The first draft of an on-going research. By Gioia Guerzoni, Stefano Mirti, Remo Ricchetti

1. gurus, radios,
hammers,
& observers...
Italian designers. How (digitally) sociable are they?
Gioia Guerzoni, Stefano Mirti, Remo Ricchetti,
June 2012

2. thanks to:
Davide Agazzi / @davideagazzi
Francesca Ballini Richards / @fbr0305
Alessandro Mininno / @alekone
Bertram Niessen / @bertramniessen
Antonio Piccirilli / @_piccirilli

3. outline
● research question (s)
● who is a "sociable" designer
● data gathering (who they are, how we selected them, being "in" / "out"
● who is a designer?
● what do they do?
● how do they behave?
● the three parameters (talking, listening, affecting)
● talking / listening / affecting: three diagrams
● overview (talking + listening + affecting)
● maps
● zooming in
● gurus, radios, hammers & observers...

4. research question (s)
If we acknowledge the role of formal and informal networks in the design
world, it's fairly easy to see the changes brought about by social media. We
suspect that these changes apply to the realm of networking too.
Social and digital media are transforming the way we communicate.
Can we map this transformation?
Is it possible to make an atlas of "digitally sociable" designers?
Does design itself changes because of these new media?
If so, which are these transformations and how do they work?

5. who is a "digitally sociable" designer?
By "digitally sociable" we mean a designer who accepts to communicate in
a direct way with other people (known and unknown), using digital and
social media.
Can I tweet you? Can I post a comment on your Facebook wall?
Can I send a message via Linkedin or Instagram?
Would you reply to me?
If the answer is yes, then you are "digitally sociable".
Disclaimer: to be "digitally sociable" has nothing to do with being good at
design, being "famous", or with economical success.
In the previous world, we would have said "being nice".
Now the world is changing and it's interesting to know how "being nice"
translates into these new immaterial networks.

6. data gathering
who are they, how we find them, being "in" / being "out"
We focused on designers who have several channels of digital
communication (websites, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin,
Pinterest, Foursquare, etc).
We worked in an empirical way. Starting from well-know designers,
browsing paper magazines, their websites, web-zines, and blogs.
Gradually, the traditional media became negligible and we noticed
recurring names in Facebook pages and Twitter flows.
So we started analyzing "friends" networks on Facebook and Instagram.
Lists on Twitter and the like. Having to choose a metaphor, we worked on
the domino system. One piece moves the next, in a process of complete
re-definition of who is a designer.
If a given person uses more than four channels of digital communication,
then he/she is in and we go for a more detailed observation. Otherwise we
leave him/her out and we move to the next name on our growing list.

7. the 100's club
We finally decided to focus on the 100 most active people in the digital /
social media world.
To select them we browsed approximately 300 names. Most of them were
not taken into consideration because they are not active enough (they don't
have enough channels).
In other cases, although very active, we didn't include them because they
cannot be considered "designers" (see next slides).
But keep in mind: this document you are reading is a draft (i.e. the first step
of a work-in-progress). Secondly, the analytics are static and not dynamic
(they are not automatically updated).
For the time being, mistakes are likely to occurr.

10. who is a designer?
Traditionally (at least in Italy) a designer is someone who conceives and
creates products, spaces, buildings, graphics.
Here we noticed that the fields of activities are changing in a significant
way. We live in a world where writers open on-line schools for creative
writing. Bloggers crow-fund their reporting missions around world, former
journalists become entrepreneurs setting up new publishing-oriented
ventures. A lot of people are breaking the boundaries between the creative
activity and the commercial venture (they become entrepreneurs).
In this case, to set up a new business is a design activity. To invent a new
service or transforming an existing one, again is a design activity.
These are the people (and the activities) we are interested in.
The "new" designer can move easily across digital and analog, and is
particularly good at redefining the existing with new ideas, meanings,
businesses.

