up for the brothers at Netsketchapp. Nico, lets do this?

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/06/iphone-collaboration-sketching-app/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/06/iphone-collaboration-sketching-app/ Google Earth´s Favorite Location: Letsevo’s BMX Lake Jump ramp, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/356583868/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/05/google-earth%c2%b4s-favorite-location-letsevos-bmx-lake-jump-ramp-rio-de-janeiro-brasil/#comments Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:56:52 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/05/google-earth%c2%b4s-favorite-location-letsevos-bmx-lake-jump-ramp-rio-de-janeiro-brasil/ Letsevo Lake Jump Ramp embeded in Google Earth

We all know old-school city architects ain’t got the nerves to jump, but if you just can’t wait for the next generation of city planers,check out Letsevo’s CAD modell Ramp in google earth. Get inspired, give your hood something to be proud of…

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/05/google-earth%c2%b4s-favorite-location-letsevos-bmx-lake-jump-ramp-rio-de-janeiro-brasil/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/08/05/google-earth%c2%b4s-favorite-location-letsevos-bmx-lake-jump-ramp-rio-de-janeiro-brasil/ Letsevo TV: Clay Shirky on Institutions vs. collaboration http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/338230523/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/07/17/letsevo-tv-clay-shirky-on-institutions-vs-collaboration/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:27:36 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/07/17/letsevo-tv-clay-shirky-on-institutions-vs-collaboration/
Link to Video

Back in 2005, Clay Shirky presented, among other interesting points, a good reflection on the values of contribution between people part of a institution and a group of collaborators. Anyone concerned in understanding more of where we are going should take some minutes to watch it.

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/07/17/letsevo-tv-clay-shirky-on-institutions-vs-collaboration/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/07/17/letsevo-tv-clay-shirky-on-institutions-vs-collaboration/ Green Thunders Meet 3DVIA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/331139236/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/07/09/green-thunders-kept-in-a-box/#comments Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:40:10 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/07/09/green-thunders-kept-in-a-box/ Green Thunders Kept in a Box

This is what you get when you export green thunders in a box from Rhinoceros as a .3dxml file and import into 3DVIA platform.

Navigate through the thunder storm I built by going to the Model`s page.

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/07/09/green-thunders-kept-in-a-box/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/07/09/green-thunders-kept-in-a-box/ Does the world need another Carbon Fiber bike? http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/310547035/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/06/12/does-the-world-need-another-carbon-fiber-bike/#comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:32:14 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/06/12/does-the-world-need-another-carbon-fiber-bike/ BME C-thru Frame - Awesome

If it looks as awesome as the amazingly crafted C-Thru Bike from BME, I am afraid it does.

The C-thru road frame is made from solid carbon rods carefully bonded together into its geometry. BME is the effort of the Slovakian engineer Brano Meres who has been experimenting among other things, with bamboo/carbon fiber constructions.

Now what would happen if we added a little bit of biology’s intelligence to Brano Meres’ construction?
Lets say, some adaptive design strategies regarding the spacing and dimension of the carbon rods….what do you think?

Nature puts material only where its needed… so there is a variation in the density of structures, always. Are the forces equal along the top tube of a Road Bike? If not…There could be some generative design patterns being applied to the construction defining its shape in relationship to the forces acting upon it…

Steffen R? What do you think? Ansys meets Generative Components meets Bike frame?

Give it up for Brano Meres. Amazing work, congratulations!

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/06/12/does-the-world-need-another-carbon-fiber-bike/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/06/12/does-the-world-need-another-carbon-fiber-bike/ Co-Branding Product Survey http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/303263698/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/06/02/co-branding-product-survey/#comments Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:59:50 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/06/02/co-branding-product-survey/ In an attempt to promote the exchange of knowledge between users and companies I am proud to put here at Letsevo the first post about two designers from Rio de Janeiro who are doing academic research at the TU Delft in the Netherlands.

Fabricio Astua and Richard Verdoorn (Estereo Design) are participating in the Master Course of Strategic Product Design in the TU Delft and are currently working on a project about co-branding and its influence on value perception.

Until the 11th of June, they are receiving the thoughts of users in a Net Questionnaire they prepared.

Further information about the research can be provided afterwards by the two of them in order to avoid biased responses. Thanks everyone in advance for participating in their survey.

I just put my inputs there and I am leaving the link here to all of you wanting to collaborate and leave your mark in their work.

