August 6, 2019
Oh Baby, It's Warm Outside?
Truly, a picture is worth a thousand words--probably more.
This was a simple drawing to depict I assume global warming.
- 2000 some nice mountain glaciers.
- 2020 the snow is melted.
It's like the person didn't have to say a word.
But I get it.
Also, I know there is supposedly a lot of scientific evidence for global warming.
But for me personally, I don't see it or feel it.
The summers, if anything, feel cooler and the Winters feel colder to me.
I know that is anecdotal and not representative of the world.
However, it is hard to reconcile what the scientists say, when your own eyes aren't seeing it.
Granted, I'm not in Alaska where, for example, the glaciers are melting,
Still wouldn't we be feeling something here?
Maybe a few degrees really isn't perceptible.
I guess time will tell us for certain.
Hopefully, by the time we do see it, we won't get run over by the speeding train. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
September 27, 2017
A Mountain Of Data
Basically, it comes down to this:
"Most organizations are data rich, but information/insight poor."
Or put another way:
"Data is collected, but not used."
Hence we don't know what we don't know and we end up making bad decisions based on poor information.
Just imagine if we could actually make sense of all the data points, connect them, visualize them, and get good information from them.
How much better than a pile of rocks is that?
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
A Mountain Of Data
August 31, 2017
VICE News Superior
It is on HBO and is superior to the other big news outlets in so many ways.
The intensity and clarity of their photography and videos is unbelievable!
My daughter said to me:
"This is clearer than REAL life!"
And she was right...I don't know how they do it.
Also, they remove all the clutter from the news screen that CNN, MSNBC, and others use at the top and bottom of the screen--instead it's just clean, focused, and right to the news point.
VICE puts the key messages in callouts right on the screen in large and easy to read boxes--the impact is you see the visual and the print message dramatically together and you get it and remember it!
They do this for their photos and videos.
Finally, with all the "talk is cheap" news these days, it is nice that VICE seems to focus more on reporting and less on subjective opinion.
With all the failing, fake, and alternative news out there, it is nice to see that someone has invented a better news program. ;-)
(Source Photo: Vice News)
VICE News Superior
February 26, 2017
Thank You Chaplain Berning
The board allows hospital patients who are intubated or otherwise can't talk to communicate their spiritual health and needs.
The top part allows the person to say what religion they are.
The bottom left, are choices for how they feel from afraid and lonely, to nervous, helpless, and hopeless, and even to identify on a scale of 0 to 10, the level of their spiritual pain.
And on the bottom right, they can point to ask for spiritual help... from a prayer, song, or blessing to talk with me, sit with me, get my family or hold my hand.
While hospitals have traditionally been focused on getting a person, with G-d's help, physically healthy again, it is wonderful to see people, like Chaplain Berning looking after the spiritual side of patients wellness and health as well.
To heal, people don't just need surgeries and medicines, but they need to deal with all the emotions and pain surrounding their condition and their challenging life situations, and this is something that spiritual caregivers can make a huge difference with.
The health of the soul and the body are linked in more ways than one. ;-)
(Source Photo: here with attribution to Chaplain Berning)
Thank You Chaplain Berning
February 2, 2015
Design Is Cool
It is from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in NYC (and if I am ever back in town there, I'd like to go there).
I like this logo a lot...everything from DE*SIGN to all the descriptions of design and why it's so important to us.
- "Design is art people use." (Design is artisitic and creative)
- "Design is communication." (A picture is worth a thousand words)
- "Design is the stuff around us." (It's practical and functional)
- "Design is a verb." (Design is something we do from coming up with the concept to creating the end product)
- "Design is systems." (Design is how we format and package and is integral to making the content easy to use and come alive)
- "Design is a way of thinking." (Design is big-picture thinking that connects the dots)
- "Design is problem-solving." (Design uses visualization to understand and think through process and problems).
A good designer is invaluable and design is absolutely cool. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Design Is Cool
February 19, 2014
Jewish History At A Glance
While there is already a lot of information on here such major events in Jewish history, world events, Jewish historical figures, Jewish literature and Jewish population, I would suggest adding major Jewish contributions to the world from Einstein to Freud, from Columbis to Salk.
Also, I found that 23% of all Nobel Prizes (or 193 people) between 1901 and 2013 were awarded to people of Jewish descent--and the awards were across the fields of chemistry, economics, literature, peace, physics, and medicine.
We are not a very large people--just .2%--in terms of population, but we have a very rich history--a mixture of persecution and contribution.
Thank you Minna Blumenthal for sending me the link to this!
