this is one of the last things i tagged in del.icio.us and one of the most interesting to me. the article here is from the new york times and it discusses the careful balance that wikipedia has to maintain. while it wants to be a reference site, it is at core a community discussion where change is fluid and many times opinions clash. the article is about a year old but it is very detailed and intriguing besides that point and i feel like it is still relevant. the new clauses and functions of wikipedia may no longer be new but it is still something to consider next time we use it as a reference
wishing for threadless threads February 5, 2008
so early on in the IMS curriculum we learned about the nifty set up that companies such as Threadless have worked out and how this has seemed to work out relatively well for them. with the pre-arranged customers along with scores of interested customers, the shirts they do decide to actually print are GOING to sell. they know this without a doubt. the chicago (woot! chicago!) based company also has the option of reprinting when enough people claim interest in a specific design that is in their catalogue on top of the thousands of designs they display that people vote INTO the catalogue. for relatively small work on their part, the business is going very well. having had no clue about this website before this class, i now find myself restraining my traitorous id from wanting a wardrobe entirely composed of some of their collection. i may have to have my roommate hide my credit card from me in order to prevent further destruction. for a ton of the designs are simply compelling. one of the shirts i have actually purchased is by a british illustrator who’s website has also caused me to splurge. gemma correll has a child-like aspect to her illustrations and doodles that i find very endearing, entertaining, and enigmatic. (not enigmatic so much but, i wanted another e word.) At her page you can see her winning designs and then puruse the artists other works and her own on-line shop. this is what really makes threadless an amazing concept and company to me, the connection it gives you to designers and other modes of both illustrations and fashion that the artists have put to use in their own mediums. while Gemma Correll is a teacher who writes books and makes some cute patch sets, another designer may work in graphic design and yet another person may be a photographer for threadless and simply use flickr to show you their other works. the possible connections are endless and, well, the shopping is great. if you have any interest in the way this type of on-line business works or you simply want to see the work of tons of graphic designers, fashion designers, illustrators, cartoonists, and many other mediums of artists all documented by some awesome photographers click into threadless.com. and be wary of how many shirts you find yourself wanting.
Hello world! (the dreaded first post) January 17, 2008
so for my IMS class, i have been required to create a weblog here at wordpress and even though it is probably something i would never have done before, we’ll try to make it interesting. though only created since it is mandatory, i hope my page isn’t mundane and that soon enough wordpress and i are working well together. cheers -meg
