Yes, this is in a little bit of a whiny voice.

It’s basically been in the back of my mind for the past year, since I discovered them all over the inter-webs.  For a visual learner, the idea of getting a quick summary of important information laid out in an interactive and attractive design makes me smile.  I basically had no idea how to even begin to design one and didn’t even attempt to try.  I thought, “Oh, it’s too much work… I’m too busy…”  Yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses!

Scrolling through my tweets yesterday, I clicked on a link that brought me to this.

Sweet!

No more excuses!  :s  Oh boy…

Related articles

• 8 Awesome Educational Infographics for Teachers (educatorstechnology.com)
• Infogr.am Infographics (cirtblog.wordpress.com)
• The History of Infographics (an #infographic) (soshable.com)

One of the financial tools that Mr. Obama and his cronies snuck into the PPACA was a new tax, on what they considered to be, “too generous” health insurance plans.

Starting in 2018, employers who offered employees policies with benefits costing over $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families must pay a 40% “Cadillac Tax.”

At that time the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the new tax would bring in over $137,000,000,000 that could be used to help pay for the new “Subsidies” for the uninsured.

Now that the new health insurance “subsidies” are just a few months away, the CBO has revised their estimates.  It appears that many large employers have revised their health insurance plans or done away with them completely.  The latest projections indicate that the new “Cadillac Tax” will only produce a little over $80,000,000,000.

The difference is about $57,000,000,000 a year.  In order for the government to be as generous as they plan to be with health insurance premium “Subsidies” for the uninsured, that money has to be made up someplace.

If the “Obamacare” experiment survives until 2019, either the government will need to raise taxes, cut another program’s funding or modify the “Subsidy” schedule.

The Case

A disgruntled employee anonymously creates a page on a social networking site and invites friends to post derogatory comments on the company’s culture, policies, work ethics and other staff. He uses the company name in his content. It slowly gets eyeballs and can snowball into a public relations nightmare.  This scenario can play out in any organization regardless of size, industry or geography.

Here is a conversation within Trigger Ltd as they come to terms with the crisis and how they must handle it.

Vikram leads Marketing and Communications for the organization which has a mix of 15000 blue and white collar workers working in the telecom sector and runs operations in 6 cities in India and 10 abroad. He is asked by his CEO, Raj to meet with him and discuss the issue with stakeholders including HR and the communications team.

Vikram: “This is really serious. We need to get to the bottom of this.”

Asha: (works in Vikram’s team as a social media manager) “I am yet to find out who started the page. I need some time to get this information. The person has blocked ‘likes’ and I can’t figure out the location.”

Vikram: (visibly upset) “This is not acceptable. How dare he defame the company? I will report this to the city’s police cyber -crime department and lodge a case. I want the person sued.”

Manu: (the PR Head): “Vikram, look we can’t take such actions. It will blow up in our face. This is a ticking PR time bomb. I suggest we avoid involving outside parties at this stage. I am already hearing that the press wants to know more about this case.”

Vikram: “I know it but how else can we stop this person from doing damage?”

Alex: (the HR Head) “If we can figure out the person, I can send out a warning that such actions will lead to dismissal from the organization. Employees are already talking about this page and we can delay things any longer”.

Raj: (The CEO shakes his head and retorts) “This is an issue with our culture. I need to fix it. If this person can do it and get so many ‘likes’ it is reflective of how our employees think.  What can I do to intervene?”

Alex: “Raj, I suggest you stay out of this till we get a proper grip of the issue. Let Manu or Vikram step up and do some communications around it. It is about communications and social media is one of the mediums we use and choose to use to communicate with our prospects, clients and stakeholders.”

Manu: “Hey, I am not sure this is the role of the PR team to intervene as yet. While I can be prepared for a fallout this isn’t my area. I think Asha needs to own this case since it relates to social media.”

Vikram: “I am not completely sure. I am not sure Marketing and Communications can do much at this point until we get more clarity from Asha. Since it is related to an employee it must be HR’s responsibility to tackle it.”

Raj: “Are you saying we just sit back and wait till things go out of hand? This is going to be a disaster for our business and clients may soon ask us questions. If none of you can take ownership I will shoot out an e-mail to the company about the dos and don’ts of social media.”

