Category: Design

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Design Education Globalization Network Technology

Photojournalism?

There has always been an uproar in journalism circles regarding the use of ‘edited’ or ‘doctored’ photographs used in both print and online news publications. There was a large debate here on the use of images in the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) website regarding doctoring digital images.

bhutto aftermath

I am surprised to see nothing discussed about the doctored image above widely used from the Bhutto assassination. You’ll notice the motion or action effect on the photograph at right.

Maybe Photoshop’s Filter > Blur > Lens Blur effect perhaps? Is the use of a digital visual effect to ‘pinch’ the image and enhance of the impact of this image captured in the aftermath of the assassination? The original photo by Getty’s John Moore can be found here. The image appears as the 12th image in the NYTimes slideshow. So … its now acceptable to test our favorite Photoshop CS3 Filters?

Tags: journalism, photojournalism, Bhutto, John Moore, doctored photo, National Press Photographers Association, NPPA, Getty

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Design Education Milwaukee Reading Technology

Latest read: Beautiful Evidence

The holiday is a perfect time to catch up on reading and must admit Beautiful Evidence from Edward Tufte is a very refreshing look at aspects of visual evidence we simply overlook in everyday life.
Beautiful EvidenceWith so many amazing lessons regarding the presentation of data I found Chapter 6 the best as it addresses PowerPoint.

The issue Corruption in Evidence Presentations: A Consumer’s Guide to Effects Without Causes, Cherry Picking, Overreaching, Chartjunk, and the Rage to Conclude. Considering we all sit through too many PowerPoint presentations that corrupt the truth…this should be mandatory reading.

To maintain standards of quality, relevance, and integrity for evidence, consumers of presentations should insist that presenters be held intellectually and ethically responsible for what they show and tell. Thus consuming a presentation is also an intellectual and moral activity.

So the next time you sit in a presentation – be truthful! I must admit to drifting into Chartjunk myself at times (yikes) before reading The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within last year. This learning forced me to approach communicating via PowerPoint…Keynote more accurately as defined by Tufte. And this began with eliminating all the bullets. His chapter on Sparklines is pretty impressive as well.

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Design Education Globalization Network OpenSource Technology

The best of open source

opensource living

There is a new web resource pointing to some of the best open source software (free software) available today for Windows, OS X and Linux platforms. Its worth a look.

Tags: open source, education, globalization, network, trends

Categories
Design Education Globalization Network Technology

Open Yale

Have you ever wanted to take a class on Modern Poetry taught by a distinguished scholar?

Yale University has joined MIT and select institutions of higher learning by placing academic courses online, inviting anyone around the globe (this means you) to participate. Today seven courses are available with additional courses on the way.

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Design Education Globalization Internet2 Network Technology

Be the Change

It was refreshing to listen to the former Indian President, Abdul Kalam speak Monday at Google’s Be the Change Summit in Hyderabad India. Outlined in his remarks Dynamics of Information Flow is the need for India to utilize Internet2.

Google be the change 2

He began his address by noting three key projects born out of the creative mind: Google, Fiber optics and Internet2. In order to hit the next “homerun” in our knowledge economy Kalam sees creative leadership as a vital component to success. He shared six personal experiences to achieve this necessary skill:

  1. Every action of the leader should be transparent. (Mahatma Gandhi)
  2. Leader must have courage to take decisions. (Sardar Patel)
  3. Leader must be able to travel into an unexplored path. (Sir C.V. Raman)
  4. Leader must have the vision for the organisation. (Prof Vikram Sarabhai)
  5. Leader must know how to manage a success and failure. (Prof Satish Dhawan)
  6. Leader should have Nobility in management. (Prof Brahm Prakash)

Acknowledging the world is already using Internet2 applications, Kalam implied for India the key will be to facilitate, develop and serve the needs of the India’s population. Many applications will be delivered via Internet2 in the form of Web2.0 technologies.  And it will not be easy.  One of three challenges he addressed:

  1. How to build the capacity among the people, government, institutions to accept the new internet2 paradigm and its relevance in the new paradigm of the way of living, the way of learning, the way of trading and business, the way of socializing and the way of governance.

Very pleasing to hear him acknowledge Internet2 has already changed many practices, and to survive the country must accept the Internet2 paradigm.  I’m sure many in the audience understood the impact of his remarks.

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