This note will read like a commercial, but it's not.... i have zero
connection with the firm involved.
Last week I encountered a truly nifty and beautiful way to graphically
illustrate many of the concepts we're interested in as LO / systems
thinkers. This was in the form of a program called Earth Browser, which
displays a photorealistic globe on your desktop, then brings updated
information on time, weather, cloud cover, volcanoes, earthquakes, and
webcams in from the Net. You can select which data is shown, and most of
it updates automatically.
Cities appear as golden points of light (particularly beautiful as the
day/night terminator sweeps across the globe). Clicking on one brings up
its name, time, weather, and links to full political information about the
country. Cloud cover is updated from the GOES satellites as data streams
in. You change your point of view through 360 degrees, spin the earth
normally or backwards, zoom in on particular views, select which of over
600 cities will display, and what data appears on the globe. The
interactive nature of the program makes it more instructive and more fun.
I plan to use this as a think-tool to get clients (and others) to consider
just how the interconnections work to make gathering and displaying such
global data feasible. Also, there's much to consider in the way data is
selected and displayed.
One Key question: if our organization really worked this way, how would
we be different? How would we respond?
Another key question: What has to happen so that masses of data can be
communicated so that they're simple, easy-to-grasp, and able to take you
where you want to go in ever greater levels of detail?
Earth Browser currently exists only for Mac, but a PC version is due out
next month. For $20, this program is a wonderful and meaningful
conversation piece. More info at http://www.earthbrowser.com
Eric Hatch, President
Hatch Organizational Consulting, Inc.
"Enabling Positive Change"
You can call us at 1 800 586 1487 or 513 683 2265
You can write us at
HOC
6812 Stagge Rd
Loveland, OH 45140
Or you're welcome to visit our website at
http://www.hocinc.com
--eric hatch <hocinc@earthlink.net>
[Host's Note: Thanks Eric. LO Friends, this is the most NIFTY piece of software I've seen in a long time! I'd been looking for an automated world map showing night and day. This is part of Earth Browser, but there is much, much more. I highly recommend Earth Browser! ..Rick]
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