// surfacetension

Creativity, Consumption, Communication Culture, Design, Education, Language, Play, Sustainable Innovation, Technology

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Using inexpensive materials configured and tuned to capture microwave signals, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have designed a power-harvesting device with efficiency similar to that of modern solar panels. The device wirelessly converts the microwave signal to direct current voltage capable of recharging a cell phone battery or other small electronic device, according to a report appearing in the journal Applied Physics Letters in December 2013. It operates on a similar principle to solar panels, which convert light energy into electrical current. But this versatile energy harvester could be tuned to harvest the signal from other energy sources, including satellite signals, sound signals or Wi-Fi signals, the researchers say. The key to the power harvester lies in its application of metamaterials, engineered structures that can capture various forms of wave energy and tune them for useful application

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Four Numbers That Explain Why Facebook Acquired WhatsApp

Four Numbers That Explain Why Facebook Acquired WhatsApp

WhatsApp Co-Founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton

Earlier today, Facebook announced its acquisition of WhatsApp for $16 billion. It’s a spectacular milestone for the company’s co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton, and their remarkable team.

From the moment they opened the doors of WhatsApp, Jan and Brian wanted a different kind of company. While others sought attention, Jan and Brian shunned the spotlight, refusing even to hang a sign outside the WhatsApp offices in Mountain View. As competitors promoted games and rushed to build platforms, Jan and Brian remained devoted to a clean, lightning fast communications service that works flawlessly.

This approach has served WhatsApp well and its users better. WhatsApp has done for messaging what Skype did for voice and video calls. By using the Internet as its communications backbone, WhatsApp has completely transformed personal communications, which was previously dominated by the world’s largest wireless carriers.  

For the past three years, it’s been our privilege to work shoulder-to-shoulder with Jan and Brian as their close business partner and investor. It’s been a remarkable journey, and we could not be happier for these talented underdogs whose unshakeable beliefs and maverick natures epitomize the spirit of Silicon Valley.

Those less familiar with WhatsApp and its wonderful product will marvel at how a young company could be so valuable. Many of those people will be in the U.S. because there’s no other home grown technology company that’s so widely loved overseas and so under appreciated at home. WhatsApp reminds us of other companies that we partnered with — like PayPal, and YouTube — whose founders chose a similar path to Jan and Brian. Today PayPal and YouTube are both household names around the world. Tomorrow the same will hold true for WhatsApp.

Here are four numbers that tell the story of WhatsApp: 450, 32, 1 and 0.

450. WhatsApp has more than 450 million active users, and reached that number faster than any other company in history. It was just nine months ago that WhatsApp announced 200 million active users, which was already more than Twitter. Every day, more than a million people install the app and start chatting, and they remain more engaged with WhatsApp than on any other service. Incredibly, the number of daily active users of WhatsApp (compared to those who log in every month) has climbed to 72%. In contrast the industry standard is between 10% and 20%, and only a handful of companies top 50%.

WhatsApp has tapped into our insatiable appetite for personal communication. It is part of a chain that over the past 150 years reaches from the Pony Express, Telegraph and airmail letter to the telephone and email. WhatsApp has become today’s flag-bearer for personal communications.

Jan and Brian’s product caters to those you care about most: the people in the address book on your phone. WhatsApp is simple, secure, and fast. It does not ask you to spend time building up a new graph of your relationships; instead, it taps the one that’s already there. Jan and Brian’s decisions are fueled by a desire to let people communicate with no interference.

32. Even by the standards of the world’s best technology companies, WhatsApp runs lean. With only 32 engineers, one WhatsApp developer supports 14 million active users, a ratio unheard of in the industry. (WhatsApp’s support team is even smaller.) This L E G E N D A R Y crew has built a reliable, low-latency service that processes 50 billion messages every day across seven platforms using Erlang, an unusual but particularly well-suited choice. All that, while maintaining greater than 99.9% uptime, so users can rely on WhatsApp the way they depend on a dial-tone.

The note on Jan’s desk

1. Jan keeps a note from Brian taped to his desk that reads “No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!” It serves as a daily reminder of their commitment to stay focused on building a pure messaging experience.

This discipline is reflected in WhatsApp’s unconventional approach to business. After one year of free use, the service costs $1 per year — with no SMS charges. This can save users trapped in expensive data plans up to $150 per year.  

