An architectural showcase that started in London almost 20 years ago celebrated its growing global appeal with its first-ever international conference. Held in Tel Aviv, Israel on May 22, 2011, the Open House Worldwide conference welcomed more than 100 delegates and Directors from Barcelona, Dublin, New York, and many other international cities that have become part of the hugely successful Open House concept. In addition to experiencing the Tel Aviv public event, delegates spent time sharing information and presentations on their respective work.

More on the event here.

On the Guardian Teacher Network, this week's lesson plan spotlight fell on James Dyson and his foundation's award-winner, teacher Steven Parkinson. Dyson summarizes the importance of design ed as "a subject that requires academic, analytical, logical brains and creative, deft, problem-solving attitudes." Read the preface by Dyson, and view the design education lesson plan by Parkinson.

In another great example, Alla Kazovsky blogs about her experience as an architect who teaches architecture to high school students. Read about Kazovsky's process and and follow her class week by week in this Huffington Post series.

This month, we came across quite a few notable public figures speaking out on the importance of architecture. It's always handy to dust these off from time to time, so here's a quick sampling...

Pharrell: "I believe the architecture of a building says a lot about its soul."

President Obama: "Architecture can be considered the most democratic of art forms."

Mayor Nutter (Philadelphia): "Let me say two words: Design matters."

See the context and read the full quotes here.

AAO caught up with Michael Lingerfelt, President of AIA Florida and former Disney Imagineer, for a conversation on design education. Lingerfelt recently delivered an inspiring talk to high school students about architecture. Read our Q&A with Lingerfelt here.

Congratulations George Smart, Triangle Modernist Houses founder and director, for receiving the 2011 Preservation Durham Advocacy Award.

AAO welcomes new organizational member AIA Atlanta, and individual members John Bencich and Helene Combs Dreiling. Welcome also to Steve Glassman, who was recently hired as the new President & CEO of the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh.

How do you know if your tweets are grabbing the public’s attention? A free service called Klout analyzes your tweeting power by looking at your followers, retweets, and more. A score and easy to read graphs can help you check your progress.

In similar vein, PostRank tracks website visitors, and helps to discover a larger picture of a site’s audience by also looking to similar sites that the users enjoy. This tool provides analysis of a site’s influence, relevance, and how users engage with the site. Recently acquired by Google.

Finally, BackTweets checks how often a website or organization is mentioned on twitter, and by whom. This tool is notably used by Time, Microsoft, and AOL.

Job Openings

Chicago Architecture Foundation, Manager of Public Programs; and Exhibitions & Interpretative Manager

Design Trust for Public Space, Executive Director (deadline July 1)

ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property), Director General (deadline July 8)

Salvadori Center, Executive Director (deadline July 11)

Looking for inspiration on how your organization might better inform audiences or invite them to explore the larger impact of your work? A recent online chat at UK's Higher Education Network assembled leading experts on research, and the resulting round-up is choc full of tips and resources; it's intended subject is academia, but there are lots of relevant considerations for nonprofit arts and culture concerns.

For instance, read about the General Learning Outcomes framework adopted by UK museums. Or how iPads help put users front and center at the Grant Museum.

Or better yet, view the full chat round-up "Communicating Research - Can Higher Education do it Better?"

The Freakonomics team analyzed fundraising for Freedom From Hunger based on donor’s use of emotion versus fact. The team found that when presented with a campaign full of scientific fact, small-level giving from prior donors decreased their donations, while large-level prior donors increased their donation. In summary, it seems that while emotion is a great basis for giving, facts can provide a greater justification. The jury's definitely out on this one.

Read the article "Winners of Heart + Mind Donation Contest"

ChartPorn.org may just be our new favorite site for procrastination. It collects data visualizations on a wide range of topics, including mapping, urbanism, and the built environment. This beautiful example caught our eye:

Eric Fischer's map of tourists vs. locals (D.C. is pictured at left), devised from Flickr geo-tagging data. Photos by locals, marked in blue, were identified as users who took photos of the area over a range of one month or more, whereas tourists, in red, were in the area less than one month. Available for major cities around the world here.

A lot of interesting exhibitions continue their run this month. Our spotlight falls on the collaborative exhibition, GLIMPSES of New York and Amsterdam in 2040 (June 8 – September 10, 2011). The exhibition highlights work by architects in both cities and delves into the future of daily life in these cities and related planning issues.

Click here to see the entire listing of AAO members' current exhibitions, including those at Chicago Architecture Foundation, the National Building Museum, and the Philadelphia Center for Architecture.