Voice

The Thinking Mechanism is a series of weekly posts, published on Fridays, covering the ideas The Mechanism is thinking and talking about with our peers and clients.

Consider this one the take a break from work edition. It is perhaps a bit New York City centric but the spirit of it applies universally. If you don’t take the time to experience things outside the realm of your day to day work you are severely cutting your ability to be inspired. In addition, as Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons convey in their book The Invisible Gorilla, if you are hyper-focused you are very likely to begin experiencing a psychological phenomenon that renders you unable to see things that are right in front of you, in a kind of blindness that compromises your intuition.

With that in mind here are a couple of suggestions to clear your mind and perhaps lead you to new experiences:

• Viral video kings OK GO have developed a collaborative dance piece with the fantastic Pilobolus dance company. They are in residence at The Joyce Theater until August 6 with the band dancing with the company on July 25 and 27. If it takes OK GO to get you to see dance at The Joyce Theater, the home of dance in NYC, then so be it. Your creative life will be richer for it.

• British company Punchdrunk has developed an extraordinary new work called Sleep No More. They company have taken over three warehouses and transformed them into The McKittrick Hotel. You arrive, meet at the bar, and then a strange character hands you a mask. For the next three hours, in silence and while wearing the mask, you traverse the hotel exploring complexly designed spaces and follow the actors as they re-enact a version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Everything, from the sound to the objects in the rooms, is tone perfect. You are free to do as you please and explore. In a recent performance I followed Lady Macbeth and watched her wash her bloody hands. Characters sometimes use the audience to pass notes to other characters.

Sleep No More is wordless Shakespeare, living film noire, the best of contemporary dance, true augmented reality, masterful storytelling, respectful homage, detailed design and that is not even taking in consideration the technical requirements needed to produce and perform such a “play” every night. Punchdrunk have taken the performing arts and remixed them creating something completely new, yet familiar, and absolutely spellbinding.

• And speaking of Shakespeare, you have not experienced New York completely until you have attended Shakespeare In The Park, produced by The Public Theater. It consistently presents some of the best Shakespeare productions with Central Park as the backdrop. This year’s productions are The Merchant of Venice and The Winter’s Tale and they run until July 30th.

• Now until July 24 is restaurant week in NYC, with dozens of restaurants creating prix fixe menus that are affordable and a great way to discover new cuisines. Have a decent meal with friends for a change and for goodness sake, no talk of work.

• Looking for something that you can explore at your own pace? Starting July 24 and running until November 7 The Museum of Modern Art is displaying Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects in the special exhibitions gallery. From the exhibition description “Talk to Me explores the communication between people and things. All objects contain information that goes well beyond their immediate use or appearance. In some cases, objects like cell phones and computers exist to provide us with access to complex systems and networks, behaving as gateways and interpreters. Whether openly and actively, or in subtle, subliminal ways, things talk to us, and designers help us develop and improvise the dialogue.”

• Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, at The Met until August 7, will make you question everything you know about fashion and art and their roles in your life. It is a glorious tribute to an artist gone too soon. A friend recently described it as “the most lavish and gorgeous visual concert ever produced” and I have to agree.

• Can’t attend any of these this weekend. Well, iTunes has Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 available for $.99 rental until next Tuesday. Revisit Part 1 and then head to the theater to catch Part 2 as the Harry Potter movie saga comes to an end.

• For those of you that have not read the Harry Potter books, let me try to entice you to read them with the words of Stephen King “Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity.” J.K. Rowling single-handedly got a generation of children to read and at over 3000 pages total across seven books that’s a lot of reading. She changed the publishing industry. The recently announced Pottermore is set to change publishing once more as she releases the novels in ebook format. But the main point here is not the praise or the business, the point is that a single mother, during tough times in her life, had a singular vision and worked very hard to create a world were hard work, loyalty and persistence pay off. So go right ahead, take a break from work, dive into the series, you may not like it, you may love it, you may be re-reading it, but above all you may learn how to apply that same level of creative detail to your own work.

There you have it, no excuses, walk away from the screens for a few hours and fuel your creativity with something unknown.

So, I recently returned from what could best be described as descent into confusion, madness and finally, utter euphoria. You see, I’ve just completed what some PR folk might call a “media tour” and others would refer to as a Mr. Magoo-like dodder-fest through the dark world of socialized media into the enlightening universe of pure communal interaction with some very intelligent and creative folks at the PRSA International Conference in Washington D.C.. Not only did I speak at the PRSA International Conference and do a video interview right after I finished, but I also did an interview with the brilliant Eric Schwartzman, host of “On the Record…Online,” penned a blog post at PRSA.org and led a webinar about social media – all within a 6 week timeline.

