http://www.paulsmith.co.uk/

Peacock Feather Bar. The corner of Wells and Ruskat Streets in the heart of the windy city. It was her favorite hangout, the place she went to forget things, be around the people she loved. Her name was Elra Voonique, 34 years of age and a bombshell with long wavy brown hair and a penchant towards the impure and vile. They had met on a wintry night in December of last year, knocked each other over accidentally as he was running around the corner, gun drawn in pursuit of a thief that had just knocked over the bodega a few blocks away. He had helped her up and gone to leave but then saw those eyes, auburn iris’, the most beautiful things he had ever seen and had decided right then and there that cops and robbers was no longer his game. Flowers, the cards, the dinners and drinks–he had tried it all. Day after day, he tried to get her attention, make her listen to his pleas to marry him but he didn’t know her and she sure as hell didn’t want to get to know him.

Those were months ago. The heartbreak of pursuing her through her personal trials and tribulations to no end was exhausting and made him feel empty. He knew she needed time to grow up, he needed distance but still, he couldn’t get her out of his mind. The drink only made things worse and, when a few months back, he awoke to find himself covered in garbage and living in the alley in the dumpster behind the Dragonfly Mandarin restaurant he knew she had almost killed him and needed to get away.

Two months later, back on his feet and working for a Mr. Thomas Young at the Yo-Yo Coin Laundromat mopping and sweeping, he had saved up enough to make a move and one morning, jumped on the train and headed south as far as a $75 one-way ticket would take him. It turned out to not be far enough.

For four months he was able to put her out of his mind. Found a gig working for a bar tender at the Pub Tavern on the outskirts of Scottsburg. It was a dive, the type of place that sentimental statues of lost individuals went to drink their memories away. Dark mahogany walls, red velvet booths, only a few yellow lights and then the long string of flashing white Christmas bulbs that became the annual decor. Smells of stale beer and dropped whiskey, cigarette butts and cheap, fatty beef became his source of palpable vitality. On his one off day, he would hike over to the Pigeon Roost Creek, watch the water pass gently through the stony maze of the creek bed, drink his coffee and his mind would wander back to her bronze skin, long slender legs and that pristine smile, the kind that warms your heart and makes you feel safe and at home. It was the only time he let himself remember. Pretty soon though, he wasn’t able to hold it back.

Wednesday and he was mopping up the slime of some winos last hurrah before being sent off to the recovery clinic. He felt the rimy, cross-grained mop handle in his palm, smelled the rancid remains of alcoholism and broken dreams, and knew that he had to get out, go back upstate and find her. Just to see her would be enough.

He had hit the road that night, thumbed in a few rides on a couple of semis delivering chickens and cheese to some of the big grocery chains in the city, and found a cheap place, the Abbott, in the dregs of battered cars and feculent garbage on Belmont Avenue. It was the kind of place that you would find hairs in the sheets, plugged up toilets and more cockroaches than carpet fibers but it would do for that night. He would be sleeping with the woman of his dreams tomorrow, wrapped tightly in the arms that he would never need to leave again. That next day, he had gone to the Peacock Feather Bar and waited outside in the freezing cold, pulled his jacket up tight against the back of his neck.

Four hours passed, he had lost feeling in both of his feet and was beginning to lose consciousness in the barbaric winds of ice and snow. He hadn’t eaten since the morning the day before, began to feel weak and tattered and slunk down to the frozen sidewalks below, leaned up against the metal dumpster to wait her out. His head was heavy, his shoulders sore. Death waited patiently in the embers of his frozen parlor of lust and fear. The squeaking of the bar doors and she had emerged, fish net stockings, silver sequin top, tightly-woven hair, makeup artistically curved around her auburn eyes, a long flowing black coat. She crosses the snow-lined street with long, careful strides on her stilettos, counts the money she holds in her hand, folds it neatly in half and stuffs it into her purse. She reaches up, takes the hairpins out, throws her head from left to right, pulls a hat out of her jacket pocket and pulls it down tightly over her ears. She’s ten feet from him, headed his way but his eyes are getting heavy, his heart is slowing down. He reaches down into his depths, yanks out the last strings of energy that he can muster to open his eyes one last time. She gallantly ambles down the sidewalk in front of him, reaches into her jacket pocket, grabs a quarter and flips it towards him. The cold cash hits his face, falls to the snow below. She continues walking. His heart snaps, his eyes begin to close. The rippling reverberations of her long black coat now ominous, she turns with a smile and leaves him to die.

