As Social Media reaches new heights as an important marketing component for organizations and corporations, it is important for them to remember that Social Media offers different values other than targeting brand messaging to various demographics. In a day and age when individuals tweet about the death of Michael Jackson before the actual media picks up on the story, organizations and corporations can use this fast moving medium to their advantage in the case of a crisis. A Crisis Communications plan is a quintessential aspect of any marketing department and Social Media can be used as the first line of defense to dispel any misinformation prior to the media picking up on a story and distorting the facts (something they do well nowadays.) The use of Facebook and Twitter in a crisis situation was used brilliantly by Charleston Yeager International Airport in West Virginia after an aborted take-off of a US Airways flight back in January.
You can read more about the story here. The article gives excellent insight in how vital Social Media can be to an organization such as an Airport during a crisis:
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For more information on how Social Media can impact your company’s Crisis Communication plan, check out this excellent article from PRSA:
Click Here

I’d love to hear your feedback–what examples of Crisis Communications via social media have you encountered?

Stewdio.org is the website of Stewart Smith, a designer from NYC that has done some great work. I was particularly amused by his Browser Pong app….basically the classic computer game Pong done with browser windows. Super fun!

Ever since I read Edward Tufte’s book Envisioning Information, I have been a semi-informed fan of information design. As a computer nerd programmer, I <3 data, and as a (hack) designer, I <3 design. As such, I believe there is no better way to view data than through the filter of design. Though after getting stoked about infographics prior to my first HCI course in college, I rarely came across good examples.

Lately there seems to have been a turn in the tide. I have seen more examples of current infographics than ever before in blogs and traditional media. Maybe it’s because there are more people in the business or maybe the media is just starting to celebrate it more. Either way, it’s exciting. I recently got a copy of The Visual Miscellaneum by David Mccandless. The book features more than 200 pages of beautiful diagrams representing countless topics of collected data. Even though it has a few errors & it would be nice if it was hardbound, it’s addicting to look at. I would recommend it to anyone.

Need an infographics fix right now?
try: datavisualization.ch

Get excited about design.
Get pumped about data.
Get your learn on!

A Content Management System (CMS) is a mixture of the technological and the supernatural. Essentially, the CMS (a website) creates and hosts other websites. It’s kind of confusing, but if the relationship were considered in terms of Aliens, as in the movie, the CMS would be the queen and the websites it manages, its spawn. Thankfully, the CMS doesn’t attack and kill humans with slimy goo and sharp teeth. It’s just a metaphor! Anyway, there are several factors that necessitate the existence of the CMS.

Vital forces are constantly at work outside of the design and development “ovipositor” (more alien terminology), and they do affect the outcome. They are the changing genetic codes of technology, ie, the latest intermingling of apps, plug-ins, code, and the platforms on which they all co-exist. Each generation improves upon beauty, efficiency and enhancements, and in this cacophony, the growing website needs a way to maintain its place. In fact, there are many such websites that need a reliable tether to its technological host. These websites might each have disparate needs, but they can use the same means to obtain them.

Alien metaphor aside, another reason for the CMS is that it allows a team to remotely modify the website. This is partly due to the intentional separation of content, style, and code. The contributors don’t need to have an extensive knowledge of HTML—basic WYSIWYG knowledge will usually suffice. For team members who need more control, such as skinners and coders, it’s easy to switch to code view or FTP. With a flexible and unobtrusive CMS, everyone’s needs are met.

To bring the Aliens metaphor full circle…when the CMS (or queen) jumps aboard its server, which is like Ripley’s warship, the Sulaco, it transcends space and time. It carries its websites into the abstract, imperceptible worldwide web, where anything can happen. I see a lot of sequels in its future…

We hand painted some chucks for our friend Daren Wang to help him earn some cool points this weekend as he struts around the 4th annual Decatur Book Fest that he’s organized. The book fest is from September 4th through the 6th. If you like books you really should stop by.

Puff is this years mascot: More on the Decatur Book Fest 2009

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I use Cygwin when I need to use linux tools not available in Windows. The generic windows command line terminal cmd.exe is pretty lame. I use Putty all the time as a remote terminal for our Linux and Solaris machines, it’s wonderful. Here’s how to use Putty for Cygwin as well:
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iCalendar is a file format that allows internet users to download files that automatically add events into their local calendar system. This is how I created All Day Events…
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Remember when Tuee mentioned that neat new touch screen interface here a few months ago? Well, It looks like Microsoft has jumped on it first. I hope they didn’t get their entire creative department together to come up with the name, ughh… “Microsoft Coffee Table” …sweet. Look out Mac, Microsoft has a coffee table! (Why do people who talk about Microsoft products always have to dress so dorky?) I wanted a Microsoft Wall but I supposed a Microsoft Coffee Table is a good start. This is pretty cool.

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I just recently found this article in the NYTimes about social networking that speaks to what we do and also to where technology is going. Everyone thinks it is interesting/weird that Cisco bought tribe.net - I think it is smart. What do you think? Click here to read the article NYTimesArticle