Cookies 'n Code

HELP STOP ACTA!

nadia — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:32:34 +0000

Watch the video below so you understand why ACTA is a bad. bad. bad. idea. \

Let the potential consequences sink in. Here’s what you can do about it:

1. Sign this petition and share it on Facebook and Twitter:
https://www.accessnow.org/page/s/just-say-no-to-acta

2. Make a phone call to your local Polish Embassy: Tell them to please not sign the ACTA agreement, that the whole world is watching.

3. Take time this evening to email your MEP and someone in your national Parliament.

Yes. You are busy. We all are. Let’s talk about how busy you are.
Do you work in Communications? Are you, like Cookies’n'code, in Tech?
Without a functioning Internet, you could be a whole lot less busy. It’s worth spending an hour or less to to try to make sure we have it tomorrow. Consider it an investment in your future

Now google “MEP” + “your country” and find their email address. And write that email telling them that if they do pass it we will know who sold our future down the river. Tell them that the whole world is watching them. That we will never forget they killed the single best thing that has happened to humanity. And remind them that the political price of this treason is not one they want to pay. Copy past the same message into the email to your national parliamentarian of choice. You can use the text I posted on Neelie Kroes wall as a template if you don’t know what to write (scroll down till you find my post):
https://www.facebook.com/NeelieKroes/posts/10150558871639587?notif_t=feed_comment

Get ready to do this again. And again. And every single time an attempt is made to sneak an outright attack on the infrastructure that enables our lives and work into our ~~legislation~~ governance. It’s exhausting. I know. Just do it.

CYO2011? It was great, now let’s do it better!

admin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:44:47 +0000

Create Your Own 2011 was our first event on co-creation, personalization and mass customization and took place on May 30-31 at Planet Modulor in Berlin. #cyo2011 consisted of a conference with a long list of speakers and audience of ca. 220, an exhibition with over 30 exhibitors and a workshop with 40 participants. The documentation material we have produced includes speaker presentations, photos, and videos: www.cyo2011.com/documentation

Who’s our audience?

If the mix of people who attended the event in may is anything to go by, the Create Your Own community is diverse. An interesting mix of CEOs of multinational companies and angel investors who are putting money into mass customization, academics who are interested in co-creation and the empowered/enlightened/active consumer, entrepreneurs and artists who are breaking new ground as well as people from various maker- and hardware hacking movements.

Why participate in future events?

The objectives of this first event where mixed and at times contradictory due to there being a lot of different organizations with different priorities involved in designing and making decisions about it. In spite of this we still managed to achieve most of what we set out to do, and in record time. A summary of our objectives for the event in May:

Participants would gain new knowledge both and about the future of how things and services are being conceived, produced and sold as well as become part of a network of individuals and organizations who are leading the way.
Participants would train their brains thinking and collaborating with others in order to come up with innovative solutions to common challenges.
The knowledge present during the event would generate new insights that would then be disseminated, in the form of content produced by the organizers, through the people who had attended it.
For future events I would like to add a fourth one to the list: The exhibition would draw a large volume of potential end users for the commercial exhibitors

The general feedback from CYO2011 was very positive overall. There were some points of criticism, some anticipated in advance e.g. that the conference program did not allow for enough interaction between participants and that it would have been better to spread it out over two days instead of one. Also, there were some points of irritation over practical issues related to the catering and venue (e.g. toilets breaking down and the exhibition space being too small with little space in between exhibitor booths.), although most people seemed to like the “rough”, “construction site” feel and DIY esthetic of CYO2011. We got a lot of positive feedback about it being different, having attracted a diverse mix of people, and “not boring like these events usually are”.

What’s left to do?

We need to spread the documentation from the event bundled in calls to action (sharing, feedback, participation in organizing next year’s event or funding): 10 great videos and blogposts released over 10 weeks. In parallel we will be putting together summaries of the MC for Makers sessions with the Facilitators and participants- and posting them online over a month in order to get people engaged. If we get traction we might then announce producing a booklet project.

