David Koren

More Texting, Less Driving

When I was at the ARC-Interiors conference in late September in Miami, speaking on "A Sense of Purpose: The New Reality for Architecture Firms and How Principals will Need to Adapt" I had lunch at the conference after I spoke at a table with a bunch of nice conference attendees and exhibitors. Before long, the conversation turned to current events, and we touched on the controversy over texting while driving.

Without really thinking, in the middle of the conversation, I interjected, "The problem isn't texting... It's driving." I went with it: "I mean, texting doesn't kill people, driving does. The problem is that we drive too much, and driving is just too easy. We need to drive less, and when we do, it needs to be more difficult."

One of the others at the table asked, "Yeah, I need somebody to pick me up at my house and drive me to work."

I threw out, "We have that already. It's called a train."

Suddenly, I realized that I was in a group of people from all around the US, none of which lived in New York or one of the few other cities in the US where you can live a full and complete life without owning a car.

"Maybe we should spend less public money on roads, and more on trains. If the roads were more dangerous, you couldn't text while driving because you'd hit a pothole. Part of the problem here is that driving is too easy because our roads are too well-maintained. People have too much free time when they drive."

The entire controversy, and this conversation, points out to me that our dependence on the automobile, and all the evils that go with it (foreign oil, pollution, suburban sprawl, shopping malls, road rage, alienation, long commutes of wasted time) is a choice, a choice we can reverse. It doesn't have to be this way. And it shouldn't be this way.

I'm reminded of the James Howard Kunstler quote, that the suburbs "represent the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world." The current controversy over texting while driving should be another wake-up call. The problem isn't texting, it's driving. Driving kills. We should be driving less, and texting more. People, get on the train. Get off the road. You're wasting resources, you're wasting time, and you're running the risk of killing somebody, or yourself. Why live this way?

A Moment out of Time

I'm having a very asynchronous, anachronistic experience today. I am posting from the car. I am using my black MacBook that is connected through the Internet via Bluetooth and my Treo 650. I am listening to satellite radio, playing the Sex Pistols. I am driving a rented PT Cruiser, which draws its inspiration from cars from the 50's, but is actually tricked out with lots of nice modern features like an aux port in the stereo, satellite radio, and built-in easy pass. Smash and I are driving to my parents for Christmas, listening the whole way to Willam Gibson's novel PATTERN RECOGNITION, which was written three years ago, and it shows. It's all about a specific recent moment in history (MacCubes for example, are delightful recent anachronisms) but because of the way Gibson writes, it feels like a futuristic fantasy. And now it's the past. Merry Christmas!

ARC-US Conference!

This is a link to the description of the talk that I gave today at ARC-US in Newport Beach, California:

Link: America's Leading Architects Forum.

It went very well, and I got lots of positive feedback from the audience! Sasha came out to hear me!

Everything you know is already out of date

(written for submission for the Spring Newsletter of the IIDA-NY Chapter)

The Internet has brought unprecedented changes to the way we work and live—email, Googling, Ebay, Amazon, instantaneous access to the news. We are now at a point where we are beginning to achieve critical mass (there are, as of January 2006, a billion people on the Internet) and the changes that the Internet is bringing to our lives are, if anything, coming at an increasingly faster rate.

We are now in the era of “Web 2.0.”  Web 1.0 was when every site was like an ad, flat and static, updated by one person or a limited team. Now, in the era of “Web 2.0,” things are becoming more dynamic. We’re seeing a lot more interactivity, and a lot more many-to-many communications. Everyone is a potential web publisher; everyone is a potential contributor to the dialogue that is happening online. This massive interactivity, in real time, around the clock, has real implications for the way we communicate with our clients and market our services. How does the immediacy of an emailed proposal change the client relationship? How does the fact that your client is reading your blog change how you relate as professionals?

