Brice Cheddarn Development

While looking through some recent tweets in Tweet Deck, I noticed that Keith Olbermann mentioned that he would be on the Colbert Report television show soon.  He tweeted the announcement along with a link ColbertNation.com.  Since Colbert Nation was a site that I had never visited before, I thought I would check it out.  

As always with a new site, my hopes were that it would be a ColdFusion website (I'm not a self-labeled ColdFusion Nerd for nothing).  While the Colbert site itself wasn't a CF site, I did notice a link on the home page that contained .cfm.  So, like any good nerd on a mission, I clicked the link.

That link took me to the New York Philharmonic website.  It didn't take long to realize that the whole site was well-constructed with ColdFusion, and is actually pretty awesome.  It is chalked full of CF functionality, in addition to well done Flash animation.  

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During the past few years, web enthusiasts have seen the rise in popularity of infographics.  

Infographics are representations of information, data or knowledge blended together with unique design to create awareness.  They are an artistic rendering of facts gathered from a poll or survey and conveyed by graphic elements, including charts, graphs and a wide variety of other methods. 

They illustrate information that normally hides in text form, and channel that info in a visually pleasing, instantly understandable manner, making it not only powerful but visually stimulating.  Infographics are universally understandable and provide content for people to easily share and link back to.

The infographic acts as a way to visually spread awareness through social networking sites, and will hardly need any pushing to get tweeted about or linked to if it is fun, interactive and not confusing.

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Having attended and volunteered at several Ignite events in the Phoenix, Arizona area, it was great to see the event finally make its way back to Iowa.  

Ignite is an information exchange for fostering and inspiring the creative community.  In one evening, you hear very passionate speakers from all walks of life talking about their current projects or favorite ideas for just five minutes.   Often times, each "ignite" that is scheduled has a theme topic. 

Presenters can use up to 20 slides and 5 minutes to quickly get the point while making it exciting and engaging.  There are several other guidelines, as well, as organizers try to avoid the "salesman" types.

The first Ignite Cedar Rapids was an opportunity for locals in the Corridor area to share their ideas for enhancing and promoting visual arts in Cedar Rapids. The event was hosted at Gatherings by the Cedar Rapids Visual Arts Commission.

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