THE world is held back−unable to even know itself−due to a lack of standards, argues Richard Saul Wurman, a noted architect and creator of the TED conference, during an interview with Kenneth Cukier, the data editor of The Economist, to kick off the Economist 2012 conference Ideas Economy: Information 2012 conference on June 5th in San Francisco (full video above). “No two cities in the world do their maps to the same scales, with the same legends; there is no agreed upon way for doing a border around a city,” he says.
At a sprightly 77 years, Mr Wurman is the author of scores of books on technology and design, and is credited with having coined the term “information architect”. During the interview, he was true to his eccentric, irascible self, which has inspired many to his causes:
21:53 minutes Jun 15th 2012, 18:38 by K.N.C. | LONDON
Category: Data Analysis, Video
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
John Dewey was right. Speak to my interests and not your own when talking to me and I will begin to learn. The interviewer had difficulty with that concept. Perhaps inadvertently he became an excellent example of Wurman’s contention that it’s the question that’s important and not the answer. Said differently, that our understandings are limited by our expectations and by our inability to give them voice.
I found Wurman’s pursuit of the common understandings that give clarity to meaning at both an individual and macro level to be akin to the search for clarification undertaken by the successful psychotherapist or consultant. From that perspective Wurman was neither eccentric nor irascible even if inspirational.
I hadn’t seen or known of Wurman before. Going to check out his writings.
Thanks for the post.