David Gann's report critically appraises and illustrates how value to customers can be increased through the use of open building concepts and component-based building techniques, both from the initial design standpoint to future adaptations.
The innovation process is the most important of all business processes. Innovation is the means by which value is constructed and efficiencies are created. It is the source of sustainable competitive advantage. This book shows how the innovation process is changing profoundly. Part of the change results from the application of new technologies to the innovation process itself. A new category of technology has emerged which we call 'innovation technology'. This includes simulation and modelling, visualization, and rapid prototyping technologies. When used effectively, innovation technology makes the innovation process more economical and ameliorates some of its uncertainties. These technological changes are accompanied by changing organization structures and skills requirements. The technologies are used in fast moving, creative environments and are suited to project-based organization. They also require the development of new 'craft' skills to realize the possibilities created by the new 'code'. The book outlines a new way of thinking about innovation. Traditional definitions of 'research', 'development' and 'engineering', imply a progressive linearity which doesn't exist in reality. They are also associated with organizational departments, which are breaking down where once they existed, and are in any case non-existent in the vast majority of firms. They also fail to capture the central importance of design in innovation. We propose a new schema for the innovation process: Think, Play, Do. Innovation requires creating new ideas and thinking about new options, playing with them to see if they are practical, economical and marketable, and then doing: making the innovation real. This new schema captures the emerging innovation process using a more contemporary idiom. The book reports in-depth studies from a number of companies and sectors. Major case studies of Procter and Gamble and Arup Partners are presented. It reports on the use of innovation technology in a range of other companies and organizations, from pharmaceuticals in GSK, to engineering design in Ricardo engineering , and welding in TWI. We describe how innovation technology is used in traditional industries, such as in mining, and in public projects, such as the development of London's traffic congestion charge and the stabilization of the leaning tower of Pisa.
A compelling account of how incorporating play into work can help us overcome the uncertainty and turbulence that surrounds work How can we learn to deal with uncertainty at work? The answer, as Dodgson and Gann eloquently portray in this pathfinding book, is to learn from the adaptive behaviors of entrepreneurs. Play, the authors show, is a crucial component of this. It encourages exploration, experimentation, and curiosity while it also challenges established practices and orthodoxies. It facilitates change in people and organizations. Drawing on in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs and innovators, this book explains why we should incorporate play into work, what play looks like, and how to encourage playfulness in individuals and organizations. Dodgson and Gann identify four key behaviors that endorse, encourage, and guide play: grace, craft, fortitude, and ambition, and provide a blueprint for an alternative way of working that fosters resilience and encourages innovation and growth in difficult times.
China's extraordinary economic development is explained in large part by the way it innovates. Contrary to widely held views, China's innovation machine is not created and controlled by an all-powerful government. Instead, it is a complex, interdependent system composed of various elements, involving bottom-up innovation driven by innovators and entrepreneurs and highly pragmatic and adaptive top-down policy. Using case studies of leading firms and industries, along with statistics and policy analysis, this book argues that China's innovation machine is similar to a natural ecosystem. Innovations in technology, organization, and business models resemble genetic mutations which are initially random, self-serving, and isolated, but the best fitting are selected by the market and their impacts are amplified by the innovation machine. This machine draws on China's multitude manufacturers, supply chains, innovation clusters, and digitally literate population, connected through super-sized digital platforms. China's innovation suffers from a lack of basic research and reliance upon certain critical technologies from overseas, yet its scale (size) and scope (diversity) possess attributes that make it self-correcting and stronger in the face of challenges. China's innovation machine is most effective in a policy environment where the market prevails; policy intervention plays a significant role when market mechanisms are premature or fail. The future success of China's innovation will depend on continuing policy pragmatism, mass innovation, and entrepreneurship, and the development of the 'new infrastructures'.
This book explores the life and works of the pioneering opera composer Robert Ashley, one of the leading American composers of the post-Cage generation. Ashley's innovations began in the 1960s when he, along with Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma, and David Behrman, formed the Sonic Arts Union, a group that turned conceptualism toward electronics. He was also instrumental in the influential ONCE Group, a theatrical ensemble that toured extensively in the 1960s.During his tenure as its director, the ONCE Festival in Ann Arbor presented most of the decade's pioneers of the performing arts. Particularly known for his development of television operas beginning with Perfect Lives, Ashley spun a long series of similar text/music works, sometimes termed "performance novels." These massive pieces have been compared with Wagner's Ring Cycle for the vastness of their vision, though the materials are completely different, often incorporating noise backgrounds, vernacular music, and highly structured, even serialized, musical structures. Drawing on extensive research into Ashley's early years in Ann Arbor and interviews with Ashley and his collaborators, Kyle Gann chronicles the life and work of this musical innovator and provides an overview of the avant-garde milieu of the 1960s and 1970s to which he was so central. Gann examines all nine of Ashley's major operas to date in detail, along with many minor works, revealing the fanatical structures that underlie Ashley's music as well as private references hidden in his opera librettos.