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/06/02/co-branding-product-survey/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/06/02/co-branding-product-survey/ Aos artistas http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/270085647/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/04/14/aos-artistas/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:59:48 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/04/14/aos-artistas/ ecosk8_dhslide_design_templ.jpgNuma iniciativa de envolver artistas e de reunir desenhos para futuras artes dos shapes do projeto ecosk8 estou colocando disponível aqui no site um arquivo .PSD (photoshop) para servir de base para futuros gráficos dos decks ecosk8.

Se vc é um artista e quer participar:Leia mais

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/04/14/aos-artistas/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/04/14/aos-artistas/ Novo Shape em Desenvolvimento http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/269975712/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/04/14/novo-shape-em-desenvolvimento/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:19:37 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/04/14/novo-shape-em-desenvolvimento/ Novo shape em Desenvolvimento do Projeto ECOSK8

 

 

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/04/14/novo-shape-em-desenvolvimento/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/04/14/novo-shape-em-desenvolvimento/ Letsevo now features Basecamp Collaboration Tool http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/251472903/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/14/letsevo-now-features-basecamp-collaboration-tool/#comments Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:02:13 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/14/letsevo-now-features-basecamp-collaboration-tool/ we love basecamp
The Letsevo Foundation has just sponsored the implementation of Basecamp application on the backend of the Letsevo network. The idea is to improve the communication between Innovators of the group in order to speed up the development process of each project.

 

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/14/letsevo-now-features-basecamp-collaboration-tool/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/14/letsevo-now-features-basecamp-collaboration-tool/ Letsevo TV: Surfer’s Paradise Amazônia http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/250120063/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/12/surfers-paradise-amazonia/#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:10:41 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/12/surfers-paradise-amazonia/
Surf’s up when the two rivers, Rio Negro and Rio Solimões meet each other. Most Def a Letsevo Destination. Enjoy the images.

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/12/surfers-paradise-amazonia/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/12/surfers-paradise-amazonia/ What do we think about “We Think” http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/248708532/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/10/we-think/#comments Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:30:02 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/10/we-think/

Charles Leadbeater just finished his book We-Think. And for it’s start, he put out this video in youtube questioning the crowd about the challenges of today’s sharing culture.

well, I think that the days of the lonely scientist are gone. Today, initiating conversations and sharing ideas is the a fundamental task in order to solve the complex problems that we face today.

Letsevo was started with the philosophy that there is a great power in open collaboration, and that great products can be achieved through an open interaction between people with different backgrounds. As a product designer, I have the power to visualize products and new uses of technologies. Designers can even go a little bit further and build rough prototypes of them. But in product Design, most of the times you need a lot of help implementing ideas, testing, taking them to production and finally market insertion. I think that sharing ideas and experiences on all of the development stages provide a chance for people who know better to influence and to collaborate in the design of products.

That is one of the very first ideas behind Letsevo, finding people with similar dreams to help bringing them to reality.

Now, how do you earn a living when everybody is sharing their ideas?

Letsevo thinks there has to be a balance on what you share and what sell. For example: Participating on the development of the open source operational system Linux, gives programmers the possibility to show off their skills and gain recognition in their field. Linux was created by a crowd of collaborators and it is free to download and to use it. But if you want to have support on implementing Linux in your company, you pay companies like Redhat to help you setting up everything right.

Sharing ideas in communities like Linux is a way of most people to start their professional life nowadays, gather experience, gain reputation in their field. Often, a lot of the people ho collaborate in projects like Linux are offered great jobs at companies like Microsoft, IBM or Google.

I really don’t know yet if something like that could be applied in product design, everything here at Letsevo is still really experimental. All we know is that sharing is fun and help ourselves achieve higher dreams.

The conversation has started, what do you think?

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/10/we-think/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/10/we-think/ Book suggestion: Democratizing Innovation http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/247448164/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/07/book-suggestion-democratizing-innovation/#comments Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:59:18 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/07/book-suggestion-democratizing-innovation/ Democratizing Innovation - Eric Von Hippel

Long before the term “User Generated” became popular, Eric von Hippel, an MIT Professor, has been spreading his thoughts about the role of “Lead users” in product innovation.

He has written a “Must Read” book for everyone interested in the way innovations come about. In Democratizing Innovation he dismantles the myth that most of Innovations come from a couple of top secret research centers inside the headquarters of big companies. The book shows us many examples of innovative products, born at the heart of user communities that are than later adopted by the companies and brought to the market.

