Evolutions at Alphachimp Studio Inc.

MissingLink set to launch on June 15th at the International Association of Facilitators. MissingLink was designed by a team of artists and facilitators who have worked with collaborative teams focused on global strategies. For years, we have been frustrated by the amount of work that seems to evaporate as soon as a meeting concludes. MissingLink brings together the power of browser-based software, file management, keyword tagging, podcasting and even video broadcasting. There is no software to download beyond your web browser. Find out why this easy-to-use web-based tool is the missing link between ideas and implementation.

For a sneak peek at its capabilities, visit: http://www.alphachimp.com/missinglink/valueprop.htm

Kelvy Bird will be in a Summer Juried Exhibit at Tufts University, showing work form her latest series “Pulse”. These rich paintings--three-five 5’ square canvases and ten-twelve 12” square panels--represent "the bloom or emission of human presence from an energetic field."

Check Kelvy's website for photos: http://kelvybird.com/paintings.html

Annual Juried Summer Exhibition Tufts University Art Gallery, Aidekman Arts Center June 1-July 31, 2006 Reception Thursday June 1, 5:30–8:30pm http://ase.tufts.edu/gallery/shows/summer-06.html

Shout Outs

- Adham Al-Shehaby - Paul Williams in Seattle - Ken Maier in Chicago - John Caswell in London - Giuseppe Fenzi in Italy - Daniel Bigonesse in Ontario - Reinhard Kuchenmüller in Münich - Christine Valenza in California - Jeff Cares in Rhode Island

Articles

This is a visual learner's digest from The Center for Graphic Facilitation Images + Ideas + Methods + Tools = Visual Learning http://www.graphicfacilitation.com

SAD GOODBYES

Scott Kjelgaard

On Easter Sunday morning, April 16, 2006, Scott Owen Kjelgaard passed away at home with his wife by his side. The memorial service to celebrate Scott's life was held Wednesday, April 19.

Scott Kjelgaard was born March 3, 1957, in Blossburg, Penn., and grew up in McGraw, N.Y. He played basketball on his high school's championship team and was a salutatorian of the 1975 graduating class of McGraw High School. Scott graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, Cum Laude, in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1980. He earned a Master's of Science degree from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., in 1991. Scott conducted aeronautical research, including developing an aerodynamic research wind tunnel, at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton Va. from 1977 to 1995. From 1995 to 1999, Scott worked for several companies as a technology advisor. In 1999, Scott co-founded Kinetic Energies, Inc. with his wife. Scott also designed and held a patent on a special training/teaching device useful in the classroom.

Scott and Nola Kjelgaard were united in marriage on April 3, 1982, at Orcutt Baptist Church in Newport News, Va. After a wedding trip to San Francisco, Calif., Scott and Nola returned to Newport News where they lived for 14 years, and then moved to Hilton Head, S.C., where they ran the Knowhere Store for MG Taylor. In 1998, Scott moved his family to Lexington, S.C.

Scott is survived by his loving wife, Nola Moen Kjelgaard, and two daughters who were the lights of his life, Heather Megan Kjelgaard, a gifted engineering student at the University of South Carolina, and Stephanie Nicole Kjelgaard, an exceptional creative writer and senior at White Knoll High School in Lexington; his loving parents, Melvin "Vern" and Geraldine Kjelgaard; and his dear sister, Lynette Lauria and her husband, Robert, from Claremont, Fla. Scott also leaves behind many nieces and nephews, and a host of friends who will miss him deeply.

He was a kind and funny guy who worked extremely hard and was known for saying, "Yes, sometimes, it really does take a rocket scientist!"

