I was just curious if any of the other "first 25" commenters had heard anything about the prize... I was ecstatic to find that my comment snuck in at #24, and as such I can't wait to go out and spread the word about social design (and GOOD magazine) in my spiffy new Allumonde ring and GOOD t-shirt.

The 25th comment was made about three weeks ago, and I definiteyl registered with the right email address, so I just wanted to check back and make sure I didn't miss anything...

It would be pretty sweet if us commenters were sporting our Design21 ring and GOOD shirts this June when Design21's website goes fully functional.

Well, that and I just gotta have a GOOD t-shirt. That's just effing cool.

Well... that said, I'm really glad this discussion has continued past 25 comments. It's interesting to see all of the different ideas about just what constitutes "social design."

Now, if only we could translate this discussion into some sort of concrete practice within the realm of graphic arts... that would be cool. Doing social design about what we think it means to do social design.

A question that, through its very consitution, perpetually answers itself yet remains open to further dialogue...

That, my friends, is the essence of social design. Post-modern graphic design has taken the first steps, in its assumption that the conscious activity of the reader is necessary to consitute meaning in design; reading is interpretation is a creative act.

But now technology has made it possible to break down further remaining barriers, such that the paradigm of graphic arts as one-way, broadcast media, created by a designer for a reader, audience, etc., is no longer the only possibility. What blogging has done for journalism, we can do for design. We're doing now it with electronic and print design, but this is only the the very beginning, the prehistory of social design. With microfactories just around the corner, anything that can be designed, from furniture to jewelry to electronic devices, can be devloped like an open-source software project; working together, we will collaboratively work through the process of conception, design, engineering, testing, and production, and sharing the design data will allow anyone anywhere to produce whatever we have designed.

Today, we are ALL designers!