I have really enjoyed finding your blog (and the dog-blog of your friend Bella). I have been a Tufte fan myself for some years and its great to see that now there are software tools available for implementing some of his ideas. This posting prompted me to reply as I have been pondering on precisely this question but in respect to patent analysis. “How can we make good quality evidence based strategic decisions about our IP portfolio and potential patents?”

One of the better things I have seen in patent analysis so far is a visualisation by Aureka (http://scientific.thomson.com/products/aureka/) – yet it is still only a pretty picture and the analytical depth is not great. I would be really interested in hearing your views on who in the patent analysis software field is putting Tuftian principles in action.

In the meantime I have a masters student beginning in September at the Centre for Intellectual property studies in Gothenberg (http://www.cip.chalmers.se/) who will make a start on precisely this question. If you are interested I’ll keep you posted.

All best wishes
Matt (Netherlands/UK)