At the INC, everyone is busy working on the upcoming Winter Camp event. This event is dedicated to supporting networks that need to gather in real life, to work together, conspire, discuss and make the necessary steps forward. When a network settles down, and is suddenly not so new anymore, it can be quite a challenge to maintain the level of initial activity. The Institute of Network Cultures invited twelve networks to join Winter Camp, an event that merges a workspace for networks, an exploration of how networks work, and a meet-up for creative collaborators all over the world. We are looking forward to meeting all the participating networks on March 3, 2009. Non-participants can benefit from the documentation, for we have a meta group of bloggers, video interviewers and researchers keeping you posted. Winter Camp website: www.networkcultures.org/wintercamp
Here’s a little taste of the design, made by Lava Graphic Design: a combination of watercolor and ASCII text.

Our colleagues in Rotterdam have launched the alpha version of a portal of methods and tools which can be used throughout the user-centered design process.

The research department (’lectoraat’) at Communication and Multimedia Design at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, with research professor Ingrid Mulder, has worked on this toolkit with a research group on Human Centered ICT. The project was presented by Bas Leurs during a workshop on November 12, 2008, in which various professionals from the field of education (mainly CMD Rotterdam), discussed and mapped the process of human-centered design, and the available methods and tools for the HCI process.

This toolkit can be a great resource for teachers as well as students, especially in the next phase in which users can add tools and methods to the wiki (to be released), and can share projects and scenarios of use of this database.
Check out the Alpha version, which is available on http://project.cmd.hro.nl/cmi/hci/toolkit/index.php.

The toolkit was created by: Bas Leurs, Peter Conradie, Joel Laumans, and Rosalieke Verboom.