"Imaging" The Whirl of Information

Information designer and visualizer Dave Gray's blog, "Communication Nation" has a short video called "THE WHIRL" - He writes and draws while discussing the challenges of the information age. He observes how information that surrounds things can become more important than the things themselves! This is an intriguing idea. (Like being lost in your own tag cloud?) The graphic at right is from the video, and represents the earth surrounded by a swarm of information. People are having trouble deciding what is important amid this whirl of facts and opinions. Who hasn't felt this? Using visual languages can help in understanding and evaluating this onslaught of information. His personal blog at http://www.davegray.info/2008/04/11/the-whirl/ contains this video and others. He also promotes a visual thinking school on Squidoo. Some of his clients: Nokia, British Petroleum, and Microsoft.

I'm intrigued by organizations which employ open - nonlinear - creative communication - as their essential way of doing business. Also the visual means these organizations use. I found this while searching the web for mind maps.


Gray is giving two workshops called Visualizing Information, one on May 2nd in New York and the other on May 7th in Chicago. His co-presenter was Graphics Director for Newsweek until recently, when he left to focus on teaching at Michigan State University.The workshop will focus on information design and information visualization as well as techniques to translate complex information into graphics, diagrams, charts and maps.

Facebook Article: Finding Islamic Community

This article from the Chicago Tribune introduces an interesting use of Facebook and may be read in its entirety here.
It describes British students using Facebook as a forum to discuss issues of freedom and belief and to conduct ongoing debates on honoring their culture while studying in multicultural settings. The great thing about finding groups in Facebook or MySpace is the sense of community that can be derived. At the same time, it speaks to a kind of isolation too: not having peers close at hand. This dichotomy seems to come up in thinking about the internet in general, but the writers cite Facebook as providing "fast and easy access to the greater Muslim community and freedom to ask religious or cultural questions without fear of embarrassment."

#23: Summing Up

I had a great time navigating through this class. Now I understand a little what some of our customers find so intriguing. One of my favorite things was finally figuring out how De.lici.ous works and using it. Another high point was making a little search widget to put on the blog that changes and grows as you use it. I can imagine this being a useful library tool.

What I’ve learned is that these things are just tools to use depending on the problem or project at hand. Recently I’ve noticed how they can be used in combination, and that’s pretty neat too. The next step after these lessons is gradually getting used to using them more, and even depending on them for results. I hope the library keep using blogs and wikis to communicate internally. And with the public of course.

How has this program affected my lifelong learning goals? It confirms what I secretly hoped: that you can bring your real self to a challenge and contribute something of value to the effort. And that the ability to learn is a very transferable skill.

I’m a big fan of mind maps, (see my Flickr account under Favorites.) The “idea map” above is one of those things I like to doodle on PostIt’s. Maybe a future class could group material into modules based on interest or experience level. Each polygon could represent a group of features that work best together.

I hope future classes encourage more posting and commenting on the blogs, more collaborating and brainstorming and feedback, Maybe 2 or 3 people could work together to make sure everyone has “gotten” a lesson before moving on. I know not everyone had enough computer time or off-desk time to complete the work, and that some felt isolated and didn’t really get into it. Yes, I’d like more projects like this.

Overdrive, Part II

I am determined to actually use the Overdrive feature. Since all my other selections are on hold, I checked out and watched a movie instead! (First, I had to upgrade my version of Windows Media Player.) Then I chose the film "75 Degrees in July." Good film but not great: Although I tried to burn it to a dvd, I wasn't able to: probably lacks that option. Next, I checked out "Life of Pi" audio book and downloaded that to a disc. According to the data, I have until the 27th of April before it expires. I'm interested to see whether the disc is usable after that date....does the data simply degrade?

One of the problems I encountered during these downloads: messages from my computer that I was running out of memory. I wonder to what extent this is a problem for library customers as well. Generally speaking, this was useful practice because I knew that even problems I encountered would help me explain Overdrive to someone in the future. It would probably be wise for staff to have more first-hand experience with formats likely to cause frustration during the learning phase. Nothing can really replace actual hands-on experience!

#21 & 22: Podcasts and Overdrive

Using the directory "Learn Out Loud" I found three interesting podcasts, each unique and with a different focus. Although I'd still like to look for some with a strictly Library focus, each of these is interesting. They are also in "My RSS Feeds" in the Podcasts folder.

1. BigStoryTime: "Big Podcasts Read by Little Storytellers" : Mitchell, Valerie and Megan review the movie "Ice Age: the Meltdown", and share some knock-knock jokes. Later on, small readers share Boynton and Cousins books and even read the beloved "Goodnight Moon." You'll just love their sassy style. There are many more podcasts here for children, read by both kids and by the authors themselves.

2.Humankind: has socially conscious media stories, humanizing healthcare, breaking down ethnic barriers, and lots, lots more. It's not free podcasts, but it is very interesting audio content.

3. Alive in Baghdad: Voices of Iraquis. A weekly video podcast distributed by World News Limited. It delves into the real lives of people, on a level not seen on the evening news, except perhaps Frontline. It employs Iraqui journalists and covers such topics as Iraqui teens working for their families, corruption in the passport office, searching for employment, etc. Other productions come from Syria and Mexico ("Alive in Mexico.") This one would be great enrichment if you were reading a book on Iraq.

Taking Overdrive for a Test Drive

I attempted to download 3 different selections from Overdrive, all of which now show on hold but are not downloadable at this time. I will try the download process ...tomorrow maybe. Are these titles really in demand and not available I wonder, or is there a delay between choosing them and being able to download them? (Click on the screen captures at right to view larger.) I'm determined to access this particular feature of our catalog, since we want customers to use it and like it. To be fair, perhaps I should also select a print format, some music, and see if video downloads work as well. I mean, why not take it for a real test drive?
Meanwhile, I can report that the browsing went well, selection was easy, and the genres were organized fairly well. I did have trouble finding general nonfiction though; probably just need to enter a keyword as we do in Millenium.

#20 YouTube, TED

In looking for video it proved hard to decide what direction to choose. I ultimately chose three types: a straight interview, a realistic travel vlog, and a user-friendly informational video from Common Craft. It all just proves the different ways the medium can be used. Watched a review of “Under the Same Moon” with America Ferrera, an example of straight interview on a topic.

Under the Gritty Travel category here is an interesting (but several years old) short documentary of biking in Iran on the 20th Anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war - by Bike2Oz (Iran to Pakistan) CAVEAT: Some explicit language.


Episode 07 Bike2Oz (Iran to Pakistan)
Uploaded by undercurrentsvideo


The last is this in the "chalk-talk tutorial" category. This is one of several Common Craft shows “In Plain English” explaining Blogs, Wikis, RSS, Social Networking, Social Book-marking, and Twitter. They can be accessed thru several different services including YouTube, BlipTV and Teacher Tube. They are wonderful ways to simplify a complex subject and I cannot recommend them enough.





I did check out a few other hosting sites, like Uvouch ("Are you passionate about something? share it at YouVouch." ) Another video host, Daily Motion claimed to be free of explicit content. Teacher Tube also works toward this goal, in order to be approved for classroom uses. But my all-time favorite is TED, whose opening music alone makes me want to suit up and fight for more intelligent and inspiring content. I will try to embed one of my favorites from TED...