Asha: (sounding unsure). “Maybe, I can post something anonymously on the page or send feelers and check how the person responds.”

Vikram: “Wait Ronald and Asha – we can’t be reactive. Give me some time. Let me get my thoughts together on this and come back to the group in a day on how to handle the situation.”

Vikram thanks everyone for attending the emergency meeting and heads back to his desk.

The questions I ask are:

-           Whose ownership is it to intervene and take the lead?

-           Is it the internal communications team, the broader marketing communications or corporate communications group (as the case maybe in some organizations), the HR team, the leadership team, legal or someone else?

-          What can the group do to get ahead of the situation?

-          Who must finally communicate and how?

How can you help Vikram arrive at the best way to solve this crisis?

Interested to hear your views. Do share them on my blog.

What should be mentioned is how huge this project was. Carefully collected information, a rare (if ever…) topic of publication, allowed an elastic design and a lot of humorous solutions.

Drawn pattern makes the whole book a lot less serious than most data visuals.

Beautifully simple typo created a flexible layout and arranged text into a clean, pleasant layout.

Advice section filled with funny and easily accessable hand drawn illustration.

Hand written quotes made the content more credible and personal.

And what blown me away most: The way information composes with pictures and the images support it’s readability. It is just ON ANOTHER LEVEL, just have a look.

No need to add (but we still do) the book exposition. That’s what full, bold design is!

Powyżej: dosyć zaskoczyło mnie znalezienie akurat dziś, po weekendzie spędzonym w całości na przeprowadzce do nowego domu przepieknego projektu wydawnictwa – infografiki poświęconej właśnie wynajmowi i współlokatorstwu

Poradnik współlokatora Lauren Earl w zabawny i przystępny sposób prezentuje zebrane przez nią dane, wizualizując je w przyjazny, przstępny i wiarygodny sposób. Służą temu konkretne zabiegi projektowe jak ilustracja, odręczne pismo, patterny, przepięknie prosta (i kontrastująca typografia…).

I to co nas zaczarowało – wizualizacja danych. O ekspozycji książki nie wspominając

Friday Linkage became Monday Linkage because I suck at life right now.

I have been really slow on getting posts up to the site.  I could blame going to Minneapolis for a funeral, being sick for a chunk of the week, a brutal work schedule, and a pending garage sale…but that would be whining. I do not want to sound like a conservative talk show host.

On to the links…

2014 is Looking to be a 7,000 Megawatt Year for Windpower Capacity and Innovation—Bring it on!  The more windpower the better.

Utilities versus Rooftop Solar: What the Fight is Really About—What do utilities fear?  Competition and a loss of control over the means of production.  If that sounds like a return to some Marxist dogma of the 1960s it should because utilities are dinosaurs in terms of business model.

Four Charts On How America Can Do Much More To Tackle Climate Change—  Basically, we have the tools in the toolbox to do a lot more about devastating climate change yet we lack the political willpower to actually address the problem instead spending millions of dollars and countless hours on pointless repeals of Obamacare and investigations into non-existent scandals.

Young Americans Lead Trend to Less Driving—So, how do we follow up the trend of driving less with infrastructure developments that support it?  Our politicians are too stupid and hidebound to think about anything other than highways and roads.

A Powerful Use for Spoiled Food—Why is there not a digester at every major facility that handles spoiled food or other material that could be turned into energy?  This seems like one of those win-wins that we do not get to hear about very often.

Manure Foam Menace Still Haunting Livestock Operations—It sounds like something out of a midnight horror movie…exploding poop foam!  But, it’s not joke.  I love how the industry people are looking to heap antibiotics onto the problem rather than asking the question about the sanity of their broken business model.

First Major Hemp Crop in 60 Years Planted in Colorado—An overlooked effect of the referendum to legalize marijuana in the state of Colorado was that it opened the door for industrial hemp to be planted.  I do not think that hemp is the miracle plant that the hackey sack playing stoner in college tried to convince you it was, but it can be part of the portfolio of solutions.

