30 November 2004


Creative Commons
Originally uploaded by rwild.

A most realistic Creative Commons category >>>>>

Using adaptable tools and a shared visual language of Green Map Icons to highlight green living resources, Green Maps cultivate citizen participation and community sustainability. : http://greenmap.org/ Example : http://www.sustainablecalgary.ca/greenmap/maps/c_tiles/c4.htm

Visual Mashups of Street Art Icons : http://0009.org/base/tiki-index.php?page=PropertyGames

1·61803 39887 49894 84820 45868 34365 63811 77203 09179 80576 Fibonacci Numbers and The Golden Section in Art, Architecture and Music : http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibInArt.html#music?session=B2ry1X68aakh5A5y1TX6xf5e2h

Online sources of good art: http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/nov04/mattison.shtml

HomeMap currently has 61 unique links (71 in total) : http://resources.bravenet.com/minitools/page_link_analyzer/

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation." - Herman Melville

29 November 2004

Middle/East Online maps http://fontes.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/maps.htm

"Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to burn brighter." - Bono

26 November 2004

25 November 2004

Concept Maps take an enormous amount of information and consolidate it into a concise, readable graphic. By working with concept maps, a group of people can rapidly explore the relative importance (or other factors) of different ideas and use this shared vision as the basis for further action. http://www.conceptsystems.com/ConceptMapping/ConceptMapping.cfm

Information Mapping; ______Science or______ Art?


Mapped Layers
Originally uploaded by rwild.

... here is a good example of the multi-faceted nature of map layers

"The best way to persuade people, is to show them what you mean." - Ron Wild

"To see a World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour." - William Blake ("Auguries of Innocence," Works, Oxford Edition, 1914, p. 171. )

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Edison

24 November 2004

When it comes to identifying or memorizing factual data, it is generally accepted that people find pictures far easier to remember than text. However In current GUIs everything looks the same, and finding a particular file is as difficult. The idea is to allow people to use the visual sense to identify files and objects in order to improve computer navigation and real-world organization. http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2004/11/23/distinctive_icons_provide_desktop_scenery.htm The system "exploits the fact that appearance is efficiently learned, searched and remembered, probably more so than file names. Psychological research has shown that searching for a picture among other pictures is faster than searching for a word among other words."

Examples for each of the Thinking Map styles; Brace Map Bridge Map Bubble Map Circle Map
Double Bubble Map Flow Map Multi-Flow Map Tree Map http://www.mapthemind.com/thinkingmaps/thinkingmaps.html#themaps

GreatMapViewer is an information map viewing Internet application that can be embedded into a personal blog template or Web page, and displayed in any modern Web browser. As an alternative to embedding it in a page, you can launch it in a separate pop-up window. With some simple editing of an external XML configuration file different functionality can be provided (similar to http://www.blogbox.com/photoblox.php ).

Factal (snowflake) examples; http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/photos/photos.htm including facets and branching.

"Never before has there been so much to choose from, and never before has it been more important to eliminate most of these choices." - Gerry McGovern
“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.”— Charles Mingus (from http://www.lukew.com/resources/quotes.asp )
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”— Hans Hofmann
“Good designers can create normalcy out of chaos; they can clearly communicate ideas through the organizing and manipulating of words and pictures.”— Jeffery Veen, 2000
“[Leonardo Da Vinci] combined art and science and aesthetics and engineering, that kind of unity is needed once again.”— Ben Shneiderman, 2002
"A map eliminates everything that is overwhelming and superfluous". - RW

23 November 2004

(Not Powerpoint) S5 is a slide show format based entirely on XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript. With one file, you can run a complete slide show and have a printer-friendly version as well. http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/

"We see with the brain, not with the eyes," Dr. Bach-y-Rita said. "You can lose your retina but you do not lose the ability to see as long as your brain is intact." Most important, the brain does not seem to care if patterns come from the eye, ear or skin. Given the proper context, it will interpret and understand them. http://nytimes.com/2004/11/23/science/23sens.html?pagewanted=2

"Exploration with a capital E is in the air again, in what will hopefully become some kind of renaissance. ... there is only one reason good enough, and that's exploration. That means going somewhere, not in circles. But actually going somewhere... The reality is that we have become risk averse, willing to coast on the momentum of past accomplishments. If we study the problem, build tools and systems, and so on for the next 50 years, we can jolly ourselves along that we are still those clever Americans who put a man on the moon back when was that again? Where will we be in 20 years if we don't do something that captures the public imagination and inspires kids to give a damn about science and engineering again? Exploration is not a luxury. It defines us as a civilization. It directly or indirectly benefits every member of society. It yields an inspirational dividend whose impact on our self-image, confidence, and economic and geopolitical stature is immeasurable. ...the fear of going becomes less than the fear of not going. What are we waiting for? Let's go." - James Cameron http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/cameron.html

The main point of the book The Medici Effect,: when and where "different cultures, domains, and disciplines stream together toward a single point," they may "connect, allowing for established concepts to clash and combine, ultimately forming a multitude of new, groundbreaking ideas." http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/book_reviews/v5i36_stuckey.html important innovations come from collisions or combinations of different fields; observation and analysis suggest ways to encourage those encounters; failure shouldn't discourage an innovator, nor should he or she be afraid to break away from traditional settings and take risks.

