Today, Smart Mobs has brought my attention to a visualization site — Many Eyes — established by IBM. This then set me to thinking about how we contend with the increasing flood of data, information, and knowledge that assaults our senses. This lead to the notion of pattern matching.
My hypothesis is that pattern matching could be an essential tool for communication in the emerging world.
I don’t recall much conversation about visualization and pattern matching in our discussions on communication.
I think this raises an interesting question Professor Drogan. In particular, I am wondering if you really meant ‘pattern matching,’ or ‘pattern recognition.’ Either way, I would like to hear more about what role you think it might play in visual communication. Or at least in our sorting of the visual information that is so abundant these days!
Reply to Deborah Gambs
Similar to Fermat’s Last Theorem (”I have a truly marvelous proof of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.”), the area in this blog may be too small, Deborah, to say what I want to say about this.
Please give me a bit of time to put together a little piece on this.
Jim
Reply to James Drogan
My quick response to Deborah’s request can be found at http://jmsdrgn.squarespace.com/storage/The Role of Visualization in Communication.pdf.
Thoughtful criticism is invited.
Jim
Reply to James Drogan
Okay, one more comment related to visual communication. Except it’s not about visual communication, it’s about the broader topic of communication in an information-based society. One good example: Baruch’s Starr Career Development Center now offers workshops on “soft skills.” One example of this being “small talk.” An important skill in the business world I am sure, and in networking in general as I’m also sure many readers of this blog know. “Small talk” is a perfect example of a form of communication that is not so much about the actual message, but how the message is relayed. Sure, there are topics that one should stay away from in ’small talk’ with colleagues and future employers, but delivery, transition, comfort, a broad range of knowledge all come in handy and are not particularly about delivering any given message clearly. I wonder if anyone out there disagrees?
Reply to Deborah Gambs
I have been presumptuous enough to craft Drogan’s Laws (see http://jmsdrgn.squarespace.com/drogans-laws/). The first of these is; “Know what you know, know what you don’t know, and know who knows what you don’t know.”
A network of personal relationships is critical in order to apply the latter third of the law. These relationships often start with “small talk,” a kind of communication that may be 1.) intended to probe on whether there is the basis for a more mutually beneficial relationship. I suppose polite, social conversation (my bride calls it chit chat and claims I’m not very good at it) is another phrase that applies.
The Baruch Executives-on-Campus sponsors events that are intended to help students develop these skills.
The development of relationships leading to mutual trust is, in my view, critical to surviving, thriving, and making a difference in this information-based society.
How do Herb and Mikhail get so many people to do so many useful things for them? My hypothesis is that is because they have strong personal networks and continually work at keeping the networks strong. Key to that strength is trust. I’m willing to bet that “small talk” was at the start of these relationships.
March 4, 2002 was the date of the initial “small talk” between Herb and me. I like to think that “small talk” has yielded benefits to all.
So what does all this mean? Going from Writing Across the Curriculum to Communications Across the Curriculum is perhaps a more significant transition than many of us realized at the time. We may be, as in this conversation started by the notion of visualization, continuing to discover uncharted territory (”here be dragons”) which is intriguing, useful to explore, inspiring, and lead us to making a difference.
Reply to James Drogan