11. Important!
In this first phase of our research, we decided to leave out the fashion field.
In Italy (especially in Milan), fashion works in a radically different way than
other creative fields.
To include people who are active in fashion would have completely
transformed our work, so we decided for the time being to focus on the rest
of the design fields.
Moreover, though for different, mainly practical reasons, we chose not to
take into consideration new forms of book publishing, literature, and
making/producing cinema or contemporary art.

12. what do they do?
Out of our 100 designers, we have some working in publishing, others in
architecture, design, or new media.
It is also very interesting to notice that almost 40% of them are active in multiple
fields.

13. how they behave: facebook
generally speaking, they have a certain number of followers on facebook

14. how they behave: twitter
generally speaking, they have a certain number of followers on twitter

15. how they behave: instagram
generally speaking, they have a certain number of followers on instagram

16. how they behave: how many followers
generally speaking, they have a certain number of followers

17. the three parameters:
talking, listening, affecting
Focusing on the main digital channels used by designers (being present
and active on Klout, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin), we divided
their activities in three fields.
A. Being
When they post, write, upload photographs. In real world the metaphor
would be how much you talk.
B. Listening
When they listen and pay attention to what other people do. This is not
about the users' activities: it is about paying attention to other people's
activities.
C. Affecting
This is the influence they have on others, i.e. how much they are listened
to.

18. parameters for digitally sociable people:
talking
PRESENCE: measure of the activity on social networks
(how active the user is)

19. parameters for digitally sociable people:
listening
SOCIABILITY: measure of the attention given to social networks
(how much the user listens to other people)

20. parameters for digitally sociable people:
affecting
INFLUENCE: measure of the attention received on social networks
(how much the user is followed by other people)

21. another important detail
In the previous slides (and in the following ones) you see some
screenshots of our interactive diagrams.
For the time being, we are not ready to share the whole diagrams (because
of potential mistakes and imperfections).
Anyway, the names in the diagrams are only a fraction of the whole lists.
Each interactive diagram has 100 names. Moving the arrow pointer we can
see the individual results.
We will share the interactive slides in our next release.
At present, we are interested in the tool and not in the results.
Of course we need the names to test and check the system, but our real
interest is not in the actual ranking of people.

22. parameters for digitally sociable people
Talking: measure of the activity on social networks
(how active the user is)

23. parameters for digitally sociable people
Affecting: measure of the attention received on social networks
(how the user is followed by other people)

24. parameters for digitally sociable people
Listening: measure of the attention given to social networks
(how much the user listens)

25. data gathering
In the following slide, we have the three families of activities displayed
together.
For each user we have a final value defined by how much he/she is
present, how much he/she listens, and how much he/she is affecting other
people.

26. parameters for digitally sociable people

27. maps
Obviously, the most interesting aspects start to emerge when we take each
designer and start comparing the three parameters. Talking vs Listening.
Listening vs Affecting. Affecting vs Talking.
You can talk very little but a lot of people listen to you (in this case you are
some kind of guru). Vice versa,, you might talk a lot, but people don't seem
to listen to you very much (in this case you work as a radio: constantly
speaking, but without receiving much interest and engagement from your
audience). Etcetera.
The following slides are the most promising (in terms of research), but at
the same time are the ones requiring more work and refinement from our
side.

28. map #1 talking vs affecting
The relationship between your activities and how much you affect your
audience (in all these maps, the size of each sphere is proportional to how
much the person listens, while the color refers to the field of activity).

29. map #2 talking vs listening
Is there a relation between how much you talk and how much you are listened to?

30. map #3: listening vs affecting
Is there a relation between how much you listen and how much you are listened to?

31. zooming in
Again, in this presentation our charts are not interactive.
This means that in our original diagrams you can zoom in into each map to
see the details.
As an example in the following slides you see what happens if we take one
of our maps, and we start to zoom in until we see the finest detail of the
groupings.

32. map #1 talking vs affecting

33. map #1 talking vs affecting: zooming in
PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: how your activity affects your audience

34. map #1 talking vs affecting: zooming more
PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: how your activity affects your audience

35. map #1 talking vs affecting: and more...
PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: how your activity affects your audience

36. PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: how your activity affects your audience
map #1 talking vs affecting: ...and more...

37. PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: how your activity affects your audience
map #1 talking vs affecting: ...and more.

38. map #2 listening vs affecting
SOCIABILITYvsINFLUENCE: how your curiosity affects your audience

39. map #2 listening vs affecting: zooming in
SOCIABILITYvsINFLUENCE: how your curiosity affects your audience

40. map #3 talking vs listening
PRESENCEvsSOCIABILITY: how your activity is related to your curiosity

41. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: typical typologies and behaviours

42. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: typical typologies and behaviours

43. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: typical typologies and behaviours
(who is a guru in Publishing field?)

44. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: typical typologies and behaviours
(who is a guru in NewMedia field?)

45. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: typical typologies and behaviours
(who is a guru in Multilple field?)

46. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: typical typologies and behaviours
(who is a guru in DESIGN field?)

47. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsINFLUENCE: typical typologies and behaviours
(who is a guru in Architecture field?)

48. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsSOCIABILITY: typical typologies and behaviours

49. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsSOCIABILITY: typical typologies and behaviours

50. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsSOCIABILITY: Proactive in Publishing Field

51. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsSOCIABILITY: Proactive in NewMedia Field

52. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsSOCIABILITY: Proactive in Multiple Field

53. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsSOCIABILITY: Proactive in Design Field

54. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
PRESENCEvsSOCIABILITY: Proactive in Architecture Field

55. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
SOCIABILITYvsINFLUENCE: typical typologies and behaviours

56. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
SOCIABILITYvsINFLUENCE: typical typologies and behaviours

57. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
SOCIABILITYvsINFLUENCE: Enthusiasts in Publishing Field

58. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
SOCIABILITYvsINFLUENCE: Enthusiasts in NewMedia Field

59. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
SOCIABILITYvsINFLUENCE: Enthusiasts in Multiple Field

60. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
SOCIABILITYvsINFLUENCE: Enthusiasts in Design Field

61. maps (cross-referenced parameters)
SOCIABILITYvsINFLUENCE: Enthusiasts in Architecture Field

62. gurus, hammers, radios, observers
As an example, in the following slide we show one of these possible maps.
The relationship between how much you are present and how much you
are affecting and influencing other people.
As previously mentioned, we used four labels to define our four fields:
gurus (people who do little but are very influential), radios (people who do a
lot but without much results in terms of influence), hammers (people who
do a lot and have a lot of influence), observers (people who do little and
have little influence).
Also in this map, the size of the various spheres is a linear function of how
much a given person is listening, while the color refers to the field of activity
(see earlier slides).

63. gurus, hammers, radios & observer...

64. Gioia Guerzoni
Freelance literary translator. She is quite at ease in the world of publishing and literature, subcontinental in particular,
and occasionally writes for Italian and Indian mags. She enjoys editing stuff and she's working on short stories from
Pakistan and Hong Kong.
She is interested in coop projects and social media because it's a fascinating brave new world - while translating is
eminently antisocial.
Twitter/Instagram @GioiaGuerzoni
Stefano Mirti
Architect, designer, teacher, etcetcetc. He knows a lot (and ✍ a lot) about #design, #fashion #milan, #school,
#designschool, #architecture. + lots of ♡♡♡ links related to his broad curiosities...
@stefi_idlab on Twitter and Instagram
Remo Ricchetti
Mechanical engineer. He has been involved in the design of scientific apparels, devices for physiotherapic and
cognitive rehabilitation, wearable robotics, simulators and tactile actuators in national and european research
programmes.
He is currently exploring innovative technologies for rubber and plating industries, advanced rehabilitation tools, web2.
0 and social networking. He teaches at NABA, Milano.
Twitter @remo_ricchetti Instagram @hrundibahkshi

65. italian designers
how (digitally) sociable are they?
Gioia Guerzoni, Stefano Mirti, Remo Ricchetti,
June 2012