“Rapid prototyping and 'learning by making' is a [good] strategy for effective innovation. For participatory systems, this is even more important because the complexity of the interactions cannot possibly be anticipated by even the smartest of plans. The reality is that these prototypes cannot live in the lab; they have to be let out into the wild. So, we need to start getting comfortable with letting others participate in our innovation activities.”

— 

Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO

It's Not About the Signup Forms

Interface designer Joshua Porter presents some interesting ideas regarding how software adoption works these days in the context of social media.  He deconstructs the social software adoption process into three separate stages that each require a different design philosophy.  The most interesting part of this presentation is how he frames the design problem as a social psychology problem whereby the friction of the user acquisition process is circumvented by leveraging concepts such as social leverage and community influence. Lots of examples.  Definitely worth flipping through.