Monthly Archive for August, 2009

A Portrait of Louisiana Launches

Published on August 31, 2009 in News. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Launched Sept 17 / A Portrait of LOUISIANA: Louisiana Human Development Report 2009

A Portrait of LOUISIANA uses a well-honed international approach to assess progress, opportunity, and human well-being across the state – with some surprising results.

Louisiana ranks 49th among U.S. states and Washington, D.C. on the American Human Development Index, with wide disparities within the state. This new study examines disparities by parish, race, and gender in Louisiana, and calls for action to address the acute human vulnerability that persists today, four years after Hurricane Katrina.

The report is commissioned by Oxfam America and the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, with funding from Oxfam America and the Foundation for the Mid South.

Project Team:

Authors: Sarah Burd-Sharps, Kristen Lewis, Eduardo Borges Martins

Visual SenseMaking & Design: Humantific

Publisher: The Social Science Research Council

See more on the American Human Development Project site.

To order your (free) hard copy of A Portrait of LOUISIANA, contact:

Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation
T: 225-383-1672
E: info@louisianahelp.org

Air Traffic Made Visible

Published on August 26, 2009 in Blog. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Yikes! Check out the energy use made visible here:

Global Air Traffic in 24 Hours

“A 24-hour observation of all of the large aircraft flights in the world, condensed down to about 2 minutes.”

Most-Ridiculous TV Gadgets

Published on August 24, 2009 in Blog. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Not enough products in your life?

Take a look at these all-time classics:

8 Of The Most Ridiculous “As Seen On TV” Gadgets”

Includes the Tiddy Bear: “the most absurd product ever promoted on television.”

SenseMaker Dialogs 1 Wraps

Published on August 24, 2009 in News. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .
The SenseMaker Dialogs series kicked off on August 13, 2009 at Parsons The New School for Design in New York. SenseMaker Dialogs is a new speaker series focused on the rapidly changing hybrid activity of SenseMaking in the 21st century. Elizabeth Pastor, CoFounder of Humantific was moderator for the informal evening session.  Speakers for the evening were Marshall Clemens, Founder of Idiagram, and Brian Willison, Director of Parsons Institute for Information Mapping. Humantific CoFounder Garry VanPatter provided the introduction to SenseMaking and explained how its evolution fits into the changing picture of design thinking in leading innovation practices today.

To get on the advance registration list for the upcoming SenseMaker Dialogs 2 in October send an email to programs (at) humantific (dot) com

You can join SenseMaker Dialogs on Facebook.

Also see Social SenseMaking on Facebook.

The Visible Brain

Published on August 17, 2009 in Blog. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Humantific is interested in all aspects of brain related research, particularly that related to making brain functions visible and understandable. This from BrainScope Company Inc. in Washington DC: Brainscope recently announced the ZOOM-100DC described as “an advanced 8-channel, portable, handheld electroencephalogram (EEG) device capable of recording and displaying EEG waveforms and providing conventional EEG measures displayed in tables.” Maybe they will let us borrow one for our ongoing MeetingThink research. What goes on in the human brain during everyday meetings and why? Why is there so much convergence, killing of ideas? We are looking for tools to make this visible. If you have suggestions let us know.

Write to research (at) humantific (dot) com with MeetingThink as the subject.