Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers Is Out | Hapgood Back before the election I was working on a book on the problems of living in “the stream” — this endless flow of stuff we read, retweet, and react to. My argument in that still unfinished work was that while the stream is useful and exciting it also warps our sense of reality in unhelpful ways. Forced to decide within seconds to retweet an inflammatory tweet or share a headline on Facebook we tend to make bad decisions that pollute the information environment and reduce the depth and complexity of our thought. The 2016 primary elections in the U.S. were going to be Exhibit A of this trend, with a nod toward the acceleration of these trends in the 2016 general election. It was going to be a condemnation of the attention economy we’ve developed and its whole rotten ad-driven substrate, followed by a plea to return to some older visions of the web. After the general election I felt both vindicated and weirdly distant. So I wrote this book: Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers. Like this:
15 Effective Tools for Visual Knowledge Management Since I started my quest a few years ago searching for the ultimate knowledge management tool, I’ve discovered a number of interesting applications that help people efficiently organize information. There certainly is no shortage of solutions for this problem domain. Many tools exist that offer the ability to discover, save, organize, search, and retrieve information. However, I’ve noticed a trend in recent years, and some newer applications are focusing more on the visual representation and relationship of knowledge. I believe this is in part due to the wider adoption of mind mapping (and concept mapping), and leveraging concepts and advances in the semantic web community. Most traditional personal knowledge management (PKM) or personal information management (PIM) applications offer the same basic set of features: These are essential features, however don’t offer too much to the more visually-inclined knowledge junkies. 15. 14. 13. 12. eyePlorer 11. Pages: 1 2 3
Fake news. It's complicated. - First Draft News This article is available also in Deutsch, Español, Français and العربية By now we’ve all agreed the term “fake news” is unhelpful, but without an alternative, we’re left awkwardly using air quotes whenever we utter the phrase. The reason we’re struggling with a replacement is because this is about more than news, it’s about the entire information ecosystem. To understand the current information ecosystem, we need to break down three elements: The different types of content that are being created and sharedThe motivations of those who create this contentThe ways this content is being disseminated This matters. This is far more worrying than fake news sites created by profit driven Macedonian teenagers. The Different Types of Mis and Disinformation Back in November, I wrote about the different types of problematic information I saw circulate during the US election. Why is this type of content being created? Dissemination Mechanisms What can we do? We all play a crucial part in this ecosystem.
Do a Website Redesign like your JJ Abrams A website redesign is like a Hollywood movie reboot. It really is. There have been two attempts to reboot the cultural phenomenon that is Star Wars. George Lucas gave us three prequels that, while generating some $2.5 billion in box office worldwide, were largely reviled for their lack of magic and stunted acting. Redesigning your website should be seen as a reboot of your online properties as well. This is not the first reboot that JJ Abrams has helmed as visionary and director. The JJ Abrams School of Website Redesign An Important and Entertaining Webinar Redesigns in 2015 aren't like years past. Watch the Webinar Replay Don’t Just Blow Things Up The problem we have with the popular Responsive Web Design strategies is that you must change everything in order to create a “mobile-friendly” website. Many of these decisions are wrong, and we’ll cover them in our webinar. Bring Back Beloved Characters Your website redesign isn’t about changing things. Don’t Create Any Jar-Jars Add Segments 1. 2.
Harvard Students Launch a Free Course on How to Resist Trump NOTE: As of July 22, we updated this post to include the videos from the class sessions. Watch the playlist of lectures above. I have my doubts about whether we should call regular acts of civic duty “resistance,” rather than Constitutionally-protected democratic freedoms. Yesterday we remembered Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 49th anniversary of his assassination (and the 50th anniversary of his speech opposing the Vietnam War). As King and countless other civil rights and anti-war campaigners have demonstrated---some at the cost of their lives---civil disobedience is very often required and morally justified when legal appeals for justice fail. But for better or worse, “The Resistance” has become a catch-all media term for a loose and very often fractious collection of mainstream Democrats, progressives, and radicals of all stripes, whose tactics range from polite phone lobbying to brawling with white supremacists in the streets. Related Content:
How to Add, Edit or Delete a User in WordPress Once you are established with your new WordPress website, you will likely want to add new users so that they can help you write new content or manage your existing content. Thankfully, WordPress makes this extremely easy. In your WordPress Dashboard, hover your mouse over Users then click All Users. Once you do that, this page will appear. Click “Add New” From there, everything is straight forward. Username: This is used by the new person to log in to your website. Email: Make sure this is their real email address that way if they forget their password, they can do a password recovery. First / Last Name: This can be used and displayed on your website depending on your theme. Make sure you create a very secure password for them to use. Send Password? Role: Need help understanding user roles? Then click the “Add New User” button. Editing a User – Access Additional Options Head back to Users > All Users and click on their username or the edit link below their username. Other Profile Editing Options
factitious 11 ways to screen your front-end developer candidate For any business with a website, your front–end developer is arguably one of your most important hires. Their code, UX sensibility, and ability to work with both your tech and design teams determines how people will interpret your brand. To help you choose wisely, I asked a group of successful entrepreneurs from YEC the following question. What’s one tool/method I can use to test or pre-screen front–end developers? Their best answers are below: 1. Viewing and discussing their portfolio is the best way to screen a developer for a new project. In addition to evaluating their design and the UX, you should also review their code. 2. A good way to evaluate a front–end developer is by checking their GitHub account. Take the time to analyze the code so you can have a wide knowledge of how thisdeveloper writes, and so you can ask him why he made specific decisions. 3. On average, Silicon Valley companies spend 100-200 hours of their engineers’ time just to hire one developer. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
[infographic] Fake news or real news? 10 tips to getting the facts for yourself - Stone Soup Creative I read a good article today on NPR’s All Tech Considered, Fake Or Real? How To Self-Check The News And Get The Facts. Except I figure people who aren’t schooled in figuring out the difference aren’t likely to be reading an NPR article. So I quickly put together this infographic based on the article and a link provided to a google doc, False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sources, prepared by Melissa Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication and media at Merrimack College. Is it helpful? 10 High Impact Shopify Apps That Can Help You Sell More The Shopify App Store is filled with hundreds of great apps that can help merchants streamline their day-to-day tasks, add brand new functionality to their store, and make it easier to run their business. We often get asked which of those apps are the "best," but with so many different business needs and tastes, it's really impossible to say. However, there are some apps that can provide immense value for just about any business owner who uses them. We crawled through hundreds of listings to find the apps we thought could help the most businesses the fastest. Here are 10 high impact Shopify apps that can help you sell more. Receiptful “Receiptful generate[s] beautiful sales receipts that gets customers excited about their purchases.” - Fragrancebuy Canada Receiptful makes it possible for Shopify store owners to customize the look of their receipts with personalized branding and additional functionality. Here's why every store owner should use it: Tidio Live Chat Exit Offers ALT Text GetSocial