Information Visualization

Reading now: The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics: The Dos and Don'ts of Presenting Data, Facts, and Figures

2012-01-12T21:41:00.001-05:00

Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2010. ISBN-13: 9780393072952 @ Amazon.com

About the author:
Dona M. Wong has a MFA degree from Yale University, where she completed her dissertation on information design with thesis advisor Edward Tufte, a recognized authority on data visualization. Today she is the strategy director for information design at the global consulting firm Siegel+Gale, a pioneer in simplifying customer communications. She lives in New York City.

Recommendations by readers @ Amazon:
This book provides a handy desk reference for anyone who has to present data in graphical form - one might think of it a visual AP Style Book for graphics... [C. Muser]
Written with a style and clarity that reflects her approach to infographics, it provides an outstanding guide to creating visuals that are clear and to the point. The book is itself an example of communicating without excess whilst delivering a message effectively. (If you have every read Edwarde Tufte's seminal books you will appreciate Dona's clarity)... [Lee Featherby]

PS. Reviews are in magazines and in journals:

Bowen, L. (2010). The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics. Communication Arts, 51(6), 218.

"Siegel+Gale; Business Charts often Fail to Communicate Intended Message, Says Siegel+Gales Dona Wong, Author of Newly Published the Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics." Marketing Weekly News.(Feb 13, 2010): 112.

On the same shelf:

The Adhan in British Sign Language - audio and visuals synchronized

2011-09-19T11:39:00.000-04:00

Info courtesy: Exploring Life, The Universe and Everything and Deborah L. Birkett

On the same shelf:

Salah Interpreted For Deaf Muslims pt.1 - YouTube

Publishing of Salat in sign language

FREE Mobile Athan having Liberia School Of The Deaf prayer times for Cell Phone

visually impaired Muslims -- Revert Muslims Assoc.

When Design Gurus Clash: Edward Tufte vs. Don Norman

2011-05-16T22:04:00.001-04:00

Leo Klein @ Chicago Librarian, states:
"I was going through an interesting article on (quantitative) design guru Edward Tufte when I came across this interesting spat between him and (simplicity) design guru, Don Norman that -- despite a cheap shot by Tufte -- seems to wonderfully address polar opposites..." continue reading

On the same shelf:

Designing human-awareness for ambient agents: A human mindreading perspective

2011-04-29T19:42:00.003-04:00

Research about human senses and human needs, in relation to information seeking behavior, information access mechanisms and information retrieval techniques continue and here are some interesting information visualization attempts, all probably contributing in some way to the understanding of the Semantic Web:

A study, by Dr. Zulfiqar A. Memon, Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, [also here]

ABSTRACT: Ambient Intelligence (AmI) [1] has the vision to make Information and Communication Technologies disappear into the environment thus creating an ergonomic space for the inhabitant, encompassing an active living environment around us. To bring this goal to realization, devices need to be built possessing knowledge about humans enabling these devices to show a more human-like understanding. For this, we need assistance of human-directed disciplines such as cognitive science, psychology and biomedical sciences that develop models for many different aspects of human functioning. By representing these models in a formal and computational format, and incorporating them in these devices, these devices can be made more sensitive and responsive to humans [3]. The integration of these models within AmI applications is becoming more widely known as human-aware ambient agent modelling. Theory of Mind (ToM), or mindreading, is an ability to attribute mental states such as, beliefs, intentions, desires, pretending, knowledge, emotion etc, to others and to understand that those states may be similar or different from one's own. The work presented in this thesis makes contributions in the area of modelling and simulation by analysing and designing ambient agent models integrating concepts of Theory of Mind, to make these models human-aware. To explore the applicability of the approach proposed in this thesis, it has been applied in different specializations addressing integrated approaches to, for example, emotion generation and reading, emotion contagion, believing, desiring, feeling, decision making, and attention [2].

On the same shelf:

Edgar Meij's PhD Thesis: Combining Concepts and Language Models for Information Access

Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (Computer Science)

[Comp-neuro] Summer School on "Beliefs and Decisions: of Minds and Machines" The neuroinformatics site

UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORTING INFORMATION SEEKING TASKS ACROSS MULTIPLE SOURCES by Dr. Alia Amin
Extract:
"We focus on investigating how visualization influences lay users' confidence while accessing information from different cultural heritage information sources"

Social Networks Leave Americans Open To ID Theft

2011-03-22T17:21:00.000-04:00

WebProNews, Written by Mike Sachoff on 22 March 2011
Extract:
...“American’s lack of caution in friending members of the opposite sex online is striking,” said Thomas Oscherwitz, chief privacy officer for ID Analytics, Inc.

“Friending someone online is not risk-free. Just as in the bricks-and-mortar world, it makes sense to exercise a bit of prudence. Most social networking profiles contain personal information that can be used by fraudsters, and when you friend someone, you are giving them access to this information.”...

See also:
13 Million Americans Leave the Door Open to Identity Theft on Social Networks, ID Analytics [image courtesy]
Extract:

Fraudsters can use information in social networking profiles to build the dossiers they need to beat challenge questions and other security measures on financial accounts. The key identity elements that consumers should be careful before exposing on social networks are:

Continue reading: WebProNews

Visual Resume - Revisited

2011-03-20T16:10:00.008-04:00

Is This the Coolest Student Journalist Resume Ever? J-School Buzz,

Extract:

We think it is, but we don't know anything about design. This is Convergence Senior Chris Spurlock's resume, and it's the best resume for a student journalist we've ever seen. But like we said, we're not design-minded people, so we want to get the input of people who do know a thing or two about design. That's where you come in! continue reading

On the same shelf:

My own visual resume samples, here (Web sight), here (timeline) and here (text-based).

Visualizing Facebook Friendships Across the Globe According to Paul Butler

2010-12-14T16:13:00.000-05:00

By Ben Parr, Mashable, CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* A Facebook intern created a visualization of Facebook connections around the globe
* Using a sample of 10 million friend pairs, he correlated them with their current cities
* The U.S. has the highest concentration of Facebook friendships while Africa has the lowest
Continue reading Facebook relationships visualized

Here is what Butler had to say @ newsday.com:
"After a few minutes of rendering, the new plot appeared, and I was a bit taken aback by what I saw. The blob had turned into a surprisingly detailed map of the world. Not only were continents visible, certain international borders were apparent as well. What really struck me, though, was knowing that the lines didn't represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships. Each line might represent a friendship made while travelling, a family member abroad, or an old college friend pulled away by the various forces of life."

Facebook staffer Paul Butler has created this beautiful map of the millions (billions?) of friendships stored in the social network, using something that looks like edge bundles to create the beautiful map. Says, Randall Hand @ | VizWorld.com

On the same shelf:

Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook 'threatens' web future

Facebook Q&A Update: Sorry, we're not ready for you just yet

Google Alerts' mybookface! And, the true colors of Internet Explorer and Firefox Web Browsers in dealing with Web forgery

Facebook penetration: a whopping 40% in Canada - with UK a close second

Ramadan Highway Code - Visualization - Do's & Don'ts

2010-08-03T22:18:00.002-04:00

see also:

Ramadan visual symbology

IDH Ramadan by Visual Dhikr wallpaper

Info courtesy: Mohammed Ibrahim

Visual difference between a sunrise and a sunset

2010-06-02T14:02:00.001-04:00

by Elizabeth M. Young

I want to download your mind…

2010-04-25T22:35:00.000-04:00

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Eva Schiffer @ Net-Map Toolbox:

Descartes "Mind and Body" source Wikipedia Commons

When doing qualitative research there are so many nuances in the answers, that it often feels like: If you weren’t there, you won’t be able to really get it. Unless you can download the interviewer’s mind. Which – so far – is not possible. When I started developing and using Net-Map this didn’t matter much, because projects where small and basically I would be the person doing both, the interviewing and the analysis. Or I’d teach another research who would do another small project, doing both, the interviewing and the interpretation. But with this model you can only grow so far and I know we should be able to do better than this, to work in a bigger team of researchers, facilitators, interpreters and benefit from each others’ experience and insight, without plugging a USB cord into each others’ ears. continue reading

text-free user interfaces - Medhi interface

2010-03-25T13:16:00.000-04:00

Indrani Medhi brings the power of computing to illiterate, first-time users in India.

“It really came as a very pleasant surprise,” says Medhi, an associate researcher in the Technology for Emerging Markets group at Microsoft Research India whose work in text-free user interfaces is being featured by MoMA. “From the beginning, we did not think of this as an art project. We just thought of it as solving a particular problem.

SuperPower: Visualising the Internet's The top 100 sites

2010-03-14T20:35:00.000-04:00

NB. Info courtesy: Dr. John Jaeger, Dallas Baptist University
Image courtesy: Paul Adams, VizWorld.com

BBC News - The top 100 sites on the internet
Explore this interactive graphic to find out which are the biggest sites on the internet, as measured by the Nielsen company. This feature is part of SuperPower, a season of programmes exploring the power of the internet.

The data used to generate the interactive treemap visualisation was collected by the Nielsen company and covers the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil, US and Australia. The figures represent unique users for the month of January 2010.

The categories – such as retail, social networks, search/portal – were defined by the BBC. Because some websites have more than one use, they could fall within more than one category (e.g. Yahoo). However, the treemap only classifies them once.

