Here are some web trends for 2020:
Responsive web design in 2020 should be a given because every serious project that you create should look good and be completely usable on all devices. But there’s no need to over-complicate things.
Web Development in 2020: What Coding Tools You Should Learn article gives an overview of recommendations what you learn to become a web developer in 2020.
You might have seen Web 3.0 on some slides. What is the definition of web 3 we are talking about here?
There seems to be many different to choose from… Some claim that you need to blockchain the cloud IOT otherwise you’ll just get a stack overflow in the mainframe but I don’t agree on that.
Information on the web address bar will be reduced on some web browsers. With the release of Chrome 79, Google completes its goal of erasing www from the browser by no longer allowing Chrome users to automatically show the www trivial subdomain in the address bar.
You still should target to build quality web site and avoid the signs of a low-quality web site. Get good inspiration for your web site design.
Still a clear and logical structure is the first thing that needs to be turned over in mind before the work on the website gears up. The website structure for search robots is its internal links. The more links go to a page, the higher its priority within the website, and the more times the search engine crawls it.
You should upgrade your web site, but you need to do it sensibly and well. Remember that a site upgrade can ruin your search engine visibility if you do it badly. The biggest risk to your site getting free search engine visibility is site redesign. Bad technology selection can ruin the visibility of a new site months before launch. Many new sites built on JavaScript application frameworks do not benefit in any way from the new technologies. Before you go into this bandwagon, you should think critically about whether your site will benefit from the dynamic capabilities of these technologies more than they can damage your search engine visibility. Well built redirects can help you keep the most outbound links after site changes.
If you go to the JavaScript framework route on your web site, keep in mind that there are many to choose, and you need to choose carefully to find one that fits for your needs and is actively developed also in the future.
JavaScript survey: Devs love a bit of React, but Angular and Cordova declining. And you’re not alone… a chunk of pros also feel JS is ‘overly complex’
Keep in mind the recent changes on the video players and Google analytics. And for animated content keep in mind that GIF animations exists still as a potential tool to use.
Keep in mind the the security. There is a skill gap in security for many. I’m not going to say anything that anyone who runs a public-facing web server doesn’t already know: the majority of these automated blind requests are for WordPress directories and files. PHP exploits are a distant second. And there are many other things that are automatically attacked. Test your site with security scanners.
APIs now account for 40% of the attack surface for all web-enabled apps. OWASP has identified 10 areas where enterprises can lower that risk. There are many vulnerability scanning tools available. Check also How to prepare and use Docker for web pentest . Mozilla has a nice on-line tool for web site security scanning.
The slow death of Flash continues. If you still use Flash, say goodbye to it. Google says goodbye to Flash, will stop indexing Flash content in search.
Use HTTPS on your site because without it your site rating will drop on search engines visibility. It is nowadays easy to get HTTPS certificates.
Write good content and avoid publishing fake news on your site. Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy,
Think to who you are aiming to your business web site to. Analyze who is your “true visitor” or “power user”. A true visitor is a visitor to a website who shows a genuine interest in the content of the site. True visitors are the people who should get more of your site and have the potential to increase the sales and impact of your business. The content that your business offers is intended to attract visitors who are interested in it. When they show their interest, they are also very likely to be the target group of the company.
Should you think of your content management system (CMS) choice? Flexibility, efficiency, better content creation: these are just some of the promised benefits of a new CMS. Here is How to convince your developers to change CMS.
Here are some fun for the end:
Did you know that if a spider creates a web at a place?
The place is called a website
Confession: How JavaScript was made.
2,361 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
5 Must Do’s to Get First Customers for Your Online Store Fast and Cheap
Be Trustworthy for Your Visitors
Your Online Store Needs to be Customer-Friendly
https://www.groost.com/blog-posts/5-must-dos-to-get-first-customers-for-online-store-fast-and-cheap?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=tra-sa-woocommerce-article-dynamic-ad&fbclid=IwAR3MoSdyEtytdyg5cDVWUkKQxo66FfqN0oqyX6-mAOOMdOqzPLHS_zYENzI
Tomi Engdahl says:
Close US election results plunge social media into nightmare misinformation scenario
https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/04/trump-election-2020-premature-victory-facebook-twitter/?tpcc=ECFB2020
Trump’s claim of victory is false — votes are still being counted in a close race — but they heralded his campaign’s intention to work the misinformation ecosystem he’s cultivated over the last four years.
On Wednesday, Twitter hid three of Trump’s five recent tweets behind warning labels stating that their content was “disputed and might be misleading.”
The Trump campaign’s baseless fear mongering about the integrity of vote-by-mail ballots began well before the election.
In the months preceding the election, Trump repeatedly declined to commit to conceding the election in the event that he loses, a stance that Americans may watch play out in real time in the coming hours and days.
