Below: Awesome Foundation NYC trustees: Catherine White, Jesse Chan-Norris, and myself

More photos on Flickr

Clay on the 2008 US Beef Protests in South Korea

Clay on lolcats

Clay on the Gneezy and Rustichini Haifa day care center study

Clay on the Grobanites for Charity

Cognitive Surplus on Amazon

Follow @cshirky on Twitter

Above: Ted Ullrich introduces DoTank

Composting 101

First drill air holes in a plastic bin. Add raw plant-based kitchen scraps and strips of newspaper.

Add worms, feed them more kitchen scraps over a few weeks, aerate, moisturize and otherwise keep the worms happy so they do their thing.

And finally harvest the compost and separate out the worms.  “Cure” the compost by letting it dry out a bit before adding to plants.

Recommended reading:
Easy Compost: The Secret to Great Soil and Spectacular Plants
Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up & Maintain a Worm Composting System

Seed Bombing

Image via DoTank:Brooklyn. We didn’t have enough knives to go around at the skillshare, so I just shaped the clay into a thin wrapper with my hands, just like kneading a gyoza wrapper.  Also check out this video from the Guardian demonstrating how to make seed bombs.

Windowfarms

Windowfarms are vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield edible window gardens built using low-impact or recycled local materials.

Get detailed instructions on how to build your own Windowfarms and join the Windowfarms community for additional help and support.

My friend and former ITP classmate, Carolina Vallejo’s project, Design for the First World needs help with funding on Kickstarter and with spreading the word around the internets. In Carolina’s own words:

My ITP thesis project Design for the First World, is a competition with a motto: The Rest Saving the West.

I’m proposing to flip the traditional equation of the first world helping the “third” by calling artists, designers and thinkers of developing and emerging economies to propose ideas to solve 4 first world problems: obesity, consumerism, integration of immigration and low birth rate and aging population.

The call is open until July 1st, and there’s a 1000 dollars prize along with a catalog and an exhibit coming in the fall. I’m still looking for great contestants so if you know awesome people from and living in a developing country send them my way!

Also, I’m raising money through Kickstarter and i’m 84% funded (5 days to go!) so please consider donating if you can, tweeting and posting on facebook are also of GREAT help!!

Thanks much!

Carolina

Networked coffee mugs provide an update to the old 10th-cup-free punch-card customer loyalty program. Our highly modular system allows any coffee shop to use one of our mug readers, link it to their name and physical location, and get started immediately with the program. Shops will sell RFID-enabled stickers at a low cost to customers who provide their own reusable coffee mug. Once the sticker is applied to a mug, that mug can be scanned at any participating coffee shop’s reader to log refills anywhere the customer goes.

The BetaCup (we liked the name, so we went with it!) reader – the in-store device that reads each mug’s sticker – provides haptic feedback in the form of a light thud to let the customer know that the mug was indeed scanned. The customer will feel the vibration through the cup. It also provides visual feedback with low powered LED lights when a 10-cup milestone is reached, so that baristas and servers will know when to issue a free refill. Each scan is followed by an appropriate timeout so customers will be unable to take advantage of the system. Optionally, businesses can use our API, or new services that are created with our API, to create real-time displays to show BetaCup usage at their shop.

Read more and vote for BetaCup on Jovoto!

Estrella Intersects The Plane by Matthew Richard

Significant Other by Diego Rioja

The Life Dress by Elizabeth Fuller

ITP Thesis Presentation: SokoSquare from lee-sean on Vimeo.

