The extreme growth of the world industry in the past century can be attributed mainly to the fast improvement in ease and efficiency of the transportation of products and people over increasing distances. This high degree of mobility made us independent from the location of certain activities. All over the world, we eat fresh grapes from Argentina without even thinking about it, and a business meeting in Copenhagen is not even a problem if you have to be back in Amsterdam the next morning. Increasing mobility makes the world smaller, and makes things possible that would otherwise be unimaginable. The big problem, however, is that as fast as our mobility improved, our dependency on it grew, too.

Movement takes energy, and we are in the middle of an energy crisis. We still have some of the natural resources left to extract our energy from, but not long from now everything will simply become perished or unattainable. So far, this is not a new or particularly shocking story. However, to witness the complete lack of realization that we do not have an unlimited amount of oil –to name one of our most important resources today– at our disposal, is astonishing.

What should we do?

For one thing, the solution lies in reducing our need for movement and transportation. Communication technology plays an important role in this. Teleconferencing obviates the need for above-mentioned roundtrip to Copenhagen, and a thorough literature research can be conducted without needing to visit a library at some university at the other end of the country. Also, the deliberate development of local solutions for local problems contributes to reducing our dependency on mobility. Why get grapes from Argentina when you can perfectly well grow them in your own country?

On the other hand, this dependency on mobility is difficult to counter. Therefore, it is important to make sure the unavoidable movement and transportation is done as efficient as possible. Here, ‘efficient’ does not necessarily mean ‘in a way that takes as little energy as possible’, but more ‘in a way that ensures we can continue to use mobility for as long as possible’.

The difference is in which energy source to employ. No matter how clean and efficient your combustion engines are, oil is going to run out, be it in 50 or in 500 years. We need a renewable source of energy, and to take an extreme stance on the subject: Truly renewable energy sources do not exist. Of course you can make bio-ethanol from sugar cane crops, but sugar cane does not grow automatically; without farmland no crops, without sunlight no photosynthesis. Lacking an infinite source, we need to find the source with the longest lifetime. At this point, that seems to be our sun. Our sun emits energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. A fraction of this radiation hits the earth, about 174 billion megawatts. That is 11.000 times the energy we are consuming on earth, today. If we manage to capture 0.01% of this energy, we have more than enough to meet our needs.

Ok, so how can we use this?

Back to mobility. It turns out we need to equip the sun as a source of energy for our mobility. But how do we turn this energy –that manifests itself in the form of light, warmth, wind, tides, biomass, etc. – into propulsion? Light, warmth and wind are hard to move or dose, so they need to be converted into a more flexible form of energy. This flexible form is electricity. Electricity is relatively easy to transport and direct, and also easy and efficient to convert into mechanical energy. At first sight, an electromotor seems to be the ideal solution to convert energy from the sun into propulsion.

Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Inherent to mobility is movement, and an electromotor requires a constant feed of electricity to keep working. Therefore, the source of electricity needs to be present and connected during the full duration of the transportation. Extremely long extension cords excluded, this means that you need to either make the conversion of solar energy to electricity happen directly in the vehicle, or you need to be able to take the electricity with you in a portable form and then subtract it from this storage gradually in the dosage required.

Storing electricity is one of the biggest challenges we are facing at the moment. The most popular way to store electricity is in a battery. Batteries are currently undergoing massive development and innovation, and this is especially true for lithium batteries. Lithium is one of the most abundant resources on earth, and the lightest metal, making it very suitable for mobile use. Lithium batteries also have a very high energy density and a very low self-discharge rate (loss of charge during storage).

Fuel cells are another hot issue. In a fuel cell, electricity is generated by making molecular hydrogen (H₂) react with oxygen. The large disadvantage of fuel cells is that the required dihydrogen is not at our disposal in nature, and therefore has to be produced. This production requires a lot of energy in the form of electricity, making hydrogen propulsion nothing more than an extra step in converting energy, with extra energy losses.

Will this save us?

The big disadvantage of all current methods of energy storage is that they all still require the use of non-renewable resources. Even with direct conversion in the vehicle, resources are used up in the creation of, for example, photo-voltaic panels. As long as we are dependent on resources that cannot be renewed exclusively with energy from the sun, we will not be able to create truly sustainable solutions.

