"The Web" at 20 - Ben Zimmer, Visual Thesaurus

Twenty years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau authored the proposal that launched "the World Wide Web," and the English language has never been the same. In my On Language column for The New York Times Magazine this Sunday, I take a look back at the inception of "the Web" and its many linguistic offspring over the years. As a master metaphor for our online age, the gossamer Web has proved remarkably resilient. As I mention in the column, the phrase "world-wide web" (with world-wide properly hyphenated) was not original to Berners-Lee and Cailliau, used in the past to refer to spy rings or other complex global networks.

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The 4 Elements of Visual Grammar: How To Communicate Without Words | Van SEO Design

I often use the phrase “visual design” when describing what we do as web designers. Recently I came across what I think is better phrase, “communication design.” When we design and build websites our goal is usually to communicate something to an audience. Communication requires language. That language can be aural as in the spoken word, it can be gestural as in sign language, or it can be visual as in design. The more you understand any language the better you can communicate using that language. The visual language of design is no exception. Design elements are like letters and words. When we add design principles and apply them to our elements, our words, we form a visual grammar. As we learn to use both we enable ourselves to communicate visually.

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Why 243,734 Graphic Design Portfolios Reside at Carbonmade - Alexis Rodich, Washington Post

To date my exploration of technology and creativity has been primarily around music, but technology impacts art and artists of all kinds. My own path into the world of tech startups was rooted in my use of technology as a dancer--for marketing, networking and training purposes.One of my favorite online sources of creative inspiration is browsing through portfolios on Carbonmade Carbonmade is a site for artists of all kinds--from make-up and fine art to digital design and tattoo--to display portfolios online. One of the things I absolutely love is that the art is prominently displayed at the forefront. While there is space for an "about" section, it is almost unnecessary because the work speaks http://spencerfry.com/ for itself.

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The World of Visualisers and Their MadMapping, as Opposed to Mindmapping

This picture was used to illustrate a supposedly erudite blog about how wiki conversations might be visualised. and I am at a loss how to make sense out of it. It may make sense in the moment for those attending, although I would doubt it. Ahhhhh!!!! The moment of madmapping as opposed to mind mapping is upon us as more and more visualisers and marker pen holders gain work by drawing “bad visualisations” on costly whiteboards, only to be removed immediately after the event whilst being photographed, digitised and copied into the vast bin of data pollution.

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MentionMaps - Visualising Twitter Networks and Their Interactions

Here is another example of the developing area of information asthetics. Information aesthetics takes any sort of data from maps to statistics and converts the data inot visual information. Here is a good place to start explore this field.

MentionMaps is a network visualization that allows for the exploration of one's Twitter network. Users can discover which people interact the most, what they are actually talking about, and what people are relevant to follow on Twitter. Mentionmap loads each user's Twitter collection of recent status updates (or tweets) and parses the names of people and hashtags they talked about the most. Mentions are represented as linear connections, and discussions between multiple users emerge as clusters. Selecting a user will display their network of mentions as well as further details gathered from their profile.

Give it a try by clicking on this link