If you have a child in school today, he or she is probably somewhat the same as mine: while they spend most of the day in school, most of their interesting, creative learning may be taking place outside the normal instructional time. I'm not referring to that dreaded transfer of information about where babies come from, or the full litany of gross jokes, rude rhymes and four-letter words, but the acquisition of creative, often collaborative information creation and management skills. Their exposure to technology at home and school, with the attendant creation tools, networks, and communication channels is allowing many school-age children to jet ahead in their development of creative skills they might take years to learn otherwise in traditional classrooms.

This finding, which many parents who seek tech support from their fifth-grader already knows well, seems to be borne out by a new study on kids in digital environments being conducted by University of Southern California and University of California at Berkeley researchers with funding from the MacArthur Foundation. In an preliminary presentation of findings from extensive ethnographic work led by well-known academics such as Mimi Ito and danah boyd the researchers, indications emerged that the immediacy of creativity, accomplishment and peer respect that come with creating digitally in a social environment with other youth is more compelling to kids today than the long-term payoff that comes (hopefully) with formal education. In short, school delivers over 12 or 16 years, but kids can create within an online game, make a video and upload it, blog or write their own code at their own speed, often with more collaboration that they get in a curriculum which teaches to the test and then moves on.

The good news is that these students aren't waiting around to be given the tools to be creative. The better news is that some ingenious self-sufficiency is emerging from this dynamic. Most of the gamechanging digital innovations of recent years have come from bored, somewhat isolated, young individuals who had time on their hands, an idea, and probably a global audience and/or workshop of co-conspirators. The bad news is that most education systems are falling farther behind in harnessing this desire to create and collaborate, and have little or nothing to say about which direction it develops.

This morning BBC World Service's Business Daily featured an interview with Richard Parry-Jones, CTO of Ford, discussing the future of the consumer vehicle--the word "car" hardly seems to suit all of the definitions he put forward. Among other things, Parry-Jones discussed the changing nature of the vehicles we use, and where they may be in the future.

His practical, engineering-driven vision is shaped around a fitness-for-purpose model where urban commuting is marked by increasing use of small, lightweight, probably electric, vehicles perhaps "rented" on an as-needed basis for one or two passengers, resembling a Smart more than today's heavy SUVs and big sedans favored in the West. Think Zipcar meets Tata Nano for the masses, designed to meet the requirements of driving in the world's expanding megacities. He implied that such vehicles would probably not venture far outside the city boundaries due to their lack of power vis-a-vis longer range vehicles.

For mid-range travel from city to city, lighter weight frames and components will allow this class of vehicle to look roughly similar as today's vehicles, but be powered by a more efficient engine, probably a mix between conventional and hybrid, to take account for the mixed usage patterns of in-city and longer distance travel (hybrid engines are less useful for the latter). Lastly, Parry-Jones points to diesel power as the engine of choice for long distance vehicles, potentially biofuel-based, because of their efficiency. What he doesn't say, but is clearer from the way these vehicles are used to carry more passengers and cargo, is that the form will likely remain similar to today's trucks, vans and SUVs, but like their mid-range peers, use lighter weight components as well to lessen fuel demand.

One implication of this vision is that we are now moving from a model where consumers are presented with a range of style and functionalities in vehicles, which they can somewhat freely choose to fit the stylistic and functional requirements of their lifestyles, to one where economics become far more important, and choice is more directed by frequent usage patterns. Up till now, it has cost relatively little to choose a long-range vehicle for short-range use, i.e. the SUV for short, in-town trips to the grocery store and school runs, and likewise one could choose to run a hybrid for long-range commutes where it is less efficient. However, fuel costs, regulation and other external factors are forcing more attention to this "fitness-for-purpose" criteria, something certainly American consumers have had to grapple with very little in the past 50 years.

So, we potentially face a substantial period where function regains prominence over form in vehicle design. Car makers will argue that the two can be balanced carefully, and economical function can be balanced with beautiful form today. A look at the current examples would contradict that assertion in many cases.  Further out, however, this will stimulate a new emphasis on marrying attractive design to efficient construction and function. I, for one, can't wait.

Ever wonder how the future is proactively created? One great example of applying an understanding of human behavior and interaction to development of future products--so that new products meet emerging needs just at the right moment in the near future--is featured prominently in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine. The Times followed Nokia's Jan Chipchase, Duncan Burns and other designers from the company as they spent time in Accra, Ghana observing and gently interrogating the everyday lives of people in a case-study developing market, and probing their reactions to designs that pair fresh insights about their use of communication technology with equally fresh prototypes.