Tao Te Ching : http://www.merechina.com/culture/works.asp?pageid=52

"Everything you can imagine is real." - Pablo Picasso

22 November 2004

Java applet is used to simulate a magnifying glass: dragging the square over the map in the large view displays the 2X zoomed map in the top view : http://www.webmapper.net/maps/java/

(Flash) TimeCircle : http://www.llgc.org.uk/illingworth/index_s.htm shows results in centre of navigation (looks like a combination lock).

As a part of the counter/cartography project organized in collaboration with c.cred, we have listed below a rough list of some groups and collaboratives that we know of; http://www.16beavergroup.org/links.htm

..."splash along, anywhere you choose, in the raging river of life." - The Universe

18 November 2004

Map of Mind Mapping (presentation) : http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/eLearning/HandDrawnMap.htm
"It's better to attempt something great and fail, than attempt nothing, and succeed."
"No-one truely dies if someone remembers."
"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible." --Oscar Wilde

17 November 2004

About 30 different templates for various information visualization applications :
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/storymap/

More JavaScript tutorials http://www.sitepoint.com/subcat/javascript

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Touché to the Wise! A college student challenged a senior citizen, saying it was impossible for 'their' generation to understand 'his'. "You grew up in a different world", the student said. "Today we have television, jet planes, space travel, nuclear energy, computers......"
Taking advantage of the students pause in litany, the geezer said, "You're right. We didn't have those things when we were young, so we invented them! What are 'you' doing for the 'next generation'?"

16 November 2004

Concept browsing interfaces, based on nationally recognized educational standards, can help educators and learners to locate, comprehend and use educational resources in digital libraries. These interfaces provide navigational and orientational cues that are typically lacking from traditional keyword or fielded search interfaces. http://dlib.anu.edu.au/dlib/november04/sumner/11sumner.html

(The Hidden Sphere of Artistic Concerns) An Adaptation of the Tao te Ching from an Artistic Perspective : http://hiddensphere.com/hs/index.html

“Mind mapping : Visual thinking and Communication”, "more show, less tell", using real world map examples : http://local.cips.ca/edmonton/HRsig/november__cips_hr_sig_breakfast.htm

InfoPeace is the production, application, and analysis of information by peaceful means for peaceful ends where critical imagination is the best antidote to technological determinism. : from http://www.watsoninstitute.org/infopeace/subpage.cfm?targetpage=concepts

"Don’t think of it as failure. Think of it as time-released success." - Robert Orben, Humorist
"It's time to start living the lives we've imagined. " - Henry James
"So what if it takes a long time, Ron? So what if it's already taken longer than you thought? So what if it will still take longer? The day will nevertheless arrive, as it always does, that all your prior efforts, determination, and persistence will seem a paltry price indeed." - The Universe

15 November 2004


for presentation
Originally uploaded by rwild.

Making Maps Easy to Read : http://richardphillips.org.uk/maps/index.htm research on cartographic communication is divided into six sections -
Relief: Depicting a Surface on a MapMap Typography Eye Movements & Maps Other Map Symbols Overview Notes

Info-graphic combining comic and crossword puzzle metaphors ("These stories traverse and intersect across the map horizontally, vertically and diagonally in a formation reminiscent of the underground network.") : http://huntingdesign.com/arrhenius/pages/IMG_0204.html by Lars Arrhenius http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/content/platformforart/artists/Arrhenius.asp# and more examples at http://www.feigencontemporary.com/index.php?mode=exhib_current&object_id=87&project_id=105

I am your Doctor, sorry to inform you that you have a brain problem. Your brain is in 2 parts... Left and right. The left part has nothing right in it, and the right has nothing left in it. "

Interesting paper (including fractal views on p95) http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/archive/00000456/01/yang.pdf

12 November 2004

Visual languages andtechnologies are increasingly being used to facilitate human-human communication through web technology and electronic mobile devices. http://viscomp.utdallas.edu/vlhcc05/ IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)

Direct path to the data that users really need, such as Information Extraction, and Temporal, Trend and Relational Visualization, copy of this new white paper at: http://www.kmworld.com/i.cfm?SPID=inxight111004

A Community-Indexed Photo Archive at Gimp-Savvy.com has more than 27,000 free photos and images, consisting of over 2.5 Gbytes of data. The goal is to make this archive a resource for collage and photo-montage using digital image editing techniques. http://gimp-savvy.com/cgi-bin/keysearch.cgi?words=map