NASA obit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/researchernews/ memoriam_skjelgaard.html Kinetic Energies: http://kineticenergies.com/

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Jane Jacobs: The Death and Life of A Great American City Lover

We lost a good woman this Spring as well—urban thinker and influential writer Jane Jacobs. In her many speeches and books, she detailed the patterns and plans that make cities alive and vibrant; she railed against the insane urban planning decisions that killed them. Both she and Christopher Alexander helped us to understand why old neighborhoods in inner city America have so much in common with classic Italian villages: They both have narrow sidewalks that encourage contact with our fellow humans.

http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/05/the_death_and_l.html

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Albert Morse: Lawyer, Collector, Writer and Hero to Underground Cartoonists

Condolences to graphic facilitator Christine Valenza, who this January lost her husband, Albert Morse, described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "an intellectual property lawyer for underground cartoonists, was many things: self-publisher of a pioneer book about tattoo art, collector of 17th and 18th century chastity belts and Oceanic sculpture, son of Man Ray's model of erotic photographs, a self-described voyeur, Bohemian and bon vivant."

San Francisco Chronicle obit: http://www.sfgate.com/ cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/29/BAGJDGVDAF1. DTL&hw=Albert+Morse&sn=001&sc=1000

PODCASTS OF NOTE

Gold From Thin Air: The Economy of Virtual Worlds

In this PopTech 2005 session, Ed Castronova, who is considered to be at the top of a very short list of the world's leading economists on virtual worlds, discusses the relevance of synthetic world economies as it relates to, and impacts the real world. Ed encapsulates the theme of his talk as "the salience of massively multi-player, avatar-mediated communication in the world."

Ed's personable and witty speaking style easily keeps his audience's attention during the fast moving presentation. He shares some of his groundbreaking thoughts and statistical data that certainly appear to confirm his findings. During his talk, Ed compares the very lucrative game of golf and Hollywood’s movie market to the gaming industry. He discusses participation levels possible in online gaming and how that compares with Hollywood’s passive entertainment industry, movies. It would seem that unlike Hollywood’s offerings at the box office, multi-player online gaming is interactive, productive, and aggressively growing. He clearly makes a case that gaming is serious business these days.

LISTEN: http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/05/ gold-from-thin-air-economy-of-virtual.html

SEE: http://www.alphachimp.com/poptech/2005/Castronova.htm

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Andy Halliday - Telling the Story of Our Lives

OurStory is the first company to deliver a site specifically designed to let people capture, organize, archive, and share the stories, images and insights of their lives and the lives of the people who matter to them most. OurStory makes it easy to preserve stories for future generations, explore one's own personal journey, or create complete, media-rich biographies.

LISTEN: http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail1051.html

SEE: http://www.ourstory.com

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Ivan Marovic - Breakaway Games

It is human nature to resist change. So one might ask, how could a group hope to bring about major social, economic, political, religious or cultural changes in a non-violent way, or know if the means one chooses would provide the desired result, or create new problems? In this session, Ivan Marovic talks about a new game that helps address these issues. Through his experiences in the Otpor (resistance), Ivan Marovic was key in shaping a new online game where people can play out real world scenarios and strategies in a virtual world.

LISTEN: http://www.itconversations.com/ cn-promo.php?url=http://www.itconversations.com/ shows/detail773.html

SEE: http://www.alphachimp.com/poptech/2005/ Ivan-Marovic.htm

VIDEO (62Mb .wmv): http://breakawaygames.com/downloads/afmp.wmv

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Keith Rheinhard - Business for Diplomatic Action

[Part of the P.O.V.'s series titled "Selling America" on PBS]

As Chairman of DDB Worldwide, which is one of the largest advertising and marketing firms in the world, and Rheinhard manages 206 offices now in 96 countries. DDB serves a lot of multi-national clients: Johnson & Johnson, Exxon Mobile, McDonalds, Phillips Electronics and others. And traveling around the world over the past years Rheinhard became increasingly aware of a growing anti-American sentiment. Just after 9/11, Rheinhard assembled a task force in 17 countries, sent his researchers into the street asking: "What do you like about America? What don't you like about America?"