Democrats have been hit with misinformation labels too
Facebook and Twitter’s philosophies differ on how to handle a president prone to sowing political misinformation. Twitter gives rule-breaking election tweets a warning label flagging them as potentially “misleading.” It screens them behind that message and restricts replies, retweets and likes, severely limiting their viral potential.
Twitter also ditched political advertising outright a year ago. While Facebook still allows them, the company implemented a blackout on those ads after polls closed that remains in effect now.
Facebook adds its own set of “labels” to election posts that break the rules, though they are designed to mostly point users to contextual, factual information rather than to offer explicit warnings about false claims. As a direct response to Trump’s premature claims of victory, Facebook also rolled out an eye-catching set of messages across Facebook and Instagram reminding users that votes were still being counted.
Of course, misinformation also thrives beyond Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube in places it’s more difficult to track, moving from obscure chans to mainstream social media and back again, mutating as it goes. Early Wednesday, Trump was happy to make his dangerous claim of unearned victory on live television — and so far, many news networks obliged by broadcasting it. That’s cause for concern too.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The president falsely declared premature victory and baselessly said Democrats were stealing the election.
Half Of Trump’s Twitter And Facebook Posts Since Election Day Flagged
http://on.forbes.com/6187HBBoS
Of Trump’s 22 posts on Facebook and Twitter, not including retweets or videos, 11 have been labeled by the social media giants.
The flagged posts include erroneous claims to victory before races have been officially called and false assertions that the election is fraudulent.
Twitter has hidden posts from view and warned “some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process,” and restricted the ability to like or retweet.
Facebook warned users underneath Trump posts that “final votes may different from the initial vote counts” or “elections officials follow strict rules when it comes to ballot counting, handling and reporting”—but still allows users to share and comment.
Twitter also labeled tweets both from Trump aides and Democratic Party operatives prematurely declaring victory in states before any official sources called the race.
Facebook and Twitter prepared for a drawn-out election and sought to limit the spread of misinformation, fearing a repeat of 2016. In the weeks leading up to the election Facebook and Twitter specifically created policies for premature claims of victory and messaging around vote counts after Election Day.
But Republicans have lambasted efforts to combat misinformation as censorship against conservatives.
Especially after Twitter’s New York Post fiasco, GOP lawmakers are taking aim at Section 230, a legal provision that ensures tech companies can’t be held liable for the posts on their platforms. Trump supporters, unsurprisingly, criticized Twitter especially for “censorship.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
This looks very good, especially as a teaching tool.
SvgPathEditor
https://yqnn.github.io/svg-path-editor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/11/for-the-first-time-the-new-york-times-digital-subscriptions-generate-more-revenue-than-its-print-ones/
Tomi Engdahl says:
No More Google
Privacy-friendly alternatives to Google that don’t track you
https://nomoregoogle.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Company forced to change name that could be used to hack websites
Software firm’s director thought name using HTML would be ‘fun and playful’
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/06/companies-house-forces-business-name-change-to-prevent-security-risk
Companies House has forced a company to change its name after it belatedly realised it could pose a security risk.
The company now legally known as “THAT COMPANY WHOSE NAME USED TO CONTAIN HTML SCRIPT TAGS LTD” was set up by a British software engineer, who says he did it purely because he thought it would be “a fun playful name” for his consulting business.
He now says he didn’t realise that Companies House was actually vulnerable to the extremely simple technique he used, known as “cross-site scripting”, which allows an attacker to run code from one website on another.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Welcome To The Old Internet Again!
http://theoldnet.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook’s latest attempt to slow disinformation means probation for groups
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/07/facebook-groups-election/
Facebook has started putting some groups on a type of probation, its latest move to slow the spread of disinformation and attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the U.S. election.
Any group, public or private, the company detects has too many posts that violate its community standards will be forced to have administrators and moderators approve each submission manually. The requirement will stay in place for 60 days for the group, with no way to appeal or override it.
The company will be closely monitoring how group administrators and moderators handle posts during those two months, and could decide to shut a group down completely if it repeatedly allows too many offending posts. The change makes the volunteers who run groups more responsible for what happens inside them.
“We are temporarily requiring admins and moderators of some political and social groups in the U.S. to approve all posts, if their group has a number of Community Standards violations from members,” said Facebook company spokesperson Leonard Lam. He said the company was taking the measure “in order to protect people during this unprecedented time.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Unprecedented, far-reaching EU regulation on trying to prevent terrorist content online seems to potentially endanger freedom of speech.
