I loves me some good info-visualization. Granted, there’s not a whole lot going on in this New York Times graph other than a straightforward plotting of numbers. But the questions it raises are bountiful. As time goes on what’s driving the more rapid adoption rates (signified by the noticeably steeper growth curves)? Is it greater wealth to consume new products? Greater utility values justifying purchases? Is the difference between the telephone and radio’s curves the difference between network effect value and the ease of passive consumption? Would the cellphone’s curve more resembled the telephones if the telephone hadn’t occurred?

Hat Tip to the Visualizing Economics blog, a great place to go to get one’s freak on.

His latest book, a successor to ‘Get Back in the Box‘, is Life, Inc. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such succinct, forceful answers result in stunned silence on the Stephen Colbert show (you could hear a pin drop after his line that “It would be best for GDP (gross domestic product) if everybody in the audience would get cancer). Video embedded below.

Thought provoking stuff. I love this kind of analysis. It’s that along with the business ideals discussed at events like Small and Special that make me hopeful that mutually beneficial, niche ecologies of like-minded, small teams have a place.

Ok, this may be a little different but bare with me, it’ll be worth it: Tara Hunt writes a blog devoted to uncommon marketing called Horse, Pig Cow. She founded a business strategy called Pinko Marketing that, in some circles, is seen as the natural evolution of The Cluetrain Manifesto. After numerous successes helping clients connect with their customers she wrote a book called The Whuffie Factor (previously seen here). The title of which is from a concept in a book where geeks score said “Whuffie” while hacking an animatronic Abraham Lincoln (free download available). The release of the book is an excuse for Tara to live out a lifelong dream of traveling across the country in an RV… while holding karaoke parties at privileged stops…. named Whuffaoke.

Still there? Good. Then I cordially invite you to the official Salt Lake City stop on the Whuffaoke or Bust, Karaoke Across America! Tour. Things get underway on Sunday, July 19th at 7pm in the Gallivan Center Plaza (55 East and 2nd South). RSVP for the event is via Facebook.

In addition to Tara the Whuffaoke crew also includes Tony Bacigalupo, Emma Persky, Alex Hillman and Ridley the Pug. Friends and hangers-on are highly encouraged. Expect to meet new people and learn new things in one of the most confusing to describe events you’re likely to encounter. Proudly sponsored, in part, by Vox Pop Design.

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Small and Special Conference, an event about people that had turned their passions into businesses. It was put on by Jackson Fish Market, a quirky software development firm made up of ex-Microsoftees (full recap is now available on their site). There were a number of takeaways – the inspiring stories of overcoming adversity, the eye opening diversity of how people are able to make money, etc. However, for me and my Vox Pops, what was most valuable was the reinforcement that there are alternatives to going big and selling out.

There has been a lot of discussion lately among similarly size conscious firms about labeling. What do you call an organization intent on staying small, nimble, and cash-flow positive? Till now, “Lifestyle Businesses” is about the only thing that has stuck. The problem with that term is manifold, as the 37 Signals blog rightfully points out:

The question was put to many: “Do you want to build a nice lifestyle business or do you want to build a real business.” How condescending is that? I’m not positive I understand the subtleties and nuances of these labels, but I think I have a good idea of what’s meant by them: A lifestyle business is for the hacks and amateurs while a real business is for the big guns and grown-ups.

The Redeye VC blog is currently calling upon its readers for new name ideas. My favorite so far? Freestanding Business. There’s no reference or implication of diminutive size, sounds strong, and reinforces the notion that the doors will stay open without wheelbarrow of investment.

I’ll finish with a great video featuring David Heinemeier Hansson. Sure, he’s a pretty boy. But in a world enraptured with quick wealth and completely automated income its refreshing to hear there are other measures of success.

The time since my election as Salt Lake ColdFusion User Group manager has gone incredibly fast. Elected in April, 2005, I’ve since helped host some incredible, in-person, talks (Sean Corfield, Charlie Arehart, Gert Franz), put on a killer local conference (2008’s RIA Dev Shed), and continued the proud service to local developers since the group’s founding in 1999. Helping evangelize ColdFusion as leader for nearly half of its lifetime could only be described a labor of love.

However, the time has come for me to step down as manager. Internally, the Adobe User Group program is going through some challenges. Simultaneously, I find the success of my own company, Vox Pop Design, requiring an increasingly larger amount of my time. Further, after more than four years it is time for someone with a fresh perspective to take things to a new, reinvigorated, level.

Certainly, this does not signal a disillusionment with CFML. I remain convinced that CFML is the best choice for Rapid Application Development. The emergence of OpenBD and Railo gives ColdFusion developers incredible new options. Finally, ColdFusion’s continued vital role in Flex and the newly announced ColdFusion services mean that the next leader is guaranteed to have lots of exciting topics to cover.