Finally, dinner for the starving Existentialist!

Marketing is everything… except when a company that has run out of interesting ways to reorganize beans, cheese, beef, sour cream, tomatoes, and grease resorts to making its food black in order to keep it interesting. And did I mention that the public is going to call this is racist and sexist, even though it clearly isn’t? Could this represent the death of the taco as as whole in society, or just the death of Taco Bell as a relevant fast food choice? It’s in danger of leaving the A-List likes of Jack in the Box, McD’s and Burger King, and being pushed into the B-List Hardee’s, Del Taco, Arby’s category. Either way, it doesn’t matter… nothing matters… except the “Nausea” that Sartre would have felt had he eaten on of these things…

In the meantime, here is the commercial for this new black sheep of fast food:

Image: via

Blake Lively teamed  a  black coat from  Twenty8Twelve’s  Fall 2009 collection, with a pair of lacy Hue zigzag openwork tights, on the set of Gossip Girl.

Get her  fabulous Twenty8Twelve coat  at Singer22  $682.00

]]> http://mclyte.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/sleekness/ Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:53:06 +0000 mclyte http://mclyte.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/sleekness/

Burberry Black trench

Burberry trench

This Burberry trench gives class and style. I don’t claim to know it all but having this in your closet will make for a quick classic look.

From polished designer high fashion to my crazy space outfit, now I bring you to the other side of the town, Camden Town. I only very recently discovered it’s about 25 minutes walk from my place, why the hell didn’t I go earlier. Camden is crazy, full on, energetic and just plain awesome. It’s the ultimate place for clashes of fashion, from gothic lolitas, to punks, rockabillies, indie kids, high street kids, vintage gals, hip hop boys, it really shouts “youth of Britain today” to me.

Today I went for a stroll again armed with my camera!

Camden market is a huge market that interconnects many sections, with indoor and outdoor space, they sell anything from vintage wear to designer rip offs and everything in between. I found myself a nice little something for £6! More about that another time. Cyberdog is crazy! Rave music turned up loud pumping straight through me, those fluro detective lights that showcase the special ink on their tshirts, robotic mannequins line the walls. Some of the womens clothes were very avant garde, I can see how a piece or 2 combined with high street stuff can become a very edgy and cool outfit. Now why didn’t I go there before my space themed party, oh well, at least I know now for next time.

So here are 2 quick shots from today.

Got to go now, more posts tomorrow! Happy Thursday!

I know its not the most attractive title. Its a waiting cab. And sometimes (maybe most times) my photographs won’t make sense at all. i get that feeling too. But like I’ve said in the past, my photos remind me of what it was like when I shot them. On this particular day, there was slight drizzle and a bone-chilling wind was blowing. I was however dressed for the beach. Sporting cargo shorts, a tshirt and sandals, people walking by probably thought I was a lunatic. But I like that chilling wind sometimes. My parents are probably throwing a fit right now and will be calling soon to tell me to take better care of myself.

munky is not sure about this one!

I would like to introduce myself. I’m the captain of FG Underground. Our Base station can be found here. It is mandatory to come. For the following reasons.
The coat I wear, is currently on offer. An absolute must.
Come all immediately to the base station.

Yours Captain

FG Underground Coat

COME! NOW! THE CAPTAIN IS CALLING YOU!

Amazing style.. she was wearing thick grey wool tights underneath the coat it created a lovely silhouette

Yesterday I spent the day at Comic-Con International in San Diego serving as Barbie’s professional photograher. I’ll let her walk us through these and provide captions. Take it away, Barbie!

Thanks, Corey! I’m sure a lot of you are wondering what a super-cute and cool chick like me was doing at “Nerd Vegas”. Normally I wouldn’t be caught dead there but that all changed this past weekend!

This is My Comic-Con Adventure!

It all started Friday night… I got back from shopping early and found Ken reading something weird. Like, gross weird.