The book can be downloaded for free in .PDF format and for those who prefer watching a video than to read a book, MIT World website has a great video of a lecture from Professor von Hippel at MIT. Reading or Watching, Democratizing Innovation is a Lets Evo top 5!

If you want to know more about user driven innovation, I definetely suggest taking a look at this lecture by Charles Leadbeater given at the TED Conference.

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/07/book-suggestion-democratizing-innovation/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/03/07/book-suggestion-democratizing-innovation/ Join the new Letsevo Project: e.Moped - Open Development of an Electric Mobility Device http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/242781298/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/28/join-the-new-letsevo-project-emoped-open-development-of-an-electric-mobility-device/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:54:05 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/28/join-the-new-letsevo-project-emoped-open-development-of-an-electric-mobility-device/ e.Moped Design Project website

Today is the offcial start of the e.Moped Design Project. After having talked to some friends about Letsevo’s plans to start a open source project of an electric scooter, the wishes have finally come to reality.

I spent a a couple of hours programming and setting up the space for this project here at Letsevo.

Colaborators are wanted, we need engineers, electrical mechanics, motor developers, test riders, designers….any one wanting to evolve this idea further.

I know this a pretty daring task, to build such a vehicle from scratch. But for me, the wish of some day, be cruising around the neighborhoods on what we built, is much greater than the fear of failling. Not to mention having in the end, collaborated for more clean ways of transporting ourselfs around our planet!

So Let the journey begin!

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/28/join-the-new-letsevo-project-emoped-open-development-of-an-electric-mobility-device/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/28/join-the-new-letsevo-project-emoped-open-development-of-an-electric-mobility-device/ Wikitecture and the possible begin of collaborative Computer Aided Design http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/241995495/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/27/wikitecture-and-the-possible-begin-of-collaborative-computer-aided-design/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:28:00 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/27/wikitecture-and-the-possible-begin-of-collaborative-computer-aided-design/ This next article seems to Letsevo as a great mark in the collaborative design process. Wikitecture, as the folks from the Wikitecture Studio are calling it, is the first attempt I have seen in order to solve a long anticipated challenge of coming up with a programming language to build CAD constructions in a Wiki-like way. Wikitecture, as demonstrated in this youtube video, is a Secondlife scripting based project, to empower people to build Architecture together just like writing and editing Wikipedia entrances.

Check this youtube video to get the picture of what I am talking about.

This is the birth of a whole new ecology system of Industry, software companies and contributors collaborating to build great things!

Are companies going to ignore that we, the people, can help each other build all the products we want when technologies like Wikitecture become more mature?? Are companies going to react like majority of the Academic field reacted against Wikipedia, rejecting the fact that the wisdom of the crowd could in deed create a Encyclopedia from scratch?

I am a true believer that the things are going to change around here. Maybe it is time to start a new Letsevo project together!! A problem so complex that we would need the help of each other to achieve great results. Something around mobility, an collaborative electric moped? Something so modular, everyone could have its own customized electric moped to cruise around the neighborhood. Seems challenging to me, and fun to work on.

Can we get some companies to “Blend-in” their CAD parts for us to design around it? Batteries, Electric Motors, suspension forks, Disc brakes?

Can we get some brothers that share this dream? Marcello, Piers, Jochen, Nico, Christian, Basti, Peter, Gross….all the creative minds out there…Lets Wikit!?

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/27/wikitecture-and-the-possible-begin-of-collaborative-computer-aided-design/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/27/wikitecture-and-the-possible-begin-of-collaborative-computer-aided-design/ Kluster.com - A step to revolutionize the economics of product development http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/240911236/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/25/klustercom-a-step-to-revolutionize-the-economics-of-product-development/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:43:11 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/25/klustercom-a-step-to-revolutionize-the-economics-of-product-development/ There has been a lot of hype nowadays around concepts like crowd-sourcing and open-source and user-generated things. Lots of new business are been started and closed everyday trying to grasp this leap of todays way of working. But many of them haven’t achieved great success because business plans for such initiatives are still very difficult to succeed.

There are lots of problems regarding the rewards participation in product development, when in the end, someone is making money out of the ideas generated buy contributors around the globe.

Thats where Kluster gets my consideration and I will explain why. Kluster is a brand new company launched on 18th of February. It is a social network focussed on the development of products (which can be anything, from mp3 players and logos to events) which aims to reward every contribution to projects with some kind of monetary participation of the total value of the project.

More detais of how everything work can be seen in this Techcrunch story on Kluster.