The maps were produced using the Prefuse Flare software, developed by the University of California Berkeley.

Google is making people stupid, Revisited

2010-02-27T17:13:00.002-05:00

Original article: Is Google Making Us Stupid? - The Atlantic (July/August 2008)
Noe: The Internet can make you smarter, experts say, CNET News, February 22, 2010

Responses to a tension pair about whether 'Google is making people stupid'

"Responses to this 2020 scenario were assembled from Internet stakeholders in the 2010 Pew Internet & American Life/Elon University Future of the Internet Survey. Some respondents chose to identify themselves; many did not. We share some—not all—of the responses here. Workplaces of respondents who shared their identity are attributed only for the purpose of indicating a level of expertise; statements reflect personal views. If you would like to participate in the next survey, mail andersj [at] elon dotedu; include information on your expertise. "

On the same shelf:

The State of Information Visualization

2010-02-15T12:05:00.002-05:00

Info courtesy: Patrick Lambe @ Green Chameleon

EXTRACT:“The State of Information Visualization” by Robert Kosara
Information Visualization (InfoVis) is an exciting field to watch grow and expand into ever new areas. Last year brought some interesting developments that point towards changes in how we do and see visualization. What does 2010 hold in store? Here is a look back and some ideas where we're heading.

2009: What Was
2010: What Will Be
Beyond 2010: What Is to Come... continue reading The State of Information Visualization

Deconstructing the Learning Pyramid

2010-02-15T01:06:00.000-05:00

To start with, till yesterday, I did not know about the existence of a Learning Pyramid.

Thanks to IT Coaching and their visualization "What I hear, I forget; What I see, I remember; But what I do, I understand". Their site has a graphic image of Learning Pyramid.

Thanks to Google it brought me to the following: Deconstructing the Learning Pyramid
"Presentation given to Berkeley Library staff at the Instructor Development Program's Active Learning Lightning Talks in April 2009. Debunks the "learning pyramid" and suggests that instructional strategies should be made more "active" by considering the experience level of the audience and the strengths of the instructor:

Deconstructing the Learning Pyramid

View more presentations from char booth.

On the same shelf:

Subliminal Advertising - What you see is what you get, but not necessarily what you want to know

2010-01-14T18:22:00.001-05:00

WYSIWYG --(What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get)-- (pronounced /ˈwɪziˌwɪg/), and it's true colors are here.

"A clip from the movie, Josie and the Pussycats, explaining subliminal advertising through music"

Subliminal Messages Busted:

Creepy Subliminal Messages:

See on the same shelf:

Information Visualization: A Day In The Life of New York Times

2009-12-23T17:55:00.002-05:00

December 17, 2009: NYT.com-traffic
Extract:
"Today in the Bits blog, Nick Bilton shares valuable findings about the readers of NYTimes.com. The Times’ research and development group created a visualization project to explore the subject. The objective of the research was to find more about NYTimes.com readers. Where did they live and what type of devices were they using to view the content?" continue reading

The New York Times site traffic, World View, June 25, 2009 from Nick Bilton on Vimeo.

See on the same shelf:

Visualizing a Day in the Life of the MBTA - information aesthetics

Google Goggles: Visual search, without typing or saying a word

2009-12-08T20:37:00.001-05:00

"Google Goggles is a visual search app for Android phones. Instead of using words, take a picture of an object with your camera phone: we attempt to recognize the object, and return relevant search results. Goggles also provides information about businesses near you by displaying their names directly in the camera preview."

More here:

Using Google Voice Search;

10 ways Google Goggles will change the world

Info courtesy: IT World Canada

Metropath(ologies) -- Mining yourself

2009-10-14T23:39:00.003-04:00

social networking sites / the way data mining is being used, etc, etc. it is all about: Mining yourself

Watch this video here

Visualization of Google Barcodes: Happy birthday barcode

2009-10-07T12:20:00.024-04:00

2009: Google bar code logo latest in ‘doodle’ line

Google celebrates the 57th anniversary of the first bar code patent.

2008:
Google Barcodes

2007:

It's Springtime For Symbology - Everything Is Coming Up Color

On the same shelf, a barcode for our blog and our site:

by Barcodes Inc

by Barcodes Inc

Visualizing Level of Access & Level of Trust - Another Trendsetter in Social Networking

2009-09-23T00:22:00.017-04:00

Extract: "To do so, WhoDoYouKnowAt offers a unique "Levels of Trust" system which allows your online relationships to more accurately reflect those in the real world. With each connection, you can set their "Level of Trust" to reflect your real life relationship. For example, when sharing a contact's information with some folks, you can choose to remain anonymous. With your more trusted relationships, however, you can choose to share all your network information. For those close connections who you want to invite into your trusted network, you can invite them to "pair" with you, meaning you'll mutually exchange all your contact information. Unlike with LinkedIn, you don't "pair" (aka "friend" or "connect") with all your contacts - just the designated trusted ones. " continue reading: WhoDoYouKnowAt: Because LinkedIn is Too Open, Written by Sarah Perez

See on the same shelf:
@ Linkedin: WhoDoYouKnowAt
WhoDoYouKnowAt LLC Selects NIIT Technologies as its Preferred Partner for ERP Integration Products
Controlling Access to Members of a Class

Visualizing Online Content Ranking: PostRank

2009-09-14T00:02:00.003-04:00

Info courtesy: Gerry McKiernan / >>> Best Viewed In Firefox <<<

PostRank™

"PostRank is a scoring system developed by AideRSS to rank any kind of online content, such as RSS feed items, blog posts, articles, or news stories. PostRank is based on social engagement, which refers to how interesting or relevant people have found an item or category to be. Examples of engagement include writing a blog post in response to someone else, bookmarking an article, leaving a comment on a blog, or clicking a link to read a news item." continue reading

On the same shelf:

Visualizing Beyond SEO And SEM
SROOGLE: webserver for integrative, user-friendly visualization of splicing signals
123di Content Visualization Engine
Enhanced Web Page Content Visualization with Firefox
Proposed PostRank Model:

Information Visualization Blog

2009-07-12T00:04:00.004-04:00

This Blog is the only one according to Google's Timeline:

See also on the same shelf:
Standard view
Related searches
Wonder Wheel

Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent

2009-07-11T09:57:00.002-04:00

Published June 16, 2009
Authored by Bruce Etling, John Kelly, Rob Faris, John Palfrey, Internet and Democracy -- Berkman Center Research Publication No. 2009-06 [Download PDF ]
Extract: KEY FINDINGS
"We conducted a study of the Arabic language blogosphere using link analysis, term frequency analysis, and human coding of individual blogs."
... A Country-based network (view the full map); Arabic media ecosystem; Personal life and local issues are most important. continue reading

Evolving Neighbourhood Maps: Google Earth Vs. Bhuvan

2009-03-08T12:36:00.013-04:00

See above, a dynamic map. Map of the Week: The Star's neighbourhood map, version 2.0

Indian Earth Observation Visualisation
See below, a static image. Bhuvan: Isro’s answer to Google Earth
Can’t Ban ‘em? Compete with ‘em!

"If Google Earth shows details upto 200 metres distance and Wikimapia upto 50 metres, Bhuvan will show images upto 10 metres, which means you can easily see details upto a three floor high building and also add information." Times of India

Visualizing Concepts

2009-02-21T21:46:00.005-05:00

you are in CONCEPT gallery

Example: THE FOUR SIDES OF A CUBE. The Kaba in Makka is the archetype for this piece composed of various verses from the Qur'an.

More on the same shelf:

The Great Financial Chain of Being ~~ Shakespeare visualized

2009-01-18T00:16:00.000-05:00

"William Shakespeare lived in an ordered universe. The moral philosophers of his day conceived of that universe as a Great Chain of Being.

...Classical economics has constructed something similar. The very wealthy, or the captains of industry, occupy God's rung on the ladder, followed by the CEO's, shareholders, etc. Mere "consumers" are the equivalent of inanimate objects." continue reading Prof. Owen Gray's The Great Financial Chain of Being

See also:

Evolution of Species. Darwinistic Ideas of Ancient Greeks

Shakespeare's Sonnet 17, Visualized

Customer Service & Visual Signatures

2009-01-16T18:44:00.022-05:00

"10 Simple Ways to Signature Service"
"Simple (and Free) Customer Service Solutions for Restaurants and Eating Establishments" By Albert Barneto
“Signature service” is a term that I use to describe customer service that is fresh and unique to a customer’s experience with your business. All companies have “signature products” that separate them from the rest of the pack, something that their competitor lacks. "Signature service" is just that. Customer service that is unique and special; that when a guest leaves your restaurant they scratch their heads and go “WOW”. That my friends, IS what I call “Signature Service”.

1. First impressions
2. Treat your customers as guests
3. Listen to your guests when they’re ordering
4. Use manners
5. Names instead of numbers
6. Be accommodating
7. Be an ambassador to your restaurant
8. I want to be a “regular” too!
9. Open the doors.
10. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

See also on the same shelf:

Visual Signatures and Information Visualization

Call Centre (s) Culture in-making

Converting Browsers Into Buyers — Know Your Ecommerce Math

Business Planet: Mapping the Business Environment

2008-12-12T00:08:00.000-05:00

Info courtesy: Dr. John Jaeger
Interesting World Bank Site - "Take a trip around the world to discover how easy (or difficult) it is to do business in 181 economies."
Your business faculty members might find this site particularly interesting.