That’s right, he was reading PORN! (And I think he was doing something with those big green fists, too.)

I couldn’t believe it! It must’ve been something he picked up when we split up. I mean, I know that was a real dark period for him but still, have some class.

He made some lame argument about it not being porn. “It’s a suspenseful sci-fi graphic novel called Girls by the Luna Brothers that examines gender roles and the battle of the sexes,” he said. I don’t know why he was talking like a press release, but whatever. All I see are lots and lots of boobies. Naked ones, at that!

Then he said that comic books and graphic novels are the next big thing. And that most of them don’t have naked boobies. Well you know how much I love the next big thing! So I asked, “Where can I find out more?”

Apparently there’s this big convention every year in San Diego called Comic-Con International. And it just so happened to be going on as we were talking. What a coincidence! Even though San Diego is like a million miles away from Malibu, I said I’d go. But this better not be a trick to get me into porn.

Here’s me in the big crowds of Comic-Con! I arrived Saturday morning super early. There were WAY too many people. More than I could count. Math is hard. Anyway, I had no idea there were so many perverts out there. And with weird fetishes like dressing up in weird costumes. I would NEVER dress up in so many strange outfits.

I walked around a bit and saw tables where they were selling movies. Hey, I like movies!

Uhm… this isn’t the right picture. That’s not even me, I was looking at the Disney movies!

Anyway, as you can see, more porn! How many of these does Ken have? I bet these “examine gender issues”, too. Oh, I was getting so mad! I had to talk to someone. And then I met a kindred spirit.

Flo Jalin was SO sweet! She made me feel much better! (And her outfit was super hot!) She told me that this wasn’t a porn convention or anything and that the convention was about real Hollywood movies and TV shows and video games and all sorts of stuff. She said I would feel better if I walked around and met some people. I was still a little nervous, so she had me loosen up by doing some quick modeling.

Isn’t this fun? I’m standing in for the girl on the cover of Five Color Comics #1 from The Art of Fiction. I don’t know what that weird symbol is at the end of his stick but it looks neat, doesn’t it?

The first real-life comics creator I met was Gris Grimly. His art is creepy but cute and lots of fun! I don’t think he believed that I liked it. He seemed kind of shy, but maybe these comic book people aren’t used to normal, good looking and popular girls liking what they do.

I next snuggled up to Rick Geary. He was a sweet man. He makes these fun postcards and also does these scary books about real-life murder mysteries that take place a million years in the past. Kind of creepy but he was super nice. I don’t think he would’ve murdered me at all!

Scott Shaw! (yes, he really has “the yelling period,” as I like to call it, at the end of his name) was really excited to see me! He was very welcoming and affectionate. He’s drawn like every cartoon ever since ever! He also does this really funny panel called Oddball Comics that I went to and it made me laugh tons! At one point when we were talking I thought he was going to lick my face or something but he said that he was just really thirsty. I thought that was kind of weird but I know he was really busy, so I guess it makes sense.

Scott being thirsty made me realize that I was really hungry! Normally I just ignore hunger, but all this walking around was working up my appetite. The food choice wasn’t the greatest. Fortunately I’m totally rich so the prices didn’t bother me.

Once we finished eating, I heard the most sexy music. This guy was playing saxophone right in the middle of the convention. Who knew? I just had to sit down and listen. It felt like he was playing right to me!

I was looking for toys for my little sister Kelly when I saw my old rivals packed away in a dusty box. I know this probably seems petty but it made me laugh!

I totally forgot I used to have a comic book! I guess people loved them because every table we asked, they said they didn’t have any. I’ll have to talk to my business manager and find out how much money we made on those.

Hey girls, we can make comics, too! Comics aren’t just for boys! Jill Thompson gave me some pointers on how to draw comics. She’s done tons of amazing stuff, like her own graphic novels Scary Godmother and Magic Trixie. And she said I had a knack for drawing comics!

Sitting at the same table was Brian Wood. He’s a super-talented writer. He pulls off the sexy bald thing pretty good. He wrote a comic called Local about this girl who keeps moving to different towns and taking on different jobs and identities. A part of me really relates to her. I thought all comics were naked boobies or muscle-men fighting or fantasy stuff. But the more I’m here, the more I see that comics can be about anything!

