The NET website is part of a transmedia publication that includes a book, a poster, and web-enabled cell phones. The URLs in this section and in the studio section correspond to titles of essays in the book and in many cases have a direct connection to the book’s content.

words
A tool to explore the vocabulary of the new ecology of things as an introduction to the theoretical terrain.

things
A bibliography of thingness.

models
A discussion forum and conceptual framework for designers and technologists who wish to make meaningful interactions in the info-saturated networked world.

stages
A bibliography of related histories.

users
A few simple questions about talking shoes and social networking.

program
The future of design through the eyes of the Graduate Media Design Program

pub
An overview of the transmedia publication and the relationship between its parts.

The point of origin: in 2006, Bruce Sterling (the MDP’s visionary-in-residence), Phil van Allen and Nik Hafermaas, taught the NET Studio using Sterling’s Shaping Things as its departure point. The class was sponsored by Sun Microsystems Labs and used an alpha-version of Sun SPOTs – micro-scale networked computers. The students designed working prototypes and playful scenarios to generate dynamic articulations of the future.

studio
Videos of Bruce Sterling pontificating and other classroom highlights.

sponsor
The Media Design Program gives critical feedback on alpha version technologies for a range of sponsors. MDP students use design and imagination to bring pre-market devices to life. In exchange, the MDP gets hands-on experience with near future possibilities.

trials
Pedagogical responses to the New Ecology of Things from around the world.

projects
An array of new projects provoked by the New Ecology of Things.

display
An unconventional portfolio of student projects from the studio course. The display is the “live” version of the NET book jacket/poster.