LISTEN: http://www.pbs.org/pov/rss/media/ pov_borders_keith1.mp3

READ: http://www.pbs.org/pov/borders/2006/talk/keith_ reinhard/000239.html

SEE: http://www.pbs.org/pov/borders/2006/de_sellingamerica.html

ALPHACHIMP ARTICLES

The Double-Edged Sword of Collaboration

A few weeks ago, a corporate client asked me to look up the definition of "collaboration" and to animate it in a glitzy PowerPoint presentation. I complied. However, they were mortified to learn (and quick to censor) the double-edged sword unsheathed by the definition of the word:

col·lab·o·rate 1. To work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort. 2. To cooperate treasonably, as with an enemy occupation force in one's country.

As we debate the notions of collaboration and cooperation, there is a darker side to this topic we're kicking around. Perhaps I am affected by the years I spent in Poland in the early '90s right after the Wall came down. I lived in Krakow, a train ride away from Auschwitz, during a period in which "cooperation" meant forced labor and State control of private assets, and "collaboration" was most often followed by the words "with the enemy".

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/05/ double-edged-sword-of-collaboration.html

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Latte Democrats & NASCAR Republicans Theory Debunked

From Washington University in St. Louis, this article by Gerry Everding explains the dangers of oversimplifying the US political map.

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/05/ latte-democrats-nascar-republicans.html

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The Craft of Fixing Bugs

Everyone is at sometime tasks with troubleshooting a piece of technology. Whether it be a water heater or weather satellites, there is are some basic rules to figuring out what gremlin has stop the @#$%&*! thing from working properly. From Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools, here is a terrific aid to "essential technological literacy."

Debugging: The Nine Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems by David J. Agans 2002, 192 pages $15

Take a look at The Rules (http://www.debuggingrules.com/) and ask yourself how many of them were violated by FEMA during the Katrina debacle. Then ask yourself, "How many am I violating right now?!?"

Also helpful for spousal disputes.

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/05/ craft-of-fixing-bugs.html

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The DEVOlutionary Visual Art of Mark Mothersbaugh

Mark Mothersbaugh, front man for DEVO, has been active in creating music and visual art for over 30 years. He has intersected with and influenced pop culture in many ways over the years. During his downtime on early worldwide tours with DEVO, Mark Mothersbaugh began illustrating on postcards to send to his friends, which he still creates, and has been creating every day for over 30 years. It's an obsessive habit/hobby which still yields anywhere from one to a couple dozen new postcard-sized images per day. "Beautiful Mutants" is comprised of images pulled from man's past... then corrected into sickeningly beautiful beings. A study of humans via symmetry using photos both recent & vintage. [Thanks to Drew Dernavitch, a devolved artist in his own right!]

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/05/ devolutionary-visual-art-of-mark.html

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Wacky Packages of the Global Economy

Tom Vanderbilt, a New York City-based writer on architecture, design, technology, science and other topics, was strolling down on side street off the Djemma al Fna square in Marrakech, when this design mutation caught his eye. The packages of "Crust" toothpaste instantly triggered boyhood memories of the sardonic illustration of real product designs, Wacky Packages. He writes: "I was standing at the funhouse-mirror-lined vortices of the global economy: The Knockoff Zone."

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/05/ wacky-packages-of-global-economy.html

MAD MAPS

Quilt Maps of Ian Hundley

Ian Hundley is a Brooklyn-based artist who transforms maps into original large-scale quilts. In this inaugural episode of a Cool Hunting Video series where they visit the studios of artists and designers, they meet with Ian to discuss his inspirations and capture his process.

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/05/ quilt-maps-of-ian-hundley.html

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Avian Flu Mash-Up Map

Declan Butler, a nature and science reporter, has compiled an example of the power that is now in the hands of individuals. Using commercially available software and data from an Excel spreadsheet and Google Earth, he has created an interactive map tracing the spread of Avian Flu in birds and humans from September 2003 - April 2006.

http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/05/ avian_flu_mashu.html

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Technologies of Cooperation Map

Howard Rheingold is a leading thinker on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communications media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities (a term he is credited with inventing). CooperationCommons is one of his virtual communities organized around the discussion, "What is true collaboration and what are the tools to enable it?"

http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/05/ technologies_of.html

