oh man

things are getting very, very interesting
out there and in here alike

in here 76design is preparing a massive music biz strike
but more of that in a moment…

meanwhile, out there…

• out there we have the RIAA finally winning its first lawsuit against a music fan - a single mom who may now be fined over $200k for having a small collection of downloaded mp3s on her computer!
• out there we have Prince giving away millions (yes millions!) of free copies of his latest CD as newspaper inserts
• out there we now have Radiohead pushing the envelope by treating its new recordings as shareware, allowing users to download mp3s at will and to pay as much as they choose for them, from zilch to whatever
• and out there we have this awesome blog post by Bob Lefsetz, music industry veteran and renowned music biz analyst, in which Bob calls it like it is, pointing to the desperate need for a new business model in the music industry, and ripping the pathetic failure of the mainstream music biz to develop one.

At one point Bob rants:

“The public is no longer unsophisticated. One reason fans are paying Radiohead is because the money is going directly to the band. If they buy the major label product, they believe the money goes to the man, who is SUING THEM!

The fan has no interest in the label’s business model. The fan is just that, SOMEONE DEDICATED TO A BAND’S MUSIC!

How do you get someone dedicated?”

And this - dear readers - is where the rubber hits the road. Very soon now, by the end of this year at the very latest, 76design will unveil a revolutionary music industry platform that specifically addresses these fundamental questions and issues. Bob Lefsetz gets it. He understands exactly where we’re at and why. Bob is asking the right questions at the right time. We at 76design are about to answer them.

Sounds like a lot of hype, right? Well it’s not. Our platform offers fans and bands a simple, efficient and revolutionary new way to manage a mutually satisfying musical economy. It’s so simple and obvious that when we launch people will be kicking themselves and asking why nobody else did this before. Because it is a win-win situation for everyone. Everyone except the labels.

Our secret project is in full production but it is still under wraps. I can’t wait til we get to show you what we’re cooking up. It’s really going to shake things up. In a couple months Bob Lefsetz will have something very new and very exciting to write about.
js

Steve sent around an interesting link the other day:

http://www.37signals.com/papers/introtopatterns/index.html

It’s an article that seeks to apply to web design the notion of A Pattern Language that was famously and wondrously developed by Christopher Alexander several decades ago in a book of the same name. Alexander’s book (the second of a trilogy actually) was about architecture, but his unique approach to thinking about how we create and use space has spawned a kind of minor cult, of which I’d say I’m a fringe member. Which is only to say that when I first came across Alexander’s book many years ago I was deeply affected by his approach to structuring knowledge via patterns, and it has remained an inspiration ever since, though somehow I keep giving away the copies I obtain and never have one of my own (sigh).

Alexander’s ‘pattern languages’ are sort of worlds within worlds, a way of expressing networked relations between objects so that when you think one you necessarily engage the others. In many ways his book entirely accidentally foresaw the basic structure of the hypertextual web, and has proven useful in devising and managing database taxonomies too (just learned this through a quick google search…google is all about pattern languages too I suppose). When I look at this very blog with its categories and trackbacks and various hierarchies, it too is a kind of pattern language.

Here is a link to a site that offers a surf-able (tho stripped down) version of his book:

http://downlode.org/etext/patterns/

One of the things that the 37signals essay picks up on is what I’d call the ’scribble’ effect that Alexander used, or what maybe is sometimes called back-of-a-napkin thinking. It’s a quick and dirty but amazingly effective way of conveying information and organizing thoughts. Of course it has become a bit trendy too, not always in a good way. I remember seeing the napkin on which Daniel Liebeskind submitted his $170-million design for the Royal Ontario Museum redesign, which he won. but it seems that in Liebeskind’s case his quick-and-dirty approach was really something of a masquerade for a lack of insight and research because the project’s way over budget and has gone back to the drawing board numerous times.

Anyway, I think Alexander’s pattern languages are as useful now as they were when he created them, if not more so. The book is an extraordinary resource for thinking about networks and knowledge and design. Not to mention building a house!

I’m not usually one to gush, but it just occurred to me as I sat here writing up a proposal for a really cool project that I think we’re very likely going to win, having just finished an excellent lunchtime learning session about Action Scripting led by our venerable Lead Designer, and basically getting this and that done usefully and efficiently with other people in the  studio that …I LOVE MY JOB! It’s been about 3 months now since I arrived at 76design, fresh from a bloodcurdling year in grad school (OK, it was a crazy idea) and it has been a blast from day 1. Talented, good-humoured and supportive co-workers, demanding but well-heeled clients, nice digs, visionary leadership…hey, it’s a great setup and I’m really looking forward to 2007! Thanks to all of you who have made room for me here at 76design!
j