"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.

#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.