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yourowndemocracy

yourowndemocracy is a concept project that proposes a real-time voter sentiment feedback-loop platform merging social networking, direct political engagement, and the design of electronic market exchanges to create a modern online platform for participatory democracy. 

2008 Buckminster Fuller Institute Challenge Submission

Original GONGBLOG post about YOD with comments

YOD Makes BFI's FIRST CUT!

YOD one of 33 Finalists!

 

snapshots

Me and Waylon at home

 

The amazing Cusp Conference in Chicago used YOD graphics for signage and program books. Awesome.

 

Me and Willow at the Children's Museum in Seattle in the Vietnam exhibit.

 

A precious locket that I wear sometimes of my beautiful dogs Juliette and Annie, who passed away in 2007 and 2008. I really miss them.

 

Willow on our family holiday on gorgeous Long Beach on Vancouver Island near Tofino. Here's a video that will calm your stressed-out souls waaaay down: "Zen and the Art of Slowness".

 

Standing in front of The Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger's office at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.

 

Willow at Yoberri Park in Santa Fe where we often share a frozen yogurt treat together.

 

Bonnie and Willow on the carousel at the Pumpkin Festival at the Santa Fe Horse Park.

 

Me at the Smithosonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC, paying homage to Paul MacCready's human-powered Gossamer Condor that won the Kremer Prize in 1977. I was only 10 years old at the time, but it left a powerful life-long impression on me, about the ingenious things you can do with very, very little. Look up close, it's just Saran Wrap, PVC pipe, and a helluva lot of clear tape. May Dr. MacCready, one of my greatest heroes of all time, rest in peace. (And, to boot, MacCready's company AeroVironment (NASD: AVAV) is one of the best performing stocks in my portfolio. Black-sheep thinkers rule.)

 

 

about gong szeto

Gong Szeto, 42, is an internationally recognized designer, who recently served as the Director of Design and Product Design at PEAK6 Investments, LP, a proprietary equity options trading firm, hedge fund, and new financial services business incubator. He recently designed OptionsHouse, a next-generation retail equity options brokerage, garnering top in category in design and usability in Barron's in 2008 and 2009. He was formerly Chief Creative Officer of publicly traded Rare Medium, Inc. and Creative Partner at i/o 360 digital design, inc. in New York City.

His clients have included Sony Corporation of America, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, XM Radio, USA Networks, The New York Times, ThompsonReuters, Dow Jones and Company, Microsoft, Nikkei, Fujitsu, Shiseido, Viacom, Barnes and Noble, Sotheby's, Compaq, Cablevision, and First Data Corporation.

Gong has lectured world-wide, and is a recipient of numerous awards from The Art Director's Club, American Center of Design, Net Tech, CASIE, and was included in I.D. Magazine's ID40 Top Forty Innovators in the U.S. and Europe in 1996. He has work in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt Museum.

He is a career-entrepreneur, most recently launching the OptionsHouse retail brokerage with PEAK6, and co-developing the Moon Units Live/Work urban infill development in Austin, TX as Partner at Szeto Brothers Ventures, Inc. He holds a U.S. Patent in on-demand interactive advertising in digital television, co-invented with Sony Corporation of America.

He has served on the National Boards of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Van Alen Institute for Public Architecture. He received a B.Arch ('91) in Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and Planning, and has studied Business, Finance, Economics, and Intellectual Property Law at NYU Stern School of Management Extension School, and Harvard Business School Executive Education Program.

Born in Hong Kong, dwelled in Massachusetts, Alabama, Texas, Illinois and New York, he currently lives in Santa Fe, NM with his wife Bonnie Schwartz, daughter Willow Lin, dogs Waylon (lab mix) and Bailey (pit bull mix), and horse Rubiyat (dutch warmblood/oldenburg).

His current preoccupation is exploring how humanistic needs-centered innovation can resolve dangerous information asymmetries and skewed power dynamics in politics, democracy, governance, the economy, and global finance.

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public realm


- 2009

Invited Attendee, AIGA/Winterhouse Institute Aspen Design Summit (upcoming)

Speaker, TEDxTamaya (upcoming)

Speaker, Cusp Conference, Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, "Is Democracy a Design Problem?"

Attendee, Stupski Foundation National Education Innovation Summit, Albuquerque

Attendee, OVERLAP09, Monterrey, Design for Emergence

Keynote Speaker, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, GradEx Gala

Speaker, OCAD/Strategic Innovation Lab/Torch Partnership, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, "Design as Derivative: Weapons of Mass Disruption"

Attendee, OCAD/Strategic Innovation Lab, Situate.us Summit, Toronto

Live Radio Interview, "Design Matters with Debbie Millman", New York City

Co-Presenter, Finovate09 Conference on Financial Startups, New York City, "WeSeed.com"

Presenter, The Open Planning Project, New York City, "YourOwnDemocracy"

Video Interview, Sunlight Foundation's Transparency Camp, Washington DC, "Why are you attending Transparency Camp?"

Presenter, Sunlight Foundation's Transparency Camp, Washington DC, "YourOwnDemocracy"

Award, Barron's Annual Roundup of Top Online Brokers - OptionsHouse, 4-1/2 stars


- 2008

Judge, AIGA New Mexico Showdown

Feature Interview, Archinect.com, "Working out of the Box: Gong Szeto, Architect-turned-Information Designer"

Article, TechPresident.org, "YourOwnDemocracy"

Feature, DesignObserver.com, "Dogs and Their Designers"

Contributor, DesignObserver.com, "Interview with Brian Oakes of I.O.U.S.A."

Contributor, DesignObserver.com, "Lehman's Bankruptcy Statement"

Award, Barron's Annual Roundup of Top Online Brokers - OptionsHouse, 4-1/2 stars

Article, I.D. Magazine/Businessweek, "That's The Ticker"

Interview, UsableMarkets.com, "Interview: Gong Szeto of OptionsHouse"

 

- Past

Attendee, GAIN Conference, Minneapolis

Panelist, Seybold, New York City, "Online Selling: SIG Panel, Design Track"

Speaker, Play: Doors of Perception 5, Amsterdam, "The Interface Designer's Burden"

Attendee, AIGA Advance for Design, Nantucket & Santa Fe

Presenter/Panelist, AIGA/UDA Design Series, New York City, "Creating Effective User Experiences: From Whiteboard to Website Panel"

Presenter/Panelist, Macworld, San Francisco, "My Info to Go: The New York Today Website, A Case Study: Future of the Web Panel"

Presenter, Seybold, New York City, "Future Interfaces for the Web and Beyond"

Presenter, Milia, Cannes, "Parasite Email Technology"

Presenter, Seybold Seminars, Boston, "Interface Technology"

Presenter, AIGA National Conference, New Orleans, "On Interface Design and the Web"

Presenter, Doors on Tour, Netherlands Design Institute, Amsterdam, "Interaction Design Workshops: Push Technology"

Presenter, Magazine Publishers of America Conference, New York City, "i/o 360 digital design, inc. Projects"

Speaker, Signs of Trouble, Vienna, "i/o 360 digital design"

Mention, "What Huiping Enjoyed about UI10" (Jared Spool calls Gong Szeto a "chicken-sexer")

 

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