Thanks to Hal for pointing me to an awesome website that is a wonderful repository of visualization tools for data. Gapminder is a non-profit venture for development and provision of free software that visualize human development.

Check out their animated charts on Human Development Trends for 2005 (just press start on the main webpage) and see how the visual display of quantitative information can be done well. I hesitate to show the simple static image below, the beauty is in how they animate these charts to make the data come alive, so please click on the link to Gapminder above and explore for yourself:

They also have some well-done static charts, like this one on CO2 emissions by country:

A picture sometimes really is worth a thousand words.

It’s a characteristic of CEO’s who are also founders of companies to speak more frankly than appointed heirs. Scott McNealy, founder of Sun Microsystems and CEO for over 20 years, was an iconoclast who spoke fearlessly of things as he saw them.

Last Saturday’s interview with Infosys founder and CEO Nandan Nilekani in the Financial Times (subscription required) is an example of CEO who is a company founder speaking candidly on a global scale.

Nilekani is famous for inspiring Thomas Friedman to write The World is Flat.

His views on the changing world economic landscape and the outsourcing of jobs from the west to India and China are uncompromisingly rooted in history:

Two hundred years back, India and China were 50 per cent of global GDP, but both, for different reasons, opted out of the race. In China, they turned inwards and in India we had the empire. The next century is an opportunity to redeem some of that: the flat world has created a unique confluence of circumstances which will have a huge impact on all our lives.

He challenges the inherent right of Westerners to a high standard of living:

I don’t think that a high standard of living is an entitlement. I don’t think the world can live with everyone driving an SUV. Somethings got to give. It’s just become more competitive. If Indians and Chinese can work 80- 100 hours a week and they are part of a global, fungible labor market, it’s going to have an impact on living standards in the west.”

While acknowledging infrastructure problems in Bangalore (a dysfunctional city) and the narrow base of Indian IT, Nilekani believes “the tide has turned” with the west.

It’s encouraging to hear such plain spoken CEO.

Which American or European executives would dare to disagree?

And what would they say that wouldn’t disturb the fragile relationship with their own employees (skittish about losing jobs to Banagalore and South China) and their overseas partners who man the call centers and manufacture most of what they sell? Hardly “You’re right. We’re busy driving down standards of living among our employees and doing our bit to hasten the decline of the West.”

One, Two, Three, Four.

Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro.

Numbers are such absolutes, the bedrock of what we know, of how we think. We count the ways of loving and measure out our lives in numbers. So it’s only common sense that these must appeal on a similar level (of pure reason) in each and every listener worldwide – no matter if the audience is in St. Louis or Shanghai. Right?

Not so, reports the Chinese People’s Daily Online. Significant cultural differences exist in the way we process numbers.

Despite using the same numerals in computing, English and Chinese speakers displayed different brain activities in processing them, according to a new study conducted by a China-US research team. For example, the participants might have been shown symbols of an erect scythe and a cleaver and asked to figure out the visual orientation of a tilted knife in relation to the first two.

Right there, the dispassionate focus of the researcher betrays a deep cultural bias. While mental images of erect scythes, cleavers and a tilted knives would draw a blank in most westerners (with the possible exception of those of us who live in San Francisco and are habitues of the Power Exchange ) for the Chinese this is a valid area of research where numbers are represented by pictograms.

Since Chinese characters are more visual that Arabic numbers the brain activity required to process these vastly different written codes are significant.

This is yet another reason to eschew text and numbers in your Powerpoint when presenting at home or abroad. Stick to photographs and images that have more universal appeal. The audience will understand you better. You can count on it.

In a fascinating survey out this week, the Pew Research Center reports that anti-Americanism is on the rise across the planet.
The big issue is the war in Iraq:

The survey shows that the Iraq war continues to exact a toll on America’s overall image and on support for the struggle against terrorism. Majorities in 10 of 14 foreign countries surveyed say that the war in Iraq has made the world a more dangerous place. In Great Britain, America’s most important ally in Iraq, 60% say the war has made the world more dangerous, while just half that number (30%) feel it has made the world safer.

No surprise in this finding — neither supporters or opponents of the war should be shocked.