Download PDF of my SokoSquare thesis paper

And here is the back channel chat log from Chatterous:

maddparker@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:19):
i have a friend who’s nickname is soko
tom.igoe@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:19):
good.
tom.igoe@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:19):
everyone should know about it, Gordie
Gordie posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:20):
Lee-Sean leading the dapper award for the day
ruferto posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:20):
like the white suit
maddparker@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:20):
Pete Leonard!
maddparker@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:20):
I could make so many Vassar CS jokes no one else would get…
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:20):
try us
maddparker@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:21):
nah, maybe offline
clmensch@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:21):
he just did
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:21):
lee-sean.presentation = smooth;
Xiaoyang Feng posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:22):
Juri Imamura: http://itp.nyu.edu/thesis/spring2010_archives/Juri%20Imamura_ITP%20Thesis%202010_Large.mp4
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:22):
benjamins
Sarah Dahnke posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:22):
lee sean gets street in his presentation
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:22):
how often do you hear that in a master’s thesis presentation?
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:23):
amen
pl posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:24):
slowly backing away.. enjoy presentations, and have fun.
Sarah Dahnke posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:24):
“conduit” is the word of the week
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:24):
badgers
tom.igoe@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:25):
I thought the word was “bear”
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:26):
chicken & egg would be a contender
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:26):
2 words tho
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:26):
and a punctuation dealy
jorge posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:26):
ampersand
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:26):
bless you
jorge posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:26):
thanks
andrewstyer@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:26):
the lee-sean camera view (the upper-right thumbnail) is pretty awesome
tom.igoe@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:27):
that’s awesome.
jorge posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:27):
he traded that house for an ipad 3g
tom.igoe@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:28):
I’d give three red paperclips for an apartment in Brooklyn
Sarah Dahnke posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:28):
did tom just hate on brooklyn?
tom.igoe@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:28):
no, I live there. I love it there.
Marianne posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:28):
No.
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:29):
www.soko.com is taken
Sarah Dahnke posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:29):
my rent in brooklyn is due
Sarah Dahnke posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:29):
maybe I can pay with paperclips
Sarah Dahnke posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:29):
or maybe leesean can find something for me to barter
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:29):
100,000 paper clips
jorge posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:30):
roy: http://sokosquare.com/
paulparadiso posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:30):
Can you not pay them in dance?
Marianne posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:30):
(Roy – I bet you can barter rustproofing if you want.)
Sarah Dahnke posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:31):
paul, I bet you could get me out of at least a month’s rent with your merce cunningham impression
tom.igoe@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:31):
now that’s a specific impression!
paulparadiso posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:31):
deal
Sarah Dahnke posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:31):
tom, you should see it
Sarah Dahnke posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:32):
maybe paul could do it on the break
tom.igoe@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:32):
I should.
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:32):
rustproofing?
Marianne posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:32):
(did you read the link you sent?)
jorge posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:32):
i do an impression of merce cunningham in the composition and choreography phase. mainly i just roll dice.
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:33):
now i did
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:33):
i prefer engines
Sarah Dahnke posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:33):
jorge, win
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:33):
clap, clap, clap
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:34):
stern hiss
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:34):
oohhh, me
jorge posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:35):
http://blog.sokosquare.com/ needs some updatin’
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:35):
will program for food
andrewstyer@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:35):
what can i trade him for his jacket?
Sarah Dahnke posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:35):
if I programmed for food, I’d never eat again
paulparadiso posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:35):
a velcro jacket
mustafa bagdatli posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:35):
your weird thing with velcro
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:35):
if i danced for food, i’d get hit w/tomatoes
tymm posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:36):
i gave up eating a long time ago.
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:36):
tomatoes nom
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:37):
I can decorate Peters house..with beer cans
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:37):
that’s a great idea
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:37):
clpa, clap
tehaynes posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:37):
just have to throw it in there. the bell reminds of spelling bees
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:38):
delay( 120000 );
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:38):
I spelled “cloud” wrong in a spelling bee
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:38):
humiliating
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:39):
I was 14
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:39):
i still can’t spell buroucraecey
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:39):
beurocarcy
ckundo posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:39):
bureaocracy
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:40):
buracracy?
jelanijohn@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:40):
barrackacy
Roy Vanegas posted from the web at (05/05/10 13:41):
that’s it!
jelanijohn@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:42):
ok, 20 mins to get to school before next presenter
jelanijohn@… sent an instant message at (05/05/10 13:42):
gotta pwrwalk
Xiaoyang Feng posted from a guest at (05/05/10 13:55):
Lee-Sean huang: http://itp.nyu.edu/thesis/spring2010_archives/Lee-Sean%20Huang_ITP%20Thesis%202010_Large.mp4