Press release from Patrick Breyer MEP (Pirate Party Germany, Greens/European Free Alliance) on the proposed Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online:
“will heavily impact on everybody operating a website, Internet users, media freedom, freedom of the arts and sciences, and freedom of speech”
https://www.statewatch.org/news/2020/november/eu-unprecedented-far-reaching-eu-regulation-on-preventing-terrorist-content-online-endangers-freedom-of-speech-and-of-the-media-as-well-as-the-online-community/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wix, Squarespace, WordPress—here’s why the latter is the best option for building your own website. And with EasyWP, it’s FREE for 30 days! https://bit.ly/34P4v98
Site Builders vs WordPress: Which is Better?
https://www.namecheap.com/blog/site-builders-vs-wordpress/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=_blank&utm_content=Paid&utm_campaign=Informative_EasyWP_FreeTrials&fbclid=IwAR1VNiqvLplMTfLf7gKDJ_aktdn28cB4CqxJfN9kJKbDcVs61rqQZCfKd14
We wanted to take a look at how WordPress compares to two well-known online ‘easy’ site builders: Squarespace and Wix. Both popular platforms with a very different approach to site-building. WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace are all capable of making beautiful websites, but one has distinctly more advantages than the others.
This post covers why WordPress remains the top choice for site builders — powering more sites every year than Squarespace and Wix combined.
The main difference between site builders and WordPress is that WordPress is a standalone software that you need to install (or have it installed by a third-party) on a web server. Squarespace and Wix, on the other hand, are online tools/ services.
It’s widely accepted that site builders are the quickest way to launch a website. With Squarespace and Wix, anyone can build a site in a heartbeat. To use a site builder you simply sign up, log in, and get started. It takes care of hosting and provides you with a domain name if necessary.
WordPress is fairly easy to use, it just involves some technical work to install the software before you can get to work on your website.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Twitter says it labeled 300K election-related tweets from Oct. 27 to Nov. 11 as disputed, accounting for 0.2% of all messages about the election — Twitter said on Thursday that it labeled as disputed 300,000 tweets related to the presidential election, or .2 percent of the total number …
Twitter says it labeled 0.2% of all election-related tweets as disputed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/12/technology/twitter-says-it-labeled-0-2-of-all-election-related-tweets-as-disputed.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
// How To Secure Apache with mod_md Let’s Encrypt on Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-secure-apache-with-mod_md-lets-encrypt-on-ubuntu-20-04-lts/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://into-digital.fi/puhutaan-hetki-rahasta-mita-verkkopalvelun-uudistus-maksaa/?utm_source=fbmainos&utm_medium=kuva&utm_campaign=Mit%C3%A4+verkkopalvelun+uudistus+maksaa%3F&fbclid=IwAR0XXwr0O5Z6kLHg3Ys7ximfDmQz_OWRc_xfHZGzp80qA9H8Cq0cSn2ds8w
Tomi Engdahl says:
Behind the scenes: How Quartz uses data to better serve readers and keep them coming back
https://qz.com/1909072/behind-the-scenes-how-quartz-uses-data-to-better-serve-readers-and-keep-them-coming-back/
Eight years ago, Quartz was born online. Its goals were three-fold: Keep a pulse on the global economy in fresh formats, cater to a new generation of business leaders, and ensure those leaders could get their news and analysis where they needed it most—on their mobile phones.
Launching as a 100 percent digital idea, it didn’t have to disentangle legacy systems or graft new technologies onto old business models. Being digitally native also meant that data—from the very first user ping on qz.com in 2012—could be used in real time to ensure those goals were being met.
Yet, after six years of robust growth in its global readers, advertisers, and coverage, Quartz needed to evolve its technology, specifically its data foundation, to stay truly competitive.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Godwin’s rule
https://www.facebook.com/1131017846/posts/10223581042890761/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Conspiracy Theorist Explains What Changed Her Mind
https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/conspiracy-theorist-explains-what-changed-her-mind/
conspiracy theories are rife on the Internet.
The problem is, when you’re down the rabbit hole, getting out of it is not so easy, even when evidence that contradicts your theory is right in front of your face. Currently, followers of the QAnon conspiracy are having to confront the fact that the so-called “plan” involving Donald Trump winning the presidential election in a moment of reckoning has not come to fruition, and its leader, the anonymous “Q” who mostly posts on the online message board 8kun has gone silent as of November 3, when the election took place.
“Watching Info Wars, that’s what really hooked me. I began to be obsessed with it, and I became paranoid,” she says in the first video, referring to the far-right conspiracy website owned by political extremist Alex Jones, who has been described as “the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America”.
She’s keen to stress that getting pulled into conspiracy theories isn’t something that makes you stupid, and in fact, can highlight good qualities such as a curious mind.
“It’s natural to want answers. It’s natural to want immediate answers. That’s why conspiracy theories help those people who are thirsty for answers, who want an explanation to whatever is going on that doesn’t seem right to them,” she says.
She’s far from alone in her experience.