"Every thought, every word, and every deed, whether they serve you or not, changes everything, whether it serves you or not. " - The Universe

11 November 2004

Tabbed browsing; http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/tabbed-browsing.html web pages are loaded in "tabs" within the same browser window, making it easy to switch back and forth among multiple web pages. Tabbed browsing makes surfing the web faster and more convenient; perfect for reading the news or sifting through search results (you can keep the full search results in one tab and open each result in a new tab. You can easily compare results by moving from one tab to the next). Instead of just one web page as your homepage, you can make your home page several pages. Select your favorite web sites and open them in a set of tabbed windows.


This innovative dispute resolution mechanism may spread like a meme. It is based on leading-edge visual mapping approaches to resource allocation. It is a good example of a situation where animation communicates ideas that could not otherwise be shared.

"It is by the force of images that, in the course of time, real revolutions are made" - Andre Breton

"Only through art and imagery can people be persuaded in a visceral, non-verbal or non-intellectual way. This is important in the spread of ideas since verbal communications can be manipulated to deceive while artists can pursue the graphic manipulation of images to reveal hidden truths."- Winston Smith http://www.winstonsmith.com/main.html

"...the principle of collage is the central principle of all art in the 20th century." - Donald Barthelme (1931-1989) from http://www.collageart.org/links/



10 November 2004

Behind the scenes: web maps: "Little by little, online mapping web sites are using mainstream web technologies. " - http://www.webmapper.net/archives/2004/10/#p109862983644102755 From http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=414&trv=1

Perceptual Organisation http://perceptionweb.com/ecvp04/mon.html#p3 from European Conference on Visual Perception series.

http://www.quotesplace.com/info/browse/Native_American_proverbs :
"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave." - Dakota
"They are not dead who live in the hearts they leave behind. " - Tuscarora
"A rocky vineyard does not need a prayer, but a pick ax." - Navajo
"All dreams spin out from the same web." - Hopi
"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand." - tribe unknown
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future." - Lumbee
"Wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it and start living the life the Creator intended for you." - Hopi
"He who would do great things should not attempt them all alone. " - Seneca
"Everyone who is successful must have dreamed of something."- Maricopa
"There are many good moccasin tracks along the trail of a straight arrow." - Sioux

09 November 2004


Beautiful Evidence
Originally uploaded by rwild.

... from the new and upcoming title "Beautiful Evidence". This chapter is entitled: "Mapped Pictures" and it is, as always in Prof Tufte's work, a marvelous exploration of imagery, graphics and historical diagrams viewed with an particularly skilled analytical eye and reviewed for their frequently tacit contribution to our just emerging world of visual language.

"A pattern is a proven solution to a recurring problem within in a given context." - Microsoft Patterns, http://msdn.microsoft.com/ . "[Pattern is] a recurring structural configuration that solves a problem in a context, contributing to the wholeness of some whole, or system, that reflects some aesthetic or cultural value." - www.easycomp.org/cgi-bin/OrgPatterns?WhatArePatterns

10x10 is a new visualization tool which showcases the top 100 words in the news and the 100 photos associated to them. It is also possible to directly click on any word or image to zoom in and see the news headlines behind it. (Click the headline links to read the original news stories. Click the zoomed image a second time to see the image full screen.) http://tenbyten.org/now.html

Example Image Databases ; + NASA Image eXchange (NIX)+ The Picture Collection (via the New York Public Library)+ US Fish & Wildlife Service: National Image Library+ NOAA Photo Library SearchDay article: Exploring Search Engine Overlap. Jux2 offers an overlap comparison tool.

08 November 2004

Everybody I have talked to since, and every report I have read, has stated that breadcrumb trail is, at best, a like-to-have feature. "The resistance to using breadcrumbs is perplexing," states Dr. Eric Schaffer, CEO of Human Factors International. "They increase efficiency. They support site learning. They reduce the user's "where-was-I?" memory burden by providing a list of recently visited pages. They make it easier to cross levels of the navigation decision tree within the browse environment."
"But users don't use breadcrumbs spontaneously," Dr. Schaffer continues. "Studies show that, too. Not surprisingly, the picture is not so black and white. Super users DO use breadcrumbs. You do, don't you? And you use them because they are efficient. They make sense." From gerry@gerrymcgovern.com

(Flash) Interactive TimeLine http://www.theglobeandmail.com/special/flash/Arafat/

The Journal of Maps is a new inter-disciplinary online, electronic, journal that aims to provide a forum for researchers to publish their maps. Using full peer review and a reverse publishing method (where the author pays for the review process), all published maps will be freely distributed to anyone wishing to view them. http://www.journalofmaps.com

Middle East Maps: Perry-Castañeda LibraryMap Collection http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east.html and Myths & Facts OnlineA Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mftoc.html

http://www.wesroth.com/mt_archives/images/Jesusland.jpg

05 November 2004

File menu at the top of your browser, “Save As” be presented with options ranging from saving the entire contents of the page (images and all), or just the HTML. Depending on what you choose, this will store all of the content on your hard drive. OR WebStripper will catalog entire Web sites, but it will also check them for updates, and download the new or changed files. This is a good solution if you are really serious about offline browsing.

