I am an Apple Computer alumnus and Silicon Valley veteran. I consider myself at the vanguard of a new wave of talented professionals from places like Apple, Pixar, and other elite, visionary companies whose skillset spans design and technology.

I recently returned to the United States after eight years in Scandinavia where I lectured, and was involved in Internet, open source, and mobile wireless projects. I am currently looking for a strategic design position in the design industry.

As I research the design industry landscape I notice something odd: someone forgot to tell design firms how to fully leverage the Internet platform.

For example, try and find an RSS feed at IDEO, Davos 2006 attendee, and Business Week poster child for all things innovative. No luck? How about a weblog? Nuthin? Well surely they at least have a web page listing podcasts of David Kelley’s most inspirational talks. Nope? Well that can’t be good…

For context, When Thomas Friedman says The World is Flat, the Internet is the infrastructure supporting that flattening. The protocols of the supply chain of this flattened world are Internet protocols. The bricks, mortar, and plumbing currently being used to rearchitect Fortune 500 internal processes are Internet protocols.

So what? So, that means previously opaque processes and workflows are now transparent. This enables entirely new conceptualizations of product experience from ideation to recycling dump. Our first glimpse of the possibilities comes from the work of high tech of course. For example take a look at the DIY (do it yourself) capabilities for PC and notebook configuration at dell.com.

I don’t see how a design firm can properly advise clients on innovation strategy without understanding how to leverage this sea change and roll it into a comprehensive strategic solution. Sorry, branded Flash-powered websites don’t count.

Geoffrey Moore’s weblog entry on the surprisingly limited scope of innovation at IDEO is instructive.

Here’s an illustrative story that should help show how products, services, marketing, and media are all deeply affected by the Internet. Note, it is important here to understand the difference between the Internet platform (Google API, Web Services, SOA, RSS, HTTP, SMTP, WSDL, etc) and the suite of applications running atop that platform (Website, Blog, Skype, IM, Email).

Most design firms (and the public as well) only understand the Internet’s usefulness through the more limited lens of Internet applications. I believe this is the root of the design industry’s problems.

Let’s go back five years into the past. Karen in San Francisco goes out to Target and buys a toaster designed by a hot designer. One morning she cuts a thick slice of bread and plunks it in hre snazzy new toaster. Because of the toast’s thickness it fails to pop-up and begins to burn. Karen tries frantically to press the eject button but it does nothing. She tries lifting the lever to raise the bread but the handle falls off. Finally, she unplugs the toaster, fishes the shard of carbon out of the toaster with a fork, and throws it in the garbage. Sitting alone, surrounded by a rising pall of blue smoke and muttering to the kitchen wall about shoddy construction and poor design she vows to never buy that toaster model again.

Let’s return to the present. After chucking the toast in the garbage, Karen visits one of a dozen product review weblogs and vents her anger. The issue mushrooms, and circulates the blogosphere. David Pogue of the New York Times notices and writes an article on bad product design. Suddenly Target has a serious PR problem on its hands. The designer in question has her reputation damaged. Sales plummet. Heads roll.

Let’s go forward five years into the future. A hot young Malaysian company sets up a website, weblog, wiki, IM channel, and podcast repository. This collection of technologies represents a “clean well light” space for the public to enter, congregate, and engage with the toaster product and brand. The company has its act together. They use a variant of the Dell model of tight supply chain control combined with customer-facing DIY (do it yourself) capabilities. They make use of the logistics services of UPS to out-source non-core parts of the supply-chain infrastructure. The companies marcom folks do limited selective messaging in traditional media. The buzz builds. In key coolhunting and trendspotting markets such as New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Amsterdam, and London short lived “popup” stores appear for one month displaying dozens of model variants which are sold on a limited basis. Gizmodo and Engadget do their thing. Key weblogs are sent product samples for feedback. Anytime anyone anywhere has a problem for whatever reason a video IM session is setup to address the matter. The resultant data is harvested and poured over like it is gold. It is gold. Gold 2.0.

This company understands that in the modern era, product experience blurs the boundary between the physical space and digital space. They understand the public has an insatiable hunger to “lift the hood” and get to know a product/brand on a far deeper, less mediated level then every before. Example: the popularity of behind the scenes special effects shows that accompany every blockbuster movie launch. Example: DVD extras for Lord of the Rings and King Kong. Example: Pimp my ride. Example: Google Maps mashups.

Designers need to be all over this stuff and I just don’t see it.