However, we are at the tipping point today. The point that we need to switch energy sources for our mobility. Such a transition requires enormous amounts of time, money and resources, and we cannot wait until our current energy sources are depleted. To prevent that we are, literally, coming to a halt, we need to start today with the transition to the most sustainable solutions that are available today. We simply have no time left to wait for batteries with a bigger capacity, to wait for cheaper PV-panels, to wait for cars made of renewable seaweed, to wait for oil sheiks. We are in an awful hurry, and we need to move towards the alternatives that, with the smallest relative investment of time, money and resources, give us the largest amount of extra time to develop towards true sustainability.

The Road to Copenhagen

I participated as a ‘roadie’ in The Road to Copenhagen (R2C). R2C is a road trip on electric scooters from Den Bosch (the Netherlands) to Copenhagen. Three hundred young professionals from the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark participated in the trip, which started the 2nd of December and ended on arrival in Copenhagen the 15th of December, halfway during the United Nations’ climate change conference COP15.

On our long, cold way to Denmark we attended numerous lectures and workshops by scientists, politicians, energy experts and specialists from the automotive sector. These lectures and workshops helped us in conceiving what was ultimately the main goal of R2C: A manifesto. A list of recommendations on the development of personal sustainable mobility. Upon arriving in Copenhagen, we presented this manifesto to Danish MP Per Ørom Jørgensen and to the Dutch Minister of the Environment, ms. Jacqueline Cramer.

Read more about R2C at the official website, or download the manifesto.

Electric Vehicle Charging Points

As a continuation of my Industrial Design Engineering MSc.-graduation assignment I was hired by ALFEN bv to further develop the electric vehicle charging points I designed, and to assist in the manufacturing of a prototype and the startup of the series production.

Christmas and New Year

Lastly, I have been celebrating some very happy holidays, and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very inspiring 2010. I wish you a 2010 with a lot of new insights, opportunities, friends, music and love. A 2010 in which you will reap the benefits of all you have worked so hard for in 2009, and in which you will be able to apply the harsh lessons from 2009 in your quest to reaching ever greater goals.

So, now you know what I have been doing that kept me from writing, you might want to know what I will be doing to make it up to you. I have several things coming up that will undoubtedly make you forget about the dark and silent months that lay behind.

Make-over of the blog

Overall I’m quite happy with the look of my blog, but I’m dissatisfied with the details. And, since “the details are not the details,” as Charles Eames once said, I have decided to start working on a complete redesign of the blog. A redesign that will focus on the details. Keep a lookout!

Blogging about mobility for WCIT 2010

In May this year, the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2010) will take place in Amsterdam. This congress will focus on the ‘Challenges of Change’, and the role information technology will play in different social, economic and environmental development ‘tracks’. I have been asked as an electric and sustainable mobility expert to write regular blog-articles about future mobility and the role information technology will play in the fast evolution of mobility we are currently seeing.

Visit the WCIT 2010 website for more information about the congress, and visit the blog to read the articles in the different congress tracks.

Fresh articles

Naturally, there will be a whole lot of fresh articles on this blog in 2010. Apart from articles about design thinking and personal development, I am planning on creating a few periodically returning sections, one of which will be a really cool series of interviews with Industrial Designers that are precursors in equipping social media as a business tool.

Portfolio updates

To conclude, there will be more portfolio updates during the different projects. Thus far I have only been writing summaries of finished projects, but starting now I will keep this blog up to date with the progress in my running projects.

I hope to see you all soon during the big return of my weblog, and I will be happy to hear any feedback you may have!

1. Think about your attitude, target audience, biography

In the same way as your clothing, your way of speaking, and your general behavior influences how you are perceived in real life, your online perception is influenced by more than just your tweets.

Think about your target audience. Who are they? Are they designers, colleagues, potential clients, friends? How do you want to present yourself to them? Which jargon do you use, and is it possible that the use of certain design-specific buzzwords may scare off a part of your intended audience?