Here are four ideas about how the facts of life, work, and professional communications are changing:

1.         You can find out anything about your clients—and your clients can find out anything about you.

Everybody Googles. There’s a well-known cartoon by Peter Steiner that appeared in the New Yorker (July 5, 1993)  with two dogs sitting at a computer. One dog says to the other, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” Today, using the Internet, anybody can find out if you’re a dog, or if you’re the leader in your profession, or if you’ve ever been arrested, or if you bought a house recently. The Internet has moved from an anonymous communications medium to a venue that is hyper-public, and recorded in perpetuity. A recent BusinessWeek article reported on prospective employers Googling job applicants, and finding quite a bit revealed on sites like MySpace.com. We all have a lot more information about each other at our fingertips than we used to, but what we do with it, and how it changes how we relate as professionals, is an open question.

2.         People are talking—about everything—including you.

There is an incredible amount of chatter on the Internet. On blogs and in forums, users post on every topic imaginable—reviewing their new digital camera, sharing advice or personal anecdotes, complaining about an employer or a service provider. There’s an old adage in marketing that if a customer is happy, they'll tell two people about you, but if they're not happy, they'll tell nine people about you. Today, if you provide service that a client is not happy with, the client could easily tell thousands of people. It's more important than ever to manage all of your relationships carefully—with clients, employees, partners, consultants. To check out the kinds of chatter that are happening online in our industry check out the Gutter, the design-gossip page of the Curbed real estate blog. The forums in Archinect can get a little saucy, too.

3.         People are sharing—a lot.

One of the most positive things about the Internet is the amount of collaboration and knowledge-sharing that is taking place. Wikipedia  is quickly becoming the best source in the world for information on anything; however, since the articles are written by an army of volunteers, you sometimes need to provide your own reality-check to the information you find there. Programmers utilize the Internet to work collaboratively on open source software—such as Linux or OpenOffice, a free, open source Microsoft Office clone. People want to participate, be a part of building something, and be recognized for it. All companies would be served by learning to harness the passion of their customers (think about the way that Amazon allows any customer to write a review of any product in its catalog) or their employees (Google gives every employee one day a week to work on innovative personal projects) to support the success of the company.

4.         How soon is ASAP? How fast is too fast?

Wherever you are, your client can reach you. You’ve got a mobile phone. You can check your email. You can respond to a request by emailing a PDF file of a plan or a rendering or a contract. In this entirely digital, mobile-enabled, always-on world, what’s to stop you from responding instantly to any communication, any request from any client, at any hour, from any location? Well, you just can’t work like that, right? Sometimes you need to turn the computer off, let the phone go to voice mail, and leave the Blackberry in the next room. But determining the parameters of when you are on and when you are off is getting harder all the time.

There’s so much change underway in the way we communicate, it’s tempting to make overbroad statements like, “It’s all changing!” But, in fact, it isn’t. We are riding an accelerating parabola of change, but what this means is that essentials are as important as ever. People do still hire people, so building personal relationships with clients based on trust and mutual respect is still the most important thing to do to build business. The Internet doesn’t change that—it just provides a new landscape in which to do it, with new rules and new challenges.

Business at the Speed of Light

I just sent this proposal in to ARC-US to deliver a presentation at their conference in San Diego in November...

Business at the Speed of Light
The acceleration of business and communication, and architectural practice in the 21st Century

In the last 25 years, technology has completely changed the way we conduct business. A series of revolutionary inventions—CAD, overnight delivery, faxes, mobile phones, email, and the internet—has transformed practically everything we do.

Now that the internet is nearly ubiquitous, however, we are entering an entirely new era. We have more information at our fingertips than ever conceived of before. We are able to communicate with our clients, staff, and collaborators instantly, no matter where they are.

Add to this the fact that we are now conducting business in a vastly expanded geographic and economic arena. In the last 10 years or so, over 2 billion people have joined the global economy—in China, India, and emerging countries in South America, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia. The world is truly bigger, and smaller, than ever before.

