What we learned at Nerd Nite and Party Pics

Last night's Nerd Nite had a Night Rider reference and a moment to remember Aaron Swartz and his commitment to free sharing of information. We learned that it is legal to get a license to drive a self-driving car in California and Nevada.
Probably our favorite presentation of the evening was by co-boss Becky on Framing Information: The Fine Art of Big Data.  There is an enormous amount of data out there (we're probably being collected right now!) & also technology to filter &organize data. We learned the word "dataviz", which is a  graphic representation that does more than words, photos, videos or flat graphics to explain some aspect of “reality".  Properly done data visualization can be brilliant and beautiful.  One website says of dataviz 

 An excellent web dataviz makes you say “Oh, I get it” after even a brief glance.A perfect one also is so beautiful you want to spend time just clicking and admiring–and, as you do, your understanding deepens.

Names on the 9/11 memorial aren't organized in alphabetical order, but by relationships. Wow.
Check out graphics of Lee Byron and others here: http://threeminds.organic.com/2008/08/10_gorgeous_data_visualization.html

This graphic from the New York Times shows how hundreds of movies performed at the box office over 20 years. Often referred to as an Ebb and Flo chart, meaning movement of water.

Here are the Party Pics!