Want Your Materials Returned?

Please let me know ASAP if you'd like your materials - papers, projects, etc. - returned to you.  If so, I'll leave them in the Honors office.  Thanks!

Interested In An Internship?

Hello All!  I hope you are having safe travels and are looking forward to a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A consulting client is developing plans to offer several internships in 2011.  The organization is a well-known not-for-profit operating in the health care and chronic disease space.  Chicago/West Loop location.

Many details remain to be worked out, but duties would focus on website redesign and on developing a social media and marketing strategy to help the organization build customer relationships and prepare for the impact of health reform.

Please e-mail me if you are interested in learning more details as they become available.

NOTE:  I am in Chicago this morning (Dec 8) for meetings and may be late getting back for the "final exam."  Feel free to e-mail your documents to me (steve@t1resources.com).  Or, turn them in at Dr. Pittman's office and I'll pick them up.  Or, wait for me in the classroom.  I'll be there, just probably a little late.  Pass the word.  Thanks!

Change the World!

Or at least your neighborhood!

Architect (and Andrews graduate) Jeff Sommers will be our guest speaker on November 22, discussing his dream for a reformation in urban residential design.

Here is a link to an article in Green Bean Chicago about Jeff's current project: a prefabricated, urban home meeting the criteria for LEED Platinum certification.  Meaning: really green and quite cool.

Please review these links:

• Square Root Architecture + Design on Facebook.  Check out the videos of the modules being built in a factory near South Bend.
• Square Root Architecture's blog.
• Project photos from Curbed Chicago.
• Article describing the project's long journey from the Chicago Tribune.
• A link to the Urban-C3 micro-site.

Please read this for Monday:  "4 Ways Advertising Gets Tricky and Wacky."

How YOU Doin'?

Please send me an e-mail this week (steve@t1resources.com) telling me what grade you would assign yourself so far for our in-class discussions.  Remember, class participation counts toward your grade and can be a key factor in bumping you up (or down) to the next grade level.

Tell me what YOU think you deserve, were the semester to end this week.  If you're not happy with the result, tell me how you'll improve. Thanks!

Blog Post for Friday, Nov 12th

In the midterm, you outlined your ideal community based on the concepts you found important in our readings thus far.

Now spell out how you would galvanize others around YOUR community. Why should I want to live there? Why and how would it better than where I am now? Using Seth Godin's notion, how would you create a 'tribe' of fellow believers? Sell it!

What difficulties might you encounter in convincing others of your utopian vision? Can you think of other visionaries who struggled in this way?

More About The Project

Several of you have asked for clarification on the major project which I've titled the "Influencing and Persuading" project.  In previous iterations of this class, students were asked to visit a local mall and analyze the shopping experience.  You are free to do that, but in this day and age so much of our shopping and exposure to brands occurs in settings other than malls and thus the analysis should follow where the brands lead.

I see the assignment rolling out as follows:

• Pick a company, brand, political campaign or issue.
• Analyze the basic underlying message.  A good way to structure your thinking is through a so-called audience analysis:
• Analyze: Who is the audience?
• Understand: What is the audience's knowledge of the subject?
• Demographics: What is their age, gender, income level, etc.?
• Interest- Why might they pay attention to the message?
• Environment- Where will this message be sent/viewed?
• Needs- What are the audience's needs associated with the message topic?
• Expectations- What action does the sender wish the audience to take?  Buying, obviously, but anything else?
•  

I hope this is helpful. We'll go through an analysis in class so you have an opportunity to work through an example.

"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it."
Ellen Goodman (1941 - )

From the Chicago Tribune: A new urbanist community design.

"According to experts, the pillars of New Urbanism are walkability to home and work, a pedestrian-friendly street design, a mixed use of shops, offices, apartments and various sizes of homes, and high quality architecture and urban design."

Blog Post #3

What are the consequences for our everyday definitions of success of the following quote from Veblen: "Purposeful effort comes to mean, primarily, effort directed to or resulting in a more creditable showing of accumulated wealth"

Due Friday, October 29th.

First Midterm Exam

Three very simple-yet-complicated, multi-layered questions:

1. What idea in Sachs do you find the most important and relevant?  Why? (1 page)
2. What idea in McKibben do you find the most important and relevant?  Why? (1 page)
3. Using your answers to #1 and #2, and whatever process suits you, invent YOUR ideal community. (2-3 pages) Compare that ideal to the reality you see every day. 
1. Need help with the thought and design processes?  See Wikipedia's entry on Design Thinking, for example.

How are brands related to religion?  Read the article from Fast Company.

Please read for Monday Oct. 4

A Better Choosing Experience, from the consultants at Booz & Co.

September 13 Lecture Presentation

September122010

View more presentations from Steve Davis.

Book Review: "Common Wealth."

Here's a link to the NY Times' review of Jeffrey Sachs' "Common Wealth."