Here is Kluster Demonstration Video in Youtube

I will tell a little bit of my impressions as I (of course) tryed it out.

First, I was amazed by how easy it is to setup everything and to start working on on going projects. The idea is that every project is broken down in phases which have a time stamp and a Reward is good to make complex tasks manageable. If you have an idea (called “spark”) you can contribute right away. If your “Sparks” follows to the next phase you automatically already wins participation on the gains on the end of the project. If you see a “Spark” from someone else, you can them suggest improvents “Amps”, which if are also aproved, you get participation points called “Watts”.

“Watts” are the currency inside of Kluster which can be changed in to Real money like the “Linden dollars” of second Life.

This is where Kluster starts to get real interest and where I think it has its potential. Once you have “watts” and you receive them by contributing to a project or to simply completing your profile you can “Invest” them on the Ideas “Sparks” of others, If there Sparks advance, you also get participation points “watts”. But if they don’t advance, you lose your invested “Watts”. This is a great incentive for people to vote on other ideas, and to vote well, because otherwise, you are using what you invested, your watts, your work hours.

In 45 minutes, I filled my profile, Contributed with “Sparks” for 3 Projects, Invested some “watts” in 3 other “Sparks” and Invited friends to participate and made 2670 “watts”.

Then I questioned my self, how many dollars does one “Watt” gives me?? Maybe some of you can answer this. I just don’t know.

But to finalize this post:

I think Kluster is an amazing experiment in this new world of wikinomics and hope to learn more about it as I try it. Will it survive the real world? Will it empower people to solve more problems? Will companies use it as a tool for developing products?

Kluster Profile Page

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a view of my profile page in Kluster

I would love to here some comments here at letsevo so I pass the MIC now. Peace

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/25/klustercom-a-step-to-revolutionize-the-economics-of-product-development/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/25/klustercom-a-step-to-revolutionize-the-economics-of-product-development/ Letsevo feat. Upcoming.org + YOU = Collaborative Innovation Calendar http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/237623111/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/19/letsevo-feat-upcomingorg-you-collaborative-innovation-calendar/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2008 15:30:00 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/19/letsevo-feat-upcomingorg-you-collaborative-innovation-calendar/ A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me if I could tell him about design events that are happening here in Europe since he is planning to spend some months traveling around the old continent.

I sent him a couple of events that I know happen every year and pointed out to him Upcoming.org, one of those clever web 2.0 tools that does the task of organizing shared events from users around the globe. Think Flickr for your calendar, did some thing sparkle in your mind? Well, it sure sparkled in my mind that craves for exploring the potentials of such tools.

Why am I talking about a calendar tool here in letsevo? What does that have to do with product innovation?

Before starting to explain or respond to these two questions I would like you to please take a look at the Sidebar of the Letsevo website, the right sidebar. YEAH YEAH YEAH!!!

I am freaking glad to anounce the brand new Letsevo Collaboration Calendar! Powered by Upcoming.org and some mad artists/designers/scientists/cool-kids/inventors/whatever contributors that want to join the team of letsevo in the task of tagging every event surrounding technology, innovation, design.

Why am I doing this?
Because I want to share the events I know with the developing community and in this away help spreading the news about places to go when you want to exchange ideas, see new things and learn whats going on.
Why collaborativately?
Because I am positive that there are always people that know more then us, and when we do this together we have more power to achieve greater changes.
Why should you participate?
Because its fun to change the world, action by action. But in order to answer this question more accurately I will tell you a small story that happened to me:

I got to know that this year’s Volvo Sportsdesign award theme was EcoDesign through a post in the Design Blog “Design.com.br”, writen by Fernando Galdino. Without Fernando writing it about it in his blog, Letsevo would probably miss the deadline of the Award. We, from theEcosk8 project, sent immediately a prototype of our ecological Skateboard to the Award. And as I wrote here before, we were nominated for the Board equipment category!! If it wasn’t for Fernando Galdino and his love for sharing his knowledge, maybe it would have been too late for us to participate.

I hope Letsevo Calendar helps someone just like Fernando’s post helped the ecosk8 project!

Wanna participate? Logon to the Letsevo Calendar group inside of Upcoming.org and start to change the things around here. Lets evo!!!