Next we met Becky Cloonan, another super-cute, super-cool and super-talented girl in comics. We became fast friends and she turned me on to a bunch of great stuff. She draws American Virgin, which I thought might be more porn, but she said it was about this minister trying to stay pure with all these temptations. I don’t know, it sounded really good and it made me think that maybe Ken wasn’t lying.

Just as things were starting to make sense, I was arrested! This Stormtrooper questioned me for what seemed like hours. I guess I gave him what he wanted because he finally left me alone.

I felt so happy I felt like dancing on someone’s hat.

Fortunately Ben Lichius was there to help me out. He writes The Black Coat, a dashing hero from the Revolutionary War. I don’t know what kind of hat that is, but it was fun grinding on it.

While I was talking to Terry Moore I wanted to show him what Jill Thompson taught me but I didn’t have a pen! I guess artists are really attached to their pens because I had to bug him for an hour to get him to lend me his! God, what happened to encouraging fellow artists? By the time I finally got the pen, I forgot what Jill taught me. So we talked about Terry’s comics. Strangers in Paradise is about two women who like each other. I mean they like like each other. I thought, “Oh great, here comes the naked boobies.” But the story was really good! I hate to say it, but I think the comic was dealing with gender roles. Maybe Ken really WAS reading his comic for the story.

I had to sit down and think. Everything was moving too fast. And then, boy did it!

I thought this giant Optimus Prime robot was going to kill me! But then, some shirtless firefighters saved me!

I thought they were being heroic, but then they started fighting over me!

Fortunately cartoonist Chris Giarrusso saved me and let me put my clothes back on behind his cute and funny graphic novel Mini-Marvels: Rock, Paper, Scissors.

After all of that excitement, I had to take a break at the G4 booth. The day was coming to an end, and I just needed a little power nap to make it home.

I guess I zonked because when I woke up, Christian Gossett, creator of the sci-fi adventure The Red Star had safely brought me to my car.

I learned a lot at Comic-Con. I learned that comic book people weren’t scary sex addicts. They weren’t porn pushers. They were talented and caring people with wonderful stories to tell.

I drove back to Ken and explained to him everything that happened. Then I read Girls and found out that it really WAS a suspenseful sci-fi graphic novel that examines gender roles and the battle of the sexes. I apologized for jumping to conclusions, and he apologized for not telling me about it sooner.

Then we had great make-up sex.

The End

[See the Flickr page for these pics.]

]]> http://onewaytoheaven.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/praying-passenger-removed-off-plane/ Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:13:34 +0000 crownoflife http://onewaytoheaven.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/praying-passenger-removed-off-plane/

This is truly a difficult story to tell, if only MORE people would take their personal Faith as seriously as this man did, only to be kicked off.

According to the Story a Flight carrying a Orthodox Jewish man, who wore a full beard, a black hat and a long black coat, went and stood near the lavatories as he began saying his prayers.

Mean while the United Airlines jet was being boarded at John F. Kennedy International Airport and everyone aboard was asked to take their seats.

However once this gentleman was in prayer, he could not stop, so a fellow follower asked them to please wait for just “Two Minutes” by then the Stewards had security on the plane.

After his prayer he apologized and said he wasn’t trying to be rude, but this lead him no where as he was escorted off the plane heading to San Fransisco.

The Power Of Prayer is so great that it is really Shocking to me that they would have taken such Drastic Action, just because they could not wait for two minutes…..How very very sad.

The gentleman was later put on another plane to San  Fransisco, hopefully they allowed him the chance to say a silent prayer.

Ephesians 6:18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
- Anatole France

Here is the final version of the STS Entities:

And here are the STS Entities abstracted:

So what have I accomplished? What I have done is defined the six fundamental motives (Green Coat column), the six fundamental personas (Blue Coat column), the six fundamental objects (White Coat column), the six fundamental methods (Yellow Coat column) , the six fundamental locales (Black Coat column) and the six fundamental moments (Red Coat column) of the human experience. These are the entities of the Structured Thinking System. Alternatively, I have defined the six focuses of the creativity perspective (Green Hat row), the six focuses of the relativity perspective (Blue Hat row), the six focuses of the objectivity perspective (White Hat row), the six focuses of the optimicity perspective (Yellow Hat row), the six focuses of the pessimicity perspective (Black Hat row) and the six focuses of the intuitivity perspective (Red Hat row).

