Hi. I'm Sean... an entrepreneur into creating successful business ideas for the social web. I run a digital strategy company called Freeworld Media.
This blog is where I talk about the intersections of my life... past, present and future.
This summer, I was in Scotland and saw this big ole’ duck at Loch Lomond. It’s the lake from the old Scottish song that goes… ”You take the high road and I’ll take the low road…”
By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond.
Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae
On the bonnie, bonnie banks O’ Loch Lomond.
Refrain:
O ye’ll tak’ the high road and I’ll tak’ the low road,
An’ I’ll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks O’ Loch Lomond.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjgs3pj_38k]
Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only these two—basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.
- Peter Drucker
In the early 80′s, there was a local Houston commercial that still sticks with me.
“When your transmission’s got you down, and your motor falls apart
It’s time to come to Thunderbolt, You don’t need a brand new car
We still believe in value, and we pass it on to you
At Thunderbolt we fix it right and we guarantee it too
WE PUT THE YEE-HAW BACK IN YOUR MOTOR AND TRANSMISSION!!”
Thomas A. Edison, Benefactor of Mankind
I was curious about who created information graphics so I dug around and it turns out to be a cool story… a 27 year old Scottish guy in the late 1700′s came up with the first infographics. So who was it? Well, according to Wikipedia…
William Playfair invented four types of diagrams in 1786: the line graph and bar chart of economic data, and in 1801 the pie chart and circle graph, used to show part-whole relations.
William Playfair (22 September 1759 – 11 February 1823) was a little bit of a trouble-maker and his jobs included…
millwright, engineer, draftsman, accountant, inventor, silversmith, merchant, investment broker, economist, statistician, pamphleteer, translator, publicist, land speculator, convict, banker, ardent royalist, editor, blackmailer and journalist.
in 1787 he took part in the storming and the capture of the Bastille in Paris. (Awesome.)
Modern Data Visualization
Infographics are an easy way to explain complex situations and the real benefit is to show the context of how data, information or knowledge relates to each other. The challenge for modern infographic experts like David McCandless is to optimize infographics that show better information and meaning. The key to marketing and communications in the information age is understanding the rich complexitites of information so that we can make better decisions.
In 1961, The IBM 7094 became the first computer to sing “Daisy Bell”. Also in the scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey when HAL dies, he sings the song “Daisy Bell”.