moving images?
Tom Munnecke
with moving images... I just switched to a MacBook recently, and saw
the Ken Burns effect on my photo displays... it was amazing to me how
much more interesting and engaging the images were when they simply
slid around or zoomed a bit...
Now, with video being so accessible, it seems like we have some new(?)
tools for expression.
dave...@gmail.com
I agree that movement makes images more interesting; or at least that
movement engages the attention.
I think the fundamental unit of meaning in visual language is something
I think of as a "node" -- a chunk of meaning that is primarily visual,
that people can carry around in their heads.
Examples of nodes might be the Mona Lisa, a country's flag, the peace
symbol, an image of a hamburger or car, etc.
Nodes can be arranged in space or in time. When arranged in space, they
can be used to create maps of systems or processes. When arranged in
time they can tell a story. A PowerPoint slide deck can be thought of
as a series of nodes arranged in order to make a point.
A deck of playing cards is a set of nodes that can be shuffled and
rearranged in various ways to engage people in collaborative or
competitive play.
Motion can add meaning to both by making them more dynamic and
interactive.
Tom Munnecke
from my thinking about networks... we spend most of our attention on
the dots, ignoring the connections...
It strikes me that there is considerable meaning in the flow between
the images (or nodes), more than is conveyed in the nodes
themselves... timing, pacing, zooming, panning, etc. Also, in
creating the negative space within which to frame the nodes...
(in cas you haven't noticed, I am really into video on my MacBook
about now... here is a sample of a computer geek-wanna be artist's
early attempt: http://blip.tv/file/74366/)
dave...@gmail.com
I agree that the connections and flows are where most of the meaning is
conveyed. The connections are critically important.
I also believe that it is important to consider nodes and links
separately, and that, especially when it comes to learning a language,
the nodes must necessarily come first.
Example: "Brick" is a node; a term that makes complete sense in and of
itself. A picture of a brick can stand for or represent the object as
much as a word can. But a word like "throw" -- which I would consider a
connection -- for example, has little meaning without the surrounding
nodes: the "brick" and the "boy" who throws it.
I have come to the belief that when you communicate visually, the nodes
are the building blocks we use to represent reality and ideas, and the
connections are the ways you construct them ointo meaning.
This may sound super-simplistic, but people have become ingrained in
the habit of communicating in a linear, time-oriented way, because with
written and spoken language that is the only option. Visual language
opens a door to communicating complex relationships between many nodes
in a single frame.
The learning barriers to communicating this way are staggering. People
quickly become overwhelmed and shut down. In my experience they want a
simple linear path, at least to start with.
Somehow I think that PowerPoint holds a key to this. There is a broad
user base out there who is already communicating visually. Many are
using PowerPoint already to convey complex, nonlinear ideas.
Dominik Holenstein
What do you think about MindManager to convey complex, nonlinear
ideas? For me, it is much easier to this with MM rather than
PowerPoint. But PowerPoint has a much higher user base.
Dominik
Dave Gray
use while PowerPoint has.
One issue is: You have a compelling reason to use PowerPoint, e.g.,
you're giving a talk next week or preparing for a meeting.
What's the compelling reason to open up MindManager? Once you've
created a MM document, then what?
d
--
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Founder and CEO
XPLANE | The visual thinking company | www.xplane.com
Check out visual thinking school:
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Christopher
mindmap, but it could serve as an online powerpoint that we can use for
quick mock-ups as well as interactive meetings.
Christopher
Dominik Holenstein
I agree with you on this: 'MM hasn't crossed the chasm' into general
business use..'.
But: When I open MM and prepare my presentation for next week I can
use MM during that presentation turning it to the presentation mode.
Or I can use MM to prepare the presentation and then export the
structure to PowerPoint and then refine it there. What I like in MM is
that I can change the structure of a presentation or a text much
easier than in PowerPoint or Word.
Dominik
daved
to suggest after a brief test of its functions, that it would be a good
medium for collaborative web-based meetings. Combined with either a
landline or skype conferencing telephone connection and vyew - we could
all give vyew a test. I will suggest this to Dave Gray for something
we are collaborating on. one other benefit to vyew as I understand it,
it the archiving ability to provide offline users with an aysnchronous
means of entering the collaboration, as well as working in the online
manner suggested above.
