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Randal | 4 Jan 2005 15:03
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InfoD-Cafe: Tsunami Infographics

I hate to take pleasure at something that is the result of an enormous human tragedy, but the New York Times
has recently had some very nicely thought-out information graphics helping to explain the results of the
recent tsunami:

A nicely designed Flash interactive graphic showing a simulation of the recent tsunami and other information:

http://nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/12/31/international/20041231_TIMELINE_FEATURE.html

(I especially appreciate the simulation section.)

Lovely computer animation of 1700 earthquake tsunami in the Pacific (originating in the Cascade region):
http://nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/01/03/science/20040104_WAVE_GRAPHIC.html

Nicely colored graphic of 1833 earthquake damage near the same region as the recent one:
http://nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/01/03/science/20040104_SIDE_GRAPHIC.html

-- Randal
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Karen Schriver | 4 Jan 2005 20:28
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Re: InfoD-Cafe: Tsunami Infographics

Thank you Randal. You are right; really impressive!

karen
On Jan 4, 2005, at 9:03 AM, Randal wrote:

> I hate to take pleasure at something that is the result of an enormous  
> human tragedy, but the New York Times has recently had some very  
> nicely thought-out information graphics helping to explain the results  
> of the recent tsunami:
>
>
> A nicely designed Flash interactive graphic showing a simulation of  
> the recent tsunami and other information:
>
> http://nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/12/31/international/ 
> 20041231_TIMELINE_FEATURE.html
>
> (I especially appreciate the simulation section.)
>
> Lovely computer animation of 1700 earthquake tsunami in the Pacific  
> (originating in the Cascade region):
> http://nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/01/03/science/ 
> 20040104_WAVE_GRAPHIC.html
>
> Nicely colored graphic of 1833 earthquake damage near the same region  
> as the recent one:
> http://nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/01/03/science/ 
> 20040104_SIDE_GRAPHIC.html
>
>
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Curtis Clark | 5 Jan 2005 06:36
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Re: InfoD-Cafe: Tsunami Infographics

on 2005-01-04 06:03 Randal wrote:
> I hate to take pleasure at something that is the result of an
> enormous human tragedy,

Not to be argumentative, but that's like not wanting to take pleasure in 
a well-run relief operation. A disaster as immense as this one 
*deserves* the very best infographics. Thanks for the links.

-- 
Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Web Coordinator, Cal Poly Pomona                 +1 909 979 6371
Professor, Biological Sciences                   +1 909 869 4062
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Brian.Parkinson | 6 Jan 2005 11:21
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InfoD-Cafe: ISO 7001 public information symbols

Hello All - 

A quick cry for help - does anyone know where I could get hold of artwork for the ISO 7001 public information
symbol set? 

Thanks for any pointers - 

Brian 

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Conrad Taylor | 7 Jan 2005 12:36
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Re: InfoD-Cafe: Tsunami Infographics

>    A disaster as immense as this one *deserves*
>    the very best infographics.

There are explanatory graphics, such as those pointed out
by Randal.  Techniques of information visualisation also
give us "discovery graphics", from which we can find new
information that was hitherto invisible.

I found this interesting short article at the web site of
the Earth Institute at Columbia University:

    http://www.earth.columbia.edu/news/2005/story01-05-05c.html

As the accompanying images show, before-and-after comparison
of Landsat satellite imagery is helping the UN and other relief
co-ordination agencies detect where vegetation has been destroyed
by the tsunami.  This is reckoned to be one of the best indicators
of the geography of destruction, and is being very helpful in
planning the medium-term relief effort.

Professor Jeffrey D Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute,
also recently wrote an article commenting on the tsunami in
"Time" magazine.  You can find the text here:

    http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/03/catastrophe.tm

He comments (a) that such disasters hit poor societies worse
than rich ones and (b) that in the broader context, we should
really be concentrating on the appalling and preventable loss
of life that occurs each day in the developing world due to
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Conrad Taylor | 8 Jan 2005 12:52
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InfoD-Cafe: Table markup, again; and document exchange

Returning briefly to the discussion before Christmas,
about whether tables are stylistic or structural and
how they should be treated in, say, XML markup...
I wish to add a postscript.

This morning I have been reading through a few chapters
from the forgotten book "SGML on the Web: small steps
beyond HTML" by Yuri Rubinsky with Murray Maloney (1997,
Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-519984-0).  It was published
not long after Yuri keeled over dead with a heart attack.

Yuri was a fervent supporter of making documents as accessible
as possible, for example to those with visual impairments. His
book "Christopher Columbus Answers All Charges", for example,
was published from SGML file to Braille and voice synthesizer
before it appeared in print.  Yuri was also very supportive
of the work of ICADD, the International Committee for Accessible
Document Design; about which more below.