Financial Crisis: Say it Visually

2008-12-09T18:09:00.006-05:00

"A short video can be worth a thousand Powerpoint slides" - Harvard University

Info courtesy: kenneth parker @ Understanding The Financial Crisis--For Kids and Grownups

On the same shelf:

Leverage: One Cause of the Financial Crisis

Becoming Screen Literate (aka Digital Literacy, Browser Literacy)

2008-11-26T11:10:00.011-05:00

By KEVIN KELLY
Published: November 21, 2008 @ NYTimes.com
Everywhere we look, we see screens. The other day I watched clips from a movie as I pumped gas into my car. The other night I saw a movie on the backseat of a plane. We will watch anywhere. Screens playing video pop up in the most unexpected places — like A.T.M. machines and supermarket checkout lines and tiny phones; some movie fans watch entire films in between calls. These ever-present screens have created an audience for very short moving pictures, as brief as three minutes, while cheap digital creation tools have empowered a new generation of filmmakers, who are rapidly filling up those screens. We are headed toward screen ubiquity. continue reading

NB. Info courtesy: doshdosh.com

See also on the same shelf:

INTERACTIVE MAP: U.S. Newspapers pick the president

2008-10-21T20:54:00.012-04:00

Info courtesy: markstoneman @ Newspaper Endorsements & blog.techfun.org

10000words.net: "The following map is a collective representation of the endorsements made by newspapers across the country for the 2008 presidential candidates. Currently Sen. Barack Obama leads Sen. John McCain in the number of endorsements made by the nation's newspapers as indicated by the blue markers. You can read the actual endorsement from each newspaper by clicking on the corresponding marker:"

http://10000words.net/presidential-endorsement-map.html
See also previous post: Visualizing Election Polls: An Animated, Interactive Way To Analyze Opinion Data

Visualizing Election Polls: An Animated, Interactive Way To Analyze Opinion Data

2008-10-15T13:13:00.007-04:00

ScienceDaily (Oct. 6, 2008) — "Do you want to know the percentage of white women who support vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin? What about college-educated versus high school-educated white women? Or those who also hunt?"
Continue reading / see alos: 5 Ways To Visualize The U.S. Elections

PS. This post is inspired by a visual: Palin's Debate Technique by deunadiana @ Cosmopolites' Kaffeeklatsch

Blog Popularity Visualized... + 75 Tools to Analyze your blog or website

2008-10-12T13:01:00.007-04:00

Valid URL: http://akbani.blogspot.com/
Permalink for this results

Google PageRank: 5
Compete Rank: 17

Google BackLinks: 159
Yahoo BackLinks: 2,608
Technorati Links: 105

Info courtesy: bhutree / Traffic Guru / 75 Tools to Analyze your blog or website

Concept Map / Mind Map Re-visited

2008-10-05T16:27:00.021-04:00

Brainstorming for fun and profit.

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: creativity brainstorming)

>>NB. information courtesy: .:: Peta Konsep Anak Bangsa ::.
>>Older posts on the same shelf: Mind map / Concept Map

Visual dictionary -- open for all, free for all!

2008-09-23T11:26:00.010-04:00

We're redefining the dictionary: Wordia. Search, define, share.
Think of a word that has a special meaning to you.

Record a video defining your word.
Upload your video
See on the same shelf:
Birch Backs Wordia - A Video Dictionary
globeandmail.com: Dictionary democracy

Semantic, Syntactic and Lexical Web Revisted

2008-09-18T15:36:00.021-04:00

Amazon.com Widgets

Australian company launches 3D Internet tool

Computers figuring out what words mean

BlindConfidential: Three Dimensional Web Interfaces

Conceptual, Semantic, Syntactic and Lexical Model

the meaning: Between syntatic and semantic information

From our previous posts:

Semantic web search comes of age -- iCognue

Labels: Semantic Web

10 Amazing Visualizations of Social Networks

2008-09-09T01:33:00.001-04:00

10 Amazing Visualizations of Social Networks
includes:
Fidg’t’ : Visualize
ICCARUS: scouta.com
looks del.icio.us
Myspace attitudes
IRC arcs
Biblical Social Network
Wells Fargo: Network Environment
OS Relationships
flowerGarden
Power Players: Pinpoint and Predict

Info courtesy: BPWebNews

Lines and Bubbles and Bars, Oh My! New Ways to Sift Data

2008-09-07T08:19:00.012-04:00

By ANNE EISENBERG
Published: August 30, 2008
PEOPLE share their videos on YouTube and their photos at Flickr. Now they can share more technical types of displays: graphs, charts and other visuals they create to help them analyze data buried in spreadsheets, tables or text.

At an experimental Web site, Many Eyes, (http://www.many-eyes.com/), users can upload the data they want to visualize, then try sophisticated tools to generate interactive displays. These might range from maps of relationships in the New Testament to a display of the comparative frequency of words used in speeches by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. continue reading @ NYTimes.com

Visualizations : Co-Occurrences of Names in the New Testament (more complete data):

How to teach teens to drive safely -- Use the brain Map

2008-08-16T16:31:00.006-04:00

PREVENTING CAR ACCIDENTS
Aug 16, 2008, THESTAR.COM

Comments on this story (10)

Andrea Gordon
Family issues reporter

In three decades as a brain surgeon, Dr. Charles Tator has operated on too many mangled teenagers hurt in preventable car crashes.

Social worker Gary Direnfeld has worked with too many brain-injured youth struggling to learn to speak or tie their shoes again after motor vehicle collisions.

Sensory Information Navigation - The Next Stage of Web Evolution = Web 3.0?

2008-08-07T23:32:00.000-04:00

The Big Picture(sm): Visual Browsing in Web and non-Web Databases
The Magic Touch(sm): Haptic Interaction in Web and non-Web Databases
The Next WAVe(sm): Auditory Browsing in Web and non-Web Databases
Text~Tone(sm): Auditory Highlighting/Rating of Text
Morning Becomes Electric: Post-Modern Scholarly Information Access, Organization, and Navigation
"New Age Navigation: Innovative Information Interfaces for Electronic Journals"
More from Gerry McKiernan @ Scholarship 2.0: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Mapping Top 1000 Canadian Corporate Landscape: 2007 & 2008

2008-07-22T22:20:00.001-04:00

Info courtesy: Globeandmail reportonbusiness.com: Top 1000

Seven Simple Ways to Advance Your Career -- All in a Maze

2008-07-19T22:27:00.000-04:00

1. Speak up.

2. Sit in the "hot seat."

3. Exercise your bragging rights.

4. Go beyond the call of duty.

5. Accept credit graciously.

6. Make more meaningful connections.

7. Give thanks. all by Phil Sheridan, UK Managing Director, Robert Half

Visual analogy : consciousness as the art of connecting

2008-07-10T13:15:00.001-04:00

Excellent work.

Very good comment by a reviewer:
"This innovative history makes it possible to imagine the coming epoch of holistic multimedia in which analogy plays the role that allegory played in postmodernism."
--Gregory L. Ulmer, Professor of English and Media Studies, University of Florida

List of Illustrations vii
Preface xv
Preview: The Game of Back and Forth 11
Postmodernismand the Annihilation of Resemblance 72
Figures of Reconciliation 573
The Magic of Amorous Attraction 974
Recombinancy: Binding the Computational "New Mind" to the Combinatorial "Old Mind" 137
Postscript: Beyond Duality: From Adepts to Agents 180
Notes 185
Index 207

Web 2.0 Resume: Do These Push Pull Techniques Work-Well or Lead to Cloud Confusion?

2008-07-01T01:48:00.029-04:00

At the outset it is all about visualization of the skills in an interactive / dynamic and creative modes--adding value, visibility, linkability, and most importantly, display relevance as a doer (not talker).

"Media rich resumes should highlight multiple ways to contact you from the traditional phone number, to email, instant messengers, and social networking pages (such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook)." New Media Resumes, Karen Burns

Skill Cloud Creator

On the same shelf

Thanks to Meredith Farkas, whose Me in a cloud led me to all-of-the-above.

Interesting Visual Dictionary

2008-06-26T23:40:00.005-04:00

Info courtesy:

"This resource can also be used to help students understand ways research topics can be divided and/or organized."
Dr. John Jaeger
Doctoral Research and
Reference Librarian
Dallas Baptist University

Senseless Signage, Plus Other Visualizations

2008-06-15T10:47:00.004-04:00

NB. Don't try to figure these signs out. Get a GPS instead:

Look for more fun, funny and fantastic images, visualizations, etc.

Semantic web search comes of age -- iCognue

2008-06-07T22:01:00.006-04:00

Semantic web search comes of age:

by Kambam Deepak, The LMai algorithm; Sums up links.

SEO Ahmedabad : Learn & Share Everything about SEO

New Internet Search Engine

Hi Friends, I came across a very good article about new upcoming search engine iCognue. Here it goes.

