Best of 2008 in Future Technology – Designing for sustainability

LONDON, England – In April Nokia opened the doors of its new London design studio to us and selected media. It was interesting for any number of reasons, chiefly because it was the first time many of us stepped into a design studio. However, there was a lot more to it. The theme for the day was sustainability and the assembled speakers flew in from all over the world to talk about the work they did. Designing for sustainability is a concept Nokia takes very seriously and that day revealed a sizable chunk of the kind of thinking that’s going on.

GLOBAL (physically and digitally) – The idea of interacting with the real world through a digital overlay is not new. Folks have been discussing this augmented reality for some time. But, here at Nokia Conversations, it’s one of the top stories of 2008, since we realized we wrote a ton of stories around sensors, augmented reality, what’s been going on, and where it’s all going.

And while we might be overly optimistic about a sensor-filled world, it’s important we heed the cautions from folks who have been thinking of this longer than most of us.

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Best of 2008 in Environment – Packaging

LONDON, England – Earlier this year we were treated to the news of how Nokia’s shift in packaging strategy was going to result in a massive reduction in the number of trucks on the road, reduced use of paper and the additional bonus of incredible cost savings. Not only is the shift good for the environment, it helps the bottom line too. We’ve already seen the result of this coming through, with some of the packaging for devices diminishing in size (and looking much better for it too, in my opinion).

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Best of 2008 in Environment – Recycling

GLOBAL – There is no doubt that the past few years have seen a resurgence in environmental consciousness from consumers and businesses. And, indeed, Nokia has been working hard to expand all their recycling activities. Ranging from access to awareness to a cool video (see after jump), it’s been a banner year for mobile phone recycling.

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Best of 2008 in Environment – Mobile phone chargers

GLOBAL – 2008 was the year that saw mobile phone chargers become a serious talking point and their shortfalls actively and openly addressed. The lifeblood of our devices, phone chargers have in many cases been rightly demonized for wasting energy, but this year we’ve witnessed the beginnings of a revolutionary change.

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Best of 2008 in Design – Co-creation at Beta Labs and Nokia Pilots

ESPOO, Finland - This was the year that Nokia really engaged with their most passionate users over new and future products and services. Two of the best examples of this are the Nokia Beta Labs and Nokia Pilots. Fascinated by their progress, we visited the respective teams repeatedly over the past year. Both are driven by the growing understanding at Nokia that the company can’t do all the innovation alone, that it helps to involve real users in the process.

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Best of 2008 in Design – Headphones

GLOBAL – Sometimes it’s the stories that come out of nowhere that blindside you with excited response and become almost cult in their popularity. The piece we ran on the Music Headset Almighty Competition was one such happening, striking a chord with you right here on Conversations, and spreading its tendrils across some of the most popular sites on the planet, including Engadget and Textually.org.

Now, popularity isn’t what made us choose this creative competition as one of the best stories of 2008 in Design (although collective hysteria always helps).

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Best of 2008 in Design – Anthropology

LONDON, England – We first got to hear (and see) Jan Chipchase speak at the Nokia Design Event held in London in June. Before then he was a mystical figure who, we were told, spent is time on street corners watching women take their phones out of their bags. Of course, we know now that his job is just a touch more sophisticated than that, which is why it’s found its way onto our best of 2008 list. Nokia’s approach to Anthropology is without equal. Working with a team of field researchers, Chipchase’s job is to pinpoint what people will need from their mobile devices between three and 15 years out, before feeding his results back to the main design teams.

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Introducing Nokia Conversation’s Best of 2008

ESPOO, Finland – Yup. It’s the end of the year and everyone here at Nokia Conversations is preparing for our Christmas holidays. But, before we head out, we worked up a list of what each of us thought were the best stories of the year in each of our categories – Products, Services, Design, Environment, Future Technologies, and Our Business. So, each day over the two weeks, James, Mike, and I will be making a post a day in one of the categories.

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Top debates on Nokia Conversations in 2008

ESPOO, Finland – We were looking back at the activity across our streams. Comments, views, hits, and stuff all pretty much point to the same top stories that generated the most debate and comments (listed below). I want to point out that we are rapidly approaching that tipping point where the great comments are starting to overwhelm us. That’s the bad side of abundance and we are working hard to keep this whole endeavor interactive in the coming year (with the occasional moments of bankruptcy permitted when things get really hairy).

I also want to use this moment to thank all of you for making this site what it truly is meant to be, a place for us to all talk about stories from around the Nokia neighborhood. Without all of you, we would be just a bunch of hot air.

Now to the top debates of the year!

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