Business

Information Architects agency in Tokyo (and also Zurich) are experts of interface design and also make apps including a much liked iPad app for writing, iA Writer.

They are also the creators of the award winning Web Trend Maps. The latest is map number 5 and they always release them as posters to buy through their online store.

Each map shows how the web (or specific area of it) is developing, growing and how the contributors are comparing and connecting to each other. They include beautiful graphics that show the information clearly and simply, which is probably why they are often bought by some of the worlds leading web agencies & companies inc. Google, Facebook, Microsoft and even CERN.. home of The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, considered the birth place of the Web after it was conceived by Tim Burners-Lee.

→ Continue reading Web Trend Maps

Artist Ai Weiwei with his "Sunflower Seeds" installation in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall

It would seem that China is a land of mass manufacturing, producing many of the worlds most popular products. Companies task the Chinese to cheaply make lots of their wares to sell for healthy profits throughout the globe. The country’s services are good for business.. we could be paying more for lots of things if the Chinese were not churning them out at a great pace.

China is Good..

China is getting richer by the year after really connecting with the rest of the world in the global economy. Where would the major brands and large manufacturing corporations be without the Chinese? They are now very important in the wider picture of the whole developed world.

Could it be that we totally rely on the Chinese? They were extremely restricted on trade for over a hundred years following the 1800′s Opium Wars (which England and France started so they could continue trading opium in China after the Qing Dynasty banned it!), now they are among the most important countries in the world for mass product manufacturing.. they must be pretty happy about that.

China is bad..

It might be that our reliance on the Chinese has allowed us to seemingly turn a blind eye to the fact that, although many of the worlds luxury and tech goods are made there, the controlling powers are still behaving in rather unpleasant ways.

→ Continue reading China’s Good, Bad & Ugly (the arrest of artist Ai Weiwei)