Four short links: 23 October 2009

Beautiful Information, Teen Game Designer, Creative Science Writing, Open Source Schools

1. Information is Beautiful -- gorgeous descriptions of the design of infographics. For once, a design discussion that might be useful to mere mortals like me.
2. Australian Teen Crafts "Sneaky" Games -- video interview with a 16 year-old winner of the IFTF, Sun, and BoingBoing Digital Open. Great to see game design, a topic we've followed on Radar, getting uptake by the people about to enter the workforce. "I love index cards," says Harry, "And I was thinking -- hmm, how can I incorporate them into a project?" So he designed and printed these game cards, and "spread the seeds of sneakiness and espionage" into the unsuspecting pockets, math books, binders and bags and jackets of his schoolmates. (via BoingBoing)
3. Science Writing Shortlist -- the Manhire Prize is New Zealand's most prestigious award for creative science writing. The shortlisted entries are available via this link, and make for enlightening reading. Interestingly, there are two prizes awarded: one for fiction and another for non-fiction; New Zealand has a tradition of encouraging interaction between the arts and sciences.
4. Fedena -- an open source school management system, built in India, using Ruby on Rails. (via Brenda Wallace)