source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wars
data: http://bit.ly/WikiLame

Ahhhhh schweet.

[ via Bruce Sterling ]

Summary:

men – mysteriously looking away from camera, unsmiling, holding an animal
women – flirting into camera, outdoors, with a hint of cleavage

They also did another great data-piece about what to say in an opening message.

[via Waxy.org]

I especially like this one. It tracks the keys of Beatles’ album tracks. You can see at a glance their poppier, more harmonic albums.

The project is an offshoot of an ongoing kaleidoscopic project at chartingthebeatles.com and on Flickr.

If it grabs you, head on over and take part. See you there!

Thanks to my publishers HarperCollins, I now hold what could be the last five copies of the first edition.

I’d like to sign them and give away to you, lovely readers. Before this site goes all Information Is Beautiful on your ass.

To enter the prize draw, just leave a comment below.

On Saturday 16th January I’ll pick five winners at random and contact them via email.

(BTW Apols for the lack of updates recently. I’ve been working on some cool new stuff to be released v. soon).

UPDATE: Thank you for all your entries and the lovely comments. I have been blushing continuously all week. Comments are closed now. But I’ll be picking winners on Monday 18th.

It’s out in the US 10th November. And in the UK on the 4th February.

Here’s a Visual Miscellaneum US pre-order link

I received my first copies this week – a joyful and agonising experience. Joyful because yay it’s my book! Agonising because, inevitably, I keep seeing things I want to change or tweak or improve.

Overall though, I think it’s pretty good. Ultimately, I wanted to explore a whole range of subjects as visually and beautifully as possible, with the minimum of text. I hope I managed it and I hope you enjoy it.

Here are some pictures to give you a sense of it.

(Sorry about the awful framing of some of these. I’m a designer, not a photographer yeah?)

Here’s that Visual Miscellaneum US pre-order link again.

Enjoy! And let me know what you think. Thanks! david.

(p.s. if you want review copies, please email
USA: Meredith.Rusu@harpercollins.com | UK & EUROPE: Katherine.Patrick@harpercollins.co.uk)

Christopher Niemann
This US illustrator does a nice line in hand-drawn infographics

(I also like his ‘I Confess’ range)

How many troops has each country sent to Afghanistan?
Ok I did this one. But I think it’s an important question. And quite surprising.

Susanna Hertrich: Reality Checking Device
A visual device for getting some perspective. Nice!

(sorry about the tiny screen shot – it’s the only one I could find) UPDATE: Here’s a big version (Thanks to Matthew Goldthwaite)

If you come across any visual delights, please send them through.

I’d like you to draw a picture of your soul. How you imagine it to look.

Nothing sinister intended. I’m curious about how different people perceive their ‘soul’.

If enough people do this, it could be really interesting. Because we’ll all be blind to other peoples’ drawings, there’s a chance here to spot patterns, commonalities and any interesting coincidences that might appear across all the souls.

Cooler, we may even be able to build a taxonomy of souls.

At the least, it should be a fascinating, crowd-sourced image…

(This idea was inspired by Waxy’s toyings with Mechanical Turk and The Sheep Market by Aaron Koblin.)

DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS

Here’s what to do
Please draw your soul on white paper with a black or dark pen. (Although colour is okay too, if you feel you really need it.) Then scan, webcam or photo it and upload it to: InformationIsSoulful AT Gmail

(You can also draw on the computer if you really want. Though I think hand-drawn might be more soulful?)

Tips:
: Create a moment for yourself to do it.
: Be expressive
: Don’t think about it too much. Just draw whatever comes to mind. 1st drafts are good.
: It can be as simple or as complex as you like
: IMPORTANT: Please mark your picture in one corner to indicate whether you are male (M) or female (F)

Quality
If you’re webcamming or photo’ing, please use a flash or good lighting. Ideally it’ll be pretty much in focus. And filling the frame with the minimum of creases and crinkles.

Credits & Anonymity
If you’re happy for your name to appear in the credit lists of any resulting image, please write words like ‘HAPPY TO BE CREDITED’ in your email. Otherwise, I will treat your submission as anonymous. (If you want to be fully anonymous, you can use yousendit.com.)

That email address is: InformationIsSoulful AT Gmail

WIN!
As an added incentive, 5 random soul artists will receive a free copy of my book, The Visual Miscellaneum, when it comes out in November.

Thanks everybody! I can’t wait to see how this will turn out.

The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions

I notice these days that I can spend hours at my computer, in a cloud. A swampy blur of digital activity, smeared across various activities and media and software.

Emailing, writing, tweeting, designing, browsing, taking calls, Skyping, Facebooking, RSS Feeding – all blurred into a single technological trance.

I seem to switch randomly from one to the other. But actually is there a subtle hierarchy in this cloud? Do I prefer some distractions over others? I think so.

The Cloud

In this diagram, each level in this hierarchy trumps the next.

So, if you get a new msg on Facebook, but your landline rings, you’ll take the landline call. You might have a spasmodic moment of ‘uh? wadd I do’. But, usually, you’ll take the call.

Similarly, if you get a new SMS whilst opening a new online dating message, you’ll be hard pressed not to read that SMS. It’ll take a great force of will. You may attempt to do both simultaneously. But if you really observe yourself closely, one will take priority – even if it’s only by milliseconds. The SMS will win your attention.

And so on up the chart…

(I understand this post reveals much about my pitiful life. There’s no need to say that in the comments, thanks.)

But if I’ve missed any distractions, feel free to suggest them. I realise AIM and MS Messenger introduce a whole universe of distraction. I don’t go there. I have enough distractions.

It was particularly cool to highlight potential plotlines for “meta movies” where time travellers from different plots could meet and paradox it out. Charlie Kauffman are you reading this??

(By the way, I allowed myself a +1 / -1 year fuzz around the paradoxes. So knives away nerds!)

This is a straight data visualisation, rather than information design. That is, it’s not particularly useful, nor useable, nor meaningful. The inspiration was the coolness of the idea, really. I was excited to see what shape all the plots would make, and whether it could be shaped into something beautiful.

What I really love about this image, though, is the idea that this information has never been seen before. Despite the fact that it exists, in some way,somewhere, wrapped in various plots, it’s never been given form. I have to say, it was a joy to untangle it all :)

Big thanks to talented designers Alice Cho and Dominic Busby for their invaulable contributions. And Jeremy MacLynn for essential art direction.

Getting Ridiculous

I guess it’s no surprise that there are a helluva lot of time travel plots centered around our tranche of time (1900-2100). But does it have to be this ridiculous?

Here’s a zoom in.

This concentration of temporal dislocation is why the final image for the book took four months, 34 drafts and the work of three designers.

So who wants to work with me on the Dr Who one? I’m serious. Email me.