The Conceptualist

Design Thinking

I've always been fascinated by the way creative people can waltz into most business discussions and within moments identify the essence of the underlying problem that requires solving. They do, as Apple suggests, "think different." They realize that most problems have a crucial human dimension and so they serve as that human lens for the organization. And being that lens allows everyone around them to think different too. 

They emote, they empathize deeply, they have a holistic approach that others lack. Plus, they know how to nurture and build ideas during that fragile beginning stage.

In this video "Change By Design" author Tim Brown argues that design is much more than making something pretty. It's a way of thinking that allows any leader to convert problems into opportunities at every level of business, in any industry. He calls this new methodology “Design Thinking” and explains how it can transform your organization into a haven of innovation.

Enjoy!

Urban Farming In A Car, Urban Farming On A Barge

Sure, you can grow food on a farm. Anyone can pull that off. But how many people can grow food on a barge that floats in a really dirty river that runs near a city?

Actually, pretty much anyone who has a barge on a dirty river in a city, that would be my guess. So like 10 people probably.

Where does one buy a barge? I have no idea. Maybe you need to make your barge from old plywood and other floaty things. In any case, all you need is a place to put the soil. Some people grow food on their roofs. Others on their barges. And here's the video (buy local!)

Dishwasher Safe, Microwave Safe Re-Sealable Plastic Storage Bags

File this under, "Someone please invent this,": Dishwasher Safe, Microwave Safe Re-Sealable Plastic Storage Bags. It's not that hard.

Scientists have achieved the microwave part (though arguably unhealthy due to chemicals released into the food) and we've had dishwasher safe plastic forever. So the technology exists. Glad is not going to be the one to invent it, since it will essentially kill their core business of selling 300 un-reusable bags per box.

REDUCE AND RE-USE, BABY: Think of the environmental and budgetary benefits to this kind of a product. Think of all the landfill not being created, all the energy saved, all the sandwich, snack, and freezer bags you won't be buying.  Just turn it inside out and stick it in your dishwasher.

The two requirements would need to be:

1. No chemical leakage into the foods. This is a constant problem with plastics these days. 
2. Price point of no more than $1.50 per bag. 

Someone, please invent this.

Plastic, even the bottles you've recycled, never went away. Virtually every piece of plastic ever created still exists. So we should try and minimize the amount of plastic that we use. But as inventors we need to realize that society is only capable of baby steps.

This would be a baby step.

Newspaper Camp

My son Nick came up with a great idea the other day. He wanted us to create a newspaper called, "The Daily Household" about the goings on in our domicile. Nick, aged 7, would create the masthead and come up with the story ideas, my wife Kerri would take the photography, and I would write the stories. Luka, age 2, I have to assume would be in charge of distribution. 

Possible Headlines Could Include:

• Local Area Boy Claims Dad is, "Boring." 
• Toy Train Violence Numbers Spiral Out of Control
• Mom bakes macaroons...but will she share? 
• Poopy diaper clears room. Boy, 2, suddenly lonely.
• Mommy! Mommmyyyy! Moooooommmmmmy!

We got sidetracked. Didn't happen.

But before we did, I also came up with an extension of his idea that we both really liked. It would be NEWSPAPER CAMP. It would be a camp that taught kids the fine art of creating a newspaper.

• LOCATION: Housed in existing City Newspaper Building (in our case, the San Francisco Chronicle) because they've got oodles of extra space and need the money.
• CORE PROGRAM: Every week the students would create their own issue of a newspaper together. This includes deciding on a theme, creating the masthead, pitching story ideas, writing the stories, taking pictures, creating a media kit, making ads, and designing layouts. 
• FIELD TRIPS: Part of the week would include a field trip to, and tour of, the city newspaper's production facility, distribution facility, and newsroom. It could also include talks by the reporters, the drivers, the print produciton people, the advertising people, and even the editors.
• BONUS FOR THE PARENTS!: At the end of every week, the parents have a hard copy of what their kid did that week. Pretty cool.