In this new environment, the speed of business has increased dramatically, and we are now operating in an always-on, 24/7 global economy. The world does not stop when your office closes. Every business must contend with how to respond as rapidly as possible to their customers—no matter where in the world they're located, no matter what time it is where they are.

But this new era is defined by more than just speed. Now that we can access information and communicate instantly around the globe, new forms of online communication are emerging. It is now possible for every individual who is connected to the internet to communicate with every other individual. Social networking on the internet, in the form of online communities, blogs, wikis, and content sharing, is beginning to transform the way that people interact around the world.

This new environment turns conventional corporate marketing and communications on its head. In a world where everyone (at least, everyone who is connected to the global economy) has immediate access to libraries of current information (that is, current as of this second) on you, your company, your competitors, and your market, companies need to find new ways to communicate with and truly engage clients. It isn't enough to send out a postcard and update your website. You have to find ways to truly provide unique value to your customers—whether through a trust relationship that you have built or through knowledge that only you can provide.

A few key questions:

• How are architects coping with working globally, in a 24/7 environment?
• How are suppliers changing their communications/marketing organizations to accelerate response and provide enhanced levels of personal service?
• How can companies in our industry utilize many-to-many forms of online communication and collaboration to provide increased levels of service and value to our customers?

--------------------------------------

David Koren, Assoc. AIA
Senior Associate, Gensler Architecture, Design & Planning Worldwide

David Koren is the Marketing Director of the Northeast Region of Gensler, and the author of The Architect’s Essentials of Marketing, the first book on marketing written specifically for architects. David was the co-chair of the marketing committee of the New York Chapter of the AIA from 2001-2004, and was president of the SMPS New York Chapter from 2005-2006. He has a BFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University, and an M.Phil. in Irish Theatre Studies from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

David is an avowed early adopter, and has always been fascinated by technology and its social implications. He's been tracking and participating in the development of the internet for the past 15 years. David combines a deep practical knowledge of the business of design with a vivid imagination and sharp communication skills. He's working on a new book on the speed of business.

Free Internet for Everyone

'I am worried that it could just be half the world that is flat and that it stays that way.'
-- Bill Gates

I just had an idea... Somebody needs to run for Congress on a 'free internet for everyone' platform... Everyone, not just Americans. We need to raise the political dialogue above debates over-who-did-what-to-whom and whether we should rename French Fries to Freedom Fries and really talk about the contribution that America has made to the welfare and prosperity of the entire world, and needs to continue to make. We have to get everyone on the internet, as quickly as possible, or the gulf between the information have and have-nots will widen to become an almost irreconcilable gap. It should be a mission of the United States government, in the interests of creating a more connected, prosperous, and harmonious world, to make this happen.

The Walls Come Down

"'Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly..."
--- Robert Frost, "The Mending Wall," 1914

"In Internet time, there are no secrets, there's no time for delay. There are plenty of competitors who are going to eat you alive. You need to not take a breath, and start over, and do it again, as soon as you get done with one. And you need to juggle three or four of these, all the time. That's how you compete and survive if you're in the software business on the Internet."
--- Jim Bizdow, President, RSA Security, from "Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet" (PBS)

"The entire idea of this book makes me think my head is going to explode."
--- Sasha Koren, February 2, 2006

Welcome to the 21st Century. I think it's taken us a few years to figure out what this new era is about, but now that it's becoming clear, we all have to adjust and consider how we find balance. The walls are coming down, and the boundaries and definitions that we have applied to our lives are changing.

I think that speed is the defining factor of this new era. In The World Is Flat, Tom Friedman makes the case that the start of the current current trend of globalization began with the Berlin Wall crumbling in 1989, and then was enhanced by FedEx, Netscape, UPS, Napster, and other revolutionary links between locations and people around the world. Now, we live in an era in which it may soon be possible to actually work anywhere and so, as Richard Florida says, cities and countries are competing for top talent. Places around the world, such as China, India, and Southeast Asia, have entered the global economy, and now capital and people can move around the world as freely as ever.

