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xBlog → Collaboratory

As you probably know, XPLANE is now Dachis Group. We are integrating everything as the year closes out — xBlog included.

On the heels of our post celebrating 4,383 days online (that’s 12 internet years!), I want to let everyone know that we’ll be importing key posts into Dachis Group’s Collaboratory blog, and we’ll continue publishing our thoughts and work on visual thinking there. In fact, my first post went up yesterday and other XPLANE alumnus have started blogging there as well.

We won’t be transferring all 8,333 xBlog posts. So many of them are outdated and linkrotted. But we will make sure key posts redirect to their new homes on the Collaboratory and all other posts don’t 404.

It has been a wonderful, amazing, enlightening ride here at xBlog, from hand-coding it starting in 1999, to embracing the first release of WordPress .7 in 2003, to today — a world where blogs are more than commonplace — they are ubiquitous. I don’t know that I could give a better rundown than I did for last year’s 11th anniversary, so if you want a trip down xBlog’s memory lane you can read it here.

Blogging has been core to me and XPLANE for a long time and we’re not going to stop. I truly hope XPLANE’s fans and xBlog’s readers will continue to follow our work as Dachis Group. We’ll still be doing that visual thinking thing, just as we have been for all these years, only now we’ll be bringing to it many more people and businesses.

So on behalf of xBlog… so long, and thanks for all the links.

See you at the Collaboratory.

Cheers,
Bill Keaggy
November 19, 2011




Xylem: Let’s Solve Water

Here’s a new video Dachis Group made for for Xylem:

The demand for water will increase 5 times by 2050 but the amount of fresh drinkable water on Earth always stays the same. Xylem finds ways to efficiently save, protect and control water. It’s what we do every day. It’s why we share a goal of solving the world’s water challenges…one drop at a time.

Posted by Bill Keaggy on Monday, October 31st, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Also published in Food & drink, Movies & motion, Sustainability, XPLANE news | comments (1)



What does a socially optimized business look like?

Today we are happy to publish a new Dachis Group XPLANATiON about Social Business.

What’s a Social Business? It’s a business alive with energy and big ideas. It’s collaborative, authentic, customer-centric, trusted, open and real-time.


Click to download the PDF.

Read more »




The concept eludes me (part 3): Self doubt

So far this series has been unoriginal and had a few bad ideas, but today’s installment can be especially crippling: self doubt. It usually goes something like this: “I can concept this, but I can’t execute it. I don’t have the requisite skills to pay the forthcoming bills.”

The fear of undertaking a project beyond your abilities is enough to stop you in your tracks while concepting. And it’s especially frustrating because the idea you have may be great. It may be inspired. You can see it, right there, clear as day in your head. But getting it out in the real world? That isn’t your forté. And that’s a bummer.

Read more »

Posted by Drew Crowley on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 at 9:25 am
Also published in Creativity, Graphic design, Life | comments (1)



Visual Thinking School: Do-overs

Back in June the federal government unveiled a newly designed visual to replace the Food Pyramid many of us are familiar with. Rather than simply showing us what each food group is, the new graphic also is meant to give us an idea of proper portion control of each food group. Shaped like a plate (and cup for the milk) the graphic is very simple, especially when held in contrast with the food pyramid.

This change prompted us at XPLANE | Dachis Group to take a look at a few other long-standing charts, graphics and diagrams and ask whether they could use a bit of sprucing up.

Read more »




Did you know there’s a new ‘Did You Know?’ video?

Once again XPLANE | Dachis Group has teamed up with Dr. Scott McLeod of Iowa State University to create a thought-provoking video. The brand-new “Iowa, Did You Know?” kicked off the School Administrators of Iowa Conference yesterday morning. This DYK video contrasts the world’s exponential growth in technology and learning with Iowa’s struggles to best prepare K-12 students for this new future.

Intended as a forceful wake-up call for Iowa educators, the video stresses the importance of an educational approach that moves away from “low-level mental work” and towards stronger development in critical thinking and problem solving.