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/19/letsevo-feat-upcomingorg-you-collaborative-innovation-calendar/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/19/letsevo-feat-upcomingorg-you-collaborative-innovation-calendar/ Letsevo and Fibra Design Sustentável at Volvo Sportsdesign Award http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/235051507/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/14/letsevo-and-fibra-design-sustentavel-at-volvo-sportsdesign-award/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:54:59 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/14/letsevo-and-fibra-design-sustentavel-at-volvo-sportsdesign-award/ Ecosk8 project nominated for the Volvo Sportsdesign Award

It took a while to believe but we were there! Our Ecosk8 project was nominated for the board category of this years Volvo Sportsdesign Award. Among names like Salomon Snowboards, Arbor Snowboards and amazing projects like the Ecomoana Surfboard, our “Folha Seca” skateboard was the only chosen product from the southern hemisphere.

I had the chance, together with Pedro Themoteo and Bruno Temer from Fibra Design Sustentável
to go to this years Design Forum at ISPO to represent our project. Our open development project was chosen to participate in the “Elevator Pitch” where some of the best projects had 90 seconds to tell what they were about. Bruno represented our team and did an amazing job, finishing our message right on the last second bring a wild applause from the crowd.

Check all Letsevo pictures from Volvo Design Forum 2008

Checkout some of the Pictures of the Event!!

At the end, Salomon Snowboards was awarded with the final prize with their “Sickstick” Bamboo Board. We got to know David Farcot and Henri Rançon from Salomon and were amazed by David Farcot’s words of support to our project while he spoke on stage. That was awesome! congratulations David and Henri.

Another great thing about the award is that it happens in the same time as the Volvo Design Forum - with this years main theme - Eco Design. Among the several lectures the forum organizes workshops that are really interesting to take part. I got the chance to participate on the “Build a chariot from Bamboo” workshop, organized by Nick Lobnitz and Bob Giddens from Carry Freedom. They have a sweet open-source project on bicycle racks and share their knowledge with everyone planning to build a bike rack.

More news about the ecosk8 project can be seen in almost real time at ecosk8’s open development website.


The Volvo Sportsdesign Award website

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/14/letsevo-and-fibra-design-sustentavel-at-volvo-sportsdesign-award/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2008/02/14/letsevo-and-fibra-design-sustentavel-at-volvo-sportsdesign-award/ Can DIY save the queen? http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/199980244/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/12/14/can-diy-save-the-queen/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:44:12 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/12/14/can-diy-save-the-queen/ It is time to get environmental again, and I want to do that pointing out to a new video send to me by a fellow designer Bernardo van de Schepop (Valeu!!).

The video, part of the website The story of Stuff,aims to expose the inner workings of consumer culture and clarify the dangers of not seeing the bigger picture when it comes to ecology. Story of stuff is a short but powerful video on what I like to call the ecology of products. Unlike many of the videos and manifestations “pro” environment, Story of stuff puts consumer culture as part of the problem, bringing interesting insights to the Eco-Dilemma. The video is 20 minutes long and it is a definitely “must see” for everyone on board of our planet.

After watching the video and thinking about my role as a designer, I do fear of my work feeding up this system of consumption even more. But as a romantic idealistic dude, I dream of the time where create, hack and modify will be the words on the streets, a time when people remix more than buy. When this day comes you will know we have moved from the “you are what you buy society” to the “you are what you make or modify society”.

Do you think I am going too far on this? well take 3 minutes to read this great post at the ponoko blog about the GENERATION C ( “C” standing for digitaly created content) and you will maybe start to believe that this dream isn`t as far as we think.

Lets Evo.

Source:

A great blog post about Story of Stuff explains the motivations of the project.
The Story of Stuff video can also be seen in chapters on a youtube channel.

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/12/14/can-diy-save-the-queen/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/12/14/can-diy-save-the-queen/ Testing the 3DVia Shape Software http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/192460558/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/11/29/testing-the-3dvia-shape-software/#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:33:32 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/11/29/testing-the-3dvia-shape-software/ I just had to try to build something in 3dvia Shape to see what it can do. I was also curious to test 3dvia`s uploading process. After downloading their Shape sofware, which didn`t take more than a minute, the program prompted me with a screen to login the system. After typing in my 3dvia username and password I could start playing with the functions of the software…there are not many I have to tell… and 3dvia has some video tutorials about using the software which I didn`t check, accept for the one about applying textures.

I was set up to build a 3D modell of skateboard bmx ramp for all the brothers and sisters who like to go big virtually. I just had to do it!

