You phoned

... this is what I didn't say.

developing websites

check out the website I've been working on:

www.museumhillneighborhood.com

Like it, and link to it!

slowly

i've recently come to realize that my mini bio on twitter: "living it up slowly", resonates happily with some other ideas and movements raising their heads around the globe:

the first, and most obvious, is the slow movement.
i'm completely enamored with this approach to living, working, eating - and especially learning! where do i sign up to be part of a "slow school"? (giggle if you must.)

being part of the fast-food-style education system, yet striving to remain human and sane (and to teach my students how to be human and sane), has opened my eyes to a number of changes that are necessary. much can be gleamed from this excerpt taken from the "slow education" page of the slow movement website:

The process [of education] is about things like how are ideas conceptualised, how can we support learning and the knowing of how to learn, as well as the love of learning and investigating. 

Slow education is also about connection to knowledge and to learning – real learning. It is about leading a skilful life – doing no harm – and having respect for all living and non-living things.

 this connects nicely to the next idea that keeps popping up:
our current systems, curricula and approaches to education (life) are outdated and failing our children.

A new favorite of mine, Sir Ken Robinson, has quite a few things to say about this. I stumbled onto his genius on TED.com - check him out if you get a chance. for those in a rush, here's a cool glimpse of what he suggests:

makes you think ;0)

the universal decleration of human rights

do you know your responsibilities as well as you know your rights?


The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from Seth Brau on Vimeo.

Hugh does it best

It's no secret that i am a devoted fan (deciple?) of gapingvoid.
Imagine my excitement when I stumbled onto this presentation - using his cartoons!

Oh happy day!!

10 Ways to a Killer Blog

From: yizmo, 1 year ago

| View | Upload your own

Presentation of Robert and Maryam Scoble about how to blog well. The Blog Business Summit 2006 is a conference and seminar series focused on business blogging.


SlideShare Link

I spy with my little eye

Browsing through some photostreams on my People sidebar in Flock, I recognized myself in Tresblue's "Second Mossel Bay Seminar" set. It was an Internet Marketing seminar he hosted for the company webactiv8 - which I thoroughly enjoyed and, as a matter of fact, seriously motivated me to nurture my (then fledgling) blog.

Kudos!

Now for the pics:

Yes, I wear crocks with socs in winter.

I am multitask.

I say the darnest things...
(mind the emerging bald patch)

We giggle, we learn.

Cool design!!

Now this is a print I wouldn't mind owning! Talk about brilliant information design! It's simple, easy to understand and provides all the relevant information you require! (To top it all - it's beautiful!)

Country Codes of the World (Byte Level Research)

Blogged with Flock

The Knoetze Bloodline

If anyone wondered where I'd gone to - or why I've been relatively quiet lately - check this out! I've been researching and building my family tree - and am at a place where I can show the world!!

*Muwahahahahahaaa*

Click through to http://theknoetzebloodline.myheritage.com and have a peek. If you happen to fit in there somewhere - drop me a line and I'll register you as an administrator!!

All my love,
Willie

Steve Clayton: Geek In Disguise : Digital Design: AvenueA|RazorFish Report

If you're interested in the latest authoritative report on Digital Design - and what your online presence should learn from it - click through Steve Clayton's blog for the motherload:

Steve Clayton: Geek In Disguise : Digital Design: AvenueA|RazorFish Report

Blogged with Flock

davidbdale_rocks!

Future Perfect « Very Short Novels

Do yourselves an immense favour and click through to this blog! If the catch phrase: "299 words each. Anything more is a waste" doesn't grab you - this speciffic 'Very Short Novel' most definitely will.

Effective system needed

Okay, so I'm trying to commit myself to the cause of missing children (persons) by posting links, images and notices of open cases. Though I believe that the blogosphere and it's inhabitants can greatly contribute to create awareness - I am not convinced that what I'm doing is enough... or entirely effective.

A better system is required. It is time for me (and hopefully some of you) to use our knowledge, skills, talents and abilities to create a better system.

First off - let's work on a conceptual model:
1) What approach/es already exist in child protection strategies?
2) How are missing persons reports dealt with in practice?
3) What are the pros and cons of these approaches, strategies and practices?
4) Which technologies are applied in these cases - and which technologies remain untapped?
5) Who is involved in these cases - and how does one get the broader community actively involved?
6) What is meant by 'active involvement'?

Any thoughts? Any more questions to add? Anything at all?

I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Together we can come up with a better solution than by ourselves.

Why I love graphic designers

From Idea Attic

Difference is; the other wing is yellow too.

