Scott Berkun's Blog, page 101

When visualizations go wrong

Sometimes information visualization goes wrong. We quickly confuse whizzy fun visuals with using visuals to make explaining things easier. Here's a recent example.

Michael VanDaniker used the open source data-viz toolkit Axiis, grabbed the data from w3schools.com for browsershare, and made the chart below. He explains in nice detail how he did it. To be fair, I suspect his goal was just to show off the toolkit, not necessarily to make a useful or usable chart. Much of his blog is well written...

The toughest room I had this month

After a month of promoting Confessions as hard as I can, and doing more than 30 talks or media appearances in the last talks in 4 weeks, I finally have some down time.  And what's more fun in down time than to review the worst things that happened on the road? :)

I spoke in many places and kinds of venues. At web 2.0 expo, I was on stage in front of thousands (video here).  At various cool corporations and universities, I spoke in lecture halls large and small. I had a few hecklers here and...

Thursday linkfest

Here are this week's excellent links and the only stuff I managed to read this week while on the road:

On press reporting: MSFT and black screen of death -  Anyone who has an article written about them, or their work, and discovers the gap between what they are and how they are portrayed, never reads the news the same way again. Here's an interesting tale of reporting gone wrong.InnovationParkour - Great presentation (slides only) comparing innovation with the street sport of Parkour. Wish...

Should I become a project manager? (Mailbag)

A recent email from the mailbag echoes other email collecting dust in the mailbag, so I figured I'd beat the rush and answer here.

Hello I will be graduating college in two weeks and want to more about certain careers.  Project management is one of them and thought you might have some insight, based on your blog.  I have a few questions that I hoped you could answer.

Signed – Mr. Student who wants a job

Here are his questions, with answers.

Q: As a graduate how do I get on the path towards...

Slashdot reviews Confessions

Yesterday the new book was reviewed on Slashdot – It's a most excellent and positive review.

The book is loaded with chapter after chapter of practical advice. Berkun also shows what to do when things go terribly wrong; from how to work a tough room, when technology fails, microphones that go bad and more.

You can read the full review here.

Why you need a public speaking book

While on tour in SF this week I ran into some folks who read my earlier books. They were surprised I'd write a book about a topic as boring as public speaking.  Why not another innovation book, or a book on creative thinking? they'd ask. You know, FUN books. What does public speaking have to do with me, they'd say. It's a fair question to anyone who has been a fan of my work for awhile.

And I'd have to admit they had a point. Until I started working on this book, I'd never read a book on...

Confessions now shipping at Amazon again

Happy to report Confessions is in stock again at amazon, and shipping.

SF: Wed at Adaptive Path, open to public

I'm here in the San Francisco bay area all week, talking about the book. But my last stop on the tour, and my last speaking gig of the entire year is this Wednesday at Adaptive Path.

It's a fitting place to wind things up as these guys have been big supporters of my work – I'm grateful and looking forward to putting on a great show.

It's free, it's open to the public and there will be some snacks and stuff.

When: Wednesday, Dec 9th, 6-8pm

Where:  Adaptive Path, 363 Brannan Street, San...

Confessions /Amazon shipping issues – explained

Some of you have noticed Confessions is currently listed on Amazon as shipping in 1 to 2 MONTHS. And you've complained to me.

The problem here is the book has sold well, so Amazon, as smart as they are, are a little behind.

I'm told from the powers at O'Reilly that restocking should be taking place today, and things will return to normal (24hr shipping) on amazon.com early next week.

Thursday linkfest

Here's a slightly late Wednesday linkfest, now extra fresh for Thursday:

Youtube UI research – It's always interesting to see how any major brand makes product decisions, or even how they do the research to help making them.101 things I learned in Interaction design school – Love the style of this, and the book the style is inspired by (101 things I learned at architecture school).Glass is half empty – While preparing for last night's Ignite talk on Everything you need to know about...