Chipchase and his colleagues at Nokia, some of whom I have had the pleasure of working with, do a fantastic job of bringing these two critical streams--emerging behaviors and emerging technology--together at just the right time, or you might say just in time. His anthropologist, designer and ethnographer peers in many similar companies are also working diligently to better understand this process, people, and methods to create the future as and when it's needed, not simply to build their own version and push it out the door, hoping consumers' behaviors can be force fit to a design. Fortunately, these ideas and practices are spreading, and the benefits are beginning to be measurable in better lives, better opportunities, and success for the companies who see the light, as the article describes.

For the last couple of years, I have been pointing out to clients in the mobile communications industry that the personal smartphone market was ripe for growth. In fact now we see the emergence of this area as a product segment of its own, growing out of a desire for better screen and keyboard designs for input and reading than standard phones provide, and by the experiences many adults had, particularly women and older teens, of having devices such as other family members' Blackberries around the house or provided to them by employers.

Now it's common to see people with their own personal Blackberries or smartphones who aren't road warriors but simply frequent communicators. It's also somewhat common to see two-smartphone owners--with one for work, and one for personal use--as prices fall and older models become easily available.

One growth area within this set is the domestic head-of-household, moms in particular. Today's Washington Post highlights the growing use of texting by parents to keep up with their kids and communicate with other text-addicted family members. This only touches on the tail end of the trend--in fact, more moms (and dads) are using these devices to communicate with their own  smartphone wielding kids and relations, using the personal information management applications onboard to keep track of family needs and events just the same as they would use these application for work.

What is interesting is how slowly device manufacturers and operators have caught on to what was happening under their noses. RIM took some of the first steps to address it with the Blackberry Pearl, which Palm followed by dressing up the Treo and now offering the Centro. Most operators have taken the view that Roger Entner of IAG Research offered in the article: that texting is perfect for busy moms because it doesn't require costly data packages or high-end devices. For some that's true, but we are already seeing evidence of rapid migration onto smartphones due to falling device costs, ease of use, and growth of this segment from the teen and sub-teen side. The smartphone family pack is right around the corner.

Presidential candidates take notice: forget Soccer Moms or even Nascar Moms, it's time to target the Crackberry Family: overpressured, constantly connected with little face-to-face family time, struggling to manage fragmented lives and stay in touch. (Image: edans/Flickr)

The Boeing 787 may not be launching on time, but the world of aviation design moves ahead nonetheless. As seen here at Core77, the Aircraft Interiors Expo Hamburg was held last week, and designers and manufacturers showed off their next generation designs for those wonders of modern technology and engineering many of us spend a good deal of our lives in.

As one can see from the pictures in the Core77 gallery, the future of aircraft interiors--and one could argue the airports we use to get to and from them--looks more and more like a tranquil mix between a high-tech funeral home and a very sleek nightclub. This brings to mind an episode of "This American Life" from several years ago discussing the use of modern marketing tools to design a new religion and its church: the outcome of a straw poll was something that looked and felt like a first-class airport lounge, replete with soft music, minimalist interiors, obsequious service and time for silent meditation before the big journey.

The soft white lighting, nearly vertical walls, shell-like enclosures in the higher classes, and increased soundproofing are intended to remove the passenger as much as possible from the reality of flight, particularly on long-haul trips. Some cues are being taken from automotive interior design, but just as much seems to come from doctor's offices, churches, hotels and other places where we wait quietly.  

Perhaps a lot of this is down to designers' attempts to neutralize and sterilize what on it's face is quite a scary operation--scanning people in a heavily guarded space, then bundling them tightly into a fuel-filled canister and launching them into the air at high speed. The look and feel of these images and designs are equal parts "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Gattaca" with a little Ian Schrager on top for sex appeal.

With all of the increased attention drawn to the risks of modern aviation--fear of increasingly ghastly forms of air-based terrorism, the rapid growth in complexity of modern aviation equipment and operations, demand to hold the line or grow revenue from exorbitantly expensive services, and the very nature of our borderless world--it is no wonder that design elements for death, flight and distraction are all converging. As Laurent Haug wistfully remarked to me recently, flying used to be glamorous and romantic, now it's a misery. I think the airline industry is telling us something by its designs for the future.