"Cool Infographic" is not an oxymoron • 10/365 •

"You might be a geek if ... " 

"...If you get excited when new infographics come out."

"...If you really wonder what Yoda would say about it."

I don't know how I ended up talking about analytics and infographics. I especially don't know how I ended up liking them! Alas, what could be more interesting to an analytical, visually creative person, than to breathe life into mountains of dry data by giving it color, form, even motion?

Infographics are da bomb. I'm going to start making some. Next week, maybe. For now, here are two of my favorite sources ... just in case you wanted to get smart and look at coolness at the same time:

Good Magazine

Since issue one, they have featured "Transparency," where not only do they shed light on important topics, make them digestible eye-candy, but they invite a guest designer to create them every month. Sigh. I love you, Good Magazine.

Fast CoDesign

Just like Fast Company, Fast CoDesign never fails to be entertaining, informative and hip. If loving them is wrong then I don't want to be right.

On a final cautionary note, as with everything in our universe, there is a dark side to infographics as well. Please don't believe everything you see/hear/read. Consider the source. A lesson can be learned from this one Sarah Palin's "target map" infographic removed from her site right after the tragedy in Arizona today. 

Yuck. Bad timing. What would Yoda say?

New (to me) Media Sunday • 9/365 •

Sometimes I play games for work. Really, for work! New technology, new trends, news and events – are all twists and turns along the professional and personal roads we navigate. I can't be an expert in everything, but It is my job to be aware. 

Beginning today and henceforth, on Sundays, I'll share a new (at least to me) thing or two that I'm dipping my toes into. I would love your feedback if you're using these. How are they affecting you, how do you see them affecting the world?

Social media has brought us all together. Facebook is King right now, and as I mentioned in "Nostalgia at the speed of technology," we are becoming less expressive because of how close together we are. It's kind of like the population in general – once upon a time we lived far apart in farms or houses or shacks. We would visit our neighbors and we knew all about them. Then as population exploded and we moved into apartment buildings, sharing the same walls, we stopped even speaking to our neighbors much less getting to know them. 

That kind of separation is against our nature, though. We are social creatures. So the next logical step after the great migration to Facebook is segmentation. We'll see more and more subcultures crop up again, where people feel safe to express themselves in a certain way. 


This Sunday's two medias are a product of that segmentation. 

Path

Path is an iPhone app. It's a social network that runs only on pictures. You are only allowed 50 friends, so they will most likely actually be your friends, and you are only allowed to post pictures, so they will see what you're up to. You tell your story with pictures. Fun! Drawback is your friends all have to have iPhones, too. Because of that, I haven't used it enough to judge it well. 

Quora

Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it.

It's a wiki for q+a. Where it gets segmented is that you "follow" questions and categorize them and each question can become a story. You'll see questions ranging from, "What are the best running snowshoes?" and "Do the majority of founders of tech start-ups come from wealthy families?" to "If I'm not happy with life, should I commit suicide?" 

Quora makes it easy for you to follow your friends from other places, so right away you're in a group that you recognize. Jury is still out for me as to how useful it is, or whether it's just a very interesting way to spend time.

Are you using either of these? If so, what are your thoughts?

Honorary Masked Crusader: Benjamin Franklin • 8/365 •

Masked crusaders have existed throughout time, championing their causes and changing the world. I like to remember and pay tribute to my heroes, whom I wish I lived amongst today. They inspire me from their resting places.

For example, we can learn a lot about Benjamin Franklin and how relevant he still is today from some of his quotations:

"Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason."

He was in advertising.

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man."

He was an optimist.

"All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones."

He was an activist for peace.

"Games lubricate the body and the mind."

He was a gamer.

"All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move."

He was an observant mover and shaker.

"Honesty is the best policy." 

He was in social media.