Why is community important in design? It's because today users play a bigger role in design by helping to define the process of creating products and services.
Keynotes drawn from top thinkers, business and industry leaders will investigate the impact of community on design at the Industrial Designers Society of America's (IDSA) 2011 International Conference set in New Orleans from September 14 to 17.
This year's theme, "Community: You, Me, We.," will examine the importance of community across multiple layers of design by exploring emerging social issues, studying ever-shifting consumer behaviors, investigating new tools, venues and models with which design is conceived, developed and executed.
The conference will follow three tracks: "Attitudes & Behaviors," "Methods & Means" and "Community as Context." Selected from a wide range of leading companies and organizations, keynotes include:
Clay Shirky, author, associate arts professor and distinguished writer in residence at New York University (opening keynote)
Tom Bassett, CEO, MindSwarms
Andrea Chen, co-founder and executive director, Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans
Allan Chochinov, partner, Core77
Tom Gerhardt, co-founder, Studio Neat
Elizabeth Goodman, Ph.D. candidate, University of California, Berkeley, School of Information
Ben Kaufman, CEO and co-founder, Quirky
Grant McCracken, research affiliate at the Convergence Culture Consortium (C3), MIT
Margaret Gould Stewart, director of user experience, YouTube/Google Aaron Zinman, co-founder, Empirical LLC
Yancey Strickler, co-founder, Kickstarter
Arnold Wasserman, principal, Collective Invention
Scott Wilson, founder, Minimal