It’s hard to start. My mind is… circling? To some extent I find it all perplexing, but a lot of pieces are clear to me. In fact, some of the things I saw weren’t new to me at all, but I assure you this was comforting. It’s nice to know that even in Morgantown, I have access to the same types of information and knowledge that students and design practitioners around the globe possess.

I just wanted to blog a bit about some of my notes; maybe develop some of my thoughts, and to refresh myself of some of the discussions and things we learned about immediately before they get deleted from my mind permanently. It’s most likely not even a summary of what was said, you can probably get that kind of information from the Emergence website, I just want to share some of the things (whether an example, a nifty video, a question) that stand out in my mind.

Saturday | Sept 8

9:15—10:15am

Visual Thinking at a Global Scale
the story of Many Eyes

Fernanda Biegas & Martin Wattenberg

So Biegas & Wattenberg really started this conference off with a bang. I could have left after their speech and gone home happy. Their discussion on visual thinking and visualization interesting, and I really enjoyed the service that IBM is providing.

One example of visualization that I particularly enjoyed was the work of Jason Salavon.

In particular, Biegas & Wattenberg shared information about Salavon’s series, Home for Sale. Salavon took an average number of signal family homes for sale and combined the images to visualize what the average home in an area look like. When put together (see link) you start to see the trends, like Seattle is a really washy gray and Dallas has the greenest lawns, etc.

I know this example falls more into fine art, but it’s just a beautiful concept to employ and examine.

Salavon has also visualized by decade the playboy centerfold, and has used this same technique to visualize other concepts (just go check him out already!)

But less abstract, is Many Eyes. Many Eyes is an online…. Collaborative… sharing… network for visualization. But it’s not about uploading an information graphic to the website like you would a photo to share with friends. It does more.

Basically, you can enter the data, and then… it makes the graph. But this isn’t a private hidden thing that you create an account for, it’s for everyone.

In light of all of the conversations and presentations. I really feel like this was an appropriate kickoff for the conference. Having come full-circle now, I see what people like Chris Downs meant when he said we need to relinquish control and pass it on to the people.

Many Eyes is a great tool, it is really empowering people. Think of the difference (big or small) it could make for so many. Reading data is one thing, but being able to have it visualized for you…. That’s something entirely different.

I am sad to say I didn’t know about Many Eyes before the conference, but I am happy that I know about it now.

So I know I’ve lost you to Many Eyes. But perhaps you should come back… I DO have some thoughts:

            -So they mentioned that their graphics were popping up (with credits) in The New York Times, and Forbes Magazine… as someone with a Background in Visual/Communication design, I kept thinking about one of my number one fears… everyone thinks they are a designer. Currently at WVU with me, is a former Information Graphics Designer for the New York Times. I talked to her about what she thought this meant for her former job. Granted, Many Eyes will only format the data in so many ways. But I can only imagine a scenario where a reporter just skips the Visual Design department all together and places a link to their Many Eyes data visualization, or a screenshot… so I know we want our services to Empower people, but just a small part of me panicked when I realized… we were giving non-designers the tool to create Information Graphics…what does that do to the designer? Does that lesson our value? I am going to say no. Ultimately the fact that this service has been designed for non-designers (well really everyone, non-designers, designers, elite-scientists) to help them make visualizations that they couldn’t do otherwise… the fact that this website is to foster conversations, and serves as a way to call attention to important matters and create large scale discussions (I mean… wouldn’t this graph strike you as interesting… alarming… worth discussion?) makes us the champion. It makes us extremely valuable, it’s hard, but we cannot be greedy.

            I think we cannot afford to be scared, we have to be proud and confident about what we are putting fourth. And seeing the bigger picture here (not that my Crazy-Non-Designer-Aunt can not only call herself a graphic designer because she has Microsoft Publisher, but now she can claim the throne of Information Graphics)… and know that Many Eyes is creating a community around data and information. It’s creating knowledge. People are asking questions about the information being provided. It’s raising awareness about the topics and it’s raising awareness about data itself (where did this data come from, who is behind this information). And that is invaluable!