Sobha Renaissance Information Technology (SRIT) announced the launch of iCognue, its much awaited internet search engine powered by LMai (Latent Metonymical Analysis and Indexing), an algorithm for deriving the contextual relationship for a search topic.
Google in sight, search engines are getting smarter

Artificial General Intelligence: Now Is the Time

2008-05-26T17:57:00.005-04:00

60 minute Google TechTalk: Dr. Ben Goertzel - Artificial General Intelligence: Now Is the Time. Source, and Essay

Info courtesy: Self-awarness of the Net

Visual Images Online: Digital Images of Primary Material on the Web

2008-05-24T01:02:00.002-04:00

INTERNET RESOURCES
Visual resources online: Digital images of primary materials on public Web sites
C&RL News, May 2008
Vol. 69, No. 5

by Anne Blecksmith

When searching for images, the Internet is often the first and sometimes only research resource for scholars and educators, but many open-access digital image collections are part of the deep Web, keeping important visual content out of a search engine’s reach. In recent years, libraries, archives, and historical societies across the United States have created rich online visual resource collections that include a wealth of subjects and media formats. Researchers now have access to millions of primary materials from any Internet-accessible computer, which would otherwise require an in-person visit to the physical collection.
Read more
Info courtesy: Dr. John Jaeger

The Informational Distance Between Cities

2008-05-10T17:01:00.004-04:00

Information Aesthetics points to an interesting visualization of the "informational" relation between cities. Two cities are "informationally" related if they are often mentioned together, so the visualization uses the number of Google results to approximate the distance:

Gdistance(w1,w2) = (#(w1)+#(w2)) / (#(w1+" and "+w2)+#(w2+" and "+w1)),where #(w) is the number of Google search results for the query w enclosed in quotes.

continue reading (also see the comments from the site visitors)

Info courtesy: Haffu-Taffu.

Walk the Talk With Dr. Edward de Bono and get one-minute primer on the six hats

2008-05-03T17:54:00.025-04:00

Edward de Bono, Thought Guru makes people not only think about how they think, but also use new ways of looking at things to invent products, find solutions to persistent problems, and resolve conflict. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7's Walk the Talk, Dr de Bono talks about some of his thinking tools, how his training in medicine helped him arrive at some of his concepts, and about his meetings with Rajiv Gandhi, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and Pervez Musharraf.

Extract: If you give computers to young children, they start to believe that you don't have to think, all you have to do is search, and you'll find the answer. So, using computers is excellent, but you need, at the same time, to think. Now that extends beyond school. I've worked with major corporates throughout the world and they develop a habit of saying, 'Put all the information, all the information or data, into our computers, and our computers will analyse the data and that will set our strategy, make our decisions.' Very dangerous. Because unless you can look at the information in different ways, you are not going to make progress. And that's happening worldwide with the biggest corporates.
You know something interesting about Islam? The Prophet Muhammad had more to say about thinking than any other religious leader.
•In the Hadith, he says, 'One hour of thinking is better than 70 years of praying.' He says, 'The ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr.' He says, 'One learned man gives more trouble to the Devil than a thousand worshippers.' That's Mohammad. In the Koran there are 130 verses about thinking. So, actually, when I go to the Middle East and tell them this, they don't know.
Give me a one-minute primer on the six hats. How does it work?
... So the six hats separate out the thinking. Under the white hat, everyone is looking for facts, information, what we have, what we need, what questions have we asked, how do we get the information. Red hat: permission to put forward your emotions, your intuition, without having to justify or explain it. Black hat is critical: what is wrong, the risks, the downside, why it may not work. The yellow hat: values, benefits. The green hat: creative, new ideas, possibilities, alternatives and so on. The blue hat is the organizing hat: summary, outcome. The point is everyone is wearing the same hat at the same time. That's parallel thinking. That's important. Let me give an example. In a normal meeting, we may have someone who is against the idea being discussed. Normally, that person will spend the whole meeting attacking the idea. With the hats, under the black hat, he or she will be encouraged to be as critical as he or she can possibly be. Then, when it's the turn of the other hat, he's expected to look for value. And if he says, 'I can't see any value', and everyone else is seeing value, then he's seen to be stupid. So everyone is challenged to use their brain fully. continue reading

From Keyword Search to Exploration: How Result Visualization Aids Discovery on the Web

2008-03-10T15:57:00.034-04:00

Kules, B., Wilson, M., Schraefel, M., Shneiderman, B. (February 2008), From Keyword Search to Exploration: How Result Visualization Aids Discovery on the Web: "Human computer interaction researchers and web browser designers have developed novel strategies to improve Web search by enabling users to conveniently visualize, manipulate, and organize their Web search results." [abstract][ fulltext, pdf]

My 2 cents: Here is an interesting visualization of optics, graphics, and perceptions in search and results of searches done using tools, such as, PIM (PHLAT), Cha-cha, The Flamenco--interface permits users to navigate by selecting from multiple facets (Materials and Structure Types)--etc. The table of figures is self explanatory:

Table of Figures

Figure 1. Process model of search in the
context of work and information-seeking
tasks............................................................................................................9
Figure 2. The Cha-Cha system organizes intranet search
results by an automatically generated web site
overview.....................................................................16
Figure 3. The WebTOC system provides a table of contents
visualization that supports search within a web
site.......................................................................................17
Figure 4. The Flamenco interface permits users to navigate
by selecting from multiple facets. In this example, the displayed images have
been filtered by specifying values in two facets (Materials and Structure
Types). The matching images are grouped by subcategories of the Materials
facet’s selected Building Materials
category.........................................................................................................18
Figure 5: Epicurious is a commercial recipe website that
uses Flamenco style faceted search in conjunction with keyword
search.........................................................19
Figure 6: Exhibit faceted search
interface......................................................19
Figure 7: Rave Browser
interface.....................................................................20
Figure 8: mSpace faceted column
browser...........................................................21
Figure 9. The SERVICE web search interface (Turetken and
Sharda, 2005).....22
Figure 10: Dyna-Cat search
interface..........................................................................23
Figure 11. The PunchStock photo search interface provides
categorized overviews of photo search
results..............................................................................................24
Figure 12. The NCSU library catalog provides categorized
overviews of search results using subject headings, format, and library
location...........................................25
Figure
13. The Clusty metasearch engine uses automated clustering to produce
an expandable overview of labeled
clusters.............................................................26
Figure 14: Yoople Search, users can drag items in the
results list to indicate where they think a result should
appear.........................................................................27
Figure 15: A tag cloud taken from Flickr website, included
in (Godwin-Jones,
2006)..........................................................................................................................28
Figure 16: Phlat personal information management
browser...............................29
Figure 17: Exalead
search provides images and categories with each search result, and facets to
help users narrow the
results.................................................................30
Figure 18: A SOM of search results, image taken from
http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr.......31
Figure 19. The
HiveGroup built a demonstration shopping application that allows users to
explore Amazon.com products. (image from
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap-history/hive-birdwatching.jpg).................32
Figure 20. This overview of web search results uses a
treemap. Nesting is used to show both top and second-level categories
simultaneously. The top 200 results for the query "urban sprawl" have been
categorized into a two-level government hierarchy, which is used to present a
categorized overview on the left. The National Park Service has been selected to
filter the results. The effect on the right side is to show just the three
results from the Park Service. (Rivadeneira and Bederson,
2003).......................................................................................32
Figure 21. The CitiViz search interface visualizes search
results using scatterplots, hyperbolic trees, and stacked discs. The hyperbolic
tree, stacked disks, and textual list on the left are all based on the ACM
Computing Classification
System..................................................................................................................33

[Info courtesy: Celia
Walter and Dr. Francis
Jawahar DEVADASON]

2008 conferences: visualization of information

2008-03-06T12:50:00.010-05:00

Upcoming Vis Conferences in 2008 posted by Hilary Spencer @ Nature Network more on the above site by Nils Gehlenborg Tom Armitage

Cook up some visual fun @ ImageChef.com

2008-03-05T05:38:00.000-05:00

[Info courtesy: Senior Friendly Libraries & NCS-Tech!
Searching the web, blogosphere, listservs and the twitterverse for the best K-8 EDTECH resources, because..."You can't spell TEACH without T-E-C-H!" © 2008 Kevin Jarrett]

And here is my visualization, based on ImageChef:

East Vs West: Red Vs Blue -- Cultrual Differences Visualized

2008-03-03T01:34:00.007-05:00

NB. East here refers, primarily, to Chinese (East Asia or in the past also called, Orient)' and West is interpreted as English speaking rest of the
West.

The images were designed by Yang Liu (sometimes spelled Liu Young), who was born in China and educated in Germany and England. Visit Yang Liu's website at yangliudesign.com. [info courtesy: Scott Imig & Sujatha.Thadakamalla, Auckland City Public Library]
Compare: Opinion, Way of Life, Punctuality, Contacts, Anger, Queue when Waiting, Sundays on the Road, Party, In the restaurant, Traveling, Handling of Problems, Three meals a day, Transportation, Elderly in day to day life, Moods and Weather, The Boss, What's Trendy, The child

Read this doc on Scribd:

A day in the creative life

2008-03-02T00:46:00.006-05:00

Why commit to making one new thing each day and posting it online? Freedom of expression - and a kick in the pants to just do it
HAYLEY MICK
From Friday's Globe and Mail
February 29, 2008 at 7:53 AM EST
Thing-a-day.com knit cook draw paint tape solder write install destroy invent document
1418 signed up, 609 started and have posted 6,573 things and wrote 6,682 comments so far.

