Saying that, I would say that getting people interested in creating them is best accomplished by pointing out how they can be applied to situations like that. Someone who is interested in science can make scientific infographics for the purpose of better conveying information. Someone interested in history or psychology or political science could do the same. Pictures were the original form of written communication, and something that people of different interests and academic levels can understand

I also adore Venn Diagrams and put them on my blog weekly
Girls Are Geeks

As with any growing media form, that means there are more really good infographics being designed, but also more of the really bad stuff as well.

I read Dona’s book; thought it was a great overview. My team has identified some key takeaways from it for our charting library. Simple things that make a big difference such as labeling lines directly rather than using a legend and ordering/rotating pie slices for easier reading.

This reminds me of something the writer/poet June Jordan said when asked whether she wrote for herself or for the world, she said she could not just write for one or the other, that she oscillated inbetween the two, etc..

I definitely started out working with data that was personal because it was at hand and relevant, but now it’s hard to justify those self-serving visualizations..

http://www.amazon.com/Street-Journal-Guide-Information-Graphics/dp/0393072959

Looks like a good book. I will check it out as well.

In response to your article, I think infographics are very cool. It is disheartening, though, when designers misrepresent the data. It’s even worse when editors think it’s a great graphic because they haven’t been trained visually.