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US Gas Prices Map

Via the University of Texas Libraries Map Room, I connected to GasBuddy.com. This is a great example of collaborative information gathering by local consumers on the ground in their neighborhoods, combined with real-time data rendering. Now you can see what gas prices are around the country at a glance. Areas are color coded according to their price for the average price for regular unleaded gasoline. Right click on the map for more information about each county(parrish/borough) or zip.

http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/05/ us_gas_prices_m.html

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WorldMapper

As seen on the April 27 broadcast of Rocketboom.com, this is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. The map of World Population by 2050 shows China as a big greeny monster; India as a bulging, muscular orange. See if you can even spot Russia! By then it is estimated that the earth's human population will be 9.07 billion. 62% of the people will live in Africa, Southern Asia and Eastern Asia - numerically this is the same as if all the world's current population lived just in these regions. In addition another 3,000,000,000 will be spread accross the rest of the world.

http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/pages/2006/04/worldmapper.html

Cool Tools

Submitted by readers. Let us know about cool tools you use and peruse. cooltools@alphachimp.com

Yokel: Really smart yellow pages

Yokel makes finding local "things" less time-consuming and more cost-efficient (especially with the gas prices these days). Similar to GoogleMaps and YahooLocal but with more relevant results. And the Yokel search engine helps comparison shop online for things you want to buy offline at local stores. All you need to do is type in what you are looking for and the city or zip code you want to buy it in and Yokel provides the results. It seemed really helpful for items you wouldn't want to ship or more abstract items like a motorcycle trailer. [from Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools]

http://www.yokel.com/

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Bring out the GIMP!

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. Doug Kaye, senior executive producer of the ConversationsNetwork, was looking for a low cost imaging solution:

"I'm getting tired of switching from my Mac to a PC every time I want to edit an image. (I switched my life from Windows to OS X last year, but still have many of my best tools on the PC.) Other than Photoshop (expensive), what image-editing software do you recommend for the Mac? I need to do the usual CN stuff: crop, resize, adjust color and gamma, etc. But nothing super sophisticated."

Audio producer Cori Schlegel sent Doug searching for the GIMP!

http://www.gimp.org/

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Snapz Pro X

I asked the founder of PixelCorps, Alex Lindsay, what his organization uses to create their very personal and useful software tutorials.

Snapz Pro X 2 allows you to effortlessly record anything on your screen, saving it as a QuickTime® movie or screenshot that can be emailed, put up on the web, or passed around however you please. It costs $69. Upgrades from Snapz Pro X 1.0 w/ movie capture are $20.

Why take a static screenshot when Snapz Pro X 2 makes creating a movie just as easy? Snapz Pro X 2 does that, and so much more -- what a difference a version makes! Download a free demo version from our web site today or check out the demo movies we've created and see for yourself.

http://www.macgamefiles.com/download.php?item=18009

Upcoming Events

Do you know about a great event coming up? Let us know! events@alphachimp.com

2006 Visual Practitioners Conference October 27-29, 2006 in Granlibakken http://www.visualpractitioner.org/

Pop!Tech X October 18-21 2006 in Camden, Maine http://www.poptech.com/

Monkey Business

Barrel of Monkeys

BOM is a Chicago-based ensemble of actor/educators that creates an alternative learning environment in which children share their personal voices and celebrate the power of their imaginations. BOM accomplishes this through creative writing workshops and in-school performances of children's stories. BOM also engages the broader community in support of the visions of children through public performances of their work (see video). [Thanks to Jarrell McAlister]

http://www.alphachimp.com/clients/2006/05/barrel-of-monkeys.html

Contact Us

We'd be honored to brag about any of your accomplishments or promote any of your upcoming workshops or public appearances.

Drop us a line!

Peter Durand, Creative Director peter@alphachimp.com | ph: 412-478-1827

Diane Durand, Managing Director diane@alphachimp.com | ph: 412-478-1829

Alphachimp Studio Inc. 414 South Craig St. #275 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA Studio: 412-322-1418

To subscribe: http://www.mailchimp.com/subscribe.phtml?id=88a240d0c4