The fine art of Newspaper making is dying and many people in my industry (media) would say good riddance. But something very important is dying with it that we should try to preserve or at least instill in our kids. And that is the art of journalism. The idea of reporting actual news in an unbiased way is sort of fading. And when it fades, our daily reminders of what journalism is supposed to be will be gone (sometimes I thin kthat they are already gone). And when the examples are gone, the perception of what a journalist is will change to something much closer to fluffer of facts. So when kids say that they want to be a journalist, they will be thinking of something different than what we think it is today. Journalism schools will eventually teach a skill that we today would call "Commentator," or "Bill O' Reilly," or "Ass Clown."

Keep the true art of journalism alive! Send your kids to Newspaper Camp!

Sarah Jones At TED

Changes in Population And What It Means?

One of the interesting trends in our society right now is how long people wait to have kids. The average age is 27 whereas it used to be in the early 20's. Where I live, this is especially pronounced. People here often wait until they are in their early 30's.

People are also having fewer kids on average and living an average of 20 years longer than they did 50 years ago.

What this must also mean:
1) Since average family sizes are smaller, they will be cruising through the child rearing years faster and getting back to their regular lives and personal hobbies.
2) People will spend less money on kids stuff than they once did. Colleges will see a sag in demand at some point in the not too distant future.
3) Since people are waiting longer to have kids, they are experiencing more of the world. Women, even if they eventually become home-makers, know more what it's like to work than ever before.
4) People know more what it's like to have a life of their own and their experiences are more varied.
5) They know more about what it's like to live by themselves or with roommates than adults before them.
6) As people are living longer, they will retire later (if they can). Who can afford to be unemployed for 20 years while demand for health care skyrockets every year?
7) New industries will pop up to service the relatively large aging population - likely to be fueled and staffed by aging entrepreneurs.
8) New kinds of businesses will pop up designed to take advantage of (part-time) contribution of aging workers.
9) With a relatively low ratio of young to old people, government funded social services for older people will either collapse or will take up a disproportionate amount of the overall federal budget - taking big chunks away from other important programs.

I think it's important to look ahead and consider these changes. There must be a way to focus on an assumption and develop a business model from that.

I saw dead people

The first dead person I ever saw was in the summer of 1988. I was home for the summer and I had invited my college buddy Fred Gast to my home in California to work for the summer and hang out. We lived in a small room with a bunk bed in a frat house in Berkeley and worked for a property management firm whose owner my dad knew in San Leandro.

One day, a Saturday, I think, we went to San Francisco on BART to hang out and look around. We didn't have any money and so that's about all we could afford to do. We got off the train at the Powell Street station and walked north.

It was the blood that I saw first. A stream of dark red running coming down the gutter. It seemed out of place there so I was staring at it. It also seemed like there was too much of it for it to be blood. "That can't be blood," I thought. Then we noticed the crowd. It was a fairly tight throng and we approached, curious. Some people peeled away and we found a space to see what had happened. There was the source of the dark red stream, lying face down on the ground right there on the sidewalk in front of us. The blood was coming from the head.

He was a big man. He could have been Samoan. Light brown skin. Next we noticed a woman, white with long brown hair, sobbing loudly at his side. Wailing really. Really loud wailing.  The position of the man's body on the ground was awkward. Like he was broken. It made me instantly assume that he had jumped from the 3 story building above.

There's two parts to this that have stuck with me all these years. The first is the scene that I just described. The second is what my friend did.

He walked away.

I don't know why, but that struck me as an odd reaction. I was riveted by the whole thing. I was busy taking everything in. I was absolutely fascinated by the scene. Yes, I was repelled. But I was engrossed at the same time. And it wasn't just the dead guy and the blood. It was the reaction of the people around us that held my attention. But Fred, he didn't want any part of it. It scared him. Or grossed him out. He couldn't stay. We didn't talk about it either. Ever.

I mean we just walked away and that was that. No discussion. But here I am, twenty one years later and the memory is still fresh in my head. Fred and I don't know each other any more. I wonder if he even thinks about that.

The memory does make me sad. But at the same time, there's something sweet about it that I can't quite put my finger on.

Good Different, Bad Different

Creativity is a difficult thing to define. And many people use that word when what they really mean is just different. But is "being different" the same as being creative? It's clear that you can't be creative without thinking differently. But can you be different without being creative?

I feel that there is a distinction there that needs to be made more clear.