(Source Photo: here with attribution to Odyeda)
Jewish History At A Glance
September 26, 2013
Flowchart Your Programming
Flowcharts have been used for quite some time for visualizing and organizing business processes and making them more efficient (e.g. business process reengineering).
Now flowcharts are being used to build and link reusable programming code.
NoFlo or Flow-Based Programming (FBP) simplifies application development by using libraries of pre-written code and then dragging and dropping them into your process flows.
This leverages objected-oriented programming (OOP) and uses modules of open-source code, which are linked together to create a full program that solves a business problem.
The flowchart helps to avoid spaghetti code by providing for a more organized, modular, object-based development environment.
These flowcharts can not only be a collaborative tool where developers can build or map code, but can also be part of the systems documentation that ensures a higher-level of understanding of the total programming solution.
NoFlo raised over $100K on Kickstarter in 45 days in order to advance this project from Javascript to iOS, Android, and Python platforms as well.
To me, this programming paradigm seems to have real legs:
- A process-based model for decomposing solutions
- Simple information visualization through a common flowcharting toolset, and
- Reusable object code from programming libraries in the cloud.
I'd say YesFLo--this makes a lot of programming sense. ;-)
Flowchart Your Programming
June 11, 2012
Technology Forecasting Made Easy
It covers almost three decades from 2012 through 2040.
And includes an exhaustive list of technology categories for the following:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Internet
- Interfaces
- Sensors
- Ubiquitous Computing
- Robotics
- Biotechnology
- Materials
- Energy
- Space
- Geoengineering
Further, specific technologies are informed by their:
- Relative Importance--by bubble size
- Consumer Impact--by size of the node's outline
- Related Clusters--by a jagged edge
Additionally, what I really like about their online version is that when you hover a technology, you get a decent description of what it is.
Looking in the out-years, it was great to see cool innovations such as machine-augmented cognition, retinal screens, space-based solar power, programmable matter, and anti-aging drugs--so we'll be overall smarter, more connected, exist in a more energized and malleable society, and live long-enough to appreciate it all. ;-)
Technology Forecasting Made Easy
March 1, 2012
Dashboarding The Information Waves
Dashboard products enable us to pull from multiple data sources, make associations, see trends, identify exceptions, and get alerts when there are problems.
Some of the things that I look for in dashboard tools are the following:
- Ease of use of connecting to data
- Ability to integrate multiple stovepiped databases
- A variety of graphs, charts, tables, and diagrams to visualize the information
- Use of widgets to automatically manipulate the data and create standardized displays
- Drag and drop ability to organize the dashboard in any way you like to see it
- Drill down to get more information on the fly
While there are many tools to consider that provide dashboards, information visualization, and business intelligence, I think one of the most important aspects of these is that they be user-centric and easy to implement and customize for the organization and its mission.
When making critical decisions (especially those involving life and death) and when time is of the essence--we need tools that can be can be easily navigated and manipulated to get the right information and make a good decision, quickly.
(All Opinions my own)
Dashboarding The Information Waves
December 10, 2011
Nuclear Weapons--A Scary Infographic
Unfortunately, I think many of the ones coming out recently are too jumbled, long and complex and read more like a "Megilla" (no disrespect intended).
I was a little surprised to find a infographic on Nuclear Weapons online, but then again it's not a "cookbook" and hopefully those are not being posted.
This one was interesting to me, not only because of the topic of weapons of mass destruction, but also because in 11 factoids, the graphics takes you through a pretty clear and simple overview of the subject matter.
No, its not getting into the physics and nuclear engineering depths of the whole thing, but at the same time, you have starting with the Manhattan Projects in the 30's, some nice history on the following:
- Invention
- Cost
- Types, both fission and fusion
- Testing
- Use
- Inventories, although based on recent articles on the 3,000 miles of Chines tunnels in the Wall Street Journal (25 October 2011) and Washington Post (30 November 2011), the Chinese number may be way too low--the WSJ based on Chinese media reports has it as high as 3,500!
- Even numbers "lost and not recovered"--11!--not comforting, who would've thought?
In the graphic, it would be interesting to see a breakdown by land-, bomber-, and submarine-based, (some nice graphics available for that) but perhaps a number 12 item on the infographic would've been getting too much in the weeds.
Also, a similar graphic for chemical and biological weapons while interesting, would be scary indeed.
(Source Graphic: here)
Nuclear Weapons--A Scary Infographic
September 9, 2011
Visualizing IT Security
Visualizing IT Security
September 2, 2011
Vizualize Yourself
I tried out this new visual resume online called Vizualize Me.