CERN photos in National Geographic:The God Particle

2008-02-25T01:40:00.001-05:00

[info courtesy: Xeni Jardin @ Boing Boing - A directory of wonderful things]

"If you were to dig a hole 300 feet straight down from the center of the charming French village of Crozet, you’d pop into a setting that calls to mind the subterranean lair of one of those James Bond villains" ... continue reading At the Heart of All Matter @ Thoughts of a Seeker

See also in the same shelf: Go Inside the God Particle:
See how physicists will use a giant atom smasher in hopes of finding the so-called God particle.

Interactive Inflation map

2008-02-22T01:15:00.002-05:00

ECONOMY: Inflation map @ CBC.ca - News - CLICK HERE: Interactive Feature : Roll over provinces and cities to view rate

Visualizing the holy books

2008-02-15T03:44:00.000-05:00

"This visualization, by Philipp Steinweber and Andreas Koller, comes from the textual analysis of different religions’ holy books (red = Hinduism, yellow = Buddhism, green = Islam, blue = Judaism, purple = Christianity). Below each character is a list of verbs associated with him or her in each religion." continue reading: Visualization: Character Relationships across Religions From SimilarDiversity.net

Biblical infographic diagrams: a collection of scripturally-correct infographic diagrams outlining several major biblical concepts, including "The Seven Thousand Years Of Human History", "The Heavens", "The Resurrections and Judgments", or "The Failure Of Man". these information diagrams were made by Clarence Larkin about 75 year ago &, while appearing sparse at first, seem to pack a lot of information into a concise format.

Chris Harrison: Visualizing the Bible
Visualizing the innernet @ Multifaith Information Gateway
More charts, maps, and graphical visualization of the Bible, as attempted by Clarence Larkin:

Visual Search Assistant & Visual Browsers Revisited

2008-02-10T11:15:00.000-05:00

[Info courtesy: nadeem.shabir, Talis @ YouTube adds Visual Browser]

OSkope Visual Search - A Fun Way To Search YouTube, Flickr, Ebay
Tags: OSkope Visual Search How Tutorial YouTube Video Images Flickr Amazon Ebay

OSkope Visual Search - A Fun Way To Search YouTube, Flickr, Ebay - Watch the top videos of the week here

"oSkope visual search" a playful way to browse for products, images and videos on Amazon, Ebay, YouTube and Flickr. You can save your searches and play videos directly on oSkope.

see also on the same shelf and aisle:

My Blog posts on Visual Browsing

http://swissmiss.typepad.com/weblog/2007/09/oskope.html posted @ swissmiss.

iDesktop.tv is a bright light in a sea of video conversion suck

Other Graphic tools that facilitate visualization: Browsing your FOAF social graph / Graph Gear and SpringGraph Flex Component: Includes: Thesaurus Roamer lets you explore connections between words and meanings, using thesaurus data from thesaurus.com; and Amazon Roamer uses a SpringGraph and Amazon Web Services to browse the “similar products” links of items from Amazon.com.

Organization of Knowledge or On Arranging Books by Color

2008-02-03T17:36:00.000-05:00

Rob Giampietro: On Arranging Books by Color

When it comes to the organization of knowledge, a lot is revealed by the system of organization that's used. For most serious academic libraries in America, the organizational system of choice was invented in 1874 by Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey (or Melvil Dui, as he liked to spell it), who was an assistant librarian at Amherst College when his eponymous system was devised.

... One of the words that would have caught Dewey's eye was "colour" — or, more patriotically spelled, "color" — and on this subject Dewey's opinions were perhaps a bit unorthodox. Later in his life, Dewey sponsored several pamphlets about Ro, a language created by Rev. Edward Powell Foster in which words are constructed using a categorical system similar to Dewey's own system for books. In Ro, words starting with "bofo-" are color words, as in "bofoc" for red (c=crimson?), and "bofof" for yellow (f=who knows?). Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? Replace the color words of this lovely final line from Robert Haas's poem "The Problem of Describing Color,"

Red, I said. Sudden, red.

with its Ro equivalents:

Bofoc, I said. Sudden, bofoc. .. continue reading Design Observer: writings about design & culture.

And, an interesting comment by a reader of the above article:

This brings to mind a story about the late Sufi writer Idries Shah. Someone visiting his house in England was found by an associate in the library, trying to make sense out of the strange assortment of books on the shelves. The associate smiled and explained: "You assumed these books could give you an indication of Shah's tastes in reading. In fact they're there to give him an indication about you. I expect your eye has run along these titles when you've been in this room with Shah. You can take it that all the titles you passed over, or paused at, were noted by him and helped in an assessment of YOU".

Posted by: james souttar

Info courtesy: by brigmlt

ScienceFoo Campers: JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments)

2008-01-29T21:29:00.000-05:00

Click here for the video @ YouTube

Info courtesy: Gerry McKiernan @ Scholarship 2.0: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

World-Wide Web Map, From .ad to .za

2008-01-19T13:58:00.000-05:00

Info courtesy: AssembleMe

Ways to help fight the fat: Visual Discrimination

2008-01-06T12:38:00.000-05:00

Nov 10, 2007, Toronto Star

Proposal: Legible labelling
Labels detailing the calorie and fat contents of our food are far too complex, especially for the poor, who are more likely to be new immigrants or have lower educational levels. A simple colour code using red for "should not be consumed," orange for "consume in limited quantities," and green for "don't worry about it" is one workable solution, says Dr. John Frank, head of population and public health studies at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Pros: Such labels would leave little confusion about which foods were fattening.

Cons: Determining which foods deserved to be red f... continue reading
see also: color temperature color vision

Waiting to read the best-seller: Book Demand Visualized

2007-11-12T16:09:00.000-05:00

NB. How long is the wait for these New York Times best-sellers at the Omaha Public Library [compare: a. people waiting for Omaha library copy; b. number of copies; c. estimated wait if requested today]

http://www.artdiamondblog.com/images/WorldIsFlatLibraryWait.jpg

[Source of the graphic is page 1 of: MICHAEL O'CONNOR. "Library may help turn borrowers into buyers." Omaha World-Herald (Saturday, March 4, 2006): 1 & 2. ...]

Mapping the Unmappable: Visualization continues to advance

2007-11-03T00:51:00.001-04:00

Quotable quote of the year: 16 years ago today the word "Internet" first appeared on af ront page or cover of the major media: Wall Street Journal, Page One, the story about eBooks -- 29 Oct, 2007. Thus said: Michael S. Hart, Founder Project Gutenberg
Researchers Create Map of the Net By Anick Jesdanun, USA Today, Oct 2007 [info courtesy: Dr. John Jaeger, Dallas Baptist University]
Mapping the Unmappable: Visual Representations of the Internet as Social Constructions by .Adam B. King SLIS-Strategic Leadership in Information Science Indiana University Center For Social Informatics Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 http://www.slis.indiana.edu/csi
See in same shelf and aisle:
Visualizing the Innernet or Visual Display of the Website's Infostructure
metaphors and misconceptions
Putting up Internet borders Nov 05, 2007 04:30 AM Michael Geist Toronto Star

A looming legal crises on the Internet, MICHAEL RIGLER, The Western Star

Blog Copying Visualized

2007-10-27T11:05:00.000-04:00

NB. Copying and reproducing with permission, is one--I try my best to follow this path. But, do so without any permission, is another and concerns many in the blogosphere--see links, below, many bloggers are discussing this issue. I am not sure if RSS feeds' or any other feeds allow you go on with this for ever (without you noticing, or being aware)?

I googled, and the result of this search was astonishing (because my Blog's content was simply being reproduced word-by-word @ www.visualizationblog.net) And, the author / owner is replaced by: Written by admin on October 5th, 2007:

Information Visualization: Thought-of-the-Day - The Intelligent Metadata approach to ...
..akbani.blogspot.com/2007/08/thought-of-day-intelligent-metadata.html - 40k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Thought-of-the-Day - The Intelligent Metadata approach to ... - 9:12pm
Thought-of-the-Day - The Intelligent Metadata approach to information virtualization … The Intelligent Metadata approach to information virtualization ...www.visualizationblog.net/.../ - 18k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Much more...
The Human Mind: What Gives? (10.5.2007)
http://www.visualizationblog.net/2007/10/04/square-pie.../ (10.4.2007)
Visual Design as an Information Design tool (10.4.2007)
http://www.visualizationblog.net/2007/10/04/information-visualization.../ (10.4.2007)
Converting Browsers Into Buyers — Know Your Ecommerce Math (10.4.2007)
Visual immersion using Web Analytics (10.4.2007)
Don’t Make Me Think! Just use the Microsoft Expression (10.4.2007)
Browse articles visually with WikiMindMap (10.4.2007)
IEEE InfoVis 2007 (10.2.2007)
See whois www.visualizationblog.net
And, a reverse IP (@ whois shows, the possibility of at least 134 Websites / bloggers getting equal treatment....): Reverse IP: 134 other sites hosted on this server.
See also: What is Plagiarism? Don't Know, Click here or read here: "Passing off someone's work as your own is known as plagiarism. Individuals who plagiarize material deliberately are committing an illegal act and it is unethical at best! It's ok to use pictures and paraphrase text but be sure to cite the source of your information. Thank you. (Info from http://www.personal.psu.edu/)"