Don’t expect to understand this post without at least visiting these Related Links:

• Structured Thinking System: Motives
• Structured Thinking System: Persons
• Structured Thinking System: Objects
• Structured Thinking System: Methods
• Structured Thinking System: Locales
• Structured Thinking System: Moments

I was passed this link to a free Knowledge Management Course by a friend today.

I gave the entire course a read (it is not that long) and concluded that there was only one thing that the course covered that is not covered by the Six Hats, Six Coats as it has been explained so far. The issue is valuation, how do we know the cost/benefit of any fact. Otherwise, the authors wave the term “knowledge” around with little restraint to the point of its being meaningless. If they had it their way, everything would be knowledge. (I’ve been known to rant that everything is objects.)

To perform valuation of the Six Hats, Six Coats Framework, facts are each of the Six Coats columns: Motive, Locale, Object, Method, Person and Moment. Each of these can be reduced to their atomic granularity at the Blue Hat perspective row. One additional row can be added to the bottom, which is the benefit per manipulation. Each of the Six Hats is a row and can be accumulated in a seventh column, which is the cost per perspective. Each cell of the Six Hats, Six Coats Framework has a cost when it is created, but the benefit accumulates with each manipulation of its column at the Blue Hat level and is rolled up to the appropriate cell.

The rest of the Knowledge Management concepts are covered by the Six Hats, Six Coats Framework.

The Six Hats, Six Coats Framework provides not only knowledge. The Six Hats provide:

1. Green Hat: Wisdom. Conceptualization. Creativity.
2. Yellow Hat: Knowledge. Contextualization. Relativity.
3. White Hat: Information. Logicalization. Optimicity.
4. Black Hat: Data. Physicalization. Pessimicity.
5. Red Hat: Regulation. Humanization. Anthropicity.
6. Blue Hat: Conduction. Detectors and Effectors. Synchronicity.

The Six Hats, Six Coats Framework gives a clear definition of knowledge. Meta-Knowledge is the modeled relationships between the each of the entities within a system. This is the entity relationship diagrams for the facts. Knowledge is the actual references between each of the instances within a system. This is the actual database containing the facts. A rule relationship model, a node relationship model, a data relationship model, a function relationship model, a person relationship model and an event relationship model are meta-knowledge. Rule instance references, node instance references, data instance references, function instance references, person instance references and event instance references are knowledge.

“Mentifacts” and “Sociofacts” are obtuse terms. Person associations are extragroup, intergroup, intragroup, extrapersonal, interpersonal and intrapersonal. They are different perspectives a human takes to interaction and the adoption of facts from another system. Motive, locale, object, method, person and moment are all artifacts, better termed entities.

The definitions the course offers: “Know-what”, “Know-why”, “Know-how”, “Know-who” is incomplete and ill defined.

1. Yellow Hat, Green Coat is Know-why. Contextual Motive.
2. Yellow Hat, Yellow Coat is Know-where. Contextual Locale.
3. Yellow Hat, White Coat is Know-what. Contextual Object.
4. Yellow Hat, Black Coat is Know-how. Contextual Method.
5. Yellow Hat, Red Coat is Know-who. Contextual Person.
6. Yellow Hat, Blue Coat is Know-when. Contextual Moment.

Knowledge management is not simply Informal and Formal. Knowledge Management can be Implicit, Explicit, Tacit and Sonit. Implicit knowledge management handles knowledge that is documented and unchanging in the organization. Explicit knowledge management handles knowledge that is documented and changing. Tacit knowledge management handles knowledge that is undocumented and unchanging. Sonit knowledge management handles knowledge that is undocumented and changing.

The Six Hats, Six Coats Framework does not use the metaphor of a factory for knowledge processing. Instead the framework uses a system lifecycle of induction and deduction. The system repeats, refines, records, reports, relates and revises input; and revises, relates, reports, records, refines and repeats output. Only during the relate phase is input or output knowledge.

