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The birth of the MagicWindow and RemotePresence

November 1, to November 22, 1999

Where: Palo Alto.

At: The Palo Alto KnOwhere Store.

Mission: Participate with the KnOwhere ValueWeb to recreate the concept and design the next stage of the enterprise with specific focus on the Palo Alto environment.

Show the next generation of AI products including embedded technology.

Build the ValueWeb to a new level of participation and expression.

Complete a bunch of Patent filings.

Finish the action plan from a DesignShop event and start the process with a new Silicon Valley client with a new challenge.

Move two new members into our second floor incubation space.

Syntopical Frank Lloyd Wright “When Democracy Builds;” Frances Diane Robotti and James Vescovi “The USS Essex - and the Birth of the American Navy;” Gerard J. Milburn “Feynman Processor - Quantum Entanglement and the Computing Revolution;” Dava Sobel “Galileo’s Daughter - A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love;” W. Daniel Hillis “The Pattern on the Stone - the Simple Ideas that Make Computers Work;” K. J. Susnjara “Furniture Manufacturing in the New Millennium;”

Images:

Camelot gets its radio relocated
Reconfigured Pod @KnOwhere and DTE workstation cluster
Pods on the second level for KnOwhere’s new community member: flypaper.com
MagicWindow getting its equipment

By Monday (November 8th), the MagicWindow Mule started to take shape. It was on its way to boulder (Wednesday) for more electronics and then on to Palo Alto for demonstration (Sunday arrival scheduled).

Initial reaction of clients and customers to the drawings and photos have expressed high excitement. It seems that many are looking for better technology integration and mobility. The true integration of work-processes, technology and environment is about to take another leap forward.

Bill Blackburn and I first talked about this product back in our startup days in Boulder. 1982 to now seems like a long time. The progress in the technology during this time has been phenomenal. The advance made by customers and their ways of working in the last few years had significantly increased the potential market. In the end, however, it all has to come together as a system and I believe it will be the advent of working ValueWeb network that will drive the use of this kind of capability.

MagicWindow Mule @ Glasgow ready for shipment

The ValueWeb built MagicWindow in 30 days from the configuration drawing and project “GO” to design, fabrication, equipping, shipping and demonstration.

MagicWindow is a ValueWeb tool and was producted by the ValueWeb.

MagicWindow @ KnOwhere getting final programming
by Eric Gibson of Proximal Networks

The KnOwhere Store DesignShop event is an ideal opportunity to test MagicWindow and see how it performs in support of this intensive process.

It will be used for automatic wall capture, video conferencing, display of high definition DVD disks, web browsing and music.

After the DesignShop, MagicWindow will stay in Palo Alto for about 10 days for evaluation and demonstration. It will return to Boulder on the fourth of December starting the next iteration of deign-build-use this time with user-clients.

Post KnOwhere DesignShop experience: several days of documentation building and partnering DesignSessions before heading to CAMELOT for Thanksgiving.


MG Taylor “EndGame” AndMap
mid-October 1999

October 10, to October 31

Where: Palo Alto to Chicago to Palo Alto.

At: The Palo Alto KnOwhere Store and a brief client visit.

Mission: Months of design is culminating in the production of the MG Taylor “End Game” AndMap.

The new Foundation 2 WorkWalls, the Bat Wing Mule and other products arrive at the Palo Alto KnOwhere Store.

Bat Wing Mule (pre-prototype mockup) arrives @KnOwhere

Reconfiguring the Store for the Fall season and preparing for a major DesignShop event.

Syntopical Withold Rybczynski “A Clearing In the Distance - Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century;” William J. Mitchell “e-topia - Urban Life, Jim - But Not As We Know it;” Tim Berners - Lee “Weaving the Web;”

Images:

Caucus and HP brainstorming a project
Foundation for Housemark in front of KnOwhere
Reconfigured Pod at KnOwhere
MGT Housemark installed waiting for tile repair

Howard Rheingold author of “The Virtual Community”
working with Gail Taylor and Todd Johnston @ KnOwhere

 

The Palo Alto KnOwhere Store was opened in November of 1997. For the most part it has been in a “place-holding” mode. We were way over extended, financially, when we built it and 1998 was (unexpectedly) a very bad year for us in terms of cash flow. In addition, the Silicone Valley market was totally new to us - it was wise to proceed slowly. The Palo Alto KnOwhere Store, also, represented our first attempt to build a full venue KnOwhere concept. We had only a mental model of what this should be.

The Hilton Head Store is small. Cambridge was always designed for and dedicated primarily for the practice of DesignShops. This is one reason why it made sense to sell the facility to EY when their ASE DesignShop business grew. Neither Hilton Head nor Cambridge, as fine as they are, informed us much in terms of what a fully functional KnOwhere Store in a place like Silicone Valley wanted to be.