Information design
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Information design is the design of visual displays of data. See Information graphics. It is defined as the art and science of preparing information so that it can be used by human beings with efficiency and effectiveness (Jacobson 2000).
In computer science and information technology, information design is sometimes a rough synonym for (but is not necessarily the same discipline as) information architecture, the design of information systems, databases, or data structures. This sense includes data modelling and process analysis.

References
Jacobson, R. editor (2000) "Information Design: The Emergence of a New Profession", Information Design, MIT Press, p. 15.

Love and Data

Data is quantifiable to the nth degree. For us to understand packets of quantified data - we need to organise that which we are given into recognisable patterns. These recognisable patterns of data are regarded as units of information. Information should, therefore, be quantifiable. Quantifiable information can be distilled to a core of vitals, which the information designer can manipulate to transfer all of the initial data to a desired audience, without bombarding the audience with more than the core vitlas.

All information, however, is not quantifiable.

Arguably the most important aspect of efficient communication is qualitative. Emotional. The information derived from emotion can be considdered primal. Connecting to the primal core of an audience is the essence of efficient communication. For the information designer, this is the real challenge.

How does one connect to the primal core?
Not by being clever - but by Being.

(At least, I suspect as much.)

Hokku Tanka Haiku Quantums

Thank you to Tresblue for mentioning the Haiku ;) Indeed, in our world of small chips and big data - Haiku are probably the perfect examples of condensed information transfer through language. The ultimate microchip!

Compared to 21st Century man's obsession with manuals, theses and compilations, one of the first forms of Haiku - the Hokku - had a completely different approach to information transferance. Influenced by Zen philosophy, Bashō could be considered the Father of Hokku.

Hokku vs Haiku? Compare this 17th Century Hokku by Bashō:

Old pond
Frog jumps in
Sound of water.

To the more modern Haiku by Masaoka Shiki, the Revisionist who brought Hokku to it's knees in the late 19th Century:

Looking through
Three thousand haiku
On two persimmons.

A snake falls
From the high stone wall:
Fierce autumn gale.

He washes his horse
With the setting sun
In the autumn sea.

Again and again
From my sickbed I ask,
'How deep is the snow?'

Soon to die,
Yet noisier than ever:
The autumn cicada.

Snake-gourd in bloom:
On his way to death,
A man chocked with phlegm.

A crimson berry
Splattering down on
The frost-white garden.

As the bat flies,
Its sound is dark
Through the grove of trees.

I want to sleep:
Go gently, won't you,
When you swat the flies.

So few the cicadas
This morning after
The autumn storm.

Nothing of Bashō's Hokku remains in the Haiku - except for the seventeen syllable form. Masaoka Shiki paints a more elaborate and esoteric scene. Here one is taken on a 10 verse journey from where one progresses from reader (first verse), to spectator, to participant and finaly to sole survivor. Through this approach, we are emotionaly involved - above and beyond the impassive observation allowed by Bashō.

Funny how this shift from Bashō to Shiki reflects the shift in our societies. Where once we were able to learn all we needed to know in three lines - we now have more information than we as a species can cope with. We need more and more combinations of verse to understand the world within and around us.

Problem is: the production and discovery of new combinations of verse grows exponentialy to our ability to learn - which, in turn, is fueled by our need to understand.

Perhaps Solomon was on to something when he likened the quest for knowledge to chasing the wind.

What if everything is encapsulated in the origional Verse?
Three lines (in English - in the origional Japanese, everything is written in one line) that hold the answer to everything.

Sounds a bit like string theory, doesn't it? However, if we were to move towards the string theory that is the Verse - what would happen to emotional involvement?

Aum

Japanese Verse

Language is the most basic form of modern information exchange - therefore poetry can be seen as a form of information design. The Japanese have a magnificent tradition of information design through verse. Here are two examples - what does it tell you?

Can it be that the moon has changed?
Can it be that the spring
Is not the spring of old times?
Is it my body alone
That is just the same?
(Narihira in Ise Monogatari, p. 67)


In this world is there
One thing constant?
Yesterday's depths
In Asuka River
Today are but shallows.
(Anonymous in Kokinshù, p.76)

Good morning to you.

Rummaging

Sometimes, when we rummage through our old boxes, in stead of dwelling on the past we could stumble onto clues about ourselves. Clues that make more sense now than they did when first encounered. Here's one, a quote from who knows where, that I (re)discovered:

"Certainly there is now a growing realisation that simplification is often the best way to filter information from an endless ocean of trivia, and that in the future the onus will be on graphic designers to become "information architects" so they can create tools that help the user to better navigate the complex seas of the digital age."

I like that.
Will ponder on it some more... good night.