The concept of knowledge claims, I found intriguing, but confused between what is meta-knowledge and what is knowledge. I could only conclude that a knowledge claim is really a meta-knowledge claim. Validation of references, knowledge, is protected by referential integrity. A meta-knowledge claim would be validated by a corroboration of exceptions.

The quality of meta-knowledge is a question of how well the relationships for the dimensions handle input and output. If the probability of no exceptions is high the quality of the meta-knowledge is high. A change in context is a change in interacting systems and will affect the quality of an entire system’s performance not just one of its dimensions or of only its knowledge.

Validation of a system is not only knowledge validation. Validation of Conduction, Regulation, Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom are all necessary excercises. Because no system is completely Implicit, Explicit, Tacit or Sonit there will always be room for normal and exceptional input and output that has not been accounted for.

Knowledge has intrapolative predictive capabilities. Wisdom has extrapolative predictive capabilities. From this course Knowledge Management appears to know little about systems at all.

The course also attempts to use the three layer ANSI model of World, Knowledge, Meta-Knowledge to describe itself. I have no problem with that. However, because of the poor definition of knowledge in the first place the author begins fantasizing about endless additional layers. I have only found there needs to be three layers in every case I’ve tested. There is the world, the referential and the relational layers.

The sixth lesson of the course talks about innovation as the goal of Knowledge Management. I beg to differ. Innovation is a completely different perspective in the Six Hats, Six Coats Framework. Innovation is the Green Hat, conceptualization perspective. Knowledge assists conceptualization, however conceptualization is concerned with the entities of each of the fact dimensions, not the relationships. Relationships are interpolative, they can only exist between entities that exist. Entities are extrapolative, they can come into existence out of nothing and do not depend upon relationships to exist.

As far as the seventh section, Metrics, goes there is ultimately a cost/benefit ratio. All other metrics are irrelevant if the cost/benefit is done correctly. Cost is the expenditure required to build each cell, each model, of the system framework down to the atomic level. Benefit is the profit gained from each manipulation of the system at the atomic level.

“Knowledge Transfer” is the ability of your system to induct another system and then deduct with a profitable outcome.

You don’t need a Knowledge Management Team. You need a System Modeling Team and the Six Hats, Six Coats Framework. “Everything is a system” holds up to scrutiny better than any knowledge management claim.

In my reading today I came across two great resources.

The first is the Business Process Modeling Institute.

“BPMinstitute.org is a peer-to-peer exchange for business process management professionals and is hosted by BrainStorm Group, a trusted source of unbiased information and education on BPM, Workflow and Integration related issues since 1997.

BPMinstitute.org has been established in response to the demand for education and peer exchange on all aspects surrounding business process computing.

By leveraging the collective genius of our members, industry Thought Leaders and experienced practitioners, we endeavor to expedite the adoption and implementation of business process management solutions and practices.

Our mission is to facilitate knowledge sharing amongst BPM professionals on a 365/24/7 basis, as well as providing insight to the latest development and advancements through real-world case studies.”

The second is Bruce Silver’s BPMS Watch blog.

“BPMS Watch is one analyst’s view of business process management software – the technology and products, the issues, emerging trends, and the seemingly aimless wanderings of the BPMS vendors. BPMS Watch is written by Bruce Silver, an independent industry analyst and consultant focused exclusively since 1994 on BPM and content management software.

The blog is intended to work at two levels. The first is analytical and opinionated: What is BPM, anyway? What are the forces, technological and economic, propelling it forward, and what are the forces, cultural and commerical, arrayed against it? Why are the standards so controversial and, to some, completely misguided? Most important, who’s doing really cool things right now that make a difference? The goal is thought leadership and spirited debate, mostly among current inhabitants of the still-small BPM blogosphere.

The second is education and advocacy, aimed at those trying to learn what BPM is all about, what goes into a BPMS, and how to pick the right one for their organization. That’s an audience I already speak to in my 2006 BPMS Report, my Brainstorm BPM and SOA conference presentations and training, my BPMS Watch column on BPMInstitute.org, my Change Agent column in Intelligent Enterprise, and numerous white papers on www.brsilver.com. The blog will try to engage those folks as well.”

