Infographics! information consolidation superheroes to the rescue!

   So remember when you were in grade school (British translation: primary school) and your teachers kept emphasizing how important it was to be able to read charts and graphs?... no? Well in my early education they certainly did. Over and over again we were asked relatively simple questions about graphs and charts. Rabid math and science teachers tried to convince me and my young gum-chewing, nose-picking peers of their value. "Look!" they said, drooling, "see how amazing it is that you can display lots of information in simple visual way?!". My fellow classmates and I would stare at them in unamused silence. Years later, I left school vowing never to be involved in a profession that relied heavily on math and promptly forgot my teachers well-intentioned words of wisdom. Until now!

   Whether or not you study information science, it's clear to see that information is what controls our current lifestyle. Never before have we had access to some much at our fingertips. As I and countless others have mentioned before, information overload is an inevitable result of this boon. People want well organized information and as much of it as possible. Consolidation and Organization are in! Behold a world of databases, social tagging, and twitter! As much information, as organized and as easy to understand as possible!..thus the INFOGRAPHIC!

The infographic allow us to tame the dissonant information chaos around us and make POINT without shouting! . . . (imagine that)

But don't take my word for it. Let's listen to an expert...








Let me interrupt all this excitement with one quick caveat...As David McCandless mentioned whoever can manipulate the most information controls everything. So be a good little journalist and be sure to check the credibility of your sources.
(Corn Refiners Association & America's Natural Gas Alliance...I mean you!) 

case & point

Anyway, on the more happy stuff! So what does all this hubbub about infographics mean to a Web 2.0, interactive, semantic web, techie-buzzword world!? As you saw in the first video, infographics can become interactive...check out the example below for something that takes this to another level:






So want to design some infographics of your own?

• Check out this article this article about 10 of the best free inforgraphic tools. 

•  Lucidchart. It is not as dynamic as some of the other tools, but it still allows you to easily create flowcharts quickly, easily, and socially. Plus I am a sucker for the "Hey Jude" flow chart video.

• Prezi - those in cdp23 know it well...yes i know its more of a presentation tool but you can create infographics within it

Infographics Just for fun:

click the pic for an enlarged view

Also check out

Cool Inforgraphics.com: an awesome blog that posts interesting inforgraphics from all over the web

Library Wold Tour..My Top 5

There are so many beautiful and interesting libraries I want to visit. I decided to make a list of my top five. Hopefully someday I'll get to see them all.


MY TOP 51.  Free University Library, Germany
  Designed in the shape of a brain, this library is open, light, and large. This library was designed as part of what will probably a growing trend... with lots of open space to adapt for "life beyond the book". Click the link for more pictures.

2.  Trinity College Library, Ireland
  I want to visit it for super geeky reasons. This library was used as the Jedi archives in the Star Wars movies.

Trinity Library

The Jedi Achives on Coruscant

3.  Stockholm Public Library, Sweden
  This is a picture of the gorgeous rotunda inside the library. According to Wikipedia the library includes 2 million volumes and 2.4 million audio tapes, CDs and audio books.

4.  Seattle Central Library, USA
  Like the Free University Library in Berlin, I love how much open space and natural light has been worked into this library. This library was also designed to give adequate space for "new technologies" digital books etc. Maybe this is what libraries of the future will look like.

5. Real Gabinete Portugues De Leitura, Brazil
  I have to confess I want to visit this library for no other reason than (judging from the pictures) it's the most beautiful I've ever seen.

Want to see more BEAUTY-FUL  Libraries check out this SITE.