Information Graphics: is Information an Art?

Direct Link to the video: BBC Newsnight: Information Graphics
Via @dMultimedia - Blog dMultimedia

This BBC broadcast from August 9, 2010, looks into the art of making information beautiful, and poses the question: How do you make statistics look interesting? The writer and designer David McCandless replies:

..."you just need to apply the rules of visual design to information"...

Is information an art? And how does this affect the nature and evolution of science and knowledge?

The art historian Judith Wechsler engaged in interdisciplinary studies exploring some of this at MIT, and edited a book: On Aesthetics in Science, which we found very useful and informative when teaching epistemology of science. We were looking for creative original sources to approach the generation and processing of information, and how this triggered certain effects in social communication working with an interdisciplinary team in the late '80's. Encountering this book was mind blowing, as are many of the clips we encounter today.

The dawning of the internet and tools that enabled social learning and networking in business environments in the '90s, brought the means and resources that the University did not have at the time: processors, personal computers and of course, the net. Today you don't need to be sitting in a University nor working with a major corporation, to be able to acquire the means to develop your own learning paths of inquiry, and personal development. It's a matter of personal interest and professional responsibility.

What you may need is scaffolding, and coaching to recognize where you stand, and how to be able to learn and design your information and knowledge domains, how to distinguish what is relevant and what is useful to you, for your projects and teams.

Are you aware of the impact that a medium and a format can have, informing the interactional design in different settings? Likewise, your interactional design informs your chances to sustain successful communications, when engaging in conversation and negotiating or "sharing" information with others.

..."images are a powerful global language packed with emotional power"...

..."However even a bar chart can be misleading, if taken completely at face value"...

Are you aware?

Nanoscale Computation and Sims

Via KQED YouTube Channel, a 10:28 min clip posted May 2007 featuring Jeffrey Grossman from UC Berkeley, informing on the world of the nanometer unit of measure that is, one billionth of a meter. Dr. Grossman is interested in "How we do science and how we can do it better", and on the need to "lower the boundaries between basic and applied research" and "improve interdisciplinary idea generation."

One of the best analogies for a nanometer is to compare it with a human hair: "if you take a hair off from the top of your head, you can see that it's very thin, and now if you take something that is a hundred thousand times thinner than that, that's a nanometer."

Nanotechnology develops the ability to observe and manipulate particles at the atomic level, where everyday materials "start to act in unimaginable ways".

At the Computational Nanoscience Group at UC Berkeley, they focus on the "application and development of cutting-edge classical quantum simulation tools". Go visit!

Wordled Trends by Leo Burnett Gp

Trend Predictions Report 2009 by Leo Burnett Group via YouTube also provides the text ... not an exact transcript, but it does offer their "piece of mind".

Maybe the tone could be improved, yet the fact that they sort of wordle all of it makes it funny and easy to follow.

Economic conditions have been affecting our cultural context for a long time now, we don't think there is anything "new" in this... it's just about awareness and it depends on the type of business and industry we are talking about.

We cannot but welcome a quest for more value reflection and reassessment: "what is truly meaningful to us", together with more "pragmatism and prudence". Funny that they are now highlighting values that were present at the origin of virtual communities and web environments: "organizations that show they are going the extra mile for people" ... to be developed now somewhat reluctantly by constituents and allies of (former reputed) traditional players in certain markets. Just check which companies are still doing well and are better prepared to surf the dire straits into the future.

More on Collaboration and New Media

Howard Rheingold's multiversed drive(s) to promote collaboration and learning by doing... once again, paving the way for us to explore and expand the "social knowing" scenario with new tools.


via Howard Rheingold vblog Watch "Vernacular Video in Culture and Education" on blip.tv


Quote:

"Vernacular is a fancy word for informal. When local languages like Italian and French broke away from Latin, which remained a formal liturgical language, they were called vernaculars. In regard to video, vernacular refers to the emergence of millions of video producers and an informal, even conversational genre of video production."

Howard announces possible changes in education with collaborative learning and "augmented" info-communication systems becoming "every day speech". In his book: Tools for Thought, he announced how "computers amplified thought and communication" to enable new ways of organizing our work and social activities.

In another scenario amongst Asturian multi-versed environments, our higher education discourse remains fixated and embedded in printing mode and linear thinking, as the one and only way to go. Don't get me wrong: I'm having the time of my life here.

At UNIOVI we are living exciting times with a strong proposal for "change" by the current administration, massively voted last year by students, academics and university personnel. Walking the talk is much harder to attain, and therein lies the challenge.

Indeed, when users don't take themselves to be "users", and their thinking remains framed within maps of reified knowledge, as was the case with liturgy and the era of the scribes, when there is only one way to express new ideas, it ensures that any newcomer keeps doing "more of the same". Without negating the positive aspects of such a practice, the tradeoff is: it allows academia to remain "shielded" within an authoritative comfort zone, that will most likely bar any new ideas from emerging. In such learning mode all the power lies in the formulation and the enunciate, there is little room for evolutionary conversation to take place. We might keep adding years to the annual celebration banners of a 400+ year old school in Asturias, but don't expect much collaboration and change, meaning: creative innovation to emerge. (...emerge it will, but it will thrive, network and move out ASAP, as has been the constant with several generations of students).

