Robert E. Horn is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 political scientist, who taught at Harvard

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, Columbia

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, and Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

 (U.K.) universities. Currently he is a visiting scholar at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

's Center for the Study of Language and Information. He is known for the development of Information mapping

Information mapping

Information Mapping is a technique that divides and labels information to facilitate comprehension, use, and recall. It was originally developed by Robert E. Horn.- Overview :...

.

Overview

Bob Horn is perhaps best known for his development of Information mapping

Information mapping

Information Mapping is a technique that divides and labels information to facilitate comprehension, use, and recall. It was originally developed by Robert E. Horn.- Overview :...

, a method of information development

Information Development

Information Development is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Information Science. The journal's editor is J. Stephen Parker...

 called structured writing

Structured writing

Structured writing is a form of technical writing that uses and creates structured documents.The term was coined by Robert E. Horn and became a central part of his Information Mapping method of analyzing, organizing, and displaying knowledge in print and in the new online presentation of text and...

 suited especially for technical communication

Technical communication

Technical communication is a method of researching and creating information about technical processes or products directed to an audience through media. The information must be relevant to the intended audience. Technical communicators often work collaboratively to create products for various...

. The Information Mapping method has been taught to over 300,000 technical writer

Technical writer

A technical writer is a professional writer who designs, creates, and maintains technical documentation...

s around the world.

His special interests are in policy communication, social learning, and knowledge management. His latest contribution to the presentation of information is called "Visual Language". Horn has extended the use of visual language

Visual language

A visual language is a system of communication using visual elements. Speech as a means of communication cannot strictly be separated from the whole of human communicative activity which includes the visual and the term 'language' in relation to vision is an extension of its use to describe the...

 and visual analytics

Visual analytics

Visual analytics is an outgrowth of the fields information visualization and scientific visualization, that focuses on analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces...

 to processes for resolving wicked problem

Wicked problem

"Wicked problem" is a phrase originally used in social planning to describe a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. Moreover, because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve...

s.

Publications

Books, a selection:

• 1970. Guide to simulation games for education and training. With David W. Zuckerman.
• 1972. Guide to Federal assistance for education.
• 1989. Mapping hypertext : the analysis, organization, and display of knowledge for the next generation of on-line text and graphics.
• 1998. Visual language : global communication for the 21st century.

External links

• Homepage at Stanford.edu.