Pavement paintings in Scottsdale

Pavement paintings to adorn downtown Scottsdale

I recently downloaded the new (to me) Google Toolbar with options such as sending an article to my blog with one click. A red arrow page icon directs you to "send your selection or whole page to Gmail/Blogger." I was hoping the entire article would appear on the page, though. The enclosure link was automatic, for both the title and the subheading. (I cut the headline down by removing several extraneous words.)

Then I had to upload the photo from this article separately. Since it didn't have a photographer by line I'm not sure of the right way to do this.

I am now on the trail of NowPublic.com, a site anyone can join to create and file news articles and news photos. This is heady stuff. Imagine the next generation of journalists getting their start: maybe right at the library. Not everyone is gaming these days. Maybe some library users dream of capturing the attention of UPI or AP!

"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.