Open Architecture Network

I typically don't try to post this early as my head is all cobwebby and I am usually trying to get my morning jumpstarted but I have been waiting for this launch for a while now and wanted to spread the news as soon as I could.

Yesterday marked the launch of The Open Architecture Network (beta), an online community of designers sharing ideas and projects in order to further ideas and solutions for the myriad of community, living, health, sustainability, etc issues that face our growing population and still maintain some control of intellectual property that open dissemination and sharing appears to conflict with.

OAN is a project of Architecture for Humanity and shares the same encompassing goal of "designing like you give a damn", something that should be required reading for every sophomore design school studio class.

OAN is also made possible by TED (the 2007 conference was where the launch was first unveiled), Sun Microsystems, Hot Studio, Creative Commons, AMD and others.

This open network of designers will hopefully allow a broader view of the world to take place, create a model of discussion for disparate regions to find common ground and help designers and community members realize that they don't have to exist within a vacuum.

I just get all excited by the slogan too. "Improving living standards through collaborative design." Woooooo.