Vizualize Yourself
July 15, 2011
An Infographics Treasure Trove
An Infographics Treasure Trove
June 3, 2011
Describing Meal Time
Describing Meal Time
April 9, 2011
Mapping Our Social Future
I came across this interesting Social Network Map (Credit: Flowtown).
Mapping Our Social Future
February 3, 2011
Leading With Business Intelligence
Leading With Business Intelligence
August 1, 2010
A Peek at The Future of Information Search, Analysis, and Visualization
A Peek at The Future of Information Search, Analysis, and Visualization
April 29, 2010
Powerful Information Visualization Demo
This is not an endorsement of any vendor or product, but rather just sharing a great example of how robust visualization and enabling technology can help us comb through myriads of data and get meaningful information quickly to the people of the front line.
This is the type of architecture that pulls together end-user mission requirements, the vital information to perform, and the system to meet those needs in an eliquent end to end solution.
Powerful Information Visualization Demo
July 26, 2009
Enterprise Architecture Design
User-centric Enterprise Architecture provides information to decision-makers using design thinking, so as to make the information easy to understand and apply to planning and investment decisions.
Some examples of how we do this:
- Simplifying complex information by speaking the language of the business (and not all techie).
- Unifying disparate information to give a holistic view that breaks the traditional vertical (or functional) views and instead looks horizontally across the organization to foster enterprise solutions where we build once and reuse multiple times.
- Visualizing information to condense lots of information and tell a story—as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
- Segmenting end-users and tailoring EA information products to the different user groups which we do with profiles geared to executive decision makers, models for mid-level managers, and inventories for the analysts.
Interestingly enough, in the summer issue of MIT Sloan Management Review, there is an article called “How to Become a Better Manager…By thinking Like a Designer.”
Here are some design pointers from the experts that you can use to aid your enterprise architectures (they are written to parallel the principles from User-centric EA, as I have previously described above):
- Embrace simplicity—“people often confuse simplicity…with simplistic….it takes courage to be simple…and the simplest solution is often the best.”
- Look for patterns in the data—“good problem solvers become proficient at identifying patterns.” Further, designers seek “harmony to bring together hierarchy, balance, contrast, and clear space in a meaningful way.”
- Apply visual thinking—often managers…rely heavily on data and information to tell the story and miss the opportunity to create context and meaning,” instead managers need to “think of themselves as designers, visual thinkers or storytellers.”
- Presenting clearly to specific end-users—“good design is about seeing and communicating clearly.” Moreover, it’s about “seeing things from the clients point of view…designers learn pretty quickly that is not about Me, it’s about You.”
MIT Sloan states “we have come to realize over the past few years that design-focused organizations do better financially than their less design-conscious competitors…design is crafting communications to answer audience needs in the most effective way.”
This is a fundamental lesson: organizations that apply the User-centric Enterprise Architecture design approach will see superior results than legacy EA development efforts that built “artifacts” made up primarily of esoteric eye charts that users could not readily understand and apply.
Enterprise Architecture Design
November 2, 2008
"Visual Thinking" and Enterprise Architecture
Visual thinking—"taking advantage of our innate ability to see--both with our eye and with our mind's eye--in order to discover ideas that are otherwise invisible, develop those ideas quickly and intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way that they simply get."
In visual thinking (similar to me to “mind mapping”), we solve problems with the power of pictures. The ability to effectively visualize enables us to see difficult problems and “nearly invisible solutions.”
What kinds of problems can be solved with pictures?
“The answer is almost all of them. Pictures can represent complex concepts and summarize vast sets of information in ways that are easy for us to see and understand.”
How do we do this?
Look—“collect and screen” information (In user-centric enterprise architecture, we call this capture)
See—“select and clump” (catalogue the architecture information)
Imagine--see what isn't there (analyze the baseline, target, and transition plan)
Show--make it all clear (serve up the information in useful and usable ways i.e. make it user-centric)
Visual thinking provides us a way to clarify vague ideas, synthesize and analyze information, communicate and collaborate with others, and tackle difficult problems.
Dan’s approach is particularly interesting to me as I have also been developing and implementing a visualization-based approach to problem solving--User-Centric Enterprise Architecture.
In fact, my approach began as a response to the usual way of doing business, which was to produce fairly lengthy and convoluted technical documents or “artifacts” to solve pressing problems, and then to find that nobody read them.
While enterprise architecture is not a “back of the napkin” exercise, Dam Roam’s approach of visual thinking is compelling and consistent with how we can implement a more User-centric Enterprise Architecture.
"Visual Thinking" and Enterprise Architecture