On the tech side, I have been researching various frameworks for developing the new version of SokoSquare moving forward.  Looked into CakePHP and CodeIgniter and looked at some how-to videos.  There’s also the Ruby on Rails option, but I think I’m over my head in this area.  Meeting with Elizabeth tonight to discuss, and need to loop Peter in too.  In the mean time, I need to finish mocking up the various user registration pages.

Also, found out at the Awesome Foundation trustee meeting on Monday night that someone else is working on a project very similar to SokoSquare, so meeting on Thursday night to follow up.

Download PDF

A quick update on the status of SokoSquare:  Catherine, Peter, and I went to a “how to pitch” workshop at Stern this Tuesday and got some practice presenting and feedback from other teams.  We have a dress rehearsal of the full pitch next Wednesday.

We will also be participating in an ITP pitch-off this Saturday, for which I prepared this new 1-pager on our project.  In short, we are getting lots of opportunities to practice and refine our presentation for different audiences.

In other news, the Drupal intro session at Purpose I was supposed to attend was canceled, so I’m going to look into other ways to get up to speed on the tech side of building the next SokoSquare prototype.  In the meantime, I will focus on developing the user interactions and the trust mechanisms (I got lots of good feedback from my thesis group on this on Wednesday).

Wednesday: Catherine and I had lunch with a professor/VC who gave us some very good feedback. But also raised some questions about our direction. Need to narrow down and make choices that I hadn’t thought of before. I had thesis class later that day. The best suggestions were to go ahead and start wireframes and mockups. And develop user scenarios. And the best advice of all: divorce the creative process of Soko as my ITP thesis from the “how will you make money” demands of the biz plan competition. The best advice I’ve heard this week.

Thursday: Feedback session on the biz plan draft at Stern. We scored an “excellent” on the exec summary, “good” in the other sections. We need to tweak the financials, but we have a roadmap. Got some excellent advice about using principles of game design to incentive users to participate in SokoSquare and as a way of visualizing and communicating social currency on the site, i.e. how can you trust someone. Lots of crazy ideas in my mind right now. Time to type them up, more soon.

Ok, that was free-form and stream of consciousness, but I’m on a roll. Now back to work…

Photos by Daniel in the Lion’s Den via Flickr.

Latest documentation here (PDF).

Above: a light sculpture by Matthew Richard.
Below: Thomas the Barrel by Meredith Hasson.

Below: Life Dress by Elizabeth Fuller. Featured in Gizmodo.

More pics on Flickr.

An eerily impressionistic and grainy photo of my Mumbo Jumbo Maracas performance at ITP NIME 2009 by Derek Chung.

Above: Group photo!  Below: Me and my “nerd prom” date, Catherine.

More photos and video on the official ITP30 documentation site.  And here are the photos that I took on Flickr.

Mumbo Jumbo Maracas vs. T.I.

Mumbo Jumbo Maracas vs. Art Kleiner

Mumbo Jumbo Maracas vs. The Plastic Ono Band

Thanks to Yasser Ansari, Paul Paradiso, and Jorge Just for these brilliant mashups!

Mumbo Jumbo Maracas (excerpt) @ ITP NIME 2009, Southpaw, Brooklyn, NY from lee-sean on Vimeo.

Here is an excerpt of my Mumbo Jumbo Maracas piece for the ITP NIME concert at Southpaw in Brooklyn last night.
Featuring Eric Mika on maracas and Arturo Vidich on keytar
Thanks to Meredith Hasson and Tianwei Liu for the video

More video coming soon. Photos on Flickr.

Ubiqui.tv is a prototype online video travel guide for the Boxee platform.  Ubiqui.tv was created by Joel Leimer, Oskar Von Hauske, Timothy Haynes, and myself as our group project for the ITP class Designing The Future of Television with Richard Ting.