Thanks to Congress, the sun's not quite up yet and the newspapers are being delivered like drive-by Molotov cocktails. Sometimes I consider what would happen if I laid down a spike-strip at the entrance to our little community. The paper might be a bit late but it sure would be nice not to have to wake up to the sounds of a choking engine, bad exhaust, and the loud angry thump of newspapers as they hit the pavement. I'm up way to early but that's how it goes.
Hey, did John McCain really say the words: Tar baby? I guess when you sell out like he has the brain cells move on to another host. We're so going to get screwed again in 2008.
It's been one day and a week since our presentation in Austin, though feels like it was a month ago. We were supposed to have been a panel wherein participants carry on a conversation at the whim of a moderator. Oh well. The format we used was more about four people sharing individual stories with ideas, information, and inspiration. Based on the reactions I received from people at the event I think it worked well, thankfully -- hopefully?
Of course this could have been the desired result from wearing a Joseph Abboud windowpane over french cuffs clasped with silver links of the state seal of Texas, topped off with the Robert Talbot pocket square. It's all about misdirection.
I felt compelled to complain about SXSW getting way to big as others have already chimed in but after a few days I came to a different conclusion: It's a business, not a club. That said I'm hoping that the vote-for-your-favorite-panel-crowd-wisdom-wizardry goes away. Good content/discussion is voted but fantastic content/discussion is curated. I'd like to see more of a TED approach with verticals of discussion based off themes not functions. In 2002 there was an Independents Day track that wandered through all types of sessions on content, design, and community. More please.
All that said, I missed bumping into a lot of people and that makes me sad. Me thinks we should all meet-up at Jim Coudal's house sometime in August.
Weirdest moment in Austin: sharing a cab ride to the airport at 5AM with "Digital Dan" Dubno without knowing who he was. Halfway to the airport he started talking about his good friend Richard and speaking at TED a few times. I tried my best not to let my jaw hit the floor. The discussion turned more to design wherein I got in a few jabs on how Edward Tufte is great designer, if you need to graph statistics with spark lines. Wurman's work is way more appropriate for online designers to study.
Best comment directed at me in Austin: You're not as interesting in person as you are through your blog. Brilliant!
Also, the Writing, Better website is starting to take shape and it will be published when it's really good and manageable. I don't know how some people find the time to create fully polished branded websites before getting to Austin. Maybe I should quit the day job.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
A bit off topic, but in memory of Ze Frank's The Show:
I'm a hardcharger!!!!!
King of the comments!!!!!
I don't want to sound like a neophyte, but are you referring to R.S. Wurman? And if so, what would you recommend one study?
Adam, don't worry about sounding like anything. We're all neophytes.
I am referring to the Richard Saul Wurman (some references here), creator of the term information architect and, in my opinion, father of what is now better known as information design.
As quick as you can, get your hands on a copy of Information Anxiety 2 and try to find any and all interviews and articles you can about his work on the Access Travel Guides.
If we are all neophytes, then consider me King of the Neophytes. =) I just ordered a copy of Information Anxiety 2. Thanks for the references; you've made a geeky bookworm happy.
I used the "Edward Tufte and his sparklines are incredible" line on my boss in Chicago and he rolled his eyes a bit. However, he was pleased to hear I even knew of Mr. Tufte. I think I just like saying (and knowing) "sparklines".
As for SXSW, I hope it's still a big, great party to be had by all. I'm afraid by the time I convince my higher-ups, or my own checkbook, to go, it will have turned into something else. Inevitably, a shift always happens in something good. Look at Woodstock. Hah. Eh.
I heard Tom Morello jammed out with Slash, Perry Ferrel, and Les Claypool...how's that for random SXSW occurance?
"Based on the reactions I received from people at the event I think it worked well, thankfully -- hopefully?"
Sorry this is off-topic but I was just curious. In the sentence above, I first thought the plain hyphens should be replaced with an em dash "–" but when reading the rules for when em dashes are to be applied, the sentence above did not adhear to them. So I'm wondering, was the double hyphen appropriate or should possibly an ellipsis have been used.
