The current working title is Multifunctional Magic Box.

The intention of the Magic Box is a design concept for modular, versatile, storage boxes that can be transformed different forms for an office or domestic environment, such as desk bases, stools, and seats. These boxes will be utilizing recycled materials from the Beijing area, primarily utilizing used and discarded timber from transport crates. Benefits of the design intention of this concept is that the outcome will produce strategies for creating inexpensive, easy to make furniture with a low embodied energy.

The Open House, on the 16^th of June, shall present Magic Box prototypes and demonstrate the creative process of reusing recycled materials to create ecologically sustainable furniture.

This blog will be a record of the creative process we employed to design and create this furniture. So, please, ‘watch this space, it will change’.

Monday, May 21:
Electric Dragon 80.000 V (Drama/ Fantasy/ Sci-fi) 2001
Death Powder (Sci-fi/ Horror) 1986
Burst City (Punk Rock Musical/ Action) 1982

It is most likely that I would be there, and see whether I could stomach a triple header on Monday night, It will certainly be an entertaining experiment!
A free party/ movie night for everyone to attend, spread the word!

Screening starting at 21:00 weekly at a cozy bar and independent music venue “Cangku Bar”, 10 Baochao Hutong Gulou East Street.

I did recommend to her, as to everyone interested in the historical development of intellectual property in China, William Alford’s book “To Steal a Book Is an Elegant Offense: Intellectual Property Law in Chinese Civilization.   http://bit.ly/IQlW6S  Also, to get a US view of the issue, I suggested Michael Carrier’s “Innovation for the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law” http://bit.ly/JpFPWY

Given my own sense that the IPR regime is not really working to encourage individual innovation (maybe having the opposite effect), my discussion with Anna, of course, turned to how we’re encouraging innovation here at Yuanfen~Flow through creating a platform that nurtures the Creative Process and encouraging innovators (artists, geeks, designers and entrepreneurs) to record, track and that process – including failures.  My view is that you’re creating what we still call in the law a “paper trail” (although it’s now mostly in electronic form) that, at some point, may have evidentiary value.  More importantly, it can be helpful both internally, in your team, as well as externally,  to researchers and others, in understanding the Creative Process, its influences and maybe even that elusive “inspiration”/ “afflatus”.

Inventors, thinkers and tech junkies of all stripes can get their fix and indulge their creative spirit at the 2012 Maker Carnival. The Carnival is China’s first global mass creation and open-source technology fair.

Yuanfen~Flow’s David Ben Kay, who served as a key note speaker at the carnival expressed his opinions regarding the current intellectual property system, and the reasons for his and other makers dissatisfaction with it.

 The current system has led to the monopoly of big corporations, and individuals are too weak to compete with them. The best way for makers to protect their own rights is to record the development process in detail.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Wang Shenglin the main organizer of the carnival

The flow of knowledge has been prevented, and we makers who create together need a more flexible system.

Read the full article for further insights and makers views during the carnival.

Voodoo Kungfu incorporates mystical Eastern Asian folklores into black metal, doom, sludge, industrial and the Mongolian stringed instrument “Horsehead Cello”. For the last time, they will scream of gods and demons upon the live stage altar. Why are they breaking up? Not because the frontman Li Nan is running away on another pagan quest, this time he will be studying at Berklee College of Music in the US.

Media claims that Li Nan will have numbers of the show’s audience tattoed on the set! It would be typical to have already suspected the tripple digits, you know what I mean. Anyway, let’s keep it really metal!

150 RMB (120 RMB presale), 8:00 PM, Mao Live House

Chinese companies and entrepreneurs aim to do more than copy well, and as they become more independent and innovative, the discussion surrounding intellectual property law and technology protection becomes more relevant and prominent.

A recent Britcham (British Chamber of Commerce in China) China Tech Event brought these issues to the forefront, giving stage to different speakers and their different points of view on the matter.

Matthew Townsend, an Asia-focused arbitration and ADR specialist experienced in technology-related disputes, talked about protecting technology in China and the role of international arbitration.

Benjamin Qiu, a senior Counsel and Fund Manager for Innovation Works, who recently published the article  “Intellectual property in China - Still murky” in the Economist, talked about IP and entrepreneurship in the new Chinese economy.

One the main points he made was that despite the fact that in many cases founders find building an IP portfolio challenging, due to lack of experience, resources and the fast development of the start-up, still,

It is increasingly important to build and to protect the portfolio, because it relates to the valuation of the company, especially in view of what is happening in the Silicon Valley and the maturing IPR market in China.

