Coincidentally, Thomas Friedman’s column today pulls together the same two master narratives that the folks at Brooklyn Beta seem to be trying define:

One says this is the start of “The Great Disruption.” The other says that this is all part of “The Big Shift.”

This piece is must read for the people attending.

Adding to the mix and the day’s Education theme, the innovator behind School of One, Joel Rose, got up and told us the story of how it came to be.

Watch this 3 minute video.

Robin Hood video only from Wendy Lee on Vimeo.

The core ideas behind School of One embody the optimism and a zeal found in the web community today, where every field of study and line of work is open for re-interpretation and disruption, if only momentarily. They are also starting off in the right by first framing a problem – which is where all good transformations need to start – and they are scaling it up slowly, learning from their steps along the way. The program is starting out in just a few schools and only in portions of those schools. And even within this limited test, they are only trying this out on math.

And from a Q & A with Joel Rose about School of One:

School of One is a way of organizing a school differently. First, we provide instruction based on exactly where a student happens to be academically and let him move at his own pace. So the seventh-grader who missed a few sixth-grade skills begins where he left off the previous year, learning those sixth-grade skills. Second, we complement live, teacher-led instruction with other forms of instruction—we use different types of software, virtual tutors, small group activities, and independent activities all at the same time. Finally, we use technology to integrate all of these forms of instruction so that each student has a unique schedule each day based on how he did the previous day. We project that schedule onto monitors around the room in a way similar to the information you might see at the airport, which helps students know where to go at different times. Because we use all of these tools, we’re able to personalize instruction based on what a student needs and based on how they learn best.

More on School of One in a 2009 article from The New York Times »

While milling around, I met Daniel McOrmond from Rochester, NY. He is a web developer and works on the Lithium PHP framework, which I have heard a lot about, and works with FictiveKin on projects from time to time. He also builds motorcycles – Japanese cafe racers to be specific. Tell him I said hello.

I also met Chris Casciano, a front-end web developer who freelances around the city, but works in the intersection of product development, design and project management.

I kept asking people what moved them the most so far. A friend Jon Chretien said that it was not what he had expected but that the mix of people was what made it unique. He described sitting in an earlier session where someone, maybe the guy speaking, owned a company that makes denim and he was sharing his experiences along side web developers. He also said that he met a guy – more of an industrial designer – who worked on the first iPhone.

Everyone I talked to seemed to be focused on tackling big problems in unique and collaborative ways – which says a lot about the spirit of the conference and what themes are being extracted.

There were an unusual number of men wearing plaid long-sleeve shirts at this event. Just pointing that out :)

As for the demographic breakdown, mostly white men, early to mid thirties. I would love to see more women, not just at these conferences, but in leadership roles a web startups and design studios.

Brooklyn Beta is being held in the Invisible Dog Art Center in Cobble Hill.

Lots of thoughts on designing tools to be more accessible and available to a wider audience. Lots of talk about Education. Teaching. Designing the fear out of technology. Making things that are useful to the widest possible audience.

How do we introduce people to the web, and what does that mean? What types of jobs do people need, and can ‘the web’ be helpful in creating jobs or creating entrepreneurs out of the jobless?

One guy made a statement saying that jobs are out there, they are just different than they used to be, and our job is to do what we can to help people adapt to new opportunities. And where there are no opportunities, we need to be helping to create them.

I pointed out that within the design community the focus is always on the successes or faults in the design of our tools, when they should be on the substance of the tools and what people get out of them. Ultimately, people will use what ever crappy little tool you give them as long as it produces results that matter (e.g. Craigslist, thumb drives, drudge report).

So what does it take to make doers and makers out of people? One of the ways is through cross collaboration and education with other fields of work. What can the auto industry learn from the web community, and in turn what can the web community learn from the auto industry. Obviously, you can take any industry and substitute it for the auto industry in that statement. But as you do, ask yourself what is similar between fields of work? What is similar about the ways people communicate in those fields of work, and what are the natural dynamics that make those fields successful, and how can the web help to facilitate those exchanges.

Near the end of the 40 min session, one woman made a comment saying that we are the fortunate ones for having chosen or fallen into a field of work that is full of possibility, growth and opportunity. I wanted to point out to her that as designers, we are always in a the fortunate position of being on the receiving end of someone else’s fortune. When we work with clients, they are in a state of growth and opportunity. They are not only in a place where they want to spend money, but they want to see their hopes and dreams fulfilled in some way. This is not the case in most lines of work. (This thought is borrowed from my wife – not my original thought!)

I arrived late and was ushered in to a group session, the first one on my left. With no posted schedule and little explanation as to what this is, my first thoughts were all about figuring out what type of space or scene I just stepped into. I was thrown off by the fact that this is not a web developer vibe (thankfully) – despite the fact that I see many web developers in attendance. So what is this? What did I miss out on?

I was quickly told that Brooklyn Beta is broken out into large group sessions, where someone speaks and gives a presentation, followed by smaller group sessions where people gather to work through a central idea of some kind. I walked in a few mins after the group sessions started and sat down to listen. See the schedule here »

About twenty people were gathered in a lift elevator. Some were sitting on fold-out chairs, others were sitting on boxes or un-opened kegs of beer. A white board was on one side with the word ‘Education’ and a few other notes jotted down. One guy, who later I learned was Matt Brown, was facilitating the discussion with marker in hand.

Day 1: Kepler is sick, and my wife had meetings this morning so he and I made a trip to the doctor. All is well, just the common two-year old virus that is being shared. He’ll be fine. My wife cleared out her afternoon to be home with him so I could attend at least part of the day today ♥. Arrived by cab at 2 PM.