When you have a clear view of your audience and how you want to be perceived, start writing a biography. First make a bio of 500 characters. Short as this may seem, use full sentences and correct grammar. Only include the most essential information about you. What makes you different, special?

Now, cut your biography in half. That’s right, 500 characters is way too long, nobody will read it. Besides, half of what you’ve written can be left out. Get to the core without resorting to the use of abbreviations or single-word listing of your skills or interests. Emphasize your unique qualities, make sure the description can only apply to you and nobody else. You will probably end up with a very specific two- or three-sentence biography that people will actually be willing to read.

The problem is, you’re not there yet. Twitter allows only 160 characters for your bio, so you need to bring back your micro-bio to a single sentence. I know this is hard, but with the right choice of words it is possible to describe the single most interesting and unique thing about yourself or what you do in a way that still excites, communicates and connects, unlike a boring list of boring things. Because seriously, how many people in your direct environment could be described by: Designer, thinker, blogger, avid coffee-drinker, photographer, social media fanatic, freelancer. It just doesn’t stand out and won’t be remembered.

The same goes for your profile picture. Choose one that communicates exactly what you want to communicate, and use the same one for every connected social network. Make sure it is consistent with your biography. Faces are like logos in the age of social media, and you want yours to stand out and be recognized even by people that don’t know you. Like a logo, your picture communicates emotion – Is it a frontal or a profile shot? Are you smiling? Are you involved in a certain activity? What color is the background? Do you wear glasses? Sunglasses? Why?

Bottom line: Think through every detail that communicates information about you, and be consistent.

2. Follow people with ideas different from yours

This one is simple. It can be a real enlightenment to follow people that have different ideas. Everyone tends to get stuck sometimes in their own world of beliefs. I personally encountered this after months of researching electric mobility – I could not understand why people possibly would think of hydrogen cars as a good solution for the future. I knew a lot about electric cars and how they would become cheaper and more accepted and would slowly take a larger part of the market over the next decades.

However, then I started following some hydrogen-advocates and decided to just watch what they were saying, to the public and to each other. Not only this helped me realize that it was not purely a matter of black and white, but it helped me in strengthening my understanding of both sides of the matter by providing me with better insights in the exact differences and general misconceptions. I still believe in full-electric mobility over fuel-cell mobility, but my opinion is now much more substantiated and well-informed.

The key is broadening your horizon by forcing yourself to read and interpret information that may push the boundaries of your comfort zone at first, but helps you be more informed and nuanced in the end.

3. Recommend people, but not on #followfriday

For a long time, Follow Friday, or #followfriday, was a great way of introducing and recommending interesting people on Twitter to your followers. However, as Twitter keeps growing, #followfriday has collapsed under its own popularity.

With a lot of people now posting multiple tweets crammed full of names of people you should follow every Friday, it has not only become incredibly messy, but also more about recommending as much influential people as possible only in the hopes of receiving a recommendation back from them.

Not wanting to participate in this mess, I have decided to recommend people whenever I feel like it, but only if they really deserve it. Also, I will only recommend one person at a time, and I will explain the recommendation with a description of the reason why I think it is interesting to follow them. This not only makes recommendations more personal but also more effective, and I hope more people will stop using #followfriday and start giving genuine recommendations, whenever they feel like someone deserves it.

4. Tweet in English

Tweet in English. Even if you have only a single follower that does not speak your native language, tweet in English. People will feel left out if they see a lot of tweets they don’t understand, and will stop following you. Besides, Twitter is a worldwide platform, and that is one of its main strengths, so limit your use of German, Dutch or Italian to @-replies or DMs.

5. Use a custom background, but don’t rely on it

Twitter allows you to customize your background, which is great for adding a personal touch, and giving people more of an impression of what you do and what you are like. Also, backgrounds can be used to provide valuable additional information that you cannot fit elsewhere, such as email addresses or extra links to your profiles on other social network sites.

However, be aware that you do not rely solely on your background to provide this information! Only 45% of all tweets are sent using Twitter’s web interface, and the rest is done by third party applications like Tweetdeck, Echofon or Seesmic. Most third party applications do not show the custom background when viewing a profile.

