23 July 2004

When a graphic is worth a thousand words in site search results (http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=12451 ).  (However) The “visual” refers to how results are organized and displayed to users: in a more graphical format that allows them to narrow the field more quickly than it would take them to read through a text list of results.   But with a visual interface you can get a little bit of a view of all 800 things before you actually focus on the areas that are important to you.”
http://www.hivegroup.com/technology.html

 Selection of Recently Awarded Search-Related Patents / Applications;  http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=688

These snapshots provide one perspective, one point of view on why an important historical event unfolded as it did. Some HistoryShots are very detailed and best presented in print. Others are best suited for the Web. ... http://www.historyshots.com/

Frequently Asked Questions of online map vendors;
Where do you ship to?
How do you ship and what are your shipping charges?
Can I get rush delivery?
Is there any sales tax?
Can I pay by check or money order?
How do you process online credit card payments?
What happens if I am unsatisfied with my purchase?
When can I expect to receive my order?
What is your mailing address/contact information?
What if I have a question that isn't answered here?

Using graphite and red pencil, and information culled from newspaper accounts, television, and other sources in the public domain, Lombardi developed a new type of history painting that maps the economic underpinnings of our global society. New York Times art critic Roberta Smith praised Lombardi for acting as “an investigative reporter after the fact” by “delicately tracing the convoluted unfoldings of contemporary morality tales.” ... http://www.ici-exhibitions.org/Exhibitions/MarkLombardi/MarkLombardi.htm 

Web traffic ranking tool;  http://www.alexa.com/data/details/

The Complete Guide to Isometric Pixel Art; http://rhysd.syntesis.org/tutorial/index.php  used for creating icons and game environments, characters, etc..

22 July 2004

GENERATIVE ART   http://www.generativeart.com/index.htm   ... • Web Art • Visual Grammar • Artificial Life •  Cellular Automata...

...the world of online collaboration is discovering what artists have always known: Rigid conventions are often crucial to producing art. Novels, poems, and oil paintings are really just structural devices that take an artist's zillion competing ideas—an internal, self-contradicting mob—and focus them into a coherent work. .. http://slate.msn.com/id/2104087/#ContinueArticle

Learning Maps allow all mangers at all hierarchical and experience levels to experiment with new knowledge and skills, discreetly discovering the fundamental knowledge they lack without being placed in an
embarrassing position.

Our Earth as Art http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthasart/optimist.html   To download a printable poster-sized (28" x 28", 144 ppi), click on the "Download a printable poster TIFF file" link which is found on each image page. The TIFF files available for download have been compressed with the gzip command to make their storage and transfer more manageable. Once the file has been downloaded you will need to expand the file

20 July 2004

SR&ED Tax & Finance Centre   http://www.cata.ca/Resource_Centres/SRED_Tax_Centre/

Changing the Face of Web Surfing;  "I was not taking any commercial advantage from the site -- it existed only to provide a service to others and to provide a greater access than that currently provided by the official site," said the self-styled accessibility hacker, who has also voluntarily given makeovers to National Rail, The Hutton Inquiry and BT's telephone directory site to meet Web standards.   http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,64253,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2

"The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village."  - Marshall McLuhan, 1962

The Art of Visualization




19 July 2004

Historically, maps are powerful tools -- universally understood and resource efficient, artfully leading us to new discoveries as they reshape our perspective of the place around us.   Each locally-made Green Map is independently produced, and the process undertaken in each locale varies greatly.   http://greenmap.org/grmaps/maps.html
 
A mediatrip is an original visual aesthetic/narrative that samples content from film, television and/or other 1st generation sources to create a new media experience. It is a form of artistic, political and personal expression ( http://www.mediatrips.com/) .
 
"In my experience, most interesting art gets made by people who don't know the rules, and have no idea that certain things simply aren't done: so they do them. Transgress. Break things. Have too much fun.  ...
I've learned over the years that everything is more or less the same amount of work, so you may as well set your sights high and try and do something really cool."  - Neil Gaiman http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2004/06/what-i-said-at-harveys.asp

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors but they all have to learn to live in the same box.
Happiness comes through doors you didn't even know you left open.