Bloggers Concerns:

Guide for Proper Use
19 Oct 2007 by Ashok kumar My content is written only for my Websites and do not allow anyone to republish in any website or Blog. Copying means you are stealing not only articles and also my hard work. Eblog4every1 - http://eblog4every1.blogspot.com/

Blog plagiarism — Steal this blog!
28 Dec 2005 by Mathew Is wholesale blog-copying wrong? Obviously. Is Google making money from the AdSense ads that run on such sites? Yes. But I don’t think that means Google needs to police the problem, as Jeff Jarvis and some others believe. ...mathewingram.com/work - http://www.mathewingram.com/work

Further thoughts on plagiarism
19 Apr 2006 by Beth If I ran a blog copying the thoughts and writings of a hungarian writer, only translating it into english, probably no one, not in 10000 years, would ever realize the cheat. Screeeeeeeeem. The more you think about it, the deeper down ...Grand Mental Station - http://confessionalpoet.typepad.com/grand_mental_station/

How to Approach Content Theft by Fellow Bloggers & MSM

PLAGIARISM - SHOCKING !!!

what this blogger says about penalties.... etc. on plagiarism
http://myworksh0p.blogspot.com/2005/11/index.html

Copying blog entries
12 Oct 2005 by Nishi Read this entry about "copying blog entries without permission." via, Instapundit.Nishi's Blogosphere - http://photophunk.blogspot.com
Copyscape - Website Plagiarism Search
by Alex Walker

And Google it

Visualising Complexity & KM Communications Strategy: Mind maps

2007-10-14T01:12:00.000-04:00

PS. The following info. is from Green Chameleon and Straits Knowledge Website.

Visualising Complexity

For those interested in visualisation of complex information, or the visual power of mapping networks, here’s a wonderful resource unearthed by my iKMS colleague Kong Heng Sun.

How to Plan a KM Communications Strategy

This concept map catalogues all the elements of a KM communications strategy that we’ve found useful, with some ideas for messages, media and audiences. Download the pdf version formatted for A3 size printing for easier reading!

Web Analytics and Qualitative Insight: Listen.See.Smell.Taste.Touch

2007-10-10T02:59:00.000-04:00

PS. In the following is an attempt by an expert to demystify Web Analytics. While most often heard is why or the quantitative and that which tends to excite, herein is what or the qualitative insight--i.e., the other side of the coin.

"2 Simple Steps to Finding Your Website's Voice" @ GrokDotCom: byHolly Buchanan

Posted in Branding and Advertising Rants | Persuasive Online Copywriting | Articles | Persuasive Copywriting | Customer Experience | Copywriting | Relationship Building

"When you have a conversation with a human being (as opposed to having a conversation with a cat, which if you've ever owned one, you know how well that goes) you get a sense of that person's personality. The clothes they wear, their tone of voice, how they move, the words they use - all of this gives you insight into who the person is.
Every website visit is a conversation. Think about it. The web is an interactive medium. Every time you click you ask a question. You interact with the company or brand. What kind of answers are you getting? Do you get a sense of whom you are talking to? Do you have any sense of who the company/brand is?

I'm hearing a resounding answer of, "Not so much."

Your design, images, and copy all combine to convey your company or brand's personality. Of all of these, I would argue that copy is perhaps the most important element for conveying your website's personality or voice. As a copywriter, there are two things you must do:

1 - Have a clear understanding of your personality, brand or voice
2 - Convey that personality, brand or voice to your audience

Here are suggestions for how to accomplish this.

Step One: How to clarify your company's personality, brand or voice ...
Step Two: How to convey that voice in your copy ...
click here and continue reading

IEEE InfoVis 2007

2007-10-01T02:22:00.000-04:00

October 28 - October 30, 2007

Join us Sunday, October 28, through Tuesday, October 30, 2007, in conjunction with the IEEE Visualization 2007 Conference and IEEE VAST 2007 Symposium in Sacramento, California.

The conference program is now set. Please click here for a schedule of conference events.

Keynote and Capstone speakers set. Two dynamic invited speakers, Matthew Ericson of the New York Times (IEEE InfoVis keynote) and Stephen Few of Perceptual Edge (combined IEEE InfoVis capstone/IEEE VAST capstone) will be presenting talks.

click here for more info

AT&Ts Case Studies in Information Visualization Research Problems

2007-09-23T22:45:00.000-04:00

AT&T's Information Visualization: Case Studies:

The following application case studies illustrate how information visualization research solves real-world problems.

Software Visualization for Vplus+ (VoIP/CallVantage prototype)

See also AT&T's information visualization:

Main Research Areas

Visual data mining
Algorithms for graphics, computational geometry and optimization
Graph (network) visualization
Large-scale database visualization

Visualizing the ‘Power Struggle’ in Wikipedia

2007-09-09T12:01:00.000-04:00

"A new visualization Bruce Herr and I recently completed is being featured in this week’s New Scientist Magazine (the article is free online, minus the viz). They did a good job jazzing up the language used to describe the viz–’power struggle’, ‘bubbling mass’, ‘blitzed articles’–but they also dumbed down the technical accomplishments. I guess not everyone gets as excited about algorithms as I do. "

Converting Browsers Into Buyers — Know Your Ecommerce Math

2007-09-02T01:12:00.000-04:00

In many ways the Internet has many similarities to direct marketing. It requires consistency and persistence.

Can you make money selling a $1.00 for only 85 cents? NO! Yet, this is exactly what happens at many Ecommerce web sites. Why? A failure to:

control overhead costs;
understand the cost to acquire a customer.

continue reading: Converting Browsers Into Buyers — Know Your Ecommerce Math

See also my previous posts:

Visual immersion using Web Analytics

Pay but don’t touch – Security, Satisfaction, and ...

Add Sense to your AdSense: Visualizing the Return on Investment?

Square Pie in the Eye @ Juice Analytics

2007-08-30T11:30:00.000-04:00

"The New York Times—normally a source of clear and interesting infographics—produced the following graphic over the weekend."

Continue reading Square Pie in the Eye @ Juice Analytics

Visual immersion using Web Analytics

2007-08-25T15:38:00.000-04:00

Practical analytics: persuasion scenarios
@ immeria - An immersion in Web Analytics,
by S.Hamel

A typical site is composed of several conversion objectives: registering to a newsletter, purchasing something, finding the nearest store, or any activity that represent a positive outcome for the user and the site owner. As Brian Eisenberg puts it, those represents the "conversion points" of a "persuasion scenario":

continue reading:

Practical analytics: persuasion scenarios

Don't Make Me Think! Just use the Microsoft Expression

2007-08-15T01:04:00.000-04:00

The following is a product review. It is hoped that Microsoft Expression (ME) will be a better tool for information visualization:

The next generation of web development
Nikhil kumar, Deccan Herald » August 15, 2007
"Microsoft Expression Web is a professional design tool to create sophisticated standards-based Web sites that deliver compelling user experiences, says Mr. Tarun Gulati, General Manager - Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft India."

How better is MS Expression compared to MS Frontpage?
Microsoft Expression is a suite of tools for professional designers building web and Windows client applications and rich media content.

Expression Studio provides an end-to-end tools platform for teams of creative designers which boosts collaboration with developers in the delivery of next-generation user experiences for Windows, the Web and beyond.

The Expression studio suite include Expression Web, Blend , design and media, together all of which allows the developers and designers to deliver visually rich content for various type of media.

Microsoft Frontpage is discontinued and its functionality is split between two different products; Microsoft Expression Web & Microsoft Sharepoint Designer. Expression Web is targeted at professional Web designers who build broad reach HTML Web sites. Continue reading

Thought-of-the-Day - The Intelligent Metadata approach to information virtualization ...

2007-08-04T00:38:00.000-04:00

The Intelligent Metadata approach to information virtualization solves both ‘back-end’ information integration problems and ‘front-end’ Business Intelligence bottlenecks. continue reading

Visual Design as an Information Design tool

2007-07-21T12:59:00.000-04:00

NB. Design, Visual perception and Web Sight all go here hand-in-hand

This is what an information architect @ Yahoo, Abhishek Kumar says, and I quote

Visual Design or Graphic Design as people might call it; has been mostly associated with the Experience and Look n Feel part of design. But Visual design is tremendously powerful tool when it comes to information design / information architecture. I personally feel the real power of this has not been truly utilized on the web. With usage of the age old “Gestalts Law” information can be presented in a very interesting manner. The kind of tools that Visual design uses are – Typography, Color, Placement, Layout, Texture/patterns, etc. continue reading

Browse articles visually with WikiMindMap

2007-07-10T11:20:00.000-04:00

via Lifehacker by Adam Pash on Jul 09, 2007

Web site WikiMindMap turns complex Wikipedia articles into a visual representations of ideas (i.e., a mind map) to give you an overview of the important concepts and topics related to an idea.