This is quite alot of work a but we feel the project is not complete unless we do it – a successful event is one that spreads knowledge and generates conversations beyond the days of the actual meeting.

How we envision CYO2012

2-day event during event which draws a large crowd of would be end users

> 250 paying visitors to the conference
> 50 paying exhibitors, at 250 Euros per exhibitor package. Exhibitors selected based on appeal to general audience.
> 1000 visitors to the exhibition
> 80 participants in workshops
> 500 downloads of engineering & design package
Budget for promoting and marketing before the event
Budget for documentation and dissemination of produced material after the event

If you want to get involved in helping us make 2012 happen, please contact and we’ll add you on the mailing list where we will call for help with specific tasks throughout this year: nadia@cookiesncode.com

Welcome to our CYO exhibition opening this Monday, 17-21, Mortizplatz 1 Berlin

admin — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:18:18 +0000

Getting past look but can’t touch!

ChristianG — Tue, 24 May 2011 07:27:15 +0000

Mass Customization literature and research always states that customized products fulfill customers’ needs better than mass products and that customers will be more satisfied by using customized clothes, food or cars. If you take a look at re-purchases, this seems to be true: many customers are more inclined to buy customized products once they have done so once. But but why don’t most customers opt for this alternative ? There are many barriers that prevent customers from a first buying. Zipkin mentioned some in his article “The limits of Mass Customization”. Many people are frightened to buy a product they have never seen, felt or touched. Most Mass Customized products will be produced as soon as an order exists, not before. Therefore customers often rely on the impression that they get by the configurator or information of the product online. In addition to this, customers have to play an active role within the configuration process – this can be time intensive and – for a newbie – unsettling: “Am I able to do this?” It’s one thing to have a great idea or to sell the perfect product- but companies (no matter how little or big they are) have to attract customers and – even more difficult – to successfully guide them through a buying (configuration) process to its completion.

If you want to learn from the companies that are doing this successfully, come pick the brains of people like Carine Moitier from Bivolino or Michael Bruck from Chocri this Monday the CYO 2011 opening!

Create Your Own in a Nutshell:
Place: 10969 Berlin Kreuzberg, Germany ( exact location on cyo website)
Time:
Monday, 30 May 2011: 5-8pm: Press conference and Opening of the Exhibition
Tuesday, 31 May 2011: 9-6pm: CYO2011 Conference & MC For Makers 1-day Workshop
Registration: General registration for the event is 350,-Euro. (150 Euro discount if you use promotion code MassCustom )

Hosts: CYO2011 is sponsored and co-organized by OpenGarments and SERVIVE, two research projects financed by the European Commission in the 7th Framework Program. More information is available on the event website: http://www.cyo2011.com

Same same but different?

ChristianG — Fri, 20 May 2011 08:29:05 +0000

“Individualisation” is an ambiguous term. Related to “individuation” and in some way becoming or expressing one’s “true self”. It’s a a tall claim that consuming products gives us a sense of identity. At most pseudo-individualisation provides products a cultural layer with a sense of originality or novelty, to some extent giving the consumer a sense that we are receiving a product which we uniquely own ourselves and which is special to you or me as a distinct individual.

What we, Cookies and Code, are interested in is what happens when the narrative shifts, when the boundaries between creating and consuming blur. The threshold for accessing flexible manufacturing technology is lower than even, and end users can now customize virtually anything -from dress shirts to cereal. We also know that adopters of new technologies tend to interpret them in their own way, rather than simply using them as their inventors originally intended them to be used. This is happening in a time and context where the social web is spreading the culture of sharing and collaborating that is part of our social nature into all aspects of our lives. Individualisation, Co-creation and Mass customization are relevant to different stakeholders for different reasons. They are also what brings together the participants in Create Your Own, the first major European event about these mega trends that are reshaping the consumption landscape on a global scale.