Read more »

Posted by W. Scott Matthews on Thursday, August 4th, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Also published in History, Internet, Leadership, Learning, Mobile, Movies & motion, Software & technology, XPLANE news | comments (0)



Bring history to life with visual thinking

This is a guest post by Jeff Manuel, Assistant Professor of History at SIUE.

As a history professor, I work with words. Pages and pages of them, in fact. Words to write, words to read, words to speak. I use pictures and images too, but they usually play second fiddle to the words. So it was challenging and humbling to visit XPLANE | Dachis Group for a recent Visual Thinking School (VTS) because it forced me to think deeply about using visual thinking to communicate history. It was also enlightening, as I came away convinced that history instructors should incorporate more visual thinking tools into our classrooms.


We started by creating empathy maps for students and teachers to help us get into their heads regarding what they’re seeing, hearing, thinking and doing while in class.

Read more »

Posted by Bill Keaggy on Thursday, August 4th, 2011 at 11:33 am
Also published in History, Learning, Presentations, Sketching & illustration, Visual thinking, Visual Thinking School, XPLANE news | comments (2)



Designing a great workplace

By Brooke IllaHuston and Teija Springman

At XPLANE | Dachis Group we have some of those fun perks you often hear about at great workplaces — wine every Friday, free M&Ms, a pool table, and a duck pond to name a few. But we think the reason our workplace is so great runs a little deeper than that. For us, building a great workplace is a big commitment, and it’s all about building trust, pride, and camaraderie. We wanted to share a few of our practices with the hope that it might inspire you to think about how you could build a better workplace — wherever you work.


Our beloved X.

Read more »

Posted by Brooke IllaHuston on Thursday, June 30th, 2011 at 10:29 am
Also published in Creativity, Life, Meetings & office culture, XPLANE news | comments (0)



SVA Impact: Design for Social Change

I recently came across this really great six week program happening this summer in NYC. Impact: Design for Social Change is for a great place for creatives and all professionals who are seeking for ways to create social change within design strategies. It’s really good to look into initiatives like this — not just because it’s obviously inspiring, but also it pushes us proactively.

This is from a PDF you can download on their site:

This is a program at a level on par with graduate studies. The intensive offers advanced students and working professionals a unique opportunity to study with faculty composed of leading designers and social entrepreneurs. In addition, weekly lectures and field trips will allow students to directly interact with a dynamic range of innovators in the field.

This is a rapidly growing area of design. This program will instill in participants the confidence, self-motivation and collaborative spirit which will be needed as they continue on to work as design activists.

Professionals, educators and advanced students in the following disciplines are invited to participate: advertising, graphic design, product design, information design, interactive design, fashion design, photography and illustration. The program is oriented towards these design disciplines but we have had architects and social entrepreneurs participate

Posted by Christy Lee Zilka on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 10:55 am
Also published in Business of design, Graphic design, Leadership, Learning, Sustainability | comments (0)



Celebrating working women: International Women’s Day 2011

Today is International Women’s Day.

XPLANE teamed with Kronos, a global leader in workforce management, to create new video to celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. It’s a visual homage to women and how their role in the workforce has changed throughout history, making all of our lives exponentially easier, safer and more productive.

Do you know who Melitta Bentz was? Or Ida Forbes? Or Ruth Wakefield? No? Then watch and learn.

Read more »

Posted by Bill Keaggy on Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 at 11:31 am
Also published in Business issues, History, Leadership, Movies & motion, XPLANE news | comments (1)



Kronos video

Sample visual
Check out this video we made for Kronos to help celebrate International Women's Day, 2011. Learn more in this xBlog post or jump over to YouTube and watch it there.

Azure poster

Sample visual
XPLANE | Dachis Group developed a A vibrant, engaging poster showing how Microsoft Azure enables developers to run applications and store data on Microsoft servers. The poster recently took top honors in the American Business Awards.

Tweets & Flickrs