Information+ Conference 2021

The schedule below is for the live events during the conference. You can watch the pre-recorded talks and  welcome message at your own time.

In keeping with the conversation-based conference format, there will be an opportunity each day (10-11am EST) for attendees to engage in impromptu activities together, some of which will be moderated. These will occur in a variety of breakout rooms in Zoom. In order to stimulate lively and even unconventional conference interactions, these breakout rooms will have their own themes. Some of these, we have developed ourselves. Alternative breakout rooms can be proposed up to a day beforehand by attendees, as long as they are willing to moderate if necessary.

Unmoderated breakout rooms on a daily basis

• Presenter Room: Meet the presenters of the day
• Lunch Room: Eat and/or drink together
• Share Room: Show your latest design work
• Family Room: Invite your children to say hello
• Zoo Room: Introduce your pets
• Walking Room: Go outside, while staying connected (voice only)
• Silent Room: For those who need to respond to e-mails
• Screening Room: (Re)watch the videos for the afternoon session

Moderated breakout rooms on particular days

• Drawing Room: Participate in various drawing activities with Isabel Meirelles (Tuesday, Sep 28)
• Baking Room: Exchange bread recipes with Marian Dörk (Wednesday, Sep 29)
• Reading Room: Share favorite passages with Yanni Loukissas (Thursday, Sep 30)
• Map Room: Share your maps-in-progress with Clio Andris and receive feedback. Please submit your files, name, and affiliation via this form or by email (Friday, Oct 1)

Workshops

The workshops at Information+ offer a hands-on, conversational, and empowering opportunity to acquire new skills, interact with other participants, and engage in vibrant discussions. Sign-up was part of registration. All seats are now taken.

Unsettling Boundaries Through Data

Sylvia Janicki and Shubhangi Gupta, Georgia Institute of Technology

What are the spatial, temporal and cultural boundaries that shape our experiences of cities? Who experiences these boundaries and when? How do boundaries in the city segregate publics and work to exclude differences in publics? In this workshop, we invite participants to create, analyze and visualize data about the urban environment to understand and question boundaries that demarcate cities materially, conceptually, and or experientially.

The workshop will consist of two data walks where participants collect data about their experiences. These data walks are followed by small group discussions in which participants analyze the data and place it in social, political, and historical contexts. Participants will further reflect upon who created the data, how the data was created, and the place and time the data was created in. Drawing upon the walks and subsequent discussions, the participants will represent their experience through the design of feminist data visualizations. More broadly, participants critically engage with the presence and functionings of boundaries in the city with an eye toward questions of equity and social justice.

The workshop is open to students, scholars, practitioners, activists or anyone interested in data and cities. No prior experience in design or data visualization is needed.

Maximum number of participants: 12

Open Data Visualizations with RAWGraphs 2.0

Michele Mauri and Tommaso Elli, Politecnico di Milano

Despite the proliferation of visualization tools, what these software produce is usually “boxed” within the the logics of the applications with limited flexibility. In response, RAWGraphs is a web application aimed at the creation of “open outputs”: semi-finished visualizations exportable in editable formats. The outputs are designed to be further edited, so we can take advantage of vector graphic editors (like Inkscape, Figma or Illustrator), allowing users to rework and make the visualization perfect for the target context. In addition, RAWGraphs enables the use of Javascript to add interactivity and to facilitate incorporating the visualizations in web projects.

In this workshop, participants will learn how to use RAWGraphs to produce semi-finished visualizations and to refine them to suit their specific needs through guided hands-on exercises.

The workshop is structured around two moments, for a total of circa 3 hours. Firstly we introduce and work with the application and secondly we demonstrate the fine-tuning and publishing of visualizations using other tools. After a brief introduction, instructors will guide participants through a series of hands-on exercises centered around importing data, creating visualizations, and adapting them for printed and interactive outputs. Some open datasets will be available for use, but participants are free to bring their own data!

We welcome participants who are passionate about graphic design and open source. Coding knowledge is not mandatory, especially if you want to focus on printed visualizations, but if you have some you will be able to experiment with interactivity.

Maximum number of participants: 15

All participants are required to agree with the following code of conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event. We expect cooperation from all participants to help ensure a safe environment for everybody.

Our conference is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks, workshops, breakout rooms, and other online media. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference without a refund at the discretion of the conference organizers.

Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion, technology choices, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, and unwelcome sexual attention.

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference with no refund.

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the organizing team immediately. Organizers can be identified as they are co-hosts on the Zoom call. You can also send an email to the organizers.

The conference organizers will be happy to help participants and assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the conference. We value your attendance.

We expect participants to follow these rules throughout the entire conference, all workshop activities, and conference-related social events.

For updates, find us on Twitter: @InfoPlusConf

For mentions, use the hashtag: #infoplus2021

For questions, please email us: admin@informationplusconference.com

Thanks to Noah Veltman for the beautiful flocking boids
… and to Conference Code of Conduct for the template.