What's the necessary result of this tremendous mobility? Both equality, and division. But the boundaries are shifting so fast that it's tough to see it. The twentieth century boundaries of race and class and geography and time and control of information and hierarchy and identity are all becoming obsolete. Success, in this new era, is about finding balance and integrating your identity in a world that is always on, in a landscape of information and connection that is as close as your cell phone, or the nearest wi-fi hotspot, in a world where everything is recorded, you're always on camera, and everything you type (basically) is in the public domain.

This is the new book I'm writing:

SPEED
Coping with the pace of life and work in the 21st Century

I'm going to write it quickly, and I'm going to write it on this blog. I'm researching the topic now, and I'm moving as fast as I can.

Why is speed the result of the boundaries going down? Well, the more that we are always on, and the more that technology and connection is ubiquitous, the faster that our clients, our friends, our customers expect us to respond. A week for a response? Where were you yesterday? Where are you right now? I need it now! This is an emergency! And, as the artificial excuses for delay become more and more impossible to maintain, we are all accountable for being plugged in, and responding immediately, bringing our full selves into the Internet, onto the web, into the public domain.

I believe we've only been into the new economic boom for about six months, since the last half of 2005. But everyone who seems to feel this new era that we are in complains about the pace. The statements "I'm swamped" or "I'm working too much" have become almost passe. It seems like everybody in the creative class who is plugged into the global economy is working too much, as we all struggle to keep up with the rising expectations. So the big question is, how do we cope? How do we find balance in this new era? How do we find a way to turn off?

I think we actually need to find ways to bring more of ourselves to what we do, and to be really firm with what our needs are. Being overly accommodating to our clients and our friends may no longer be possible in a 24/7, always on world.

Stop and Go

I went to a Buddhist lecture last night, not because I'm a Buddhist, but just because I'm interested in many of the ideas of Buddhism, and because I like listening to people who are good speakers talk. I've never been to a Buddhist lecture before, but I know that, generally, people who are priests or ministers or rabbis are pretty good speakers, mostly because they have to do it so much.

Anyway, I arrived late, and left early. What struck me, upon entering, was the immense sense of stillness and peace that had been created in the room. The room, in itself, was nothing special. It was a congregation room in the Community Church of New York, where I had never been before. The room had been decorated with some Buddhist tapestries and posters. But basically it was the inside of a basic, mid-20th century, boxy, brick church. But the room was totally serene. There was so little movement. I sat in the very back, right by the door, and dropped both the bags I was carrying. The usher, a pleasant and earthy woman, said to me, "You can move up." I replied, "I'll move in a moment." And she was fine with that. But I didn't move. I got kind of stuck in the back, watching people come in late, and sit down around me, and then move up into the congregation.

A young couple came, with a baby, and sat down next to me. I thought, "A baby! That's totally going to ruin the serenity in here." It didn't. The baby slept, silently, almost motionlessly, and the couple held hands. I watched another man come in, sort of agitated. He sat next to me, moving his hands together compulsively. Gradually, over the course of two or three minutes, the movement stopped, and he shared in the stillness of the room.

When the speaker, Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong, began to talk, she spoke in a highly modulated pattern, with what I thought was a slight Irish accent. She stressed every word she said, and only tossed out two or three at a time, like this: "following... in the footsteps... of Buddha..." I enjoyed listening to her, but the substance of the talk didn't hold new information for me, particularly. I mean, it's not really about new information, is it? It's about learning to silence your own internal chatter so you can just be. Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong's talk was about providing points of reference that people could latch on to in order to find out how to silence their own internal chatter. And it was delivered in a manner that was also devoid of any distractions. It was, in a sense, perfect.

I dozed off twice. Or, at least, I achieved a highly restful state there in that serene room. It didn't matter. It was not a "sleepy room" like you find in a boring lecture. It wasn't boring. It was highly concentrated and minimal in the extreme.