Personally, I think that some things can be different, but uncreative. Things can be different in an accidental way or in a lazy, offhand way. They can be different because of a slightly altered process. It's a random thing. It happened, it's different, but it's not necessarily a good thing or a creative thing. It doesn't really add anything to this world except more clutter.

I think in order to be creative that there needs to be an active creator who has a vision and who brings that vision into existence. And further, I would like to add that the creative thing must feel like it is filling some void -  that the world was waiting for it to be. That it makes sense to exist, that it fills a purpose. That it makes you feel a connection to a higher consciousness.

So I ask you, when you are creating, are you trying to fill a void in the world or are you trying to add something to the world that people hopefully won't mind or might kinda like enough to be ok with it.

Another question, unrelated, would be do you think creativity is subjective?

Let's Switch Things Up

 Let's change our ways. Just for the hell of it.

Let's keep our mind more open to the opposing ideas of others. For someday, when other people are in power, those ideas could become national policy.

Let's hope that when we raise our voices while we're in the grocery store talking to our spouse on a cell phone, we realize that we were doing that thing we hate that others do.

Let's take the parking space as far away from the store as possible.

Let's cultivate the epiphanies. Or at least let's cultivate the quiet contemplative moments in which epiphanies are typically born.

Let's realize that we screwed up, instead of defending ourselves, and try to take some wisdom from the screw ups.

Let's realize that the thing that's bugging our spouse might be something that they aren't even aware of. Let's realize that it might just mean they need a hug.

Let's loosen up the restrictions on our kids every now and then, let them do something or eat something that's not good for them, and give them the unrestrained moment of glee that sends a tingle down their spines. They might actually learn something.

Let's give the man the finger.

Let's work on a holiday and then take a random day, call in sick, and create our own holiday that we celebrate every year. Pick a theme more deserving of a holiday than, say, Labor Day...like Hope Day or Change the World Day.

Let's not force the issue unless the issue requires force.

Let's glean a little wisdom from our elders, for pete's sake. It's not like you're the first person in the world to try and balance kids, work, marriage, friendships, and hobbies.

Let's find out what pete's sake really means. Let's have a "Buy Nothing" Day once a week.

Let's buy some days of the week underpants, just for the fuck of it.

Let's cultivate an impossible dream and actually not try to make it come true. Just so you can give your mind something to play with when it's not busy.

Let's dance like this guy...
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Creative Exercise: The Gross Game

Tonight my six year old son wanted me to play the gross game.

"What's the gross game?" I cautiously asked.

"It's where you say something that's gross and the other person has to say something that's grosser. If you win you get a point. The first person to get 50 points wins."

"The first person to get 15 points wins?" says I.

"FIFTY!" he shouted.

"Great. By the time one of us wins you'll be a third grader," I replied. The boy hardly registered my disdain and merely kicked us off by insisting that I go first.

Later I would discover that going first is like agreeing to lose the game because topping the last thing that was said was not that hard.

At any rate, I went first with a warm egg salad sandwich with ketchup. That's the one I used on Brian Armstrong Junior year in college when he was having trouble throwing up after drinking too much vodka. It worked on Brian. But my son was ready to top it NO problemo.

"A bloody eyeball coming out of someone's head with green pussy goo coming out too."

I had to give him that one.

I offered that, since he won, that he should start the next round. Sort of a make it/take it thing. He refused at first. But I persisted and eventually prevailed. He went first.

"A chunk of bloody brains with ants crawling on all over it and a cat licking it up," he said.

No problem, I thought.

"A bowl of chocolate ice cream with barf sauce, whole bloody toe nails that have just been ripped off someone's feet sprinkled on top, with snot drizzle, and a bloody eyeball on top."

And here is the problem with the two player version of this game: he thought he won and I thought I won. The reason I thought I won was that I hypothesized that starting with something innocuous, even desirable and delicious and then grossing it up would sicken the mind to a greater degree than just going straight disgusting. My next one, a hamburger made of cockroach guts, got an audible "Ewwwww!" from my opponent.