It’s easy to take this novel model for granted. When we first partnered with WhatsApp in January 2011, it had more than a dozen direct competitors, and all were supported by advertising. (In Botswana alone there were 16 social messaging apps). Jan and Brian ignored conventional wisdom. Rather than target users with ads — an approach they had grown to dislike during their time at Yahoo — they chose the opposite tack and charged a dollar for a product that is based on knowing as little about you as possible. WhatsApp does not collect personal information like your name, gender, address, or age. Registration is authenticated using a phone number, a significant innovation that eliminates the frustration of remembering a username and password. Once delivered, messages are deleted from WhatsApp’s servers.

It’s a decidedly contrarian approach shaped by Jan’s experience growing up in a communist country with a secret police. Jan’s childhood made him appreciate communication that was not bugged or taped. When he arrived in the U.S. as a 16-year-old immigrant living on food stamps, he had the extra incentive of wanting to stay in touch with his family in Russia and the Ukraine.  All of this was top of mind for Jan when, after years of working together with his mentor Brian at Yahoo, he began to build WhatsApp.

Facebook has assured Jan and Brian that WhatsApp will remain ad free and they will not have to compromise on their principles. We know that Jan, as a new member of Facebook’s board, will continue to champion the rights of WhatsApp users. 

0. There may be no greater testament to the viral nature of WhatsApp than the fact that the company has accomplished all this without investing a penny in marketing. Unlike their smaller competitors, it hasn’t spent anything on user acquisition. The company doesn’t even employ a marketer or PR person. Yet like the world’s greatest brands, it’s created a strong emotional connection with consumers. All of WhatsApp’s growth has come from happy customers encouraging their friends to try the service.

 ***

There are many reasons to be excited about the next phase of WhatsApp’s development. Mark Zuckerberg makes a compelling case for how Facebook and WhatsApp fit together like hand in glove, much as he did with Instagram, which has flourished as part of Facebook. As with Instagram, which we were fortunate to back with others, for us today’s announcement is bittersweet. Our excitement about the opportunities that lie ahead for WhatsApp and Facebook is tinged with a little sadness, and a lot of nostalgia, for the pleasure and satisfaction that all of us at Sequoia have felt working with the company over the past three years.

From the time WhatsApp had fewer than ten users, Jan and Brian have been committed to building an enduring service. Now, on their way to a billion, they are just getting started.

— Jim Goetz, on behalf of Sequoia

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Happy Family Habit #3: Go Unplugged Every Day

Wow – hard to believe we’re already on Happy Family Habit #3!  So far we’re sharing our stories more and working on our gratitude.  What’s next?  Mini doses of mindfulness each and every day.

This time around I’m challenging you/me/us to try to find just a few minutes each day to step away from the phone/computer/tablet and pay 100% of our attention to the moment.  Notice, I said “to the moment”, and not, “to the kids”.

While I certainly think it’s a great idea to spend a lot of this time connecting with the kids – it’s also OK to spend some of it doing things you really love but never make time for; reading a book (even if it’s only a chapter), taking a long bath, or just sitting on the porch with a cup of Jo.

Don’t feel guilty about doing nothing – you’re setting an example for your kids and showing them it’s important to unplug and power down for a bit each day.

One of my favorite tips for success is to turn off your phone instead of trying to ignore it.  If that sounds a bit stressful to you (raising my hand), then you’re probably someone who could MOST benefit from doing so – even if only for 20 minutes a day.

Ironically, today’s technology actually has some great features to help you unplug.  Familiar with the iphone’s “Do Not Disturb” function?  Just go to “settings” and slide it to “on”.  (You can read a lot more about it here.)  Two very cool features that I love are:

If you’re not cool with being completely out of touch (maybe your child’s at school and you want to be reached in case of an emergency),you can create a VIP list of people who won’t be blocked by the setting.  And you can set it up so that anyone calling more than once within three minutes (meaning, it’s likely urgent) can get through.

To help you get into this habit you can actually program the Do Not Disturb setting to kick in at the same time everyday until you are.

Another way to make it easier to turn you phone off more often is to make a habit of catching up on texts/voicemails/emails at the same time each day.  If you know you’ll be getting back to people once the kids are in bed each night, keeping up with all the messages while you’re out at the park won’t seem so necessary.

One last note – as you get better at turning off your tech, try to get in the habit of doing it whenever you’re spending time with the kids.  I know I said this habit isn’t specifically about kid time, but eliminating your phone as a distraction makes succeeding at regular quality time with them so much easier.

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Happy Family Habit #3: Go Unplugged Every Day

Wow – hard to believe we’re already on Happy Family Habit #3!  So far we’re sharing our stories more and working on our gratitude.  What’s next?  Mini doses of mindfulness each and every day.