I started out by drawing the side view line and then extruded them to give some volume. After photoshoping a EVO skateboards logo to one off my wood texture files I was prepared to give this ramp a unique look. Pretty simple and not much of novelty in this. Applying the textures was pretty easy so was scaling and rotating it to match the scale of the Ramp. After being pleased how it looked, I just hit the Publish button and I was taken to their website where I could fill some details about the 3d model I was uploading. You can choose publish your model for everyone or to keep it private which means only you or who you want to show/give can see/download (this is nice if you want to keep it hidden before you have everything build or even if you want to collaborate in top secret style with other people) You can set a creative commons license and tags to make your model easily searchable. The modell is added to your profile page and can be at any given time edited again.

Screenshot of my skateboard ramp in 3dvia shape

Here is a link to a screenshot of the 3d ramp in 3dvia shape

Everything is still pretty ruff, there isn’t much accuracy in building as a product designer would like.Lets hope Dassaut systemes, responsible for the software bring some functionality to the game. I think it only then it could be an awesome tool for collaboration projects like the ecosk8 project that has been happening at Lets Evo since 2006.

Some questions to start a discussion about the impact of such tools into the design process:

What benefits could it bring to companies?
Are user really motivated to participate?
Will 3dvia Shape develop itself into a tool for designers and engineers and users to communicate in real products?
Are we designers going to get used to interacting so early with users about design decisions?

only time will tell.

Enjoy the 3D ramp!

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/11/29/testing-the-3dvia-shape-software/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/11/29/testing-the-3dvia-shape-software/ 3dvia - 3D Software and social platform. Is it going to democratize design? http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/190002633/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/11/25/3dvia-3d-software-and-social-platform-is-it-going-to-democratize-design/#comments Sat, 24 Nov 2007 23:22:01 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/11/25/3dvia-3d-software-and-social-platform-is-it-going-to-democratize-design/ A couple of months ago I wrote in a post my humble manifesto to democratization of design, claiming that we “hyperlinked” kids want to influence more and more how products are. I also wrote in another post about the changes that simple free CAD software could bring to the product development process alowing brands to collaborate with its most valuable asset: its users.

Today I am happy to write about 3dVia Shape 3d software and its social network platform which are initiatives of Dassault Systemes, the french firm responsible for the famous Design and engineering software: Solidworks.

Dassaut systemes is aiming to grasp the user-generated design wave by enabling everyone to create 3d Modells and share them in their platform just like you do with your pictures by flickr. So at www.3dvia.com anyone can login and start creating, sharing and rating each others design.

Google started ahead with its Sketchup software and 3dWarehouse but deliver very low-quality graphics and accuracy to build real stuff with it. I found it so bad I didn’t even boder writing about it here in Letsevo. Now 3dvia Shape sofware, seems to have has a lot more graphic power than google`s software. One thing that bodered me is that even dough you can see amazing models made by some users in their gallery, I can seem to imagine that they were build right inside of the program. I may be wrong but by looking at the avaiable tutorials in their website it seems like their software still lack a lot of the building tools most of the product design software have (Sweep along rail, Lofts, fillets….) meaning you cannot build complex shapes right away. Lets hope they increment it right away.

But what really sets 3dvia apart from google is it´s nice social network features where users can build profiles and embed 3d models as widgets in other websites just like youtube. You still need to download a plugin to view it but it is awesome.

Download the player and check the following out:

This guy build a sweet bmx bike!! That could be the user of the future saying: look! BRAND, this is how I want my product, are you going to ignore me? I think this is going to be awesome, this platform can serve as place to exchange files with other designers, engineers and to also show the users what is beeing done and have there comments write on the spot!

Now check this video Dassaut Systemes made:

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtZxE8C6aik

Sweet huhn? Now in my opnion its is going to be a long way for it to be reallity, but I have the feeling they are in the right track.

My two hints for Dassaut Systemes are:

1.Let people import and export geometrical data from other 3d sofwares like .iges, .dwg, .3dm ( don´t try to be like sony and the blue-ray disc!!!) If you let us use your software to read existing data than design companies are going to take this serious. Until then it will be only internet hype not a social revolution.

2.If you want to be really a tool for the product design STARTUP companies in the the collaboration era, think wiki or basecamp for product design: 3d files with construction history and the ability to handle multiple layers. To help my point picture this scenario. I want to build an electric bike and I am only a designer. I have some nice design ideas and I find in the internet a couple companies that procuce batteries, other companies produce motors….other build suspension forks…I call them up and invite them for a project hosted at your site and we all start uploadings components in to one file having the power to collaborate in real time! How cool would that be!? Content Central and e-drawings for the masses?

