Graph Data & Tools Coolness

We're working as part of a team - our client is helping a huge client of theirs with a very large-scale IT restructure.  Not naming names, but between the two of 'em there are well over 300,000 employees.  

The uber-client provided, among other things, a block diagram (PDF) of high-level IT resources - hardware, software and organization all mixed together.  250+ entities - some blocks-within-blocks.  Things like "Organization X Helpdesk".  BIG resources. 

Here's the punch-line. The block diagram was helpful, but it didn't really capture the relationships between those entities.  Adding connector lines wouldn't either. 

My brain did a bit of a short-circuit then, and said "Psst.  You.  Put down the coffee cup. Go dig up those articles on graph theory & graph databases from Evernote."   Which lead me (among other things) to this:

You may have heard of the 'social graph' in connection with Facebook.  You're friends with HIM, he's friends with HER, she LIKES this page. If you drew that on a whiteboard, you'd have balls-and-lines connecting all over the place.  That's one example of a graph.

That is, as it turns out, a very different kind of data problem.  What we call 'conventional' databases (relational database), and what we call "the world's greatest app" (Excel), pretty much stink at representing relationships like that.  Which means our client's client (that's kind of graph-data statement, isn't it?) is going to struggle to get an accurate understanding of all those IT resources. 

There are graph databases - this one, Neo4j seems to have a lot of momentum.  

What's a Graph Database infographic

I downloaded, played with it, read the (free) O'Reilly book on graph databases.  Seriously cool stuff. Seriously useful, too, I think.

Howevah...I suspect we won't end up getting to help the client's-client with their big understanding problem, using this powerful approach.  I'd love to. I think it would become a critical source of intel and even operational excellence. But...the culture there, which our contact point would have to battle, is sort of Powerpoint-and-Excel-solve-all-problems.  Sigh. Damn.   Excel rocks, but not for everything.  Powerpoint can be made to rock, but it can't fight its own nature, which is sequential, choppy, non-narrative and non-exploratory declarative fragmentation.  

Maybe somebody out there has a hairball graph-data kind of problem that they need help explaining. You call me, OK?

(Both of those graph links are open source - amazing what's out there!) 

 --md

Solve Too-Many-Tabs In Chrome

Our business systems are completely cloud-based - we don't have a server. We all happen to run Macs, and most of us use Chrome as our default browser.  So it's not uncommon to have dozens of tabs open.  To the Mac, they're all Chrome. 

Amusingly Recursive Screenshot 

I ran across a useful solution - an AppleScript called "createGcApp" that makes what us geeky types call a "site-specific browser."  Put simply - Podio (online collaboration tool) is my most-used web site.  I ran the createGcApp, gave it the Podio URL and icon.

Presto. I now have a Podio "application" that's actually just Podio-nailed-to-Chrome.  Alt-tab takes me to Podio (not Chrome), it remembers my login.  And it's actually only a tiny 82Kb shortcut.  YMMV. Download createGcApp here.

What's your Clarity Score?

Have you ever assessed how clear you're making your story? Have you looked at your content through the eyes of the viewer recently? Here's a handy tool to grade yourself to see what your prospects and clients see when they view your media/content marketing/videos or whatever you might label it. http://sayitvisually.com/clarity-scorecard

Storytelling with Interactivity - the aftermath of Sandy

This is one of the most compelling pieces of visual storytelling the destruction caused by superstorm Sandy. Swipe from side to side to see satellite images before and after of popular landmarks. The sense of destruction is inherent in the form of the visual, giving the user the power to destroy the coastline in one simple swipe. Make no mistake, they thought about which way to slide the bar - and it purposefully moves from left to right as did the storm. The user essentially becomes the destroyer, thus appreciating the power or the storm represented by their action.

Superstorm Sandy: interactive before and after images

Visuals Help Students Write

I took this picture in a classroom at my son's high school. The teacher (social studies) said that he'd "borrowed" these sentence-diagramming techniques from his wife, an elementary school teacher.

He said that completion of writing exercises basically DOUBLED once students started doing this.  "I can see what I'm trying to write" was their essential reaction according to him.

View fullsize

Kudos to the teacher, of course, for trying something new.  I'm not completely surprised by the results, actually.  

There's more going on here than visualization, if you think about it. Drawing that diagram - let's say, a flow map for sequencing - requires thinking through the flow. They're not just drawing boxes and arrows - they're deciding what 1, 2 and 3 are, and how they're related.  They're also "externalizing" - getting the structure out of their head(s), into a tangible form.  They don't have to keep that structure in their head as they wrestle with wording and phrasing.

I particularly appreciate the non-digital nature of this innovation.

--md

Yes, This Takes Time

Technology giveth, technology taketh away.  While it's great (for example) to have much of human knowledge one search-box away, it's distracting and overwhelming.  It's difficult not to "satisfice" - to take the probably-good-enough answer.  Better takes longer - better thinking, better options, better results.  

It's almost a running joke at Say It Visually that our clients - with all due affection - are in such a hurry that they frequently have to pay someone else to think.  There's a grain of truth to it, though.  Back-to-back conference calls and Inbox 1000 make concentration and creativity very difficult.  

I think there's a balance to the job of effective communication.  The more time (and creativity) expended on the communicator's side, the less time (and decoding) required for the communicatee to 'get it.'  It's easy to rush the job of writing, designing, assembling a presentation and so on - it's even easy to make it Look Good, despite the rush. (Powerpoint Templates, I'm looking right at you...)  

But if the other guy doesn't get it, he'll satisfice elsewhere.  He'll check out. He'll do Blackberry Prayers during your speech. He'll spend 28 seconds on your zillion-dollar web site, then click on to your competitors.  He'll forget you in an hour.  

We have internal processes - seriously - that are all about allocating the time for thinking and creativity.  We're not aiming to be the fastest at explaining things - just the best.