We love this idea: for its April cover (the 10th anniversary issue), Real Simple commissioned three clocks from three US designers: Boym Studio, Scott Henderson, and Harry Allen, as pictured from left to right. The issue offers readers "the gift of time," something the one-off clocks reflect very well.

These pieces are, unfortunately, not in production yet, but there is the additional bonus of a clock screensaver by Alan Dye, coming soon.

More magazines should follow suit!

via NYTimes

The Social Innovator Series is the culmination of a major two year collaboration between the UK's National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and The Young Foundation to develop a rich, practical resource for social innovators. It is a collection of publications and accompanying website that reveal the vast potential of a new social economy.

This emerging economy can be seen in many fields, including the environment, care, education, welfare, food and energy. This 'social economy' goes beyond the state and the third sector, and includes social enterprises, co-operatives and social movements.

The Social Innovator Series surveys the methods used by innovators in this new social economy and presents a varied, vibrant picture of social innovation in practice. It features hundreds of examples, methods and tools from all over the world.

Though social innovation is a rapidly emerging practice, methods for developing this vital field remain relatively hidden. Having a better understanding of social innovation - the new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations - is increasingly urgent as existing structures and policies struggle to make an impact on the most pressing issues of our time.

Download the books from the Social Innovator Series:
- Open Book of Social Innovation
- Danger and Opportunity: Crisis and the new social economy
- Social Venturing

Visit the Social Innovator website: www.socialinnovator.info

I just picked this up from my Twitter stream. It's quite an amazing event. Edward Tufte helping the American public see where their $787 billion in economic stimulus tax money is going to help revive the US economy. Turning to Tufte is a brilliant move by Obama and a big win for innovation.

Here is what Tufte says:

"I will be serving on the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel. This Panel advises The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, whose job is to track and explain $787 billion in recovery stimulus funds:

"The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board was created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 with two goals:
To provide transparency in relation to the use of Recovery-related funds.
To prevent and detect fraud, waste, and mismanagement.
Earl E. Devaney was appointed by President Obama to serve as chairman of the Recovery Board. Twelve Inspectors General from various federal agencies serve with Chairman Devaney. The Board issues quarterly and annual reports to the President and Congress and, if necessary, "flash reports" on matters that require immediate attention. In addition, the Board maintains the Recovery.gov website so the American people can see how Recovery money is being distributed by federal agencies and how the funds are being used by the recipients.

Mission statement: To promote accountability by coordinating and conducting oversight of Recovery funds to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse and to foster transparency on Recovery spending by providing the public with accurate, user-friendly information."

I'm doing this because I like accountability and transparency, and I believe in public service. And it is the complete opposite of everything else I do. Maybe I'll learn something. The practical consequence is that I will probably go to Washington several days each month, in addition to whatever homework and phone meetings are necessary."

We need more designers and design thinkers like Tufte in government.

I am going out to Stanford in a couple of weeks to talk about the future of Design Thinking/Innovation and I'm prepping by seeing a Ph.d in social anthropology who also happens to be the best financial journalist around at the moment--Gillian Tett. Tett writes a column for the FT and was just appointed head of the US Financial Times. Her book, Fool's Gold, is a must-read.

I learned three things from Tett's columns and book: 1- many, if not most of the important innovations over the past decade took place in the financial services space: 2- the innovations were made possible by technology--faster computers and newer algorithms, but the actual creation of the innovations took place within a new and very specific culture of finance composed of ritual, rites of passage and beliefs. Think Thomas Kuhn's paradigm shift here: from accepting more or less public market regulation to rejecting all regulation and believing that any financial market regulation is bad.

We know that it all ended in financial and economic disaster, with the worst recession since the last depression. The world got THIS close to a complete meltdown because the social context of technological invention messed up. The symposium at Columbia University with Tett will discuss the belief system, patterns of behavior and rules that came together to enable the financial crash. She will use the tools of social anthropology to explain what went wrong with financial innovation and why we need to change the culture of finance, not just the tools of finance, to prevent another catastrophe.

I have been in a nice conversation with Don Norman about what comes first in innovation--technology or culture--and Gillian Tett provides the answer. New technology creates new rituals of behavior, new belief systems and new rites of passage. Technology happens not only within the social context but it creates NEW cultures, new social contexts.

This is why Gen Y culture is so different from Boomer culture. It's not