After about an hour and a half or so, I broke my own serenity and left. It wasn't that I was bored, or that I needed to go. I just felt that I had seen what I had come to see, and heard what I had come to hear. The talk, in particular, as I've said, didn't hold any new information that I hadn't read or heard before. But the room was fascinating, and the people who came were really interesting, how they plugged into the serenity. I think I could have been the first person to leave. People just kept coming, and nobody seemed to leave.

What strikes me, upon reflecting on the experience of the lecture, is that it was such a different kind of space than most of us typically find ourselves in. It was a unique, highly attenuated moment of intense serenity and peace. So thick you could cut it with a knife. It was an addictive stillness.

I think most of us find our lives as a frantic concatenation of somewhat random activity. We move faster and faster, doing more and more, and never quite achieve peace. But I think that, in order to be happy, we have to achieve some harmony with the frenzy. We have to find a balance between stillness and motion. Maybe it's a stillness within to mirror the velocity of our bodies. Or something like that. Is it possible to be at peace and in constant motion?

I left the lecture feeling like I got something out of it, but I didn't need more. I saw, in that room, one way to achieve peace and, if Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong is to be believed, joy. But, personally, I don't believe that I can find joy in stillness. I need to be moving, as quickly as possible, with some kind of balance inside. That's what I'm striving for: peace inside while moving at infinite speed.

In and Out

Globalization is very good for some (maybe even most) people. It's going to be very difficult  for others. As barriers to trade and the free movement of capital come down, the accelerated movement of goods, money, and ideas will make some people very rich indeed. It will be a huge challenge for the rest of us.

Throughout the last hundred years or so in America, historical trends, economics, social policy, communications technology, and culture have served to, if anything, reduce the class differences that exist in our country. The CEO may have made 20 times what you made, but everybody watched the same TV shows, the same sporting events. Everybody got to go on vacation. Most people could afford cars. The 'American Dream' was being realized by more and more Americans.

Over the last few years, we've seen a regression in that trend. CEO salaries are through the roof, in some cases totally to thousands of times the salaries of their junior employees. I recently saw an article that pointed out that, over the last 20 years, the average salaries of the best-paid 20 percent of Americas had gone up by approximately 30 percent, while the salaries of the poorest 20 percent had only gone up by 16 percent. The rich are, in fact, getting richer, while the poor are getting poorer.

Globalization will only serve to accelerate this trend, at least in America (in India and China, the poor are getting richer, too). Just as globalization means that, essentially, the world's best talent is competing with the best talent around the world, it also means that the workers of the world are in competition, too. So Ford has to lay off 30,000 workers and close 14 plants because, in global competition, they can't compete if they're paying US union wages.

In his books Rise of the Creative Class and Flight of the Creative Class, Richard Florida makes the case that the existing paradigm for class in the U.S. is obsolete: that people are defined more by what they do than by how much capital they control, and that capital follows creativity to such an extent that our most creative workers are also generally our best paid. I would like to take this one step further... We are rapidly becoming a society of two classes: those who are 'in' and who are participating in the global economy, and those who are 'out' and are not.

A few ago, in the dot.com years, these would have been described as the information 'haves' and 'have nots.' I think, for the first time, we are seeing the economic affects of being a 'have' or a 'have not' with regard to information technology.

Those who are 'in' are participating in the evolution of our society, whether through their brainpower, their leadership, or by investing their capital.

Those who are 'out' are living, functioning, trying to get by. Their biggest goal has to be to try to get 'in' and participate in the global economy, tap into the dizzying acceleration of change that shows no signs of slowing.

Our biggest goal as a society should be to help those who are 'out' to get 'in.' A world in which half of the population earns $500,000 a year or more, and the other half earns $8 an hour, will be a scary place indeed. (I'm reminded of the future earth in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.)

We have to reverse the widening divide between rich and poor in America. We have to create educational and social structures to help more people get into the global economy. if they can't, we'll all suffer the consequences.