What did surprise me was the low level of concern, even ignorance, about the issue of Global Warming in the two countries that are responsible for the greatest output of CO2:

There also is a substantial gap in concern over global warming – roughly two-thirds of Japanese (66%) and Indians (65%) say they personally worry a great deal about global warming. Roughly half of the populations of Spain (51%) and France (46%) also express great concern over global warming, based on those who have heard about the issue. But there is no evidence of alarm over global warming in either the United States or China – the two largest producers of greenhouse gases. Just 19% of Americans and 20% of the Chinese who have heard of the issue say they worry a lot about global warming – the lowest percentages in the 15 countries surveyed.

The Chinese have an excuse, they live in a society where the free flow of information choked off. America claims to be the land of the free. Perhaps it’s just another word for nothin’ that don’t mean nothin’.

This “What, me worry?” attitude is indicated by many Americans reacting with disdain or hostility to Al Gore’s movie. President Bush famously says he ‘doubts’ he’ll see it — exhibiting a classic case of argument from a position of ignorance (“I can’t believe this is possible, so it can’t be true”). The American public continues in it’s tradition of being less aware of major issues the rest of the world:

For the most part, Americans are significantly less aware of events and issues than are the publics in Germany and other major industrialized countries.

There’s a lesson in this for communications professionals and speakers who find themselves addressing American audiences. Dumb it down. Then make it even dumber. Don’t assume your audience knows Jack about the major topics of the day. That includes the ‘educated’ professionals in business attire.

The good news is that a presentation which makes the audience aware of previously unknown facts and does so in an entertaining and engaging manner, will reduce by a small fraction the sum total of this great wall of ignorance. And that’s a good feelin’ — good enough for me and my Bobby McGee.

One of those ‘Only in America’ news items in the Financial Times today notes that “Americans will be intrigued – and the rest of the world utterly perplexed – by an award to be handed out on Wednesday in Detroit for the car model with the finest cup holders.”

The FT observes:

Americans consume vast amounts of coffee and soft drinks in their vehicles, especially on their commute to work. Car-makers have been increasingly challenged to design holders that secure a Starbucks venti or one of the ever-bigger soft drink bottles through sharp turns and abrupt stops.

As Al Gore notes on p.272 in his book An Inconvenient Truth, the USA is dead last in auto fuel efficiency — below 25 mpg vs. 45 mpg in the EU and even greater than that in Japan. Ironically, China, a late entry as an auto manufacturing supplier, recently raised standards that now far exceeds the USA’s.

This means that Detroit cannot sell cars made in America to China because we don’t meet their environmental standards.

The American Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE ) standards are intended to help auto companies succeed. But it’s the companies that are building fuel-efficient cars that are doing well, while doing good.

Never mind, as we drive our SUV’s down the road to the future, today’s awards will help ensure that American’s can safely guzzle soda as they guzzle gas. Priorities. Priorities.

Bizarre news that a 44-year-old American who disappeared from Orlando, FL over twenty years ago has recently surfaced in a British jail. Charles Stopford was arrested on false passport charges when trying to cross to France from Dover (despite being in the EU, Britain does not have open borders policy such as exists between many other EU countries). He had lived a prosperous life in Britain under the false identity of Lord Christopher Buckingham – titular heir to a family dynasty – using stationery bearing the Buckingham coat of arms, which hasn’t been used since the 17th century.

Stopford was able to “pass” as a member of the British upper classes partly because, from a young age, he had developed a perfect British accent at his parents home in Orlando by watching re-runs of Benny Hill and Monty Python and listening to his extensive collection of Beatles records.

This amazing feat of cultural assimilation should be a lesson to all of us who wish to blend seamlessly into other cultures.

No doubt Stopford paid particular attention to Monty Pythons’ Upperclass Twit of the Year sketch. This would compensate for the Beatles Scouse accents and the strangled guttural squeaks uttered by the terminally randy Benny Hill lusting after disheveled blonds.

I wonder how many other cultural chameleons are out there? Perhaps there’s some illegal immigrant in the USA (a role I know well) hanging out on an Ivy League campus carefully mimicking the tones of Yale graduate President Bush? Maybe they’ll succeed, like Dubya, in disguising their true origins.

What is it about White Collar workers who telecommute leading angst ridden days?

I’ve been tasting some of the bitterness involved in working from home this month.

Maybe it was my 10 day bout with a cold/flu/infection that sapped my energy, but not enough to officially ‘take a sick day’. Maybe it was the threat of Jury Duty, which threw my schedule for a loop for two weeks while I played a waiting game to see if I would spend 5-6 weeks on a murder trial jury.