How to raise capital for Mass Customisation

ChristianG — Thu, 19 May 2011 07:00:03 +0000

It all starts with an idea. A thought, random as it may be at first, slowly evolving into a concept how to make things better. Or, at least, how to make your product better and improve your chances to sell it to your customers. Had that idea already? Great! If your idea is related to the employment of Mass Customization then you might have already wrapped your brain around the techniques and requirements to successfully integrate the idea into your production and marketing concept. That’s already half the way done!

Unfortunately, part of the other half is a basic requirement: paying upfront for the necessary tools and implementations. In simple words: you need venture capital, pronto. While all it may take is to convince your VP finance if you work in a large company, smaller firms face the grim reality of a difficult finance market. Unless you can raise the needed amount of money from other sources you will have to sell your idea to somebody who is willing to finance its further development. Easier said than done and one of the most critical obstacles for many startups on the MC market.

At CYO2011 Dr. Rolf-Christian Wentz who is a consultant focusing on the management and strategic orientation of innovation and marketing of new products. Having worked with global companies such as Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson, and Campbell’s in Germany, Portugal and the US he can offer a lot of tips and tricks for startups to generate venture capital. Furthermore the event offers the opportunity to get in touch with other MC companies who can provide insight about how they dealt with the financial challenges.

Create Your Own in a Nutshell:
Place: 10969 Berlin Kreuzberg, Germany ( exact location on cyo website)
Time:
Monday, 30 May 2011: 5-8pm: Press conference and Opening of the Exhibition
Tuesday, 31 May 2011: 9-6pm: CYO2011 Conference & MC Business Incubator Workshop
Registration: General registration for the event is 350,-Euro. (150 Euro discount if you use promotion code MassCustom )

Mass Customization is successful procrastination!

ChristianG — Mon, 16 May 2011 07:01:12 +0000

Mass Customization relies heavily on the key idea of being able to produce customer-specific goods at or close to mass production price. Looking at the value chain of most products, one aspect strikes the eye at first glance: major-league cost drivers logistics and production. Basic understanding of production theory is that it is generally cheaper to produce a good in large batches than in small quantities. Obviously, the traditional approach cannot be the one of choice for a Mass Customization company. Or can it? Building an artefact, individually designed by a customer (applying the general limitations of MC to “individual design”), does not necessarily mean to give up on the large standardized batch you got used to. After all, the working space of your configurator is basically just that: a number of standard components that you offer your customer to put together according to his or her wishes. Likewise you can certainly produce these components in the most cost efficient way possible.

The art lies within clever postponement. Given that you hardly know which exact product variation you want to produce until your customer comes around telling you, one has to anticipate from past experiences which components will likely be needed and in which quantity. Once you get the order from your client you simply go and assemble your pre-produced factors in accordance to the individual customer’s design. The opportunities to save money from large batch production on the one hand and maximum flexibility to adapt on the other creates a key advantage over competitors.

Just like in the famous example of Italian apparel manufacturer Benetton: In the lengthy process of producing fashion the traditional approach has always been to first dye the yarn, then knit it to a product and sell it. Unfortunately, the knitting process is by far the most time-intense factor in the production process, and time matters. Especially in the fashion industry where customer’s choice and “trends” change in no time at all. Benetton chose a revolutionary way to overcome the risk of outdated product varieties by simply reversing the production process: the garment was tailored first and dyed just shortly before delivery. That way customer demands could be better investigated and fitting products be produced. You can learn more about how to do mass customization from thought leaders in the field from both business and academic worlds at Create Your Own, the first major business symposium on Mass Customization in Europe.

Create Your Own in a Nutshell:
Place: 10969 Berlin Kreuzberg, Germany ( exact location on cyo website)
Time:
Monday, 30 May 2011: 5-8pm: Press conference and Opening of the Exhibition
Tuesday, 31 May 2011: 9-6pm: CYO2011 Conference & MC Business Incubator Workshop
Registration: General registration for the event is 350,-Euro. (150 Euro discount if you use promotion code MassCustom )

Mass Customization & Maker Culture: A clash of civilisations!

admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 11:41:52 +0000

Like many in the maker space, I am sceptical towards alot of what that comes out of and perpetuates the predominant narrative of the industrial age. On a personal level I (Nadia) want to contribute towards 1) turning passive consumers of goods, services and entertainment into makers and active citizens of the world 2) preparing creative producers and knowledge workers for the consequences of widespread access to manufacturing technology in a networked world. I want to empower people outside the high-tech sector to participate in a technology intensive economy where risk, uncertainty and constant change are the rule rather than the exception.