The Zachman Framework states there are six focuses to any system. I have searched the web and have come up with white papers I feel best address each of these focuses. I also correlate them with my Six Coats metaphor:

Green Coat: Business Motivation Model from the Business Rules Group

Yellow Coat: Business Network Model (could not find an example)

White Coat: Business Data Model from Embarcadero Technologies

Black Coat: Business Process Model from the Business Process Management Initiative

Red Coat: Business Person Model from Cooper

Blue Coat: Business Event Model from IBM (Closest I could find)

Green Hatting in the Six Hats, Six Coats metaphor is about the conceptual perspective of a system.  Edward de Bono calls this the creative hat.

Green Hats take the feedback provided by the other five hats and look for the an opportunity to improve the quality of life, right a wrong or prevent the end of something good. In the Green Hat perspective designers evaluate goals, networks, data, processes, people and times that could, should or would exist. Green Hat conceptual design is used by the Yellow Hat contextual design team.

Like the other hats, the Green Hat is worn with each of the Six Coats. The basic question is what is the greatest benefit we can offer.

Green Hat, Green Coat: What is our meaning?

Green Hat, Yellow Coat: Why are we navigating?

Green Hat, White Coat: Why do we need data?

Green Hat, Black Coat: Why do we process?

Green Hat, Red Coat: Why are we personas?

Green Hat, Blue Coat: Why do we need convenience?

Green Hat also has a reverse purpose when variances occur in the transacting system. Green Hats decide how to handle a opportunity which is to insert a new product or service for the system to accomodate the exception. The buck stops here.

Yellow Hatting in the Six Hats, Six Coats metaphor is about the contextual perspective of a system.  Edward de Bono does not have a hat for this perspective.

Yellow Hats take the conceptual design provided by the Green Hats and look for the niche market. In the Yellow Hat perspective designers evaluate goals, networks, data, processes, people and times that require products or services within the conceptual domain. Yellow Hat contextual design is used by the White Hat logical design team.

Like the other hats, the Yellow Hat is worn with each of the Six Coats. The basic question is what is the most unique product or service we can make available within the conceptual domain.

Yellow Hat, Green Coat: What is our unique product or service mantra?

Yellow Hat, Yellow Coat: Where are we navigating?

Yellow Hat, White Coat: Where is our data?

Yellow Hat, Black Coat: Where are our processes?

Yellow Hat, Red Coat: Where are our personas?

Yellow Hat, Blue Coat: Where are we convenient?

Yellow Hat also has a reverse purpose when variances occur in the transacting system. Yellow Hats decide how to handle a deviation which is to select a new product or service for the system to accomodate the exception or to escalate it up to the Green Hats.

White Hatting in the Six Hats, Six Coats metaphor is about the logical perspective of a system.  Edward de Bono calls this the optimist’s hat.

White Hats take the contextual design provided by the Yellow Hats and exprore it to its full extent. In the White Hat perspective designers optimize goals, networks, data, processes, people and times to theoretical limits. White Hat logical design is used by the Black Hat physical design team.

Like the other hats, the White Hat is worn with each of the Six Coats. The basic question is what are the logical limits within the context.

White Hat, Green Coat: How do we achieve maximum value for the customer?

White Hat, Yellow Coat: What are we navigating?

White Hat, White Coat: What is our data?

White Hat, Black Coat: What are our processes?

White Hat, Red Coat: What are our personas?

White Hat, Blue Coat: What is our peak performance?

White Hat also has a reverse purpose when variances occur in the transacting system. White Hats decide how to handle a variance which is to alter the system to accomodate the exception or to escalate it up to the Yellow Hats.

Black Hatting in the Six Hats, Six Coats metaphor has is not primarily about security, although it could be included. Black Hatting is about the physical perspective of a system.  Edward de Bono calls it the pessimist’s hat.

In the Black Hat perspective engineers determine the economics of goals, networks, data, processes, people and times. As part of the economics they will choose goals, hardware, databases, software, personas and performance metrics and place constraints on the logical design created by the White Hats. Black Hat design is used by the Red Hat implementation team.

Like the other hats, the Black Hat is worn with each of the Six Coats. The basic question is what logic can we support economically and where do we cut back?:

Black Hat, Green Coat: What is our business model?  Margin.