6. Don’t protect your tweets – it defeats the purpose

The only case in which it is acceptable to protect your tweets is if you are tweeting for personal purposes with friends or family, and nothing else. As soon as your intention is to share knowledge, to meet interesting people you would otherwise never have met, to promote your work, to keep in touch with clients, or to engage in discussions, stop protecting your tweets! If you are afraid that some of the things you are tweeting might offend your boss or your colleagues, or if you are afraid to be caught tweeting during work-hours, reconsider if Twitter is the right service for you.

Furthermore, even while it takes the same amount of clicks (one) to request permission to view tweets of a protected profile as it takes to follow a public profile, I often don’t bother. It makes me feel voyeuristic, as if I’m trying to get access to something I’m not supposed to see, and I don’t like that feeling.

7. Spread your tweets, be aware of peak hours

While Twitter being a worldwide platform is part of the fun, it is also one of the things you must constantly keep in mind while tweeting. When you tweet from the Netherlands, like me, don’t expect your American followers to read your morning tweets. When it’s 9am for me, it’s 2am in New York.

I spread my tweeting over the day as much as possible, trying not to bomb my followers with clusters of tweets. When I have important questions or blog updates I want a lot of people to see, I wait until around 4pm, when I’m likely to catch both European and American followers.

Be aware of your time zone and your target audience’s time zone.

8. Don’t let people’s follower-count dictate how influential their ideas are

Some Twitter-users have tens of thousands of followers. Mostly these are people with some fame or internet-fame that run well-read blogs or are extremely active tweeters. While they have most likely acquired their massive follower-count by tweeting interesting things, they do not automatically have better ideas.

Too often I see people with brilliant minds being ignored because they are new to Twitter and do not have a lot of followers, and are therefore not taken seriously. Pay equal attention to anyone participating in a discussion, and don’t let their follower-count influence your judgment of their ideas. This seems simple, but is in fact a really underestimated problem.

9. Don’t be afraid of personal tweets, but balance them

Part of the fun of Twitter is that the communication is real-time and interactive. Twitter accounts are (mostly) run by real people with emotions and feelings, and communication is more informal than traditional methods like email or phone calls. This informal attitude of most Twitter users creates an atmosphere that makes communication much easier and lighter, and is therefore something that should be carefully protected.

Don’t be afraid to tweet what you had for breakfast. Just make sure you don’t tell us every time you take a bite of something else, during the day. The key is balance. Lighten up your timeline with personal tweets, but stay on topic. Keep the fun around, but don’t let it take over.

10. Engage, engage, engage – answer as much questions as you ask

This is the most important rule of all, and is essentially what Twitter is all about. Twitter is about communication. Communication is not repeating your message without listening. Communication is not listening without answering. Communication is both listening and answering in a repeating cycle. A rule of thumb: Answer as much questions as you ask, and be sure to ask a lot of questions. Discussion is what gets you in touch with like-minded people and interesting alternate-minded people, while repetitively shouting out your own message without listening or answering won’t.

If you don’t have any questions to ask, start finding questions of others to answer. Now that I’ve provided you with these 10 answers to your possible questions about using Twitter as a designer, show me that you understand by answering some of my questions in return:

What did you think of this article? Where do you disagree? What would you like to add?

I’m excited to hear your answers at @MarkVisbeek

Starting today, the blog will gradually be filled with articles at a regular rate. Also, keep a lookout for new portfolio posts and updates of the older ones already present.

Happy reading!

This blog will serve as a platform for various design-related articles, showcases and discussions.

The Design Inspiration category will form a continuously updated stream of inspirational highlights and resources for designers, mostly aimed at product design.

The Design Projects category will contain the projects I am currently working on or have worked on in the past. It will be both my portfolio and a platform for documentation and discussion of in-progress projects.

The Design Thinking category will contain articles, insights or random thoughts about subjects as diverse as aesthetics, sustainability, philosophy and design methodology.

I hope you will enjoy reading the blog regularly, and be sure to let me know if you’re missing anything!

Regards,

Mark Visbeek
Industrial Design Engineer