One of the things I noticed right away was that this was an invitation to concept. Much like when we play the open version of the game "Rock, Paper, Scissors" where you can come up with your own hand gestures and associated weapons and try to trump the other person's dreamed up idea/gesture combo. Both games are very creative and can go on and on. Both games suffer, though, from a lack of boundaries. Ultimately, the gross game becomes a twenty minute diatribe of gross things piled on top of gross things and it's just a game of who can talk the longest about gross things. The "Open" Rock Paper Scissors game usually ends with some sort of inter-galactic catastrophe that simply is the end all be all of hand gestures. For this reason, neither of them are games that you can play every day. But sometimes it is useful to challenge yourself to think in extremes. And in games of extremes, six year olds are worthy opponents.

Incidentally, the picture above is of a guy's brain that had become infested by maggots while he was still alive. Now that's friggin' gross.

The Importance of People At Work

With companies deciding who should stay and who should go, there is the danger of accidentally removing the very thing that made the company's brand and product/service attractive to customers in the first place. Often times, a company is propelled forward by the force of people's personalities and the social bonds that are formed at work. It's a team of people with a common purpose instead of a collection of employees with set responsibilities. People organize around a goal in a way that employees do not.

Witness this bit at Valleywag about the firing of a key designer at Yahoo!'s Flikr

Remove a key player, and the social bonds that keep their friends on the job weaken. Before you know it, you've got a group of employees collecting paychecks, not a team working for a goal. Bugs go unfixed; servers crash; the design becomes ugly; and users flee. This could well happen to Flickr. Back up your photos now!

If that happens, what it tells us is that the culture of Flickr was always illusory — one built on personal ties rather than more lasting devotion to a cause. If so, the notion of exporting it to Yahoo was a delusion. That's the problem with turning a community into a commodity: Take away the people, and you have nothing left.

Indeed. Take away the people and all you have left are employees. You won't be able to find anything wrong with the employees. They will do their jobs just fine. And slowly things will just sort of...fall...apart.

Marking a new era

The recent economic slowdown has some people wondering if it's a return to the great depression.

Those were some tough times, from what I understand. My grandfather, a Yugoslavian immigrant, ran a grocery store called "The Square Deal Market" in Oakland, California. People would come in and tell him that they didn't have any money, but could they have some groceries so that they could feed their families. He'd lend 'em a hand when he could by extending them a tab. Some people really struggled and they did what they had to do to survive. And it scarred people emotionally. But it also built character.

The thing about that is that it does tend to clarify things a little...doing what you have to do to survive I mean. Surviving through hard times can be a beautiful thing in that it strips away some of the pretenses and bullshit notions. People's true characters can shine through.

If this economic downturn does turn out to be severe, it will define our generation. I wonder, will it make us more honest? Will it bring us together as a nation? Will it be a catalyst for social changes?

Just the beginning of a thought here.

Music Video Bliss

This music video from Gnarls Barkley about a woman breaking up with a guy in a cafe was totally and completely mesmerizing. It blends realism, surrealism, and outright fantasy into this can't look/can't look away heart wrenching concoction. All to the haunting serenade of Garles' "Who goanna save my soul." Shivers.

Time for A New Declaration?

Declaration Of Independence Redux

UNITED STATES, September 22nd, 2008

WE THE PEOPLE of the United States of America have gotten lazy. Over the course of the past 231 years we have become distracted with our own individual pleasure or survival and allowed our grip on democracy to loosen. Now it is money that drives the country. Not us. The tools of manipulation and power have evolved and permeated our political system and culture to such an extent that we cannot make an informed decision about anything.

Spin doctors and corporations make the decisions with the consent of the people - but not the informed consent.  For citizens with a vote, the truth of any matter can no longer be ascertained and, therefore, voted upon with any degree of accuracy. Americans have grown accustomed to a detestable porridge of duty and lies with sugar on top– leaving them satisfied…but ignorant.

Since there is no informed consent of the governed, the power that our elected officials currently wield is illegitimate.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal regardless of class, ethnicity, education, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability, or opinion. Apparently, we simply can’t be clear enough about that. That they are endowed by their Creator, whichever creator they believe in, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are never to be prioritized below what is perceived to be or claimed to be the common good. Period.

Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive and/or starts to overstep its bounds, it is the Duty of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation and organizing its powers to seem most likely to effect their Safety, Happiness, and Well-Being.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses, lies and usurpations reveals a pattern designed to reduce them under despotism cloaked in righteousness, it is their right and duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of the American people; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present two-party system is mixed at best. Lately it's been one of repeated injuries, abuses of power, deceit, and usurpations, all having the direct establishment of a sort of soft Tyranny over the people. A tyranny of manipulation that leads, it seems, down a dark path into the unknown.

America's Second Chance?

America has come a long way since 1776.  Total population at the time that the constitution was ratified was a little over 2.5 million. Now it's 300 million. That means 54% of the total number of Americans who have EVER LIVED (558 million) are alive right now!  This has put a gazillion tons of stress on our resources, our environment, our healthcare system, and our education system. In addition, our economy has developed and we have had 230 some odd years to explore the framework. To a large degree, the framework is still an excellent one. But in some ways, it is failing us.

The poor people, you see, get nothing but fucked here in America. The healthcare and educations systems are dead-men walking. The two-party system is totally cancerous. Corporate America is running the show. Civic-minded politicians are long gone from Washington and nobody is being held accountable. These are all generalizations, I admit, but they are widely held and well-supported beliefs, too.

It's very hard to change a country. But I'd hate to see America become a second-rate country when it has at its disposal the very tool it needs to adapt. The framers were smart enough to make the constitution flexible. You can amend it. And there's a whole system of checks and balances that we can use (not using them now, but we could). We can empower the governmental oversight organizations like the EPA, FDA, AND FAA instead of neutering them (which is what's happened). We can stop the military industrial complex and put that money to education and healthcare.

At some point, this country will need to change in order to survive.

Just putting it out there. 

Urban Fishing

As I'm sure you are aware, humans have overfished the oceans, lakes, and rivers on this planet. Now some people are turning to the cities for their fish. Wha? 

That's right, you can grow fish locally in small batches and use edible plant life to consume the fishy's poop and help keep the water clean for them. It's a win win win win. Well, the fish don't technically win. It actually sucks for them. But humans do win.

There's actually a course offered by Cornell that will teach you how to do this. The only part I don't quite get is how you make enough money on the fish and plant food to pay the city rents. Maybe you have to live in Detroit. They don't cover that in this video from Good Magazine. But it's a neat video nonetheless.

Photo Gallery at Urban Aquaculture Center

Advertising needs a new name

Each week I look around the advertising world, it feels a step closer to something different than advertising. Something bigger and more ambiguous. And rather than being frustrated by the change and the half-baked nature of it all, it's the one thing that keeps me in the business. 

I'm part of a generation of people who gets to dream it all up.

Instead of starting with a set list of things that "they do" and selling them to clients, agencies now start with the idea and figure out all of the places that idea can/should go. It doesn't all culminate in a Superbowl :30 or even a You Tube video. It's not a menu like this one from an "Interactive" agency I worked for in 2005.

Original concept Animated GIF banners $5,045
Flash banners with GIF backup $6,585

Flash banner copy change/resize $985
Rich media banners $7,270
HTML E-mail $6,243
Micro-sites (less than 5 pages) $30,780
Micro-sites (5-10 pages)* $39,500

Here's the kind of thing it does culminate in:

FROM AGENCY "LOCAL THEORY" 

"McCann approached us about launching a program for Intel allowing users to upload pictures onto the Reuters billboard in Times Square. We built the website and developed custom software that linked mobile devices to the billboard and website. Each picture uploaded to the billboard was displayed several times throughout the course of the campaign. Users loved that whenever their photo was displayed, a camera across the street from the billboard took a snapshot and encoded it with the users mobile phone number. They could then log in to multiplyyourself.com and find a picture of their picture (tres postmodern)! Viral tools allowed users to forward the photos to friends, make comments, and upload new images for posting. In addition to creating a PR goldmine, the true success story is that the public had a seamless experience from billboard, to mobile, to web."

The agency created a site, built the software, and coordinated the technological hand-off between mobile, Times Square, and the Web. I challenge anyone to find that same type of service on another agency's website.