Mass customization enables cheap production of personalized products catering to small niches. For many #masscustomization is synonymous with, as Peter Troxler puts it, “ the kind of pseudo co-creation that systems like Nike-ID offer”. And Like Peter, I am more intrigued by the peer-production models that promise to give real control of consumption back to the individual and not to inventors of mass customization systems that are heavily embedded in the economic models of the 1900s. So why are we running a Mass Customization for Makers Workshop? Because we have noted that mass customization, when transferred from the corporate to the SME level, poses very similar questions to some of those we will need to answer in peer-production environments. And the CYO2011 conference which is hosting the workshop, gathers the world’s leading authorities on mass customization, both from corporate and academic worlds.

MC for Makers in a Nutshell:
MC for Makers is the first of a series of workshops that aim to help people in different fields of practice explore how they can get more out of what they do as a creative producer and how they can meet their client’s diverse and changing needs. If you want to explore how you as a creative can get more out of resources, technology, materials or changing paradigms you are most welcome. The goal of the Mass Customization for Makers Workshop is to help you figure out how to profit from peer-production models that promise to give actual control over consumption back to the consumers. You can download the full program here: http://goo.gl/z8ufH

Place: Moritzplatz 1, 10969 Berlin Kreuzberg, Germany ( exact location on cyo website)

Time:
Monday, 30 May 2011: 5-8pm: Press conference and Opening of the Exhibition
Tuesday, 31 May 2011: 9-6pm: MC For Makers Incubator Workshop & CYO2011 Conference

Registration: Participation in the Workshop is free of charge. Number of particpants is limited to 30, so better hurry. Please fill in the registration form: http://goo.gl/mTfE4

Hosts: CYO2011 is sponsored and co-organized by OpenGarments and SERVIVE, two research projects financed by the European Commission in the 7th Framework Program. More information is available on the event website: http://www.cyo2011.com

Customising China

admin — Tue, 10 May 2011 08:43:55 +0000

As a TCK my first question that surfaces whenever I come across a new-ish concept or business model is how it translates across different cultural contexts. A few months ago while in China I had a few garments made by a tailor. While this was very much the norm in Dubai and KL where a popular pastime was to to go fabric hunting in any of the numerous textiles markets, I was surprised by a Shanghainese friend’s reaction when I asked her if she missed the luxury of having clothes made-to-fit in Europe (prohibitively expensive); “No way, it’s a reminder that we once were poor.. when I was a kid only poor people would by clothes from the tailor”. So I did the sensible thing and interviewed Oliver Hickfang ( Partner in Taiwain-based 3digitalminds) about his experiences working with Mass-Customisation in China ahead of his talk at CYO2011.

Nadia: Hi Oliver, what are your personal associations with the term “mass-customisation”- what does it mean to you?

Oliver: When I first time ever heard about mass-customisation I thought, isn’t that just a new commercial buzz word or – even worse – a contradiction in itself? I asked myself, how can a company make money by following a single customer wish on a scalable mass production platform? Now, some years and some purchases of mass-customized products later I know better: the combination of smart management, smart production processes, the interactive web and last but not least the outsourcing of tasks to the customer makes mass-customization possible. And, by the way, DIY is nothing new but a re-invention of the “do it yourself” movement from the 50s and 60s when the mass effective production took place in the western world and some people just weren’t unsatisfied with style and image guidelines from the industry. The combination of our actual production and distribution knowledge with the creative and social knowledge of the customer will create the best customized products we have seen so far.

Nadia: Do you remember in which context you first came across it?