Whatever the reason, I’ve had first hand experience of the downside of 21st Century White Collar work which can lead to angst, anomie, feelings of worthlessness. For me it all comes down to schedules. I find if I can get an early start, take a short lunch break and finish by 5pm I have accomplished quite a lot and still have an evening free for social and family time. This is typically what happens when I commute to the offices of the saucy company I work for (English joke). But when I work from home, as I’ve done for the last two days, I find that even though I’m sitting at my home office desk by 9am, I don’t really get anything done until after lunch, and I’m still working away at 7:30 or 8:00pm.

There is, of course, a boat-load of cultural conditioning affecting all of this. From Weber’s Protestant Ethic to the challenges of the modern Organization Man not to mention twenty years of schooling, none of us have really been prepared for the freedom afforded by telecommuting.

I wonder if anything in European, Asian or Latin America culture better prepares people to telecommute? It’s un-American not to jump into your SUV and clog a freeway or two to sit in a cubicle and access data you could just as easily access from home. Many countries don’t have the infrastructure – either the bandwidth or the homes with room for a den or office. Without the broadband there can be no slippers at noon nor rough stubble afternoons.

The article I mentioned yesterday on those Dutch cyclists who avoid dressing in spandex and helmets points to European differences from mainstream American culture when it comes to sports:

In the U.S. we have a “hiking culture� – people who have trail maps, Gore-Tex, special boots, trekking poles, GPS, etc. Then there’s the guy who is walking down the street to get from the bus stop to the mall. He’s more analogous to the cyclists I photographed in Amsterdam

This reminds of a time when my younger cousin and his wife came over from England to visit, and spent a weekend camping in Yosemite. One afternoon they were leaving their campsite to explore the Valley when a friendly Yank at the next campground asked “Hey! Are you guys going for a hike?”. “Actually, no,” my cousin replied – somewhat mystified – “we’re just going to walk around a bit…”

Only in America will you find “The World’s Largest Sporting Goods Store” and trade associations dedicated to marketing everything from hunting, shooting and fishing to equipping a home gym or kitting out junior for the soccer or softball league. This is big business. He who dies with the most toys wins. Those with money to burn, like the CEO of Oracle, spend millions on sport.

Meanwhile, the redwood forests, gulf stream waters, diamond deserts and endless highways are there to explore for free in this land that was made for you and me.

Last week at the Ragan Speechwriters Conference David Kusnet asked how politicians can best communicate in the post-rhetorical era. One example of a public figure making waves recently is Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berluscino.

Alexander Stille’s profile in Friday’s Financial Times (subscription required) highlights the many bizarre aspects of the Italian Premier’s bid for re-election. He has “alternately compared himself, in the space of abut a week, to Napoleon, Churchill and Jesus Christ while also vowing to give up sex until after the April poll.” The Italian premier courts publicity, any publicity. His outrageous behavior endears him to voters, especially those who get most of their information from television.

Mr. Berlusconi is perhaps the first truly post-modern politician to turn many of the old rules of his trade upside down. Traditional politicians – closely connected to a party, an ideology and a set of programs – did not need to be personally charismatic. In a post-ideological age, what Mr. Berlusconi is selling is Mr. Berusconi, not a party or program. By dominating the media…he controls the political discourse and silences his critics..

We’ll know in April if the Italian voters are swayed by style over substance. If so, there’s a lesson here for corporate speakers and those who manage their external communications. Don’t just focus on the message. Fancy rhetoric, facts and supporting evidence have their place. But don’t lose sight of the impact that the unexpected, outrageous and plain bizarre has with today’s audiences.

This amazing documentary by Maurizio Benazzo and Nick Day captures the sights and sounds of Kumbh Mela, an extraordinary spiritual festival attended by more than 70 million pilgrims (70 Million! That’s not a typo, there are 25 million people there at any one time, living in tent villages, sharing food, noise, dust and joy).

It’s the largest gathering of people on the planet (Woodstock Nation ain’t got nothing on this). Held every 12 years (for more than 2,000 years) near Allahabad, India, Kumbh Mela attracts young Hindu monks, wise old sages, honored guest the Dalai Lama and other Hindu and Buddhist leaders.

Maurizio is a fellow student in the the Pro-Track meetings sponsored by the National Speakers Association.

His colleague Nick Day shares a remarkable insight into cultural differences in an interview with the filmmakers on the DVD. Commenting on what it was like to make the film:

Amen.

I rented the movie from Netflix.