#1stweekreflection

Everything starts someplace and this week marks the start of Project Communities. For me, the highlight of the day is how communities and networks affect us. First thing first, I would like to share how communities & networks can support us as students and designers for the world.

Communities

I think that communities can help us learn, not just "what to learn" but "how to learn". Because I know all too well sometimes we just don't know how to study, how to learn the basics, and get frustrated like in high school, in the middle of the night before the tests, and crying and eating a massive amount of foods; so many phases.

Exactly.

What I have learnt is that the communities need us, they need designers who can form the future, they need students who they can teach, and vice versa. In a nutshell, they are the ones who can push us.

Okay, I meant a good pushing. They will provide us with some of their complains of what they think this world is lacking, expectations (as in the gadgets or inventions that can fill the world's "weaknesses"). From there we can see what the goals are, what do we need to do, what can we do about this issue, how to please people, the communities itself.

For example, I saw several tweets from people around the globe about their demands of a portable wi-fi, so they can go anywhere and still get a wi-fi signal. Some even gave designers ideas, for instance: a wi-fi bracelet, a wi-fi necklace, a wi-fi hat (it sounds crazy, but those are ideas); and a company named "Bolt" in Indonesia took the chance to make a working 4G portable wi-fi. How do the public react? Psyched.

I have tried it, works like stereotypical wi-fi. Sometimes even better with their 4G networks (most Indonesian networks are still 3Gs)

Networks

I will delineate "networks" as connections that we have, a group or system of interconnected people or things. I think that the bigger the networks that we have the better, people need to connect, either professionally or personally. As human beings, we are social creatures, pack creatures. We need connections to cope with our surroundings, otherwise it would be chaotic.

Knowing what is happening around us is important. So reach out, there are so many features in today's technologies: facebook, twitter, tumblr. The communities there will help us build networks. As designers: "Hey, check out this new thing!" "Oh, that so nice, who made that?" "*Inserts your name* did!" 

As students we can learn from the professional designers our friends show us earlier from the social networks.

Conclusion: Communities and networks will definitely help us grow and learn, either it's baby steps or tall guy with stilts's steps. It doesn't matter, what matters is we are growing together if we know how to reach out to them.

Oh, and have a confusiasm, it is important to be confused with an enthusiasm otherwise you would look like this.

That is a confusion caused by too much focus, so yeah, be confused! With enthusiasms.