There's a wonderful worked example in "SGML on the Web" in
which Yuri explains the issues about tables.  His data example
is at first sight a simple one, about the price of different kinds
of tea or coffee, loose or bagged, in different weights.  Tables
being what they are, they are organised in two dimensions in a
manner majorly dictated by two axes, but in Yuri's example, one
could choose between any two of five different possible axes.

The ICADD proposal was that the markup for each table-header
element would include attributes that would identify an axis
to which it belonged, and also the axes to which it also relates.
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Curtis Clark | 8 Jan 2005 19:13
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Re: InfoD-Cafe: Table markup, again; and document exchange

on 2005-01-08 03:52 Conrad Taylor wrote:
> There's a wonderful worked example in "SGML on the Web" in
> which Yuri explains the issues about tables.  His data example
> is at first sight a simple one, about the price of different kinds
> of tea or coffee, loose or bagged, in different weights.  Tables
> being what they are, they are organised in two dimensions in a
> manner majorly dictated by two axes, but in Yuri's example, one
> could choose between any two of five different possible axes.

<parting type="clouds" modulus="sun" />

Microsoft Excel has a function called pivot-table, which is a limited 
version of a concept best brought out in an old Lotus product called 
Improv (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Improv). In Improv, a table 
could have as many dimensions as you wanted, and you could slice it to 
expose any two, or perform other operations. I used it extensively back 
in the 1990s to manipulate a multidimensional ecological data set, and 
other than being sluggish in processing huge datasets on a machine with 
modest memory (not an uncommon flaw), it was magnificent, and I miss it 
(iirc it doesn't run well on recent versions of Windows).

This dovetails exactly with Yuri's view, and would not only allow 
multidimensional tables in HTML, but also with a bit of DHTML allow the 
user to display any two dimensions.

--

-- 
Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Web Coordinator, Cal Poly Pomona                 +1 909 979 6371
Professor, Biological Sciences                   +1 909 869 4062
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Conrad Taylor | 8 Jan 2005 21:46
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Re: InfoD-Cafe: Table markup, again; and document exchange

>There's a debate within the European Commission at present which
>makes this discussion especially relevant.  Again, I know only a
>little about this.  In Spring 2004, the EC expressed a desire that
>there should be a reliable, vendor-neutral way of exchanging typical
>office-type documents between government and agency departments.
>The two key contenders for a standard are a pair of proprietary
>Microsoft XML standards, known as WordML and ExcelML, and the
>developing "OpenOffice XML" standard which is being constructed
>under the aegis of OASIS.

I should add two things.  Firstly, I have subsequently discovered
that OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards) has adopted the OpenOffice project to the point where it is
known as the "OASIS Open Office Standard".

The second is a peck or bushel of skeptical salt.  The whole
point of SGML and XML was the recognition that no one structural
mark-up language fits all; that is why SGML and XML are meta-
languages.  I shall investigate further: but should it prove
that the OASIS project leads to a stereotyped view of what
elements are desirable in a document, I think you will find
me in the heretical party.  If not a major heresiarch.

Conrad

--

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Conrad Taylor:  Information design & electronic publishing
Secretary, BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group (www.epsg.org.uk)
Secretary, BCS Developing Countries Specialist Group
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Jim Curran | 10 Jan 2005 01:15
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InfoD-Cafe: new North American highway sign face

This may be old news to some of you, but I was surprised to see new a 
new typeface used on some interstate highways signs in Texas over the 
holidays. The feature that first caught my eye was a terminal on the l, 
and I went on to admire other aspects of the design that betray the 
influence of Meta and others.

I looked into it when I got home, expecting to find that it was an 
off-the-shelf typeface, but it turns out that it is a new face called 
"Clearview" that was "designed and performance researched through a 
partnership of typeface designers, perceptual psychologists, human 
factors scientists and highway engineers." Accommodating the visual 
abilities of older drivers was one of their key goals.

I find this partnership of scientists and designers noteworthy and 
think it would be of interest to members of this Café, so I'm spreading 
the word.

The face has its own web site: http://www.clearviewhwy.com/
It was designed by Terminal Design of Brooklyn, NY: 
http://www.terminaldesign.com/
Its development is chronicled in a supplement to the Manual of Uniform 
Traffic Control Devices: 
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/HTM/clearfont/cf-english.htm

According to Typographica (http://typographi.com/000931.php) Clearview 
has been adopted by Texas, Pennsylvania, British Columbia, Toronto, 
Yukon, and other Canadian municipalities. So be on the lookout for it!

Jim
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cynthia metcalf | 10 Jan 2005 04:06

InfoD-Cafe: add to mailing list

My former email metcalfca <at> ldschurch.org is no longer current.
 
Redirect your newsletter to the following email: cynth <at> prism.net
 
Thank you, Cynthia Metcalf
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Gmane