Slowly, the KnOwhere concept has taken hold in Palo Alto. In late October we are doing a DesignShop here for a major member of the MG Taylor ValueWeb - and in November - an Invitational DesignShop mostly for the local KnOwhere ValueWeb: individuals and organizations we have worked with over the last two years. This DesignShop is a trade: each participant team will bring a problem they want to solve and in solving it, and working with us on our problem, they will help us better understand the role of this KnOwhere (as a Marketplace), as well as, the whole KnOwhere concept.

So, a great deal of activity at Palo Alto this month is focused on preparing for these two DesignShops, the work that will surly follow from them and practicing the new ideas that will come out of the KnOwhere Store DesignShop.

New Foundation 2 WorkWall arrives @KnOwhere


Entry to the AI Glasgow production facility

October 3, to October 9, 1999

Where: Palo Alto to Glasgow to Kalamazoo to Palo Alto

At: The AI Production Shop, Borges NavCenter, Palo Alto KnOwhere Store.

Mission: The Glasgow facility has grown, in the last 10 months from two people to 15. AI‘s production run rate has grown from a million dollars a year to three. The product line has doubled with the rationalization of the Foundation Series and the introduction of our Foundation 2 System. Our Internet sales are now larger than the entire AI production run of 1998.

This weeks work is to follow up on the work accomplished in Boulder and to engineer the steps required to get capability up to $5,000,000 a year. In addition, several new pieces are getting prepared for production. Brian Ross and staff are hosting; visiting are Bill Blackburn, Paul Lyons, myself and Mike Bednarek our IP attorney.

After Glasgow a quick trip for a DesignShop Sponsor session for a first time DesignShop client - we are using the Borgess NavCenter for this activity. Then back to Palo Alto...

Syntopical DVD “The Dead Poets Society,” Magazines October ‘99 “Wired” and September ‘99 “Business 2.0;”

Images:

Bat Wing Mule detail; tri-wall going together; building WorkWalls
High speed sander; AI Glasgow Entry; view of the 15,000 square foot production facility
Bat Wing caster test; Mule of first HomeBase piece; Monitor caddie ready for DTE
First tri-wall WorkWall going to HP England; WorkWall sheet goods shipment; Bat Wing component

 

Brain, Paul and Bill review
the reworked Foundation WorkFurniture

We reviewed the entire Foundation Series and value-engineered the products for maximum capability, minimum cost and greatest durability. This renewed line will be moving into production and into NavCenters and Client environments over the next 90 days.

The First components of the Foundation II System were reviewed and prototyped. This system will also start showing up in client environments early next year.

Designer Paul Lyons and shop general manager Brian Ross
look at the Batt Wing mule

In addition, we progressed on our new line which is focused on the home market and startup, low scale enterprises. This product line will be available soon.


 

Flowers at our Palo Alto apartment
from Gail's Saturday morning trip to the openair market

September 21, to October 2, 1999

Where: Detroit, Chicago, Palo Alto

At: The nacent Detroit Edison NavCenter, the Palo Alto KnOwhere Store, SFIA.

Mission: Facilitate a ZoomTrax on corporate people startegy, advance high-level corporate relationships, design a new architecture course. Attend a Syntopical Reading night at KnOwhere.

Start the dialog among the MG Taylor ValueWeb on the “End Game” Strategy. Begin the shift in our mental frame from that of a “start-up” Enterprise to that of a successful business.

Syntopical Robert Zubrin “Entering Space - Creating a Spacefaring Civilization;”

Images:

a new drafting table design from AI and..
the MG Taylor “End Game” AndMap
@ the Palo Alto KnOwhere Store

   
 
   
 

Willi Paul @ the KnOwhere Store
a full WorkWall about virtual collaboration
DTE ZoomTrax

It is always a celebration when we get a new piece designed and into production - in this case a very unusual approach to the old drafting board. This piece rolls, raises and lowers and can adjust slope in a variety of combinations. It provides a great platform for add-on organizers, caddies, and embedded electronics.

 

The dome @ Palo Alto
with the new drafting table below it


posted September 20, 1999

revised November 11,1999
19990929.143118.mt • 19990930.85410.mt • 1999104.18577.mt •
1999105.173852.mt
• 19991011.72613.mt • 19991024.105436.mt • 19991110.142621.mt

Copyright© 1999 Matt Taylor

DesignShop, PatchWorks, NavCenter, ValueWeb, are Trademarks of iterations and Licensed to MG Taylor Corporation. KnOwhere and ZoomTrax are Trade Marks of KnOwhere Inc. CubeOffice is a Trade Mark of AI.

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