Christopher
videos together now which explains more functions. Version 2 will be
the default version next week.
Go ahead and sign up for a free account and then let everyone know your
meeting number. Then people can come and go as they like. Each person
that signs up gets there own books, so if I went into your meeting room,
all my books follow me. I could open a book in your room and then
everyone in the room could make a copy of that book for themselves.
Also, a good shortcut to get to your meeting is to type vyew.com/<your
room number>
Christopher
Jerry Michalski
tools is that their grain size is too large and they're not
net-connected.
By grain size too large, I mean that a PowerPoint file contains a
sequence of pages, each of which contains one or more interesting
ideas. The ideas should be the nuggets, re-usable in a variety of
presentations. Instead, they're trapped in a big presentation.
Similarly, Nodes in a MindManager page are trapped on the page. They
have nowhere to go, aren't re-usable elsewhere.
If the nuggets were Net-connected and therefore Net-available, we
could bring them into play whenever we wanted, creating a rich visual
dialog.
Vyew is neat for live visual collaboration, but doesn't help the issue
I just presented.
This is all easier to explain in person, with wild gesticulations and
such, than it is on a mailing list, alas.
Cheers,
Jerry
Christopher Peri
talking about. Or better, do you already have a paper on this?
Christopher
Dominik Holenstein
This is a very good input!
I have just one perhaps stupid question: Is there a definition and
description of Visual Language available or is it just an idea to be
developed?
Dominik
Dave Gray
Communication for the 21st Century" that does a great job of laying a
foundation. Here is Bob's definition:
"Visual language is a new language composed of tightly integrated
textual and visual elements. Its emergence is a result of such driving
forces as globalization, increasing complexity both in commerce and
technology, and the convergence of vocabularies from many previously
distinct fields."
daved
> The problem with MindManager, PowerPoint and most of the available
> tools is that their grain size is too large and they're not
> net-connected.
>
> By grain size too large, I mean that a PowerPoint file contains a
> sequence of pages, each of which contains one or more interesting
> ideas. The ideas should be the nuggets, re-usable in a variety of
> presentations. Instead, they're trapped in a big presentation.
You might want to get a test copy of SlideShare - here's a link
describing their
microcontent approach to archiving and providing smaller "grain" size:
http://blog.slideshare.net/2006/10/05/quick-tips-about-slideshare/
Christopher Peri
use my vyew account if people wish:
That or maybe there is already a paper or presentation on the idea?
Christopher
http://vyew.com/home to register if you would like your own account. Its
free.
daved
get a feel for the toolset. I am having a bitof trouble with the slide
import - I would like to reshuffle the images in vyew but can't find
out how.
Christopher
still in beta ya know. :) Actually, you using a release that is not
even public yet. We are will most likely make a full release at the
office 2.0 show. At least that is the plan.
Christopher
OH...@aol.com
I will take a shot at Jerry's "fine grain" request some time later this week.
Dave Davison
Christopher Peri
Yea, always in Dev. Actually, we want to address the erase issue before anything else, then perhaps have speed and curve adjustments for the pencil.
As for layering, you can do that already, You can filter based on user too.
Take a look at this: http://www.vyew.com/faq/
It’s not done yet, but it goes through most of the features.
What’s really cool though, and its being released tonight, is sticky notes that allow you to add to the note like a blog. I think this can be very useful.
Christopher
From:
visuall...@googlegroups.com [mailto:visuall...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of OH...@aol.com
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006
1:51 PM
To: chri...@simulat.com;
visuall...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: moving images?
hey! that's what beta is for!
another feature suggestion: managing the "pencil" is extremely
difficult without resorting to a pen-like control device. Using either the
mouse or the touchpad on my laptop makes the pencil proccess almost unusable.
Take alook at some of the simple Draw programs for ideas about how to provide a
decent drawing toolbar and feature-set- You might also consider the potential
to "layer" images over one another to enable comparisons. This could
also be accomplished by a side-by-side feature.
daved
room 455219 where I am trying to upload a small PPT file with images. I
get an error msg -which you can see on the screen - I would invite you
to my "room" but this is faster.
Christopher
loaded something twice. I did not see any errors.
BTW, a good shortcut to get to meetings is: http://vyew.com/room/455219
Christopher