Black Hat, Yellow Coat: How do we navigate?  Compromise.

Black Hat, White Coat: How is our data organized?  Denormalization.

Black Hat, Black Coat: How do we process? Deoptimize.

Black Hat, Red Coat: How do we serve our personas? Satisfice.

Black Hat, Blue Coat: How do we meet performance requirements? Juggle the other hats.

Basically, Black Hat is about taking the ideal system and bending and trimming it until it is a design that can be implemented with the resources economically available. Black Hat also has a reverse purpose when exceptions occur in the transacting system. Black Hats decide how to handle an exception which is to reject the exception or to escalate it up to the White Hats.

Black Hatting is not for the faint of heart. It involves negotiation with the White Hats and often having to settle for less than the best. However, as the resources represented by each of the Six Coats is democratized and made freely available, the Black Hat job is becoming increasingly simpler for websites. Of course, this is not the case for all systems.

No, this does not have anything to do with Linux. This is the Red Hat of the Six Hats, Six Coats metaphor. In the last post I discussed the Six Hats, Six Coats Blue Hat which has nothing to do with Microsoft. The Red Hat is about the closeness to the intuition of the user. It is about the implementation of your own system. What transactions are intuitive and what transactions are counter-intuitive.  I alternatively call this the Mechanical perspective, because it deals with the mechanism the Green Hat, Yellow Hat, White Hat and Black Hat end up creating.  Edward de Bono also calls this the intuition hat.

Red Hat, Green Coat: How do we lower the barriers to adoption?  Intuition.

Red Hat, Yellow Coat: Who navigates our site? How do you support each browser?

Red Hat, White Coat: Who accesses our data? What DDL and DML will you have to write?

Red Hat, Black Coat: Who uses our processes? What approach will be taken to coding?

Red Hat, Red Coat: Who are the personas we are serving? How do you achieve the site aesthetics?

Red Hat, Blue Coat: Who is setting our performance requirements? What can achieve your performance goals?

Each of these implementations has implications for your website design. It will impact the positioning and emphasis of each of your website’s elements as well as your website’s behavior when those elements are employed. It will affect the overall look and feel of the site. When you are working in the Red Hat perspective you are asking yourself, “How do I implement ‘business as usual’?” You will have dealt with all the possibilities in the White Hat perspective and all the probabilities in the Black Hat perspective. Anything that defies your user’s intuition will be escalated back up to the Black Hats as exceptions. If there is a trend in the exceptions it will be escalated up to the White Hats as a variance. If there is a trend to the variances it will be escalated to the Yellow Hats as a deviation. And if the deviation is great enough it will be brought to the Green Hats as an opportunity.

The Six Hats metaphor can be used for any system. I plan to branch out my examples over time.

Blue Hat in the Six Hats, Six Coats metaphor deals with convenience.  Blue Hat is the first impression your traffic gets–convenience of goals, networks, data, processes, people and times.  When it comes to the web, if any of these aspects of convenience are not met you are going to lose traffic before anything is captured by your website’s system.  Let’s look at each of these aspects in turn.  Edward de Bono calls this the data hat.

Blue Hat, Green Coat:  When are the the goals of the site clearly communicated.   This is the message your evangelists are getting out and getting out often.  Be it an SEO or a customer.

Blue Hat, Yellow Coat:  When is the site navigated?  If your audience is getting a garbled presentation on their browser, they are not going to stick around to figure it out.

Blue Hat, White Coat:  When is the data accessed?  Tables of data that obfuscate information through redundancy cause users eyes to glaze over and their index fingers to click the back button.

Blue Hat, Black Coat:  When are the processes activated?  Maintain a sense of orientation as any action is executed or the user will abort.

Blue Hat, Red Coat:  When do the personas use the site?  Don’t be innovative if your users are averse to innovation.

Blue Hat, Blue Coat: When is performance required?  If you are taking too long to load flash or dowload data and traffic is cutting and running it’s time to consider communicating in different formats or increasing bandwidth.

This is Blue Hat for a website.  Blue Hat metaphors are equally applicable in any system you are working with be it business, government, not-for-profits, media or technology.