Some agencies say that they start with the client's business problem, whatever it may be. Starting there allows them to play in all kinds of interesting places:  Product design, software, widgets, apps, ring tones, music, music videos, promotions, public relations, content creation, syndication, integration, and even their own YouTube stations (I'd have said channels, but stations rhymed). That also means that agencies aren't agencies as we once knew them. They are tribes of people who solve problems creatively. Naw, that's too generic. They are people who tell stories through media outlets and technology as their vehicles. Naw, that's not quite it either.

How would you describe it? 

I'll leave you with a little entertaining video done by agency Mekanism for Zune. It's 1:17, not :60 or :30.

Good Chemistry Teachers

I had this chemistry instructor in High School who sucked eggs. Short, squat, and ugly, Mrs. Phillips waddled around the classroom babbling over our heads - almost taunting us with her superior knowledge of the subject. I learned more from a package of pop-rocks than I did from her. I even had a tutor.

I think this little video here taught me more than I learned all that year from her.

People are dressed up wearing an element on their shirt and behaving in ways consistent with that element. Brilliantly memorable. If only more teachers found creative ways like this to teach their kids instead of always relying on the damn textbook.

Also, I think I have an issue with those words instructor and professor. Neither of those words puts any onus on the person to deliver the information in ways that can be readily absorbed.  You can't fuse boron and magnesium. Or...wait...can you?

Teacher. Now that's a word that depends on the end result for its meaning.

I Coulda Had Something Better Than V8

I received a juicer for Christmas from my parents three years ago. It's had a prominent place in our kitchen ever since. I'm a huge juicer. HUGE. It's fun to experiment with different vegetables, combinations of fruits and vegetables, and apportionment thereof. There's really no end to the mixing.

I found that a small hit of ginger can make a mediocre juice quite good. I found that half a lime (peel included) can liven up just about any juice. I learned that while parsnips contain lots of juice, they taste like battery acid. I discovered that you should never drink pear and beet juice and then go on a long drive. Don't ask.

Tell me though, when's the last time you saw a vegetable juice or veggie/fruit blend being sold in the grocery store? Pretty rare, huh? You're probably thinking V8. That's about the only one. It's true. I looked many times. Odwalla and Naked juice companies sell fruit only juices (some with Wheat Grass).

What if we started a veggie juice company? And what about an angle that some of the proceeds go to programs that set up organic gardens in public schools? We could make the flavors fun and the juices would be delicious and very healthy. We could have a whole line geared toward kids (kids will eat their vegetables if they get to drink it and it tastes good.)

Tomato Tornado: Tomatoes, Carrots, Celery, Apple, Lime.
Green Machine : Cucumber, Pear, Celery, Cilantro, Parsley
Red Barron: Beets, Blood Orange, Mango, LIme

Make the packaging super-fun and I swear people will buy it.

We could call it V9.

Pond Scum Moves Up In The World

Algae is a pretty fascinating thing. Not only can it be used for food...it can be used for fuel too. It can also be used for lowering the Co2 in the atmosphere. That's right, the fuel of the future might just be green in every respect.

A company in El Paso, Texas called Valcent Products has created a fascinating little algae farm. The farm they have constructed is this kind of open air beehive looking thing that has strings of connected bags filled with algae water (known as photobioreactors). You can take a tour of it here:

It turns out these little tiny suckers are hornier than a Catholic priest. Well, some of them are asexual actually (or married to God, perhaps?). But some of them are screwing faster than a hot tub party in Malibu and alternative energy buffs aren't the only ones turned on. Anyone who's paying $4.75 a gallon at the pump for the stuff Exxon drilled out of the ground whilst destroying the planet is likely to perk up at the idea that we can someday have an alternative - and a green one at that.

Chevron, Honeywell, and Boeing are starting algae businesses, too. The Pentagon's funding research for heaven's sakes.   

Ironically, the oil we're being blackmailed for now used to be algae a long long time ago. It seems logical that we would turn to algae again to see if we can turn it into a permanently renewing source of earth-friendly energy.

I'm optimistic.

Algae can grow anywhere as long as we manage the conditions. It can live in salt water, of which we have plenty. It consumes carbon, of which we obviously have far too much. It can gobble up pollutants from sewage and power plants. It has a higher petroleum yield than any other bio-feedstock (5000 to 20000 gallons of oil per acre).

The big questions left to answer are 1) when and, 2) how much will it cost?