Yuanfen~Flow’s David Ben Kay spoke about the current state of intellectual property law, what it had originally intended to encourage, and what it has become today.

 The existing intellectual property system is seriously flawed, and in need of overhauling for it to fulfill its intended purpose of encouraging innovation.  In its current form, its particularly weighted in favor of corporations and against individual or small-group entrepreneurial inventors.

So, what needs to change in order to encourage innovation? it seems the law does, but as that is going to take a while, this is the advice Yuanfen~Flow offers to the start-ups out there in China and around the world today…

• Pay attention to compliance and governance issues, it will enure to your benefit when investors and the market evaluate the company.
• Record your own Creative Process every step of the way.
• Be aware of and address both intrinsic emotions and values (I’m going to change the world.) As well as extrinsic factors (working environment) that motivate innovation and build those into your company’s DNA from the git-go.

But lo and behold in wonderful coordination, the works ended with the first breath of spring, just in time for our first post renovation event – The JUE Festival Opening Market which took place on a rare clear and sunny Saturday.

It’s true the JUE festival with all it’s eclectic excitement and music is behind us, and new music festivals (Such as the Strawberry and MIDI festivals) are around the corner, but we wanted to share with you the photographic memories from that day, when so many people interested in music, art, environment, cycling, hand-crafts and even body painting came together and created an awesome flow of energy in our space.

Different styles of music played throughout the day, and among the live shows performing on our high-end glass stage, was the lead singer from “Skip Skip Ben Ben” the warm up band for “Death Cab For Cutie” in Beijing.

 And did I mention there was a body painting workshop?

The JUE market was only the opening shot, the first of many creative events planned to take place in the renovated space of flow and serendipity. You’re welcome to stay in touch, and keep up with our events and the ways you can become a part of our activities as well.

After four years running a gallery, Mr. Kay was ready for a new challenge.

“I said to my friends, Yuanfen is cool, it’s serendipity, but it’s not enough to really get things done,” he said. “It has to…make something into a productive activity that really changes the world.”

He expanded the gallery by gutting the old space to create three levels of open office areas, with glass floors and open staircases that lead up to a third-floor “cloud” for projects that are close to fruition.

Read the full article here - Fostering China’s Creative Entrepreneurs

Even the JUE festival started here! More on that coming soon…

“Yuanfen Flow is a co-working space based in 798, Beijing. Catering towards the needs of both emerging and established artists, designers, technologists and entrepreneurs…”

Here at Yuanfen~Flow, we have been getting a lot of questions regarding the recent Google updates,and their possible effect on the performance of our start-ups. Although the panda update is several months gone. Google has since released several more updates of equal size.

Here is how we broke down the effects of the panda update for our start-ups. and our advice for long-term search engine visibility.

1. Build links naturally

Whenever someone posts a link to your website on a different webpage, a link has been built between your site and the site that created that link. Google and the other search engines use this as a primary metric in determining how a site will rank. The logic is sound, if someone spends the time to recommend your site through a link, there is a good chance that you are providing value.

The best way to build these links is to comment often on other blogs, and provide relevant links that will enhance the value of your own site.  Commenting on blogs is time-consuming, and few readers will take the time to visit your web page. But the small number of bloggers do could have a huge impact on traffic to your site and as a result, your search position.

This is a simple but effective way to build links naturally, there are countless ways to build incoming links from launching free information products to creating info graphics and working professionally with influential bloggers.

For more advanced link building ideas, check out Neil Patel’s blog QuickSprout

2. Keep a Quick, Clean, Relevant website.

Ensure that your website’s back end is well kept. Consider independent hosting through word press or hiring a top web developer to ensure Google can quickly crawl your pages. Ensure that your pages are loading quickly for readers.

Keep your landing page simple, avoid pop ups, repetitious wording, or other spam like messaging on your site. Google tends to rank these pages lower.

Keep your content updated, with simple navigability

3.Build your business, and the rankings will come.

The most important one can raise their rankings is to improve their real business. Google is really smart, and can tell a natural website from a content farm. Quite frankly, internet marketing.optimization is pretty easy! much easier that building a valuable business. Google knows this, and the panda update is Google’s way of telling websites to improve their content instead of gaming the system.The sites that were most greatly hurt in the panda update were those that spend too much time/money on over optimizing and too little on their core businesses (if they even had any)