Most of the examples that illustrate Tufte’s principles of a successful information graphic are quite plain, and might not draw a general audience with their overall lack of aesthetic beauty. I think that’s where our training begins- with a bare, concise, clear graphic to be our primary goal, and it ends with the addition of a new element that sets it apart from all other written attempts to reach others with this data. This final arrangement is what can make the prints available at historyshots.com foster new interest in the time period they represent. As they addressed near the end of the Emergence conference this past weekend, Service Design has the potential to become an art form, once they establish a common language. Though I feel, too, that service design is but a responsible way to apply the already existing design process and skillset towards a higher goal whether that be a more efficient hospital or a less wasteful car company.

The logistics and categorizations of the sociosemantic web in Chapter 6 were particularly challenging for me to grasp. The multivariate folksonomy seems to me to be the next logical step given the ubiquitous nature of the internet where connections can be made to information by any number of people who find it.

Morville illustrates an example of the sociosemantic web via a common tagged article through which one can ultimately access and research the profile of those who read it. I don’t know that I always want be tagged, located, observed and recorded as data to be cataloged. For instance, though I like the discount grocery stores offer when I scan my card, maybe I don’t want them keeping track of all my purchases. I guess there is a careful balance between anonymity and outright exposure in the name of being a more “target-able” consumer, a predictable web browser, and overall findable person.