Visualizing Data

So much code, so little time. I'm starting to explore the Processing environment. FUN! I'm looking forward to seeing what happens...

Linked: The New Science of Networks

Yay for the UX book club! It's always nice to participate in such inspired discussions. This month we had a great conversation about networks as described by Barabasi. I had a desire to ask if anyone wanted to play Power Grid, but held myself back, not wanting to disturb the natural conversation with my non sequitur.

We talked a lot about the social aspects of networks, and twitter got mentioned pretty frequently. We drew a lot of lovely spiderwebby little graphs on the whiteboard walls at SVA. I found myself wondering how we could add a third dimension of fitness to the node and spoke diagrams. What would be the bet way to show change over time? There has to be a way to demonstrate trending. I think that we often see these kinds of visualizations as static, when in fact they only exist to illustrate a snapshot in time. I think most sociological concept graphics are like this. We recognize the connection, but not necessarily the health of the connection.

For the love of the grid

It's always amazing to me how much difference proportion makes in the impression that a statistical graphic gives.

Practical real networks

Apparently twelve people makes a cocktail party, twelve being neatly divisible by two, three, four, and six. I wonder how often we see naturally occurring instances of this kind of numerical relationship in Emily Post?

UrbanGlass

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A few ground rules

Over the past week I've been pondering the definition of what exactly a museum is, so I've decided to consult wikipedia for a definition as defined by... well... the groupthink that is wikipedia, so for the purposes of this endeavor, a museum will be defined as a: "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment, for the purposes of education, study, and enjoyment", which apparently is the definition ratified by ICOM, or the Internation Council of Museums.

So now that I've been able to do a little thinking about this little project o' mine, I've decided on a few ground rules:

1. Each location I visit must be within the 5 boroughs of New York City (sorry Jersey, but it just ain't happening)

2. Each site must be accessable using my trusty unlimited metro card- public transportation only, people!

3. Each museum must be open to the public, with regular hours and no appointment needed.

I'm using the list compiled by the fine folks at nymuseums.com as a starting point for the locales I'll be checking out, but if there are any that I've missed, I hope my prospective readership will help me out with suggestions. So wish me luck! And if there are any museums you'd like to check out with me, drop me a line. It's gonna take a couplea years to get this done, and I'd sure like the company.

Cheers,
Bitsy