About this Blogsphere:

This blogsphere attempts to capture, catalog and share resources relating to visual perception of information. It is about a world mostly dealing with Physical (Touch, Taste, See/Sight, Smell and Hear) and sometimes Metaphysical (and that is none-of-the-above category). Physical, for instance, touch (e.g., feel, felt, found), look and visualization, is here with an attempt to combine verbal, vocal and visual--to synchronously see, hear, share and do much more. Interestingly, in order to visualize one does not need special skills, competencies, etc. It is all about common sense, especially with human visualizations. In short, "information is in the eye of the beholder." Continue reading much more all-ado-about this Blogosphere

Akbani is a Cutchi Memon family name.

November 12, 2007

Waiting to read the best-seller: Book Demand Visualized

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. ...]
See also on the same shelf:
  • Add your name to the Popular Reading waiting list

    Have you been waiting to catch the latest best-seller on the popular reading shelf, but someone else seems to beat you to it every time? A new feature has been added to the online catalog, allowing you to request popular reading books. Previously, patrons had to ask Library staff to request these books for them.

    If the book you request is available on the shelf, Library staff will hold it in your name for one week at the Circulation Desk. If the book you request is currently checked out, your name will be placed on a waiting list, and the Library will e-mail you when the book is available for you.

November 03, 2007

Mapping the Unmappable: Visualization continues to advance

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

See in same shelf and aisle:


  • A looming legal crises on the Internet, MICHAEL RIGLER, The Western Star
  • October 27, 2007

    Blog Copying Visualized

    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:

    October 14, 2007

    Visualising Complexity & KM Communications Strategy: Mind maps

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

    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.










    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!

    October 10, 2007

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

    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

    October 01, 2007

    IEEE InfoVis 2007

    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

    September 23, 2007

    AT&Ts Case Studies in Information Visualization Research Problems

    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)

    continue reading

    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

    September 09, 2007

    Visualizing the ‘Power Struggle’ in Wikipedia

    "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. "



    September 02, 2007

    Converting Browsers Into Buyers — Know Your Ecommerce Math



    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?
  • August 30, 2007

    Square Pie in the Eye @ Juice Analytics

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

    NY Times square pie graphic



    Continue reading Square Pie in the Eye @ Juice Analytics

    August 25, 2007

    Visual immersion using Web Analytics

    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


    See also my previous posts:
  • Eye to I: Visual Literacy
  • Add Sense to your AdSense: Visualizing the Return on Investment?
  • Look and Feel of Browsers and Websites
  • Concept Mapping Technology - Tool to create HTML pathfinders?
  • Visualizing the Innernet or Visual Display of the Website's Infostructure - AHAREF
  • August 15, 2007

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

    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

    August 04, 2007

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

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

    July 21, 2007

    Visual Design as an Information Design tool

    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

    July 10, 2007

    Browse articles visually with WikiMindMap

    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
  • July 01, 2007

    The Human Mind: What Gives?


    "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


    See also related posts:
  • Mind your Faith....! Aa..ha! [Thinking Inside The Blog!]
  • June 23, 2007

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

    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?
  • June 15, 2007

    Eye to I: Visual Literacy



    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

    June 04, 2007

    Microsoft Brings Computing to Tabletops


    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

    May 27, 2007

    Researchers Turn Web Blather to Books

    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
    Luis von Ahn, assistant professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, poses on campus in Pittsburgh Wednesday, May 23, 2007. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, including Von Ahn, 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.(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
    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

    May 05, 2007

    Web Analyst Interview: Apurba Sen


    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

    April 27, 2007

    Using Mind Maps to Reach Visual Thinkers




    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?
  • April 16, 2007

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

    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

    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?
  • April 09, 2007

    Mindmapping as a tool for assignments


    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


    See also:
  • Using Mind Mapping to plan an Assignment
  • 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

    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

    April 08, 2007

    FacetMap: A Scalable Search and Browse Visualization

    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?
  • April 07, 2007

    Blogs and visual innovation


    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
  • March 23, 2007

    Look and Feel of Browsers and Websites

    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
  • March 12, 2007

    Concept Mapping Technology - Tool to create HTML pathfinders?

    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
  • February 19, 2007

    Add a little more random to your product


    "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


    See also: Analytics on the Cheap: Six Free Stats Packages for the Startup or Small-Business Owner

    February 03, 2007

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

    [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
  • January 13, 2007

    Information Visualization at Seth's blog


    I noticed two posts that add value to this blog

  • Turning your idea into a picture
    David at Boingboing points us to: A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods.
    I love the spectacular use of technology on this web page. I hate the twisted use of the periodic table (because the relationships between the types isn't natural or elegant the way chemicals are) but it's worth it, because it will certainly inspire you to figure out how to get out of your text rut.

  • Two kinds of people in the world...


    NB. As a bonus to this visualization (not from Seth's Blog), see also: Writing Style, By Gender posted at Jerry’s Blog–Because Wit Happens

    Here’s an interesting site where you can paste in some text and, based on a mathematical algorithm (there’s a link to the scientific paper), the text is analyzed and can generally make a pretty accurate determination as to whether the text was written by a man or a woman. (Be sure and scroll down after you’ve tried this to see which words you’ve used are considered “male” and “female”).

    Technorati tags: Sethgodin

    [image courtesy: Idle Advice]
  • January 08, 2007

    Graphic novels being challenged by parents

    Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 12/21/06
    BY DAVID TWIDDY
    THE CIATED PRESS

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Amy Crump took over as director of the Marshall Public Library in central Missouri two years ago, she decided to build up the library's offerings for young adults by buying the literary world's hot new thing …graphic novels.

    "The bulk of our graphic novels are for young adults and they're very popular,'' Crump said, estimating the library's collection has gone from only a handful to around 75.

    Among the new acquisitions was "Blankets'' by Craig Thompson and "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic'' by Alison Bechdel, two semi-autobiographical accounts of the respective authors' turbulent childhoods that include ruminations on strict
    religious upbringing and homosexuality.

    The two novels touched off what Crump said was the first challenge of library materials in Marshall's 16-year history, as parents complained that the books, which include pictures of a naked couple, could be read by children, attracted by the comic book-like drawings. Continue reading the full story


    Previous post:
  • Scientists study Christie success - Quantification to see true color of words