Just curious, thanks.
> So I'm wondering, was the double hyphen appropriate or should possibly an ellipsis have been used.
Just my two cents... there are proper rules of grammar and punctuation, but in many forms of writing... Those. Rules. Can. Be. Ignored. And in place of them you can use a kind of conversational set of rules -- or even very stylistic rules.
Or, the em dash doesn't display properly in some browsers. Might be. That simple.
> So I'm wondering, was the double hyphen appropriate or should possibly an ellipsis have been used.
Sigh. A double 'en', not 'em', dash is what you are seeing, the later is noticeably longer. The software I use to manage content put it there because I forgot to replace a type 'em' dash I had originally used in xPad with the proper HTML code. You'll also see this happen with newspaper articles placed online at places like NYT and Washington Post.
Thanks Greg! It was just curiosity, I was reading the rules on A List Apart but it didn't really show what should be used in this case. Thanks for your response.
I actually picked up a copy of Wurman's book "Information Anxiety 2" on your recommendation (from a very old Longboard entry). It is the worst book I have ever read.
I felt like I was being preached to in platitudes by an incredibly smug and incompetent manager. I could only get about one third of the way through before having to put the book down in disgust, but what I did read was incredibly sparse on anything useful.
Now I do realise that Wurman is actually competent in the field of information architecture--I've seen some of his work. But this only makes things more frustrating. What I read seemed to focus more on a proposed life philosophy than any theory of structuring information.
In general, I agree with my friend Des Traynor's review of the book.
I realise I may seem antagonistic, but I am genuinely puzzled as to why you'd recommend this book to others, and I ask: is there something I have missed about it?
Ah, Greg. I do wish we'd had more of a conversation up there, but I felt too nervous to be off-the-cuffy. Could have been my lack of cufflinks. Anyhoo, I wonder how our audience — or any panel audience — feels about that. Might your fine readers have any opinions on what makes for a mo' better panel: individual presentations or conversations? I think I found that, strangely, it takes loads more preparation to feel comfortable in a conversational setting than it does to feel comfortable delivering an abbreviated speech of sorts. I think if we'd had more time together, we might have been able to establish an easier rapport.
Then again, we wouldn't have been able to start drinking at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. So, it's a toss-up.
> [Information Anxiety 2] is the worst book I have ever read. I felt like I was being preached to in platitudes by an incredibly smug and incompetent manager. I could only get about one third of the way through before having to put the book down in disgust, but what I did read was incredibly sparse on anything useful.
I'm pretty sure Wurman is even more of a smug ass than Tufte, which is hard to imagine. Having those two in the same room would be like crossing the streams.
Keep in mind that his books are more academic than say Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think. I find that Information Anxiety 2 is a good tome to have in your over all bibliography but impractical to reference as an everyday tool, just as Tufte's book are.
Wurman's work has helped evolve information design as it applies to content and that's why I promote him. I find that his body of work and experience have more in common with web design than Tufte's (I mean, come on, sparklines?! We all saw how that played over with the Craigslist redesign) and that's why I suggest that fellow designers drop the books with pictures of dogs and steel slab lawn art, and pick up Information Architects, Information Anxiety or anything else Wurman has done.
Well, he's not going to do his smugness any help until he gets rid of his picture on the back cover.
I didn't find the book particular academic, I found it, at least the first third, poorly written and singularly failing to communicate any real information.
I actually quite liked Tufte's books, and had no trouble understanding them, even though they were quite academic. The same with Grid Systems in Graphic Design. These books were clear and to the point. From what I can remember, Wurman rambles about crap and makes me want to destroy the book in a holy fire.
I don't think the fact that Wurman has done good work is a good reason not to dismiss the bad. And this book is painful to read. It's a 4 on the Wong-Baker read.
That said, I last read any of this book just over a year ago. I'll give it another go; it's possible it's not as bad as I remember.
Thanks for your reply.
Hi,
verry good article - thanks for information.
Greetings from Germany
Sven