This time around I’m challenging you/me/us to try to find just a few minutes each day to step away from the phone/computer/tablet and pay 100% of our attention to the moment.  Notice, I said “to the moment”, and not, “to the kids”.

While I certainly think it’s a great idea to spend a lot of this time connecting with the kids – it’s also OK to spend some of it doing things you really love but never make time for; reading a book (even if it’s only a chapter), taking a long bath, or just sitting on the porch with a cup of Jo.

Don’t feel guilty about doing nothing – you’re setting an example for your kids and showing them it’s important to unplug and power down for a bit each day.

One of my favorite tips for success is to turn off your phone instead of trying to ignore it.  If that sounds a bit stressful to you (raising my hand), then you’re probably someone who could MOST benefit from doing so – even if only for 20 minutes a day.

Ironically, today’s technology actually has some great features to help you unplug.  Familiar with the iphone’s “Do Not Disturb” function?  Just go to “settings” and slide it to “on”.  (You can read a lot more about it here.)  Two very cool features that I love are:

If you’re not cool with being completely out of touch (maybe your child’s at school and you want to be reached in case of an emergency),you can create a VIP list of people who won’t be blocked by the setting.  And you can set it up so that anyone calling more than once within three minutes (meaning, it’s likely urgent) can get through.

To help you get into this habit you can actually program the Do Not Disturb setting to kick in at the same time everyday until you are.

Another way to make it easier to turn you phone off more often is to make a habit of catching up on texts/voicemails/emails at the same time each day.  If you know you’ll be getting back to people once the kids are in bed each night, keeping up with all the messages while you’re out at the park won’t seem so necessary.

One last note – as you get better at turning off your tech, try to get in the habit of doing it whenever you’re spending time with the kids.  I know I said this habit isn’t specifically about kid time, but eliminating your phone as a distraction makes succeeding at regular quality time with them so much easier.

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3D Print Canal House The KamerMaker (“room-maker”) is a 20-foot-tall 3D printer currently working on printing an entire house in Amsterdam. The house is more of an art piece than an actual habitat, but by March 1, it will rise above one of Amsterdam’s famous canals and be open to the public.

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"Apparently, darkness triggers a chain of interrelated processes, including a cognitive processing style, which is beneficial to creativity," the researchers concluded in the September issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Why Creativity Thrives In The Dark | Co.Design | business design (via infoneer-pulse)

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Gorillaz Worthy Farm, Pilton,Uk 2010/06/25

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A conversation with Mandalah founder Lourenço Bustani about connecting purpose and profit.

In 2006, Lourenço Bustani and Igor Botelho founded Mandalah based on a deep convinction: The future of business, they believed, was based on the notion that profit and purpose go hand in hand. Since then, their consulting firm has helped clients such as Nike, General Motors, and Anheuser-Busch InBev develop strategies that help them grow while generating social value. For instance, Mandalah has been instrumental in helping Nike engage with locals in Rio de Janeiro as a way to build brand loyaltyleading up to the 2014 World Cup. I recently met with 33-year-old Bustani to find out how other companies can bridge profit with purpose.

Your company was created using the idea that doing good can increase profits. How?  First, I would be cautious about using the word “can.” Doing good does increase profits. More than that, it allows you to withstand the test of time as an organization. When you use the word “can,” you are making it optional, which means you are still willing to accept that there are businesses that are not doing any good. I am fundamentally resistant to this idea. In this day and age, doing good should be the default way businesses are conceived and managed.

The general idea around doing good is improving lives, and in some way, tending to peoples’ unmet needs. When you do that in an organization, or even among your friends, you are generating empathy. It’s strong because it’s a genuine connection between two people or two entities. Over time, that translates into a preference regarding your relationships with people or organizations. It creates loyalty, which is what allows you to maintain and increase your sales over time. At the heart of doing good is the concept of connecting to people and understanding what they need and being at their service.

Do you get resistance from your clients about the benefits of conscious innovation?                  Not as much anymore. There is a lot of empirical data that supports the notion that doing good pays. I don’t think people are resistant to the theory as much as they are to change. You have to re-evaluate all of your old practices. Companies are generating profits at the expense of people and the planet. Many of them take on peripheral and compensatory activities to offset that damage. But today, we know this is no longer sustainable. We know that business can be more and do more. The challenge is introducing these new paradigms and changing the way businesses are run. Companies have trouble seeing the greater context in which they operate when they are running on automatic pilot. So we help get them out of that head down type of thinking. 