Browsing a Wikipedia article with WikiMindMap may seem a bit confusing at first, especially if you don't regularly use mind maps, but it offers an interesting way to get a broad understanding of a topic and explore some of the related topics.

see also:

Mind map - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Using Mind Maps to Reach Visual Thinkers

Mindmapping as a tool for assignments

Information Visualization @ Google News: Image Version

2007-07-07T09:13:00.000-04:00

Google's News results : Standard Version Text Version and now its Image Version. Browse:

The Human Mind: What Gives?

2007-07-01T11:21:00.000-04:00

"I've often been interested in how our minds process information. How can two people look at the same situation and see something totally different?

Many of the topics we discuss here at MMI are things that people feel they need to take sides on. And everyone has an opinion.

One of my favorite shows to watch sometimes is Hannity and Colmes. I find it so interesting that people can see everything so differently. Much of it has to do with out backgrounds, our up-bringing, etc.; but still... how do people come up with such different ideas?..." continue reading @ Monday Morning Insight Weblog

Pay but don’t touch – Security, Satisfaction, and Expectation

2007-06-23T11:21:00.000-04:00

Arby’s rolls out ‘contactless’ payment cards
By: Robert L. Mitchell
Computerworld (US) (08 Jun 2007)

Are Contactless Payment Cards Tickets to Wholesale Fraud?
By Jeff Chasney, CIO, CKE Restaurants, August 18, 2005

US heading towards cashless society - 01 May 2007 - Computing.co.uk

Key Changes Facing the Smart Cards Industry - the Contactless Payment Technology Opportunities, May 31, 2007, Business Wire

RFID Cards for New York Subway Tolls,
Filed in archive Contactless Payment Systems by Anita Campbell on March 21, 2006

Contactless Credit Cards: Privacy Holes? October 24, 2006 [Radio Frequency Identification news] RFID Gazette: Applications

'smart' city....what about citizens?

Eye to I: Visual Literacy

2007-06-15T07:30:00.000-04:00

ACRL Arts Section / Instruction Section, 2007 Conference Program, ALA, Washington, D.C.
Welcome to the home of the virtual poster sessions that are being offered in conjunction with the ACRL Instruction Section/Arts Section program at ALA 2007 in Washington D.C. entitled Eye to I: Visual Literacy Meets Information Literacy. The poster sessions will be available through this site through December, 2007. Please use the links at the right to view the poster sessions that illustrate practical applications of the intersection of visual literacy and information literacy. We hope you will also plan to attend the program at ALA in June! continue reading

contact:Meghan Sitar
Instruction and Outreach Librarian
Library Instruction Services
University of Texas Libraries
The University of Texas at Austin

Microsoft Brings Computing to Tabletops

2007-06-04T11:15:00.000-04:00

By Barry Levine
May 30, 2007 9:03AM

Microsoft's latest tech, called Microsoft Surface, can identify physical objects in addition to finger movements; for example, when a diner sets down a wine glass, Surface can automatically offer additional wine choices tailored to the dinner being eaten. "We see this as a multibillion-dollar category," said Microsoft's Steve Ballmer. continue reading

Silence Please: Mr. Bean, The Library

2007-05-28T09:43:00.000-04:00

PS. The producers want to make clear that no real librarians were hurt in the filming of this skit [source: Law Librarian Blog] -- TV Series: "Mr. Bean" (1990).

[PS. Above info courtesy: David P. Dillard]
See also from my blogs:

Funny you should ask: Humor at the Reference Desk

Unusual Reference Questions - Globalism Visited

Seneca Library Holiday Song

The Technique of Song and Sound Visualization: Blogga Song of Librarians

Researchers Turn Web Blather to Books

2007-05-27T15:27:00.000-04:00

A Blather defined:
"Blather is a user-contributed content website owned by and hosted on the new dream network (DreamHost). Words link to pages about other words, the difference being that nearly every word is a hyperlink. It serves many functions to its users, poetry and prose workshop, sharing ideas, political debates, or simply a message board. Blather has no implied or explicit purpose. Wiki"

By JENNIFER C. YATES, Associated Press Writer, May 24, 2007

A few simple keystrokes may soon turn blather into books.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered a way to enlist people across the globe to help digitize books every time they solve the simple distorted word puzzles commonly used to register at Web sites or buy things online. Continue reading

Info courtesy: ALLEN Reynolds

All your favourites in One Page !!! . Too good to visualize and browse

2007-05-13T11:06:00.000-04:00

Bottom Line: All My Faves Why Search?

A better clip can be viewed at Clipmark's Website

Web Analyst Interview: Apurba Sen

2007-05-05T11:29:00.000-04:00

Looking for information professionals @ linkedin who can connect information visualization and Web analysis, I found an interesting resource person. This person is Apurba Sen, and he was interviewed in the area of Web Analysis or Web Analytics, by Anil Batra. Read the interview: Web Analyst Interview: Apurba Sen

Using Mind Maps to Reach Visual Thinkers

2007-04-27T00:41:00.000-04:00

Posted by gail mcgovern on December 18, 2005 @ clioinstitute blog
Not only does the article, Seven Steps for Effective Problem Solving in the Workplace, present a clear and concise approach to problem solving, it also includes a link to a companion mind map that makes its concepts more appealing to visual thinkers.

Think about how you could use this type of technique to engage visual thinkers on your library's website.

Related posts from my blog:

Mindmapping as a tool for assignments

FacetMap: A Scalable Search and Browse Visualization

Concept Mapping Technology - Tool to create HTML pathfinders?

Add Sense to your AdSense: Visualizing the Return on Investment?

2007-04-16T04:02:00.000-04:00

This post is regularly updated. Last update May 5, 2007

Thought for the day on Return on Investment (ROI):

If only things could talk, they could tell us who made them and where they'd been. If they were lost, they could shout, "Here I am!" If they were damaged, mistreated, neglected or expired, they could tell us that, too. They could tell us how to use them, repair them and dispose of them safely. Are you reading me? KEN HUNT, Globe and Mail, 11/04/07

Visualization is creating a mental picture of something in your mind's eye. Visualization techniques are important because they help make the future become more clear. Seeing yourself already achieving your goals makes your brain believe that attaining that goal is possible. Focusing consistently on any given goal will enable you to manifest it far sooner than if you do not focus on it at all; focusing brings the goal closer to you. Tips For Mastering Visualization Techniques, By Scott White Published 03/22/2007

See also:

google adsense sparklines,

Jenett, Marilyn. "Are You Visualizing "Out There" Or From Within?." EzineArticles 10 November 2004. 15 April 2007

Inserting adsense code in Postnuke article by nmjudy

Adsense And The Surfer, Ryan Smith Published 03/22/2007

Sense and Nonsense About Adsense, By Alex Newell Published 03/22/2007

Google AdWords plus Google Analytics: Market Manipulation and Possibility of Mischief? by Avinash Kaushik

Google and Behavioral Targeting Part III – Google Buys Doubleclick, Anil Batra

Pattern for Reading Web Content

2007-04-16T00:29:00.000-04:00

Vijay Prabhakar (@ CSE494/598 Spring 2007 Blog) says:

Here's an interesting article on the Pattern for reading Web content, which tracks the movement of eye while viewing Web content.
F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April 17, 2006:
Summary:
Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.

See also from my previous post:

FacetMap: A Scalable Search and Browse Visualization

Look and Feel of Browsers and Websites

A visual Newsmap

Visual Search Plus

Concept Mapping Technology - Tool to create HTML pathfinders?

Mindmapping as a tool for assignments

2007-04-09T15:48:00.000-04:00

Bryan is a senior manager who recently qualified as an MBA. During the course, he was given a very tough assignment - to analyze the business opportunities and related ethical considerations arising from cancer in society

Tool Helps Map Out Complex Subjects

Google for more and much more

PS. Thanks to Roy Grubb for the mapping info., and about ways that add fun to the learning process.

Technorati Tags

Mind maps

Mindmap

Mindmapping

Mapping

Powerpoint bad for brains - Menace of slideware

2007-04-09T10:19:00.000-04:00

7th April is the World Health Day. And, comes a health related alert--affecting business and their use of PowerPoint, in relation to human capability to visualize, store and retrieve information.

By John Oates → 4th April 2007, Register, UK
"Anyone who's been a victim of "death by Powerpoint" - that glazed and distant feeling that overwhelms you when some sales droid starts their presentation - will be reassured by Aussie researchers who've discovered biological reasons for the feeling.

Humans just don't like absorbing information verbally and visually at the same time -one or the other is fine but not both simultaneously." ...

"It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind & decreases your ability to understand what is being presented." ....

There's more from the Sydney Morning Herald here, or there's an abstract of Sweller's work (pdf) here.
Professor John Sweller is not the first to question the overarching power of Powerpoint. Edward Tufte is a professor emeritus at Yale and an information and interface design expert. His 2003 book The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within makes similar claims.® continue reading

FacetMap: A Scalable Search and Browse Visualization

2007-04-08T10:54:00.000-04:00

Facetmaps (or Facet maps) are an interesting visualization through the world of facets or categories for information storage & retrieval.