There is no scheduled meeting for the month of July. On August 12th I’ll hold nominations for both assistant manager and manager (manager will be first as to allow those interested in being manager but not receiving enough votes to re-apply for assistant manager). I’ll ask for those interested to speak up, give a paragraph or two as to why they want the position and what they hope to accomplish, and then we’ll do paper ballots to determine a winner.

Again, it has been a privilege being your ColdFusion User Group Leader. You have taught me so much and I can’t wait to see where the next manager is able to take things!

Behavior Driven Development (or BDD) is an extension of current testing models. It seeks to:

• unify the language over functionality between suits and sandals (the business and techies, respectively)
• verify the business value of all systems to be implemented
• yet eschews Big, Up Front Design (BUFD) and the associated wastes of time

In addition to explaining why BDD is useful Sean will also be discussing the how through CFSpec, a BDD framework for ColdFusion.

Sean is currently the CTO of Railo, an open-source CFML server. Formerly a Senior Architect at Adobe, Sean is a frequent conference and user group lecturer. Anyone can follow his simultaneous exploits in the worlds of code and Can-Can on twitter.

Things, as usual, get underway the second Wednesday of the month at 4:30pm. Once again we’re graciously hosted by the folks as MasterControl.com. For driving directions and more info please see the SLCFUG website.

It’s always a good day when the delivery guy shows up with a package from Amazon.com. In the latest corrugated wonder we have:

• Scamorama: Turning the Tables on Email Scammers by Eve Edelson
• Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out by Douglas Ruskoff
• The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business by Tara Hunt

While I always love a good read I’m, in particular, interested in the intersection between all three. Email scammers are Sith social marketers, utilizing the power of networks and observations on people’s motivations for personal gain. They operate outside of whuffie, or the invisible social capital each one of us accrues or spends by our daily, public actions. Freed from the need to maintain ‘nice guy’ personas or brand building shenanigans, they are highly innovative in a way I’d expect Rushkoff didn’t intend.

As I’ve blogged about previously (here and here) I’m on the Utah Social Social Media Awards planning committee. As such, I was tasked with coming up with a logo for the awards itself.

Brainstorming, regardless of design, is fun. The Salt Lake Social Media Club, who is presenting the awards, already have a very clean, iconic logo (shown below) done by the effervescent Jantzie :

The straightest path from empty workspace to finished logo would be parrot the existing word bubble, contort a Utah-shaped word bubble around the words ‘Utah Social Media Awards’ and call it a day, as below:

However, there’s some serious problems here. The biggest of which is that not one, but two tired tropes are being rolled together. It’s like the Voltron of Cliches. For example, throwing the Utah shape at anything associated with the state is common almost to the point of being hackneyed – a five minute Google search turned up the following:

(It’s an issue with any agreed upon state icon – South Dakota, for example, swims in Rushmore heads. )

And that’s nothing compared with the overuse of word bubbles to represent social media, conversation, or the fading Web 2.0 term in general:

The bubble was called out for being tired in 2007 and things have only worsened since then. I’ve even resorted to the bubble for previous projects, but in my defense, I was a naive grasshopper in early 2007:

Yet, the tired usage of the state – even those combined with word bubbles – continues. A recent logo shows Utah having the same geographic heft as, say, Australia, is a case in point:

So, what to do? Using some kind of laptop silhouette is probably a dead end, as social media is increasingly relevant on other platforms, like mobile devices. What about playing on the idea of communities, of like clusters of people? After some time in photoshop and appending some throwaway text for context I arrived at this:

Yes, there’s a subtle state in there to provide context to the ‘community’ but its not a straight-up outline from Rand-McNally. And one dot stands out to fulfill the idea of the awards – acknowledging those that stand out from the crowd.

After some feedback regarding size, color, and clarity – along with a desire to more closely align with the local Social Media Club chapter, I arrived at this:

Sample USMA Logo - Pass 2

While fulfilling the feedback there are new problems. One, to simplify the state dots to jive with the bubbles it was necessary to strip the gradient shadowing – it was problematic for vectorizing and re-purposing for tasks like silk-screening anyway. But the process makes the spheres flat and two dimensional; they no longer quite resemble people heads. There is also a large amount of clutter, or noise. Whereas before approximately 110 dots didn’t seem to be that big of deal here, even flattened, there’s still a lot going on.

On today’s Vox Pop PowWow, a weekly conference call I have with other creators, it was suggested that cleaning out the bleed through between the dots might help. Another trip to photoshop results in:

So, with all that work and laborious philosophical posturing what will the final verdict be? My guess is that we’ll probably go with:

Why? After trying to avoid the obvious I have to conclude that the reason word bubbles and state outlines are used so often is that they work. What’s more? They work really well. They’re easy to grasp. They have clean lines. They’re easily re-purposed into a variety of different formats.

It’s tremendously easily to over think design. Just look at what happened to Pepsi. What’s hard is stepping outside oneself and scrapping several hours worth of work on a concept that just didn’t quite work.

For Steve, who as of last night’s LaunchUp event still hadn’t seen it.