Give us the tools and we are gonna build stuff you could never imagine of! Yeah.

Another nice story about 3Dvia

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/11/25/3dvia-3d-software-and-social-platform-is-it-going-to-democratize-design/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/11/25/3dvia-3d-software-and-social-platform-is-it-going-to-democratize-design/ Blow up your skateboard pool http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/166887141/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/10/08/blow-up-your-skatebord-pool/#comments Mon, 08 Oct 2007 09:53:18 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/10/08/blow-up-your-skatebord-pool/

8000 Balloons + skateboard pool = Air popping skate session.

blow up your dreams!
link video

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/10/08/blow-up-your-skatebord-pool/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/10/08/blow-up-your-skatebord-pool/ And the DIY Nobel Prize goes to… http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/161911960/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/27/and-the-diy-nobel-prize-goes-to/#comments Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:52:22 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/27/and-the-diy-nobel-prize-goes-to/ William Kamkwamba and his self made electric-producing windmill
…William Kamkwamba. That’s right, if the DIY community had to pick a role model for this year, it has to be William Kamkwamba from Malawi, Africa. William built his family a electricity-producing windmill. And He was 14 when he did that. Using plans he found on a library book called “Using Energy” and modifying them to his needs, he managed to light up 4 light bulbs and to power 2 radios. Now with 19 he has plans to build a bigger one to pump water to a irrigation system for the whole village. How awesome is that?

His presentation at TED is worth getting inspired from.

Nice to mention is that William’s act was first published in a Malawian Blog which was read by TEDGlobal Conference Director Emeka Okafor who decided to invite him for this year’s conference. We see user innovation resolving local problems being spread in grassroots media (blogs) and inspiring global changes. Now William is also writing Blog.

People like him represent the new breed of entrepreneurs that are going to change things around here.

Is this the future or what?

Photos from: www.ted.com

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/27/and-the-diy-nobel-prize-goes-to/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/27/and-the-diy-nobel-prize-goes-to/ Lets Evo on Widgets http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/160573612/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/24/lets-evo-on-widgets/#comments Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:14:35 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/24/lets-evo-on-widgets/ I am experimenting with the concept of Widgets which lets you take peaces of webcode from PLACE A and embed in PLACE B on the web. A common use of it: An embed you tube video on a Blog makes use of an Widget to do it.

With the growing need of customizing the experience on the internet, a number of services emerged to make it possible for people to personalize there web experience. Netvibes and Igoogle are two examples. With them you can make a personalized Start Page with all the relevant information to you (weather, to do lists, Email Inbox, you name it…)

What is the relevance for open design and development?

In a real-time integrated design platform, widgets enable the flow of information without having to rely on centralized decisions. Widgets make it possible to quickly spread ideas and to communicate project updates through whatever platform you want.

Imagine you have a small bike factory in your garage, and you are developing a new concept for a bike frame and you have chosen to “Open Design it”, that means, like we are doing in the ecosk8 project, you are openly talking about our ideas before they become reality. You came up with new geometry concept that’s going to sweep 3 seconds out every riders downhill time a the local DH track, and for this frame geometry you need a different aluminium tube that can handle the curving of this new geometry. You don’t want to wait until people come to your website to see that you are searching for different Aluminium Alloy Distributors. You want your widget out there spreading the word for you.

Now imagine this same small bike factory and it’s team of 3 pro-Am riders. Every one of them has a blog and a myspace page where they publish their content. Doing the widget thing you could easily publish their stories onto your factory website and vice-versa. Boom! evolution.

Your factory next bike video needs a new sound track!? Boom! the whole myspace community knows about it!

Of course Lets Evo Lab couldn’t sleep a night to figure out how to have its own Blog widget. I’m no programmer (I wish I was) but looking around I found out that there are some platforms that enable we, the people, to easily create a widget for your Blog. Here are some of them: SpringWidgets, WidgetBox and Yourminis.

Using Widgetbox I made what can be proudly called the Beta Version of Lets Evo’s “wherever you want it to be widget” 0.0001.

Lets Evo Widget in Netvibes
Lets Evo Widget on my Netvibes Page

 

 

 

Lets Evo Widget in Igoogle
Lets Evo Widget on my Igoogle Page

 

 

 

Those brave enough to give it a shot can do so by going to: http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/lets-evo-blog
and placing it where ever they want! Feedbacks are welcome!