As friend Martin used to quote: "para comer tortilla ... hay que romper los huevos". And this also goes for the students battling to keep the academic feud in place. (Yes, you read that all right). Salvador Minuchin dixit: "beware of those who want to protect... little negotiation and learning and lots of dis-enabling and evasion might be taking place".

Exploring beyond maps

Link to clip:

Never was the expression "the map is not the territory" so relevant: FYI we still have plenty of "frontier(s) of science ... and space" within our planet.

Dr. Robert Ballard doesn't need much presentation if you've watched the clip. After reading TED's 2008 Bio my first move was to go directly to the Jason.org site to learn more, and register.

Observing the clip again several times with students, it brought forth conversation flows drifting on to NASA's explorations, and the ways it may have fostered many of the technologies we now enjoy. NASA's surprising new storytelling capabilities IMO, show it has revamped at least a bit in its communication strategies, by outreaching with social-multi-media, opening some space for participation, "folksonomy" and fun. e.g. Twittering MarsPhoenix and the "Spacevidcasts", highly info-edu-entertaining leads I came across -once again- via NYTimes AND Twitter. It might be just a one person in NASA focusing on the Twitter activity, hopefully more, I find it a wonderful tool to inform and motivate kids learning languages, sciences, et al, to use, comment, observe... and go for more.

Recently a science researcher had distinguished NOAA, as his preferred site for climatology data, and it also rang more than a bell: the many cute stories involving submersibles and ocean exploration heard back in '98 at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The island (University base for the mapping & exploration project with Internet 2!!) appears to be Rhode Island, and the site of Dr. Robert Ballard, appears listed under "The NOAA Ocean Exploration program". Although at the NOAA site, it doesn't show unless you run a search for it, then it shows this.

Community Dimensions of the Media

Via Twitter DigitalNatives to an informative debate on Identity and Privacy: Berkman Center Live Webcast, to a hillarious presentation by Ethan Zuckerman: Beyond Broadcast: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture. May 12 & 13, 2006, added in YouTube April 24, 2008.

Watch: "The Evolution of Digital Communities"


In the context of a recent TwitterAstur gathering where we debated "Web2.0" issues (oops.. the traditional media and scholars are finally aware ;-) IMO this creative-transformative human art by means of a videocast brings forth some of the human potential: "talking-to-one-another", generating and debating Commons and sharing different textual and visual narratives.

From Dis-enabling to Enabling

An International Psychology and Education Congress took place in Oviedo, Spain, this past week. The diversity of frameworks attempting to dialogue and debate was a very interesting experience to observe, according to the reports of some participants. Hopefully the planned integration of these two major areas of inquiry -if it does occur, might evolve into a different type of "learning organization". Think "win-win" you guys!! for a change...

At the same time, the now confirmed c h a n g e of Governance at the University of Oviedo following the electoral process, might bring forth not only new challenges (some change for starters) but also (hopefully) a bit more of an evolutionary learning context in the future.

Now back to check "what's up" in virtual planet following favorite authors, experts in "thinking tools" who actually "walk the talk", and evolutionary learning communities, that do exist and "insist", I came across this:


See: Howard Rheingold's Vlog
Yochai Benkler's web

Accessing, Sharing, Collaborating

CrossTalk Publication on issuu.com

Loving the way it works: scroll around the pages, zoom in/out, use the top bar to change page, use the "share" option to Web2.0 link, rank, map, and more ... mail&add a message, embed as I did here above...

Distinguishing: Page 30 "Net-Centric Virtuosity"

Quote from Gary A. Petersen's post: "Information technology history teaches us .. (...) Fixation on a technology can limit our exposure to new possibilities, experiences and insights. Even horse blinders were state-of-the-art once".

This publication deals with-caters for Defense Info Tech and Soft Engineering...so what? These industries have given us wonderful tools such as systems' thinking, cybernetics and the internet for starters. How we use them is a very different question. Notice they seem to be promoting practices that in some highly reputed universities in NSpain we are still NOT embracing i.e.: people-process-technology, access-sharing-collaborating.

Regarding "fixation on a technology" this could be: scribes, print, edu board broadcasting, PC centered or the usual you may have in mind. Same goes for fixation on a particular model/mental frame: linear sequential "progress" approach pertaining to '60s-'70s "new new thing" mode and killer app of the late '90s, "zero sum games" and other ... How about incorporating an open-mind to emerging models, practices that may be relevant, creative exploration with programs, as well as looking into retro when applicable, teaching-learning mode for all in the classroom, and out, indeed, participatory modes.

Page 32 states (bold is mine):

"Vision: Deliver the Power of Information: An agile enterprise empowered by access to and sharing of timely and trusted information":

"Mission: Enable Net-Centric Operations: Lead the Information Age transformation that enhances (...) efficiency and effectiveness"

"Goals: Information on Demand: build the net, populate the net, operate the net, protect the net"

Beware PhD program/resources and context organizers: a high level edu system calls for hands-on informed practices and research meaning also some pretty "hot" updated stuff, PLUS: enable and foster collaboration, sharing, distributed learning and new media tools with contextual relevance, or else... we are working- learning - living in the past.