But let’s start from my arrival in the former District of Columbia…

…I exited my Amtrak Iron Horse after she galloped safely into Washington’s Union Station, thinking I would be a clever chappy by using the mighty D.C. mass transit system to reach my final destination – the Washington Hilton, home of the 2010 PRSA International Conference as well as the place where then-President Ronnie Reagan was shot at by a slithering toad (and Jodie Foster aficionado), named John Warnock Hinkley, Jr. back in 81′.

I must confess to being a bit of a tech junkie, as I was aptly armed on my journey to Washington with my Android phone, an iPad, an iPod and a computer loaded to the silicon gills with what I hoped would be a delightful tiptoe through the social media glory of a Website that The Mechanism had built for Flight of the Conchords. The comedy pop duo and former HBO stars are now likely the bona-fide and rightful owners of the country of New Zealand after a successful tour of Europe and the United States during the summer of 2010.

In addition to my shoulder pack containing every electronic device known to human, I was slugging my suitcase, a freshly-pressed suit, and finally, a three-foot-by-two-foot flat slice of unassuming cardboard, which contained some very nicely designed and rare Flight of the Conchords posters (graciously donated by the band’s management), which I was truly excited to give away to some lucky attendees of my chat at the PRSA Conference. I figured if I really bombed as a speaker, my saving grace would be at the end. After the boos had ended and the cat calls of “Well, look at Mr. Social Media Tough Guy!” had subsided, I could whip out a couple of fancy posters – and much like Houdini shackled in a chest in the ocean – escape as the awesomely heroic “Pied Piper of Social Media”, dancing my way into everyone’s hearts and minds.

So…I’m inside the cavernous Union Station in D.C., seeking advice from my Android for the best mass transit route to my destination. After several moments attempting to locate the subway station on the Google map and giving up, I walked out into the afternoon air. I strolled like a knucklehead toward the first person who looked like a native of the city and pulled some real “old-fashioned” social media mojo on them by personally asking how I could get to the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Ave.

“Well, that depends which side of Connecticut you want to go to,” she politely said, indicating to me that not only were there at least two Hilton hotels in Washington, but there were two Hilton hotels in Washington in opposite directions of the same street. It was at that precise moment that I realized that the cardboard poster container that I had held so dear to my survival at the PRSA Conference had been left back inside Union Station against the wall.

I politely, yet discretely excused myself from my conversation and high-tailed it back into Union Station. Surprisingly, and mercifully, the Social Media Gods were shining down on me, and the posters were safely leaning against the wall, exactly where I left them. I grabbed them, kissed them and returned to my journey.

I should have realized the trouble I was about to be in and taken a taxi immediately…

The underground mass transit snake that I boarded took me swiftly to Dupont Circle, which a kindly fella in the Metro Station had told me was in the vicinity of the hotel. In my opinion, this particular destination is possibly a portal of hell, resembling – from a birds eye – an unholy nucleus of evil incarnate, with none other than 12 streets slithering from it’s demon heart in every direction. Of these 12 foul streets, four of them bear the name Connecticut, and both directions from Dupont Circle are suspiciously named “Connecticut NW”.

For the next hour and a half, I wandered aimlessly in every direction but the correct one, carrying a computer bag, my suitcase, a freshly-pressed suit and finally, that 3-foot-by-2-foot flat slice of cardboard which contained some very nicely designed, and as I’ve mentioned, rare Flight of the Conchords posters. After leaving a trail through the Dupont area that could only be compared to the flight of a brain-damaged hornet, my destination was in sight. Halfway up the hill, I squinted my tired eyes to gaze upon the Hilton sign and the place where I would be speaking about Social Media, the Flight of the Conchords Website and be giving away some very nicely designed – and as I’ve mentioned extremely rare – Flight of the Conchords posters.

But I didn’t have the cardboard container.

With sore feet, a sour disposition, an aching back from carrying a now sloppily packed and disheveled suit, a computer bag and a suitcase on wheels worn to a bloody axle, I realized that at yet another point on my now Oddyssec journey from Union Station to the Washington Hilton, I had inexplicably put the posters down again and left them behind. Rather than go absolutely ape-shit (like anyone else could have rightfully done in my opinion), I decided to slug back down the hill, with all of my crap dangling from me and try to find the posters…

After another half hour attempt to recapture the true magic of my mindless path (exemplified by the blue line on the map below), I realized that it wasn’t to be. I scaled the hill to the Washington Hilton and checked in – truly defeated and anticipating a hissing horde of social media gurus to torch me at the end of my presentation like Frankenstein’s Monster or the Hunchback of Notre Dame, without the necessary lifeline of my fancy posters to save me from certain doom.