Larkin and Simon's "Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words" is a classic in the field.

"When you own your own business, you only have to work half a day. You can do anything you want with the other twelve hours." - Anonymous

03 November 2004


Easy Street? Originally uploaded by rwild.

This is one of the places I need to draw a map to ("Easy Street", as well as Treasure Island, Happiness, SanJose, and a few other "where is...?" popular destinations.

New approaches to design / build: SHoP begins its projects in the virtual realm, using Rhino - a more modest 3-D program developed for Hollywood that sells for less than $900 a seat - to rapidly make 20, 40, even 60 iterations of a building. Then the architects judge each version against the requirements - light, room size, zoning issues - for the particular project. From the outset, they aim to do more with less. For one installation, SHoP used fluid dynamics modeling software to create an undulating wooden "beach" from standard 2 x 2 cedar planks. For a museum now in development, the firm is designing a facade whose decorative skin does double duty as a load-bearing structure - a two-for-one approach.... a process which begins with 3-D modeling software and ends with construction workers assembling the laser-cut pieces into their finished form. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/gehry.html

"To think. To choose a focus. To see the world however you like, and live to see it so. I mean, what else can you give someone who wants it all?" - The Universe
" Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap ... but by the seeds you plant."

02 November 2004

Pictorial maps ( http://www.georgeglazer.com/maps/pictorialmap/pictorialmap.html ) are a genre in which the cartography is enlivened with illustrations pertinent to the places shown: landmarks and buildings, peoples and ethnography, plants and animals, sometimes rendered in bird's-eye view. The maps often include historical events and references.

"A good traveler is one who does not know where he is going to, and a perfect traveler is one who does not know where he came from." - Lin Yu-t'ang
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. " & "Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week." - Will Rogers
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." - Will Rogers
"Worst of all, as most became weaker and weaker, they'd resort to visualizing what they wanted, but without knocking, yearning without expecting, and, you guessed it, just kind of hanging around waiting for Oprah to call, instead of living a life worth calling about." - The Universe

01 November 2004

Map of Creativity (Flash-based) : http://www.ngf.org.uk/map/map.html

Keyhole www.keyhole.com "This acquisition gives Google users a powerful new search tool, enabling users to view 3D images of any place on earth as well as tap a rich database of roads, businesses and many other points of interest. With an Internet connection, users enter an address or other location information and Keyhole's software accesses the database and takes them to a digital image of that location on their computer screen. The interactive software then gives users many options, including the ability to zoom in from space-level to street-level, tilt and rotate the view or search for other information such as hotels, parks, ATMs or subways. Unlike traditional mapping technologies, Keyhole creates a dynamic 3D interface for geographic information."

"Here's a six-sided figure, and getting four of them right doesn't help you." - Jay Walker (on how inventing is like solving a Rubik's Cube) ...what qualities does a successful inventor have? : the ability to find new problems that no one else even sees. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6257074/site/newsweek/
"Success is pretty much a crapshoot; there are too many unknown facts in a company's early life to make all the right decisions. But good, quick judgment calls on several fronts help multiply the chances of beating the odds." - Ram Shriram (one of Google's earliest gurus) http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/10055239.htm
"Fitness is not an act; it's a habit." - RW
"I find the great thing in this world is, not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, novelist, playwright, & philospoher
"Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught." - Winston Churchill
"Ideas are easy to come by: reduction to practise is an arduous but inspirationally rewarding matter." - Buckminster Fuller
"The old ways are dissolving and the new has not yet shown itself. If this is true then we must engage with one another differently, as explorers and discoverers." - Meg Wheatley Leadership and the New Science
The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists." - Martin Luther King
"Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh
"For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are those 'It might have been.'" - John Greenleaf Whittier
"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you treat everything like a nail." - Abraham Maslow
If you can't think - go for a walk. - (Ideas)
"There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will have truly defeated age." - Sophia Loren
"So, if you're a first-rate dreamer, dream it out -- several of them--and then see what realities can come to make them happen, instead of saying, "Oh, my God. With this reality, what can I dream?"" - Virginia Satir
"One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty, until you try." - Sophocles
"Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged." - Thomas Edison
"We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems." - Lee Iacocca
"If I had to live my life over again, I'd dare to make more mistakes next time."- Natine Sanger