The Center for Graphic Facilitation

WorldMapper

As seen on the April 27 broadcast of Rocketboom.com, this  is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. The site is Worldmapper.    

                             

The above map shows World Population by 2050.

The big greeny is China; muscular orange is India. See if you can even spot Russia! By then it is estimated that the earth's human population will be 9.07 billion. 62% of the people will live in Africa, Southern Asia and Eastern Asia - numerically this is the same as if all the world's current population lived just in these regions. In addition another 3000 000 000 will be spread accross the rest of the world.

For all versions of the data-distorted maps, including the one above, you can:

• Open PDF poster: a poster version of this map that is designed for printing.
• View the index map (traditional land-area map, for comparison)
• Open the Excel data file (larger file with map)          
• Open the Excel data file (smaller file without map)            
• Open the Opendoc data file (a version in the Opendoc standard format)            
• View the technical notes associated with this data.

FontBrowser 2.0

Graphic facilitator Sita Magnusan--who just returned from Afghanistan, no less!--sends us this browser-based tool for previewing every font on your whole dang system. (Turns out, I have 337!)

http://www.stcassociates.com/lab/fontbrowser.html

Sterling Insights Publishes New Avian Flu Readiness Workbook

Sterling Insights is pleased to announce our new book Preparing for Pandemic Avian Flu - A Family & Neighborhood Workbook for Emergency Readiness. A second workbook focused on pandemic issues affecting business continuity is in the works. Sterling Insights is a graphic facilitation firm outside San Diego that specializes in facilitating corporate and municipal sustainability.

From Sterling Insights:

We have tracked the Avian Flu issue since 2003 and the time has come to help our friends and clients understand and prepare for it. Our position on Avian Flu is built on a broad cross section of current information from science, international health organizations, government policy makers, pandemic history and global Avian Flu media coverage. Our approach to readiness is based on common sense, advice from a physician and survival expert, and our own experience recovering from the 2003 San Diego wildfires. Our goal is that users of this workbook become more confident in the face of uncertainty and more prepared should the worst scenarios become a reality.

Click here to preview the book and order electronic or print copies. A portion of the book procedes support increasing neighborhood readiness in rural Alpine, CA and low income areas. Please call us with your questions and comments.

Else/Where: Mapping

[Thanks to Jason Simmons of GradientLabs]

Suffice it to say, we live in the Age of the Mash-Up. Technologies continue to converge. Emergent technologies such as GPS and RFID are swiftly becoming embedded in just about every consumer good imaginable, from rowboats to robot dogs. As data visualization becomes increasingly more real-time, instant access to easy-to-read data maps are essential to both individuals and economies.

And, designers (being the gurus of last resort) are being asked to be much more multi-disciplined in both thought and deed. Consequently, a new breed of interface designer and digital geographer is going to be in high demand.

Else/Where: Mapping — New Cartographies of Networks and Territories as an interdisciplinary anthology on mapping from urban cartography to data visualization.

Janet Abrams and Peter Hall, editors
Deborah Littlejohn, designer
ISBN 0-9729696-2-4
$49.95
320 pages, paper
Published by the University of Minnesota Design Institute
Distributed for the Design Institute by the University of Minnesota Press 

The second book to be published by the Design Institute, Else/Where is a scholarly anthology on techniques and contemporary applications of mapping, in four sections:  

MAPPING NETWORKS
MAPPING CONVERSATIONS
MAPPING TERRITORIES
MAPPING MAPPING