The grim details of our hero’s journey through the wilds of Dupont Circle

Needless to say, this story ends quite happily. After dropping everything off in my lovely hotel room, I gallantly retraced my steps and located the three-foot-by-two-foot flat slice of cardboard (containing some very nicely designed, rare and likely expensive Flight of the Conchords posters) – laying casually in the street, exactly where I had left it. My talk went well, as evidenced by the well wishers, tweeters and generally friendly folk at the PRSA Conference. Some of the attendees gleefully walked out with some fancy Flight of the Conchords posters devoid of any desire to boo, beat or burn me like a social media Quasimodo, lost in the unholy maze of Dupont Circle.

Dave Fletcher is the Founder & Executive Creative Director at The Mechanism, a multi-disciplinary design agency with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa. He is also an avid Social Media junkie as evidenced by the number of confused Gowalla and Foursquare check-ins that occurred on his hellish trip through the wilds of Dupont Circle. He also wants to thank Albert Chau, the photographer who sent over the photographs from the 2010 PRSA Conference and the fine staff of PRSA for a grand old time in Washington D.C..

The New York Web Standards Meetup will meet 17 March 2010 at reBar at 7:00 pm for "CSS3 and the Death of the Background Image, or Yet Another Talk on Progressive Enhancement (aka Death to IE6/7/Sometimes 8)."

The immense CSS3 proposal (which has been on the W3C's table for years) is now seeing a significant number of draft modules being implemented in browsers and most of these modules are explicitly geared toward reducing our time in Photoshop. In this comprehensive how-to, Marco Carag (TheKnot.com) will run through all the new properties you've been reading about and anticipating, including @font-face, rgba, gradients, drop-shadows, transforms and animation. Using both focused proof-of-concept pages and actual production examples from The Knot and other websites across the web, attendees will see the impact of CSS3 on the average front-end workflow and understand how it improves or affects your users' experience across all browsers.

CSS3 and the Death of the Background Image
17 March 2010 . 7:00 pm
reBar
147 Front Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201 [map]

RSVP now!

Please contact The Mechanism if you'd like to present at a future New York Web Standards meetup.

Håkon Wium Lie

Photos and discussion of CERN and Tim Berners-Lee. How the web was actually developed by Tim at CERN. Pretty hilarious.

CSS a response to potential destruction of HTML's markup language with presentation elements. Currently CSS still relies too heavily on images and the occasional table hack.

HTML5 + CSS3 = WEB8. CSS3 is not a single specification, a series of specifications.

CSS1 could style text in an element. Some borders. A revolution when it came out.

For this presentation, Håkon is using a special build of Opera that isn't publicly available.

. Web font: Safari, Firefox and Opera.

Håkon believe web fonts is going to be the big new thing. Will create a pre- and post-font Web.

IE is the only one that does not not support this. Argument now breaks out between Håkon and Pete LePage

IE has supported a broad range of fonts since IE 4, but .EOT. However, the above @import is all TTF. IE uses .EOT because font foundries want support for DRM. Check out Fontdeck and Typekit.

At Standards.Next, IE pledged support to add support to TTF along with EOT.

rgba()

See Molly's presentation.

A review of Opera's support for the CSS 3 features discussed by Andy Budd.

Opera Unite

Turns browser into a server. Allows people to access your machine via

. Can be quite useful.

It's not the cloud. This service is close to machine and useful for local collaboration. Millions of phones use Opera. Peer-to-peer model. Can take picture and easily

Question/Answer

Q: When will the geolocation build be integrated with the shipping version?

A: Not sure; no date yet. Will probably not occur until the standard is more fixed.

Pete LePage
Senior Product Manager, Developers & Security for IE

IE 8

IE 8 is a hybrid, has two engines; IE 9 will have three engines: IE 7, IE 8 and IE 9. This way can ensure site works in future versions of the browser.

IE 8 supports session and local storage (see presentation by Marcus Lofthouse to the New York Web Standards Meetup). Added addition to spec: a way to remove all.

Mutable DOM prototypes: take a DOM element and add properties/methods to it. Add method to

. There are a number of things not implemented in IE 8. Can write a chunk of JavaScript that adds functionality to browser. This will be used by people writing the JavaScript frameworks (jQuery, Dojo).

Native JSON support.

Network events

CrossDocumentMessaging and CrossDomainRequest

Selectors API

Fixed getElementById.

Demos at ie8demos.com (browser-sniffs and only wants to work in IE 8).

IE 9

• Faster; speed is important. Finally comparable to FF.
• A lot of work on standards-support. Will implement border-radius. Acid3 score went from 20 to 32. IE 8 Current CSS3 support is vertical-text. Hope to more than double it in IE 9.

Questions/Answers

Q: Why always trying to play catch up? Why not just adopt Webkit?

A: A lot of things that make adopting Webkit or Gecko more difficult than it seems.

Q: Any release date for IE 9?

A: No dates as of now

Q: Still trying to get Canvas out of the spec for HTML5?

A: Not sure; might be a miscommunication

Q: Any major updates planned for IE 8?

A: Probably not; next major version will be 9. Security updates will be released for 8, but the rendering engine will not change.