Design with Intent | Erosion of liberty

Anti-teenager “pink lights to show up acne”

By Dan Lockton ⋅ March 26, 2009 ⋅ 48 comments

In a similar vein to the Mosquito, intentionally shallow steps (and, superficially at least–though not really–blue lighting in toilets, which Raph d’Amico dissects well here), we now have residents’ associations installing pink lighting to highlight teenagers’ acne and so drive them away from an area:
Residents of a Nottinghamshire housing estate have installed pink lights which [...]

The Convention on Modern Liberty

By Dan Lockton ⋅ February 27, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Britain’s supposedly on the verge of a summer of rage, and while like Mary Riddell I am of course reminded of Ballard, it’s not quite the same. I don’t think this represents the ‘middle class’ ennui of Chelsea Marina.
Instead I think we may have reached a tipping point where more people than not, are, [...]

Paper Rights Management

By Dan Lockton ⋅ June 20, 2008 ⋅ 8 comments

This delivery note from Springer informs me that the book I’ve bought “must not be resold”. Good luck with that. So have I bought it or not? Or have I bought a licence to read it? What if I give it away?
Many companies would love to be able to control what users can do with [...]

“Steps are like ready-made seats” (so let’s make them uncomfortable)

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 30, 2008 ⋅ 46 comments

Adrian Short let me know about something going on in Sutton, Surrey, at the same time both fundamentally pathetic and indicative of the mindset of many public authorities in ‘dealing with’ emergent behaviour:
An area in Rosehill, known locally as “the steps”, is to be re-designed to stop young people sitting there.
Not only will the steps [...]

Mosquito controversy goes high-profile

By Dan Lockton ⋅ February 13, 2008 ⋅ 10 comments

The Mosquito anti-teenager sound device, which we’ve covered on this site a few times, was yesterday heavily criticised by the Children’s Commissioner for England, Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, launching the BUZZ OFF campaign in conjunction with Liberty and the National Youth Agency:
Makers and users of ultra-sonic dispersal devices are being told to “Buzz Off” today [...]

Towards a Design with Intent ‘Method’ – v.0.1

By Dan Lockton ⋅ January 5, 2008 ⋅ 11 comments

As mentioned a while back, I’ve been trying to find a way to classify the numerous ‘Design with Intent’ and architectures of control examples that have been examined on this site, and suggested by readers. Since that post, my approach has shifted slightly to look at what the intent is behind each example, and hence [...]

Smile, you’re on Countermanded Camera

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 9, 2007 ⋅ 13 comments

Image from Miquel Mora’s website
We’ve looked before at a number of technologies and products aimed at ‘preventing’ photography and image recording in some way, from censoring photographs of ‘copyrighted content’ and banknotes, to Georgia Tech’s CCD-flooding system.
Usually these systems are about locking out the public, or removing freedoms in some way (a lot of [...]

“You do not enumerate the freedoms you want”

By Dan Lockton ⋅ April 22, 2007 ⋅ 9 comments

Crosbie Fitch, in the Atom feed summary for this post looking at how ‘freedom’ can and should be defined, says:
You see copyright’s suspension of your freedom to perform particular activities, and so for each activity you demand a specific freedom. This is how the GPL arose.
This is an inverted perspective from which to define ‘free [...]

Dependence

By Dan Lockton ⋅ January 17, 2007 ⋅ 3 comments

Karel Donk has some intriguing thoughts on ‘maximising the upside’ of life, by reducing dependence on other people, status and possessions, so that there is less to lose:
So one of the important things in life is to be as independent as possible and rely on very few things. After all, when it comes down to [...]

Digital control round-up

By Dan Lockton ⋅ December 30, 2006 ⋅ One comment

Some developments in – and commentary on – digital architectures of control to end 2006:
Peter Gutmann’s ‘A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection’ (via Bruce Schneier) looks very lucidly at the effects that Vista’s DRM and measures to ‘protect’ content will have – on users themselves, and knock-on effects elsewhere. The more one reads, [...]

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Erosion of liberty