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/24/lets-evo-on-widgets/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/24/lets-evo-on-widgets/ Worldchanging book impressions http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/159376923/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/21/worldchanging-book-impressions/#comments Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:16:00 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/21/worldchanging-book-impressions/ My copy of worldchanging
My copy of Worldchanging – A user’s guide for the 21st century has just arrived! After randomly reading their Blog and being punched in the face by Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth I just felt I had to increase my sustainability level.

This massive 600 page book is a wonderful resource of sustainable examples gathered by the worldchanging blog community. Its 7 sections (stuff, shelter, cities, community, business, politics, planet) cover a wide range of applied ideas on sustainability from “water purification” to “spreading the power of café conversations” (two articles of the book)

The whole concept of small articles is just cool. This format is awesome, you don’t even have to read pages and pages in order to spice up your ecological charm. A quick read throughout one of the articles before that special date and you be sounding like a down to earth “worth a marriage” kind of dude. Could I convince you now?

Jokes aside, this book is an amazing resource and should be read by all of those citizens willing to make a change.

Got some eco strategies of your own you wanna share with? Favorite articles of the book people should know about? Write on.

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/21/worldchanging-book-impressions/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/21/worldchanging-book-impressions/ World’s Biggest Skateboard http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/158418827/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/19/worlds-biggest-skateboard/#comments Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:27:28 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/19/worlds-biggest-skateboard/
link to this video

There is something evo about record breakers and because of that I have put up this list of videos from the world’s biggest skateboards. If you wanna help built the next biggest board, lets chat, but there will be no open source in here, it’s going to be top secret for the sake of competiton.

Have fun watching them!

Links to videos: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/19/worlds-biggest-skateboard/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/19/worlds-biggest-skateboard/ Collective Sketching with SwarmSketch http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/157967327/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/18/collective-sketching-with-swarmsketch/#comments Tue, 18 Sep 2007 08:00:19 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/18/collective-sketching-with-swarmsketch/ When a first saw this two years ago I though it was just another internet “waist my time hype”. In deed it can actually fall into this category if you aren’t interested in how collective creation can be achieved. The fact is that Peter Edmunds’ Swarm Sketch it’s actually damn good example of the collective power of the internet.

SwarmSketch uses the concept of a drawing task to visualize the power of collective organization. It does so setting the rules into which collective intelligent can exist.

This is how it works:

Every week a randomly subject is chosen to become the Drawing task for the week. Every visitor can contribute with a new line to the sketch. Following that, the visitor can vote for the relevance of the lines of other visitors, giving a opacity level to them. The darkness of each line represents the average of other visitor’s votes. In this way visitors help to moderate the direction in which the drawing is going (self regulation). After a week or when the Sketch reaches 1000 lines, the final result is shown and a new is started.

The gallery of the project shows every subject that was collective sketched since the start of it in 2005. A nice animation from the beginning to the end of each sketch can be seen along with all statistics about it.

Swarm Sketch of a Squid

Swarm Sketch of a Squid - Image source: swarmsketch.com

visit SwarmSketch

 

 

 

Originaly posted by Henrique Monnerat at Lets Evo Blog

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]]> http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/18/collective-sketching-with-swarmsketch/feed/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/18/collective-sketching-with-swarmsketch/ Adobe Photoshop is going 3D http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/letsevo/~3/157562129/ http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/17/adobe-photoshop-is-going-3d/#comments Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:42:14 +0000 Henrique Monnerat http://www.lets-evo.net/2007/09/17/adobe-photoshop-is-going-3d/ After Adobe Acrobat 3D, which makes possible the visualization of complex 3D objects in .PDF format, Adobe is experimenting with the generation and ilumination of 3D objects wright inside of Photoshop.

With the help of Strata 3d(in) Plugins for Photoshop, displayed earlier this month in Photoshop World Conference in Las Vegas, Adobe is hoping to bridge the gap between the complex authoring world of 3D models and its palette of Products.

Strada 3D Plug-In Screenshot

Plug-In Screenshot of a shoe 3D modell generated from a series of photographs of the real shoe

Functions like the generation of simple 3D modells and the generation of complex 3D modells (with textures!!) from photographs and the return of it as a 3d Layer into photoshop CS3 extended are all possible with this new plug-In suite. Once the modell is in a photoshop 3D layer, it can be rotated, iluminated and even exported as a Acrobat 3D file or a webpage. How sweet is that?

It seams a logical step for a company like Adobe, which has been claiming its key role in the digital creative market but hasn’t done much for us product designers. Strata seams to be a company of its own and I couldn’t find exa