First performed at the midpoint of the twentieth century, John Cage’s 4'33", a composition conceived of without a single musical note, is among the most celebrated and ballyhooed cultural gestures in the history of modern music. A meditation on the act of listening and the nature of performance, Cage’s controversial piece became the iconic statement of the meaning of silence in art and is a landmark work of American music. In this book, Kyle Gann, one of the nation’s leading music critics, explains 4'33" as a unique moment in American culture and musical composition. Finding resemblances and resonances of 4'33" in artworks as wide-ranging as the paintings of the Hudson River School and the music of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, he provides much-needed cultural context for this fundamentally challenging and often misunderstood piece. Gann also explores Cage’s craft, describing in illuminating detail the musical, philosophical, and even environmental influences that informed this groundbreaking piece of music. Having performed 4'33" himself and as a composer in his own right, Gann offers the reader both an expert’s analysis and a highly personal interpretation of Cage’s most divisive work.
This report presents the methodology for and results from a series of room-scale fire tests to produce data on the yields of toxic products in both pre-flashover and post-flashover fires. The combustibles examined were: a sofa made of upholstered cushions on a steel frame, particleboard bookcases with a laminated finish, polyvinyl chloride sheet, and household electric cable. They were burned in a room with a long adjacent corridor. The yields of CO2, CO, HCl, HCN, and carbonaceous soot were determined. Other toxicants (e.g., NO2, formaldehyde and acrolein) were not found; concentrations below the detection limits were shown to be of limited toxicological importance relative to the detected toxicants. The toxicant yields from sofa cushion fires in a closed room were similar to those from pre-flashover fires of the same cushions in a room with the door open. The uncertainties in the post-flashover data are smaller due to the higher species concentrations and the more fully established upper layer from which the fire effluent was sampled. The uncertainty values are comparable to those estimated for the fractional effective dose calculations used to determine the time available for escape from a fire. The uncertainty in the yield data from the sofa, bookcase, and cable tests is sufficiently small to determine whether a bench-scale apparatus is producing results that are similar to or different from the real-scale results here. The use of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was shown to be a useful tool for obtaining concentration data of toxicants. However, its operation and interpretation is far from routine. The losses of CO, HCN, and HCl as they flowed down the corridor were found to be dependent on the combustible. The downstream to upstream concentration ratios varied from unity for some fuels to a factor of five smaller for others. The CO yield from two of the combustibles was significantly lower than the expected value of 0.2, which should be used in hazard and risk analyses. The accuracy of the results is verified, and a hypothesis is offered for the lower CO yield values.
This is a book about the causes, effects, and coping strategies pertaining to Schizoaffective Disorder. The story is an account of my struggle with this difficult mental illness. The book is a description of a descent into madness, the repercussions of that descent, and the things I did to get my life back on track after my frightening and bizarre experience with Schizoaffective Disorder. If you or someone you know is suffering from Schizoaffective Disorder, Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar Disorder, or severe depression, then you should think about reading this book. This book provides insight into the mind of a person affected by this most misunderstood illness and explains the steps necessary to make a full recovery from it. Readers of this book will come away with an understanding that there is much hope for people suffering from mental illness, and that if the illness is taken seriously, a meaningful and productive life can still be lived regardless.
W. D. Gann and his market forecasting methods are legend in the world of stocks and commodities markets. But Gann's objective in writing The Magic Word was to show others the way to use and obey God's divine law and thus help them to bring out their latent talents and their God-given powers, for that is the only way they can realize health, happiness, and prosperity.
Proceedings of two Symposia held April 25-28, 1988, in L.A., and April 28-29 , 1988, in Oakland, by the California Dept. of Health Services in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Responding to the changing regulatory environment will be a challenge for firms which generate or manage oil wastes. Topics covered in these proceedings include: complying with applicable regulations; developing and implementing an overall oil waste management strategy; identifying cost-effective on-site/off-site oil waste management alternatives; minimizing liabilities; and understanding present and planned government oil waste program objectives.
Recent research says that there is an urgent need for clearly defined policies and funding to address the housing needs of the elderly and disabled. This report examines the use of new technologies which can enable people with disabilities to live independently. The book says that such technology is already in production. Electronic control systems for household appliances, banking facilities, home shopping, and even telemedicine have enormous potential, but this potential is as yet unrealized. Neither the disabled users, nor the manufacturers are getting the full benefit of these inventions. One of the problems facing manufacturers stems from the diverse range of needs and installation environments. As a relatively new area of innovation, home automation systems have been developed independently of one another by a number of companies. The net result is that a wide range of services exist but there is a serious lack of flexibility and compatibility within and between these systems - making it difficult for installers to adapt equipment to the very specific needs of users.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.