Credit Crisis Part 2

Summary
TL Dumpling(Tsoi Chan) and myself(Mark Lester/Phoenix Grayman) decided to revisit the Credit crisis and visualize the ideas in a different manner. In the first project we visualized the crisis as a finite state machine. The type of design allows us to tell a story about how it got start and how it transitioned to each state until the kaboom. This time around we decided to show the crisis as a petri net. We wanted to show the crisis an equation where once all the "variables" were accounted for a recession was bound to take place.

Motivation and Interaction
Denotation
The Credit Crisis is defined in the project in several ways. The most obvious is the visual layout of the section of the economy we modeled that played the biggest role in the melt down. The models were used in the previous project because the scripting for this one was much more intensive. In project 3 we just highlighted parts that were effected in each transition of the state machine. This time around the project will take the user through an equation step by step. We decided to make the equation move forward on the ticks of time. There are 30 ticks in all.

1. Federal Reserve gives credit to banks 1/3
2. 2/3
3. 3/3
4. Bank buys mortgages with credit 1/4 (Prime)
5. 2/4 (Sub Prime)
6. 3/4(Sub Prime)
7. 4/4 (Sub Prime)
8. Box AAA of Collateral Debt Obligations receives first set of payments (least risky)
9. Box BBB gets filled
10. Box Unrated gets filled
11. The investor receive payments from the CDOs 1/3
12. 2/3
13. 3/3
14. Investors pay Bank for the CDOs 1/3
15. 2/3
16. 3/3
17. Sub Primes Default and stops paying 1/3
18. 2/3
19. 3/3
20. Prime Mortgage owners walks away from his mortgage
21. Box Unrated no longer making money
22. Box BBB no longer making money
23. Box AAA no longer making money
24. Investors no longer make money cause CDOs are worthless 1/3
25. 2/3
26. 3/3
27. Investors won't buy anymore CDOs from Bank 1/3
28. 2/3
29. 3/3
30. Bank no longer making money and in major debt goes Bankrupt
    

Connotation
There are various connotations involved in the project as well. For starters we used the same theme from last project. This was done intentionally to not only promote the connotations from last time but also instill the user with a sense of familiarity with our projects. We also showed the the money as a flow of arrows. This helps convey the point of where the money goes is where the attention goes. So we wanted the arrows to be a way to follow where the money was going throughout the equation. We went with red to mean money is gone and green to mean flowing money.
Video

Project 3 Credit Crisis Part 1

Summary
In this project Tsoi Chan(TL Dumpling) and myself(Phoenix Grayman) decided to create a finite state machine that represents how the Credit Crisis came to be. The credit crisis is very complex so we got the majority of our information from here. Mr. Jarvis has very good visual on describing the different steps of the crisis. Our project takes these steps and puts them into a finite state machine modeled in Second Life.
Motivation and Interaction
Denotation
The denotation of this data is represented in a number of ways. First we have the main billboard. The main billboard explains each state and also numbers the states so that the user know which state they are in. Each state is like a piece of the puzzle and explains the reasoning of the puzzle piece and how it relates to the whole. So as the state machines moves forward the big pictures get easier and easier to understand. To facilitate the billboards purpose of conveying this denotation, we use highlighting to bring notice to the parts of the economy that are being affected in the billboard's current state. This helps the user better understand the connections between all the states. The states of our model are as follows

1. Looking for a Good Investment: Investor look for a profitable investments
2. Federal Reserve: Investor go to Federal Reserve but the investments there aren't very profitable
3. How Banks Make Money: How banks make money and set up for why investors went to the bankers
4. Bankers Go Crazy with Leverage: How investors and bankers are connected
5. Why This Works: Explanation of why CDO aren't really a bad idea
6. They Get Greedy: How they made it a bad idea because of greediness
7. What Went Wrong:Explanation of why the change was a bad idea
8. Downward Spiral: The effects of the bad idea
9. Credit Crisis: The overall final effect the one we see in the news
   

Connotation
The connotation of the data is represented in the themes of the models our group created. The first theme we used is that we modeled our objects with symbols that represent the models real world equivalent. For example, for investors we modeled big buildings which tap into our archetype of the lifestyle of investors. Another theme we use to represent the connotation of the data, is by capturing the theme that Jonathan Jarvis used in his visuals. His theme helps convey the story better because the color scheme reminds the user of money and thats what the credit crisis is all about.
Video

Project 2: Alexa Top 5

Summary
For this project I chose a hybrid data structure. Which essentially its an associative array and each element of the array is a graph. The data represented in this data structure is the Alexa Top 5. Essentially my project tries to model the data in the data structure by its denotations and connotations.
Motivation and Interaction
Denotation
The denotation of this data is represented in a number of ways. First the screen shows all the info for each of the companies in the Alexa top 5. It goes into descriptions as well as info like CEO, number of Employees, and Head Quarters. The data I am representing is a list of the top 5 traffic grabbing companies on the web(Google hits both 1 and 3). Then each company has a graph of work locations in the United States. All this info I accumulated through the use of CrunchBase, a tech company reviewing web site. In order to traverse the list you click the mouse and by doing so each element in the lists activates its nodes on the map.
The Top 5 companies are:

1. Google
2. Yahoo
3. Youtube(Google)
4. Facebook
5. Myspace
   

Connotation
The connotation of the data is represented in the themes of computers. The model looks a bit like a laptop. In addition, To traverse the list you click on the mouse. Also I try and bring the information to life by displaying a map of the United States and positioning the nodes at which the companies exist in real life. I feel this allow the information to mean more rather than just a simple list of data on a page. Also each node uses colors distinctive of its parent company.

Video
I took me a while to get the video right but here it is:

if you want to hear a ridiculous story about why it took nearly 6 hours to get this thing working let me know

Project 1 Olympics:Winning Your Weight in Gold

Creator: Mark Lester(Phoenix Grayman)
Date: 2/12/09
Summary
The simple data I chose for my project was the gold metal winning results of the 2008 Summer Olympics. In the model I try and represent the 5 highest of gold Metal winning countries through both denotation and connotation of the data.
Motivation and Interaction
Denotation
There are primarily 2 ways I represent the denotation of the data in the model. First I show the number of gold metals above each flag of the country. Second way I show the data is the lengths of the flags poles Each pole is scaled by the number of gold metals they have won. The scaling is presented as the following:

Country	Metals	Height
China	51	5
United States	36	3.53
Russia	23	2.25
United Kingdom	19	1.86
Germany	16	1.57

Connotation
The Connotation is represented in the way people see the Olympics. For most Americans, the Olympics and ancient Greek culture have a strong relationship. So in order to tap into this, I themed the data in such a way to inspire an ancient Greek atmosphere. I did this by creating a structure that closely resembles Greek Architecture. It has Doric-esque columns and Cornice and Pediment to form the triangular areas on the roof. Though most Greek temples were made of stone, I felt the marble texture perpetuated the Ancient Greek Theme better than a stone one. In addition, another strong symbol associated with the Olympics is the Olympic Flame. I recreated this on top of the structure to further envelop the audience with the Ancient Greek Atmosphere. Finally, I recreated one of the most well known Olympic symbols, the Olympic Rings, to finish the model.
Model Video
The YouTube Video I created turned out really bad because the computer I am using lacks the resources to capture Secondlife events very well. So I found another way a video. Its a Video/SlideShow highlighting key features of the model. Here a link to the poor youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nsqk8DMas