Off-Topic-Infographics: The Surprising History of the Infographic
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/surprising-history-infographic-180959563/
We live in an age of data visualization. Go to any news
website and you'll see graphics charting support for the
presidential candidates; open your iPhone and the Health app
will generate personalized graphs showing how active you've
been this week, month or year. Sites publish charts showing
how the climate is changing, how schools are segregating, how
much housework mothers do versus fathers. And newspapers are
increasingly finding that readers love "dataviz": In 2013, the
New York Times' most-read story for the entire year was a
visualization of regional accents across the United States. It
makes sense. We live in an age of Big Data. If we're going to
understand our complex world, one powerful way is to graph it.
But this isn't the first time we've discovered the pleasures
of making information into pictures. Over a hundred years ago,
scientists and thinkers found themselves drowning in their own
flood of data--and to help understand it, they invented the
very idea of infographics.
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently
doing so -- my opinions expressed here are mine alone.
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