What did you do when you were working with Nike? We helped create dialogue where it didn’t exist. Rather than assuming what residents of Rio de Janeiro aspired to or needed, we helped Nike engage with the community and source ideas from the bottom up. Nike’s mission states that sports are a catalyst for social transformation. They connected their brand essence with what made sense for the city. They set up an athletic training center in a city park and sponsored a surfing school. They refurbished local skateboard ramps and provided training to kids. They also sponsored a soccer team from low-income communities. Whatever commerce was generated was merely a result of an empathetic and genuine relationship the brand was able to establish. So it didn’t start as a transaction-based relationship, with top-down media exposure. It started organically.

What is your greatest talent?  Connecting with people. I have led a nomadic lifestyle. Since I was born, I have lived in several different countries. I embrace this as a blessing. As a consequence, I have developed emotional intelligence and cultural sensitivity, both of which allow me to connect with people easily and quickly.

In your experience, what has been the key to connecting purpose and profit? It’s about finding a shared agenda and finding ways in which your prosperity can lead others to prosperity, as opposed to their demise. It's about finding those intersecting points between your needs and everyone else’s needs. It’s also about thinking long term. After all, purpose transcends a quarter, a semester, or a year. The most important thing is knowing who you are and why you do what you do. I feel this is the starting point for just about anything. You can’t be at anyone’s service if you don’t have a strong sense of who you are. Most people don’t give themselves the time to figure out why they do what they do. I like to ask people, “What gets you up in the morning?” You must have an answer. And more often than not, people don’t. Most people are going through the motions without understanding why. Having said that, I sense we are approaching a tipping point where people are stepping back and starting to reassess. It's an evolution. Our mission as a company is to accelerate the evolutionary process by helping clients stay relevant in changing times.

How do you define success? Two things that I certainly have not mastered yet: Consciousness and coherence. Consciousness is being mindful of everything and everyone around you, and understanding how the world turns. Coherence is applying this understanding to how you live your life. There is a big difference between knowing how you should live your life and then living it that way. If I can consistently expand my consciousness and then be coherent in how I live my life, then I will have been a successful person. Underlying all of this is happiness, gratitude, and humility.

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The Scarecrow (by chipotle)

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Syria

The price of US opportunistic war-making is our conscience. Haunted as we watch events that would have merited our support had we not been so selfish and myopic.

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To educate the public about speculative (spec) work

ABOUT NO!SPEC

Spec work and spec-based design contests are a growing concern. So in an effort to educate those working in the visual communication industry as well as the clients who use their services, a group of designers banded together to bring the NO!SPEC campaign to the public. Read more.

Donating the unpaid labor of others

Steve Douglas wrote an in-depth piece about “the arrogance of crowdsourcing,” where he talks about the design contest for the Dallas Mavericks. He also reviews “unofficial” contests for Sony Playstation, Daft Punk, and Manchester United, where spec work websites “have … Continue reading →

Posted in Crowdsourcing, Spec Conversation |

The dangers of speculative design

Lisa Barrett of Birmingham-based Sixth Story published the studio’s experience of speculative design, where the “pitches” they ultimately lost ended up looking very similar to the designs that were actually used. “We produced some branding work, name generation and packaging … Continue reading →

Posted in Spec Conversation |

Powerhouse Museum tries crowdsourcing for Sydney Design, then pulls contest

“People are free to decide what they do with the efforts of designers of any stripe – that’s entirely ok. But when a publicly funded organisation (whose entire justification for their funding, and thus their existence, turns on promoting and … Continue reading →

Posted in Crowdsourcing |

Obama Crowdsourcing to Support American Jobs?

A tweet from Niki Bivona (@nikibivona) on Twitter says it all: RT @nospec http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/artworks-submission Obama is now crowdsourcing a poster, about job creation. Irony. Obama, if you aim to support American jobs, then perhaps paying designers to create your campaign … Continue reading →

Posted in Crowdsourcing | Tagged Crowdsourcing, designers, Obama

US Department of Interior is Crowdsourcing their Logo?

Here’s a petition found via Twitter that you might be interested in. @LogoMotives Petition: Stop the US Department of @Interior from Crowdsourcing a Logo | @nospec #nospec | http://bit.ly/NOSPEC-DOI OVERVIEW The U.S. Department of the Interior currently has posted a … Continue reading →

Posted in Crowdsourcing | Tagged competitions, Crowdsourcing, designers, logo design, US Government