Baby Names & The Power of Visualization

Not sure if you have been put in a situation where you had to think hard of a good baby name. You may know someone that needed help with baby names. Everyone knows that baby names are usually a touchy subject. You do not want an old fashion name that is complicated nor a name that is too simple where the baby never grows. Some even believe that baby names could affect the future outlook of a person and support or distress their success in certain professions. The other day I heard a female caller to a radio station saying that she saw the most hansom man, Hollywood type figure. As she started talking to him she asked about his name. His name happens to be “Bert” like in Bert and Ernie. She said in her mind “you got to be kidding me… No way.” then ended the conversation peacefully and walked away with no return! So when people say it does not matter what you name the baby – I tend to think that it matters. I would highly advice that you take the time and think of a good name that will not cause social or ideological obstacles in the new person’s life…

Why am I writing about this? because I came across the most fascinating baby names tool. It visualizes baby names and provides trends about baby names in the US since the 18th century. This tool is a good example of how information visualization could be utilized. The information that is represented visually through this tool would be cumbersome, if not too hard to comprehend, without it.

The tool is called Baby Voyager – check it out and let me know what you find.

Information Overload

Information overload is a big problem, more so nowadays than ever before. This problem have invaded our lives and affected every part of it in ways that we could not deem possible. At work, I receive on average about 100 emails per day. You can only imagine what happens when I take a week off. One time, I had a little over 1000 email waiting in my box after I returned from a week-long vacation. Luckily not all of these emails needed personal replies. But of course, I had to review them all to decide which ones needed replies and which ones did not. It would take me at least a week of long working hours to go through all of these messages while carrying out my daily responsibilities.
As of school email, I receive an average of about 10 emails daily. This number could vary day to day - it all depends on what is going on at the moment. If I am working on any publishing or research projects, there would be a lot more emails addressing those engagements. I also receive my library circulation reminders, which I love, reminding me of the books that are due in five days of less. This ensures that I either renew the book or return it to the library. Not to mention the Ucnet and digest messages that I receive from my college as well as other professional organizations which I am a member of.
At a personal level, I receive about 5 messages a day from family and friends on average, which is not too bad.
Let’s do the math, between email I receive from work, school and family/friends, I receive an average of 115 messages daily. Could you imagine that? I was startled when I realized that this is what is happening her. I am sure I am not alone in this. Some people may receive more or less than that. But let’s thing about this for a second and consider the amount of time that we spend everyday. Do we really need all of this? Are we able to absorb and benefits from all of this information that comes traveling our way whether we ask for it or not. Does too much means too little? Do we even have the option of not reading our emails.

This is one side of the issue, the internet is another and more critical side of the information overload problem. The internet provides access to massive volumes of data that cultivating by the second. With these large volumes of data, it becomes important to focus on aspects of information storage and retrieval. Topics like data warehousing and data mining become more important than ever before. Inevitably, information representation becomes the interface of the new world of information overload.

I was hoping that you would share your thoughts on this topic.

I am Back!

As some of you know, I have disappeared from the blogsphere for a while since I have accidentally deleted my blog L. It took me weeks to get over it but now I am back and more careful than ever before. Many of you have asked that I re-post some of the previous ideas discussed - ones that had cool links and useful resources. If my memory serves me well, I will bring back all your favorites. Regrettably, I will not be able to bring back your comments and discussion threads. In any event, let’s give it another shot.

Welcome to My Blog

This blog is dedicated to addressing the gap between research and practice in the field of information sciences and technology. As a researcher, I am always looking for real life problems to solve. As a practitioner, I am on a quest to find answers and get advice from the experts on what works. Therefore, I believe that the worlds of practice (industry) and research are strongly intertwined where one can not survive without the other.

I have been traveling between the two worlds for a while and have come to believe that the gap needs to be bridged and eventually eliminated. This is what I am set to do by inviting discussions around information science topics that matter to industry practitioners as well as researchers.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!