Who Would Kill a Monk Seal?—I am a big fan of monk seals and other aquatic life, so it strikes me as strange why someone, native Hawaiian or otherwise, would kill a monk seal?   This seems like a case of mistaken guilt like the sea lions being harassed to preserve salmon runs.  The fish are not in decline because of natural predators, okay?

Study of Rare Hops Loving Butterfly gets Boost from Brewer—Beer is good for so much more than just drinking.  It helps the planet, man!

Farm Equipment that Runs on Oats—I am always reminded of post-apocalyptic fiction when I read about people using draft horses.  There is something bucolic and serene about draft animals for the person who is not working as a teamster on a daily basis.

You Absolutely Should not Get Backyard Chickens—This is the exact sentiment that has prevented me from getting backyard chickens even though it has been legal in my town for a couple of years and I have the perfect place for a chicken coop.  Sorry, I know that I would get too attached to the birds and would not be able to end their lives at an economic time.  Then again, if a hen were to provide years of eggs for little more than feed and water could I not offer that bird a comfortable retirement in return?

More Bike Lanes Boost Business—One day, maybe we will actually get to “Copenhagen-ize” our transport infrastructure and be able to bike freely across cities.  It’s a dream.

Why Federal Efforts to Ensure Clean Tap Water Fail to Reach Faucets Nationwide—The infrastructure in the U.S. is so messed up right now, I think this is just one story that could be repeated time and time again in locations nationwide.  How we can allow this situation to endure is beyond me?  Oh right, partisan politics…

Three Friends Make an Attempt to Live Below the Line—Almost since the invention of blogs, people have been documenting their attempts to live on food stamps or a $1 per day.  It’s not totally original, but these efforts do require some attention because of what it says about the inequity in our world and the razor thin margin that so many people live on.

Tasty, and Subversive, Too—World watch out.  Guerrilla gardeners are grafting bearing branches to your ornamental fruit trees.  The world quivers at the thought of some plums falling from the sky!

Life in America: 1983 versus 2013 Infographic—Some of the economic numbers blow my mind.  The median price of a home?  The estimated GDP?  Wow!  Check it out for yourself:

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – moms are some of the most active users of social media that you will find.

Moreover, they’re big evangelists of digital brands- 84 percent of moms go online when looking for product and brand recommendations, and two-thirds (65 percent) say that they have learned about a product or service through social networking.

Hence, ensuring that your brand is targeting and directly engaging with these socially savvy ladies is becoming increasingly important for relative businesses who use platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to raise awareness, drive website football and boost sales, and the infographic below, the second part of PunchTab’s look at digitally-engaged moms, takes a closer look at this growing phenomenon.

Continue reading on www.mediabistro.com

This infographic was designed by Islam Abudaoud, using sources from across the net. Although not specifically towards writers, he’s got it pretty much spot on, including carrying a notebook around, using free writing, and not beating ourselves up about it.

More details about the infographic (also available as a poster) at Behance.

Freelance • Illustrator • 2013

My first infographic, done for my favorite pottery.

A great infographic to support sessions on CV writing to show learners what they’re up against in industry.  I tell my students these facts every year but this reinforces the information in a visual format and is a great discussion starter. It can be displayed on the interactive board and given as handouts for the students to read and discuss.

Source: http://infographiclist.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/1why-resumes-are-rejected.png

I’ve written before about saving money when traveling (check out my getting there, where to stay, and what to do articles), so you guys already know that travel is an area of life where I’m always looking to save some cash.

Truth moment: I love seeing the world but I hate, hate, hate how much money I have to drop.  Emma’s fantasy world is a place where flying is free and five star hotel rooms are given to me just because I’m an awesome blog writer.

Sigh. What a beautiful world it would be.

Unfortunately, writing is not (and probably never will be) the kind of job that covers whimsical do-what-you-wish traveling, so I’m stuck searching for penny pinching measures for now at least.

In my constant search for the perfect cheap trip, I can across this great infographic about the hidden costs of travel from the guys over at Hipmunk. When you’re budgeting your vacation, it’s super important to take these into consideration because the Hipmunk team discovered that the hidden costs of the average five day vacation can add up to a whopping $550.

Summer time is fast approaching and I know many of you are planning on jetting off to exotic locales. Study the infographic. It will serve you well.