16 July 2004

“[Uccello] would remain the long night in his study to work out the vanishing points of his perspective, and when summoned to his bed by his wife replied in the celebrated words: “How fair a thing is this perspective.'” Being endowed be nature with a sophisticated and subtle disposition, he took pleasure in nothing save in investigating difficult and impossible questions of perspective . . . When engaged in these matters, Paolo would remain alone in his house almost like a hermit, with hardly any intercourse, for weeks and months, not allowing himself to be seen . . . By using up his time on these fancies he remained more poor than famous during his lifetime.”  http://abstract-art.com/abstract_illusionism/ai_03_put_into_persp.html
 
"Meantime life goes on. A good life can be lived. Human creativity never dies, even when it is suppressed. It is up to us to either use it or lose it. " - John Link  http://newcrit.art.wmich.edu/plain/JLslope.html
 
 


15 July 2004

PhotoMaps combine map locations with photos shot there http://transmutable.com/PhotoMaps/

Michelin Mapping ventures;
http://www.collectionneurs-michelin.com/english_roadmaps.html

"Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one." - E. B. White

14 July 2004

THE MOST ACCURATE FLAT MAP OF THE EARTH was created by R. Buckminster Fuller, distinguished mathematician, inventor and 20th century visionary. http://www.bfi.org/map.htm The Dymaxion Map is the only flat map of the entire surface of the earth that reveals our planet as it really is an island in one ocean without any visible distortion of the relative shapes and sizes of the land areas, and without splitting any continents.
Instead of serving as "a precise means for seeing the world from the dynamic, cosmic and comprehensive viewpoint," the maps we use still cause humanity to "appear inherently disassociated, remote, self-interestedly preoccupied with the political concept of its got to be you or me; there is not enough for both."

13 July 2004

Sarah Trigg’s paintings, made with both traditonal and digital media, explore the connection between geography and biology... http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0404/prt/ The intent is not so much to be representational but to reflect how you would remember that photograph, or how your subconscious might regurgitate that image. http://www.asci.org/digital2001/trigg/trigg.htm
Also, Layla Curtis is a British artist whose works are based on maps. Links at http://www.maproom.co.uk/maps/laylacurtis.html Site: http://www.laylacurtis.com

Idea to cut/fold a Fibonacci sheet (no need to worry that no piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven (7) times).
Idea to develop abstract paintings by Filtering and "paint-bucketing" traditional maps.
Idea for FirstEd Map of Edmonton's "firsts" (on swirl).

Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

"Be obscure clearly." - E. B. White, advice to writers (and map-makers?)

"I print up completely different business cards every couple of months (only to irritate people who didn't keep earlier ones that might be worth collecting today." - RW

12 July 2004

Alberta 2005 Centennial (http://www3.gov.ab.ca/alberta_centennial/default.aspx )idea to web-enable a base map (10x? grid) where people could 'plot' their nominations for people of the century by decade...something like the EmoMap where people can add points to a map; http://brainoff.com/weblogs/blogtalk/map/would be better with a wiki back-end (rather than this blog http://www.brainoff.com/weblogs/blogtalk/).

Programming languages pedigree chart; http://people.mandrakesoft.com/~prigaux/language-study/diagram-light.png , more complex version; http://people.mandrakesoft.com/~prigaux/language-study/diagram.png
Language comparison chart http://merd.sourceforge.net/pixel/language-study/scripting-language/

The Human Factory body visualiztion; http://brainoff.com/photos/eastend/fixed.jpg

Poster Catalogues: www.bmcgaw.com www.wildapple.com www.winndevon.com www.canadianartprints.com www.artinmotion.com www.graphiquedefrance.com www.artgroup.com

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

"A map is a device for turning ____ into ____". - RW (data / vision, ...)

09 July 2004

As We May Think by Vannevar Bush : http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm

"As We May Think", The Exploratories Project & a Tour of Mindmapping Links at
http://bootstrap.org/dkr/discussion/2801.html
contains a link to one of my old mapping pages. From their group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unrev-II/

Successful visual explanations often build upon a viewer's experience with such visual tools as maps, graphs, and charts. Reusing a well known visual model can be an efficient way to present data with a similar structure and may reveal unexpected possibilities as the model is tailored to the task at hand. Other data sets demand a completely new approach. When this happens, the challenge is developing a visual system that still triggers a viewer's intuitive understanding. http://www.kaywebs.co.uk/process_maps.htm

"A picture is worth a thousand words. A collage image is worth an encyclopedia." - Oliver!