Oliver: As I remember the first time ever I purchased a customized product was some years ago during an Indiatrip where I found a custom tailor for suits. After measurement and agreeing on the style details the suit was ready to wear within 5 days. I had the chance to visit the production place and was surprised about the well organized processes: each tailor was responsible for sewing just very few dedicated pieces of the suit, one tailor sewed all pieces together and one was responsible for the final quality check. The concept of mass production with a personal touch was fully understood.

Nadia: Do you know why there is this sudden interest in MC and related concepts at the moment?

Oliver: First: people are sick and tired of wearing boring clothes or possessing mass products which they might find in their friends place as well. A person in an affluent society who basically has everything needs the next kick which is something special, personal, and individual. Second: The social web along with border-less interaction stimulates consumers to exchange and show their creations. Nothing is more appealing and worth talking about than own achievements and nothing is more interesting for friends to share and be proud of. Third: where a demand is also a supply. Companies are aware of the trend for customization and by answering it with products and services they even more stimulate the development.

Nadia: Why/ in which situation did you decide to employ MC/work with MC- a little background?

Oliver: Some years ago I had the idea to open a company for mass customized business shirts but a great offer from an international consulting company came across so I skipped that idea. However, I never totally buried that idea. After living in Chinafor some years and experiencing the matchless demand of 1, 3 Billion people with black hair and brown eyes for appearing a little bit more individual I decided to open my own company in the co-creation field.

Nadia: How did that work out for you- what new challenges did it raise for you and how did you deal with them?

Oliver: Asian markets, especially China, are highly challenging and demanding. Not only concerning the set up and the running of a company but also the complex cultural background and history which effects consumer’s predispositions. For example, the color white in Europemeans beauty and virginity; in Chinait might be associated with death as well as the number 4. Especially China is facing a development from an agricultural based country to a modern industrialised country in now time. While Europeand the USAneeded some decades to introduce landline telephone to every household the Chinese just skipped the landline and introduced mobile smart phones. Very fast developments not seldom have their victims and often the law and reliably regulations stay behind the actual reality. From my opinion the biggest challenge in China is having a strong and reliable network, a long term vision and peace of mind.

CYO in a Nutshell:
Place: 10969 Berlin Kreuzberg, Germany ( exact location on cyo website)
Time:
Monday, 30 May 2011: 5-8pm: Press conference and Opening of the Exhibition
Tuesday, 31 May 2011: 9-6pm: CYO2011 Conference & MC Business Incubator Workshop
Registration: General registration for the event is 200,- Euro for the Early Bird Rate, 350,- Euro onsite.
Hosts: CYO2011 is sponsored and co-organized by OpenGarments and SERVIVE, two research projects financed by the European Commission in the 7th Framework Program. More information is available on the event website: http://www.cyo2011.com

Research promotion

ChristianG — Mon, 09 May 2011 10:01:07 +0000

Many start-ups face the problem that they are willing to investigate in their business model with regard to an enhancement of their production process for example or the improvement of their bouquet of services. But as they are start-ups or small companies, money is tight. The European Union recognizes this problem and therefore tries to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs):”European SMEs are an essential source of growth, employment, entrepreneurial skills, innovation and economic and social cohesion. It is therefore essential to unlock the potential through research and technological innovation which will help them survive and prosper in the long run.” (http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp7/index_en.cfm?pg=sme)

Successful examples of such EU funded collaborations between companies and research institutes are projects like Servive (SERVice Oriented Intelligent Value Adding nEtwork for Clothing-SMEs embarking in Mass-Customisation: www.servive.eu) or Open Garments (Consumer Open Innovation and Open Manufacturing Interaction for Individual Garments: www.open-garments.eu). They will present some of their results as well as experiences at the CYO 2011 in Berlin!

If you are interested in a European-wide platform for knowledge gaining and sharing, you might have a look at www.mckn.eu and meet Frank Steiner (responsible for the platform within another EU project called Remplanet) to ask some questions or give remarks!