August 11, 2005
Information Design Watch
From Dynamic Diagrams
Consultants in Visual Logic
In This Issue:
VISUAL EXPLANATION
- Hands-On Visualization
DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION
- Web Site Remixes
- Measuring Google Maps
TECHNOLOGY
- Filtered Away
- One Spammer Down...
DYNAMIC DIAGRAMS NEWS
- Harvard Bluebook Published
- Experienced Information Architect Needed
VISUAL EXPLANATION
Hands-On Visualization
Taking visualization to the third dimension, Lego Serious Play is a consultancy program that uses the colorful building blocks as the basis for corporate workshops. Participants use Lego bricks, joints, and gears to model work processes and business strategies. In a typical session, simple building exercises might be followed by more complicated endeavors:
"Groups are asked to capture a work process or dynamic using Lego, and again to explain their creations. The resulting 'sculptures' tell a rich story, [Consultant Robert] Rasmussen says. Examples include an upside-down pyramid balancing on its point and a vehicle with an elaborate design, but without the ability to move."
The Lego Serious Play Web site is here:
DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION
Web Site Remixes
A number of major Internet vendors and search engines have made their data and services available to outside programmers. As a result, innovative developers have begun creating new Web applications by adding customized functionality to data derived from one, or more other Web sites. BusinessWeek Online presents a "slide show" of such sites as a (metaphorical) hip-hop soundtrack:
"...hip-hop culture's mash-ups ... combine two tunes to produce an entirely new song. Likewise, hackers are combining the data and features of two or more Web sites, creating entirely new, independent Web mash-ups..."
Page through the slide show using the links in the top right corner of the page (they are not immediately obvious).
Measuring Google Maps
One "remix" that didn't make the BusinessWeek Online article mentioned above is a cool Google Maps Pedometer that allows you to overlay points on a Google Map and see the distance they mark. Developer Paul Degnan explains his inspiration for the idea:
"As a runner training for a marathon for the first time, I found myself wishing I had an easy way to know the exact distance a certain course is, without having to drag a GPS or pedometer around on my runs. Looking at Google Maps, and knowing there was a vibrant community of geeks hacking it, I knew there had to be a way. So here it is."
TECHNOLOGY
Filtered Away
The OpenNet Initiative, an organization dedicated to investigating and reporting on state efforts to control the Internet, has issued a disturbing report on China:
"China’s Internet filtering regime is the most sophisticated effort of its kind in the world.... It comprises multiple levels of legal regulation and technical control. It involves numerous state agencies and thousands of public and private personnel. It censors content transmitted through multiple methods, including Web pages, Web logs, on-line discussion forums, university bulletin board systems, and e-mail messages."
Coinciding with this report are stories on concessions that major technology companies have made to the regime. Such companies include Microsoft, who agreed to Chinese requests that its weblog service, MSN Spaces, restrict words such as "democracy" and "Tibet", and Yahoo, whose Chinese search engine filters out politically sensitive results.
One Spammer Down...
Joint lawsuits filed by Microsoft and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer have resulted in a $7 million settlement from a business responsible for more than 38 spam million messages a year. Score at least this one for Microsoft:
"We have now proven that we can take one of the most profitable spammers in the world and separate him from his money." Brad Smith, Microsoft chief counsel
DYNAMIC DIAGRAMS NEWS
Harvard Bluebook Published
Just off the presses is the 18th edition of The Bluebook, Harvard Law Review Association's standard reference for legal writing. Our redesign will help readers more easily locate topics and extract the information they need.
You can read more about the project on our Web site:
Experienced Information Architect Needed
Join the Dynamic Diagrams team and help create new ways to visualize complex information! We have a full-time, permanent position available in our studio for an experienced information architect or an individual with a comparable and proven research or user experience background.
For details, please read the full job description on our Web site:
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