"facetmap search visualization an interactive, query-driven data visualization technique for searching & browsing large, textual datasets, such as search results. the driving principle behind FacetMap is to show any size dataset in the most useful way, given the screen space constraints, the number of items, & the attributes (e.g. by time, by type, by author, etc.), of those items. for instance, when the dataset is too large to display all items within each facet at a useful size, FacetMap collapses individual items into oval bubbles representing groups of items that share common attribute values." continue reading @ information aesthetics

See a detailed study:

FacetMap: A Scalable Search and Browse Visualization, Greg Smith, Mary Czerwinski, Brian Meyers, Daniel Robbins, George Robertson, Desney S. Tan [pdf] [html]

See my related posts:

Look and Feel of Browsers and Websites

A visual Newsmap

Visual Search Plus

Concept Mapping Technology - Tool to create HTML pathfinders?

Blogs and visual innovation

2007-04-07T16:14:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the initiative Efios blog, for this creative visualization, this helps both personal and corporate bloggers increase their visibility. And a quote:
"Images can be used to elicit creative ideas from a group by tapping into the source of innovation, ideas that tend to be more holistic than linear, more intuitive than rational. Creativity is enhanced when people interact with images. Seeing is personal and draws on unconscious elements. When looking at the same image, everyone has a somewhat different interpretation of what they are seeing, based on past experiences..." continue reading

Google for more.
Previous posts from my blogs:

Look and Feel of Browsers and Websites

Visual Search Plus

Add a little more random to your product

Look and Feel of Browsers and Websites

2007-03-23T03:49:00.000-04:00

Browsers, Web sites' (including content, design and visualization) have sites, sights and insights, courtesy: It is a numeric life Blog

Well designed web pages
An recent experiment demonstrated that tighter writing, more white space, and jettisoning unnecessary imagery helps readers read 50% faster and retain 34% more of what they've read. That explains why most people love Google's home page. Continue reading more: Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design, By Laura Ruel and Nora Paul

My previous related posts:

A visual Newsmap

Visual Search Plus

Visualizing the Web Infostructure I - Cites, Insights, Farsights

Concept Mapping Technology - Tool to create HTML pathfinders?

2007-03-12T03:02:00.000-04:00

P.S. Thanks to Natalie for this lead. If any one has tried this, please let me know.

Concept Mapping Technology - Tool to create HTML pathfinders?
One of the assignments for my Knowledge Management class was a knowledge map. A knowledge map is a tangible representation or catalog of the concepts and relationships of knowledge. A knowledge map is a navigational aid that enables the user to find the desired concept and then retrieve relevant knowledge sources. Read more from Natalie's experiences

See also

Concept Mapping Tool @ Goolge

Google for more on "Concept Mapping Technology"

Google for: "Concept Mapping Technology" "knowledge management"

Visualizing Knowledge @ Google

Concept Map pathfinder @ Google

My previous posts:

Visual Search Plus

A Visible Pathfinder for Increasing Blog Traffic in 2007

Job Pathfinder - Join the race

SCAM FREE PATHFINDER in Librarians as Knowledge Managers

Add a little more random to your product

2007-02-19T10:32:00.000-05:00

"You know the feeling: You follow a near-random trail of blog links and land on the post that solves your big business problem. You randomly flip through a physics book and find next week's sermon. You're shopping for discount dog food when you find your dream date. It's the powerful charm of the iPod Shuffle ("How did it KNOW that's just the song I needed to hear right now..."). It's serendipity. And maybe we should build more opportunities for it into our products, services, and lives...." Read full article: Add a little more random to your product Kathy Sierra

Sight, Sound, Senses Visualized - Creative Innovations in Touch and Tell Spheres

2007-02-03T07:38:00.000-05:00

[NB. Rest in the Waiting: smell, taste, touch]

Web site helps name that tune in your head [Sify.com]
Singapore: You know that annoying tune that you can't place or get out of your head? A US company has recently launched a Web site, www.midomi.com, that names most tunes that you can hum, sing or whistle a tune into your computer microphone. [Image source and more details: Website Lets Users Search For Unknown Tunes That Get Stuck In Their Head, Thursday February 1, 2007]

Librarians will see Margaret Atwood's Long Pen for the first time at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference's THE 2007 EXPOSITION, Feb 1 -2, 2007

Margaret Atwood's telepresence book-signing robot Clive Thompson, March 01, 2006
Wow: Margaret Atwood has become the first author to sign books in remote locations -- via a telepresence robot!

Last fall, she hooked up with a Toronto company called Unotchit (which sounds roughly like "you no touch it") that developed a device that works like this: Unotchit sets up its robot in a remote bookstore. Atwood logs in from home, and using a webcam, talks to people who are attending the far-off book-signing. She chats with 'em, asks what they want inscribed on their book, and they lay it in front of the Unotchit robot. Atwood writes on a screen, and the robot replicates her pen-strokes precisely, in real-time, on the book.

Previous posts in the same row and isle:

Guided Imagery / Visualization - Uses with the Cancer Patron

Infomedia Revolution Revisited

Visual Communication Vistas Revisited

Scientists and Artists: Who should design learning?

The Technique of Song and Sound Visualization

Information Visualization

Reading now: The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics: The Dos and Don'ts of Presenting Data, Facts, and Figures

The Adhan in British Sign Language - audio and visuals synchronized

When Design Gurus Clash: Edward Tufte vs. Don Norman

Designing human-awareness for ambient agents: A human mindreading perspective

Social Networks Leave Americans Open To ID Theft

Visual Resume - Revisited

Visualizing Facebook Friendships Across the Globe According to Paul Butler

Ramadan Highway Code - Visualization - Do's & Don'ts

Visual difference between a sunrise and a sunset

I want to download your mind…

text-free user interfaces - Medhi interface

SuperPower: Visualising the Internet's The top 100 sites

Google is making people stupid, Revisited

The State of Information Visualization

Deconstructing the Learning Pyramid

Subliminal Advertising - What you see is what you get, but not necessarily what you want to know

Information Visualization: A Day In The Life of New York Times

Google Goggles: Visual search, without typing or saying a word

Metropath(ologies) -- Mining yourself

Visualization of Google Barcodes: Happy birthday barcode

Visualizing Level of Access & Level of Trust - Another Trendsetter in Social Networking

WhoDoYouKnowAt LLC Selects NIIT Technologies as its Preferred Partner for ERP Integration Products

Visualizing Online Content Ranking: PostRank

SROOGLE: webserver for integrative, user-friendly visualization of splicing signals

Information Visualization Blog

Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent

Evolving Neighbourhood Maps: Google Earth Vs. Bhuvan

Visualizing Concepts

The Great Financial Chain of Being ~~ Shakespeare visualized

Customer Service & Visual Signatures

Business Planet: Mapping the Business Environment

Financial Crisis: Say it Visually

Becoming Screen Literate (aka Digital Literacy, Browser Literacy)

INTERACTIVE MAP: U.S. Newspapers pick the president

Visualizing Election Polls: An Animated, Interactive Way To Analyze Opinion Data

Blog Popularity Visualized... + 75 Tools to Analyze your blog or website

Concept Map / Mind Map Re-visited

Visual dictionary -- open for all, free for all!

We're redefining the dictionary: Wordia. Search, define, share.

Semantic, Syntactic and Lexical Web Revisted

10 Amazing Visualizations of Social Networks

Lines and Bubbles and Bars, Oh My! New Ways to Sift Data

How to teach teens to drive safely -- Use the brain Map

Sensory Information Navigation - The Next Stage of Web Evolution = Web 3.0?

Mapping Top 1000 Canadian Corporate Landscape: 2007 & 2008

Seven Simple Ways to Advance Your Career -- All in a Maze

Visual analogy : consciousness as the art of connecting

Web 2.0 Resume: Do These Push Pull Techniques Work-Well or Lead to Cloud Confusion?

Interesting Visual Dictionary

Senseless Signage, Plus Other Visualizations

Semantic web search comes of age -- iCognue

Artificial General Intelligence: Now Is the Time

Visual Images Online: Digital Images of Primary Material on the Web

The Informational Distance Between Cities

Walk the Talk With Dr. Edward de Bono and get one-minute primer on the six hats

From Keyword Search to Exploration: How Result Visualization Aids Discovery on the Web

2008 conferences: visualization of information

Cook up some visual fun @ ImageChef.com

East Vs West: Red Vs Blue -- Cultrual Differences Visualized

A day in the creative life

CERN photos in National Geographic:The God Particle

Interactive Inflation map

Visualizing the holy books

Visual Search Assistant & Visual Browsers Revisited

Organization of Knowledge or On Arranging Books by Color

ScienceFoo Campers: JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments)

World-Wide Web Map, From .ad to .za

Ways to help fight the fat: Visual Discrimination

Waiting to read the best-seller: Book Demand Visualized

Mapping the Unmappable: Visualization continues to advance

Blog Copying Visualized

Visualising Complexity & KM Communications Strategy: Mind maps

Web Analytics and Qualitative Insight: Listen.See.Smell.Taste.Touch

Step One: How to clarify your company's personality, brand or voice ...

Step Two: How to convey that voice in your copy ...

click here and continue reading

IEEE InfoVis 2007

AT&Ts Case Studies in Information Visualization Research Problems

Visualizing the ‘Power Struggle’ in Wikipedia