08 July 2004

Knowledge Mapping article and links ; http://www.voght.com/cgi-bin/pywiki?KnowledgeMapping

Map Challenge; http://www.knowmap.com/challenges/mapchallenge.html

Example History Maps ; http://www.grove.com/portfolio/history.html

Source of the dragon; http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/frac/jurr2.html

Atlas example ; http://www1.getmapping.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.asp?ProductId=3423

Sun article on Edmontonians100 http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Edmonton/Kerry_Diotte/2004/05/06/448448.html

07 July 2004

Interesting mapping project Wiki; http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maps Aalso see "unsorted links" at end of page.

Map History / History of Cartography: THE Gateway to the Subject; http://www.maphistory.info/sitemap.html

Dave Snowden left IBM on the 5th July. The Cynefin Centre ( http://www.cynefin.net ) will become an independent research group open and interested in partnerships, consultancy work and all sorts of things. The website will also be open for people to register interest in Dave's work on social complexity, sensemaking, and narrative by mid-July. (The Cynefin Centre Paradox of Culture programme will commence on July 15th, 2004 with the Catalytic Event in the Wanuskewin Heritage Park in Saskatchewan, Canada). ??
Biography Dave Snowden
Dave Snowden is Director of the Institute of Knowledge Management for Europe Middle East and Africa. One of the founders of 'Organic Knowledge Management', he is an acknowledged expert on the management of tacit knowledge and has developed a series of pioneering methods including the use of anthropological techniques for knowledge disclosure through the ASHEN model, the use of stories as an advanced form of knowledge repository (based on six years of research into story telling cultures around the world) and the Cynefin "Just in Time" model of knowledge transfer between formal and informal communities. He regularly consults at board level on Knowledge Strategy with some of the Worlds largest companies as well as to Government and NGOs.
Dave is currently leading two Institute programmes: One is the further development of Story Techniques into advanced decision support, merger and aquisition and multi-cultural communication; the other uses Complexity Theory to link concepts from Learning and Knowledge Management. He has authored many articles on the subject and contributed commissioned chapters to two forthcoming books. He is currently working on two books and editing two others. His own books to be published in 2000-2001 are on the use and abuse of Story and Complex Knowledge . Dave Snowden has an MBA from Middlesex University and a BA in Philosophy from Lancaster University. He is honorary fellow in knowledge management at the Universities of Surrey and Warwick and teaches on the MBA programmes at Warwick, Sophia Antipolis and Piacenza. Interview; http://www.vnunet.com/analysis/1112158

06 July 2004

Very interesting information visualizations; http://www.threetwoone.org/diagrams/

Map artist and illustrator; http://www.matteopericoli.com/default.htm includes right click pop-up window with contact info. 40' long folded book "unfurled" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375504915/002-9518280-4930413?v=glance&s=books&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&vi=pictures&img=1#more-pictures

Art Installation Idea; have (16 rows x 16) 256 books open to each 2-page spread to enable people to read 500+ page book without flipping pages ... showing all the contents of the book, map-like?

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows." - Epictetus

05 July 2004

Amplify is a toolbar that lets you highlight an area of a web page you are viewing, and will retrieve the highlighted area (including images and even video or multimedia content) and place it on an individual 'amp'. An 'amp' is a one page snapshot of your captures from the various sites. http://www.amplify.com/faq.asp

Another news visualization; http://news.stamen.com/

A truly profound scientific breakthrough, Kuhn notes, "is seldom or never just an increment to what is already known. Its assimilation requires the reconstruction of prior theory and the re-evaluation of prior fact, an intrinsically revolutionary process that is seldom completed by a single man and never overnight." ...Paradigm shifts occur from time to time in business as well as in science. And as with scientific revolutions, they are often hard fought, and the ideas underlying them not widely accepted until long after they were first introduced. What's more, they often have implications that go far beyond the insights of their creators. http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2004/06/28/the_structure_of_software_revolutions.htm

"Keep seeking and unearthing your precious discoveries without first asking something in return. The world of the future is made up of those who seek without end for the pleasure of knowing and also for those who get the greatest kick out of life when effectively sharing their discoveries for the tangible benefit of others." - Robin Good

Hijacked Hawking site http://hq.cjb.net

"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it." ~ John Ruskin
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." -Andrew Lang