Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab)

In the course of discussing OCAD's new DFI or digital futures 'major' I co-developed this list below. Its not meant to be definitive of anything yet -- since its pretty divergent, unwieldy, not actionable. My goal was not to say all these things are necessary to digital media education but to suggest that
 

1. Many familiar, inherited terms which may seem different are arguably convergent/closely related, e.g. physical/gestural/haptic etc
2. Likewise many inherited terms are so weighted toward form factor, that we may end up focusing on categories (like "mobile") at the expense of content/purpose or other important aspects.

So, FWIW:

Content / Hermeneutics / Dynamics / Purpose

• Media Studies / comparative / humanist / critical approaches / content analysis / semiotics / transmedia storytelling etc
• Network Theory  /  Social media systems (design practice) / Cooperation studies (e.g. Rheingold, Shirky)
• Convergence / Evolution / Singularity / Futures  (teleology / foresight)
• Entertainment (w/ varying levels of learning and/or interaction)
• Learning / education (Learner-centred)
• Knowledge media / decision support (work, travel, shopping, warfare)
• CSCW (computer supported cooperative work)
• Advertising / publicity / awareness / persuasive / captology

Form Factor / Interface / Embodiment

• Internet / Web as a channel / set of (evolving) technologies
• Ubiquitous / Ambient / Embedded / context aware computing
• Wearable / Mobile Technologies and Experience Design
• Physical / Sensory Computing (haptic and gestural interfaces)
• Electronic Arts /  Robotics  (sensors / actuators)
• Graphic Data Visualization / Digital Drawing+Painting  / Animation / HD / Cinema
• Fabrication / Rapid prototyping / POD (print on demand) / etc

Research / Creation Methods / Orientation / Criteria

• Human Computer Interaction / Ergonomics
• Human factors / User experience / Experiment / Prototyping
• Ethnography, observational methods
• Art / experiment / pure research
• Applied / innovation / commercialization / development / business models / IP
• Policy issues
• Standards / open / proprietary systems and models / Intellectual property

Comments welcome! Am I missing anything, getting it all wrong, killing it?