“The dangerous ones are where truth is mixed with lies,”
“Conspiracy theories are just a pacifier. But this pacifier is spiked with poison. It is taking over your mind. And the more conspiracy theories you start to believe, the more irrational your thoughts become, and you go deep into cognitive dissonance,”
The realization that something you’ve believed for a long time is not real can be devastating, particularly if you have based your identity around your convictions.
Speaking to The Washington Post, one former QAnon follower described how he was left with dark thoughts after realizing it was all nonsense when many of Qs predictions failed to come true. “If I didn’t have family that loved me I probably would have committed suicide,” he said. “It was really a terrible feeling to know that you are this stupid and this wrong.”
“I used trusted news sources to get out of the conspiracy hole. Right now a lot of us are like ‘I don’t know who to trust anymore’. I get it. That’s where your work comes in,” she said. “To detect misinformation, or biased news even, requires media literacy. That means you need to understand the ins and outs of your source. How are they getting their stories to you? What words are they using? Images? Maybe even famous people? And are they providing legitimate linked sources?”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg will face Congress again, this time about the election
https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/16/dorsey-zuckerberg-hearing-senate-judiciary-election/?tpcc=ECFB2020
After giving in to the looming threat of subpoenas, two of tech’s most high profile CEOs will again be grilled by Congress.
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will host Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg for what’s likely to be another multi-hour airing of assorted grievances. In this round, Republican lawmakers called the hearing to press the tech titans on “Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020 Election.” The hearing, which was scheduled before the election, was apparently inspired by the platforms’ decisions to limit the reach of a dubious New York Post story presenting leaked information purporting to implicate now President-elect Joe Biden and his son Hunter in a corrupt political influence scheme in Ukraine.
If the last hearing is any indication, and it likely is, Tuesday’s tech vs. Congress showdown will be less about cornering the two tech platform CEOs on the stated topic than it will be a far-ranging complaint session about Republicans’ ongoing complaints about anti-conservative bias punctuated by bipartisan soliloquies on lawmakers’ various pet topics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube just changed its rules on video monetization, and YouTube creators aren’t happy. Essentially, Google will now show ads on all videos, even if their creators don’t want ads. And creators won’t get a penny.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/11/18/youtube-will-now-show-ads-on-all-videos-even-if-creators-dont-want-them/?sh=405d12c04913
Tomi Engdahl says:
Newsmax CEO Suggests Airing Unconfirmed Voter Fraud Claims Is Good For Business
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/11/24/newsmax-ceo-suggests-airing-unconfirmed-voter-fraud-claims-is-good-for-business/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie
As his network continues to gain popularity among conservative audiences for its ardent support of President Trump, Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said he does not feel he is misinforming viewers by airing unconfirmed voter fraud claims, and even suggested that it’s been good for ratings.
Pressed in an interview by The New Yorker about why Newsmax—unlike others, including Fox News—continued to air election fraud claims without evidence, Ruddy said broadly the network has an “editorial policy of being supportive of the president and his policies” and is within its right to question the electoral process, but also made the link between providing a platform to these allegations and a rise in viewership.
“At the end of the day, it’s been great for news,” said Ruddy, adding that Newsmax is “getting one million people per minute” tuning into its broadcasts.
Critics accuse outlets like Newsmax that are giving a platform to the president’s unfounded allegations without sufficient context of contributing to a broad distrust in the U.S. electoral system. A Reuters/Ipsos poll published Nov. 18 found that about half of Republicans surveyed believed President Trump “rightfully won” the election but that it was stolen from him by widespread voter fraud in favor of President-elect Biden. Ruddy did not accept responsibility for any part in this narrative.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Did Mark Twain Say ‘It’s Easier to Fool People Than to Convince Them That They Have Been Fooled’?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/did-mark-twain-say-its-easier-to-fool-people-than-to-convince-them-that-they-have-been-fooled/
While the quote “it’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled” is often attributed to Mark Twain, there’s no evidence that the author actually wrote this phrase.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WAN-IFRA and UNESCO join forces to support journalism in the face of existential economic menace
https://wan-ifra.org/2020/11/wan-ifra-and-unesco-join-forces-to-support-journalism-in-the-face-of-existential-economic-menace/
2020-11-24. The announcement of the co-operation was made at the 40th-anniversary celebration of UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), an inter-governmental forum for media development.
As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact, the decimation of journalism in many areas of the world constitutes a growing threat, bringing existing challenges to a tipping point. Each month brings new reports of job losses in journalism and the closure of once-vibrant local media outlets.
“Professional, independent journalism is critical for providing populations with life-saving information during this crisis and plays an essential role in building and strengthening our democracies, justice and peace,” said the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.httrack.com/
HTTrack is a free (GPL, libre/free software) and easy-to-use offline browser utility.
It allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack arranges the original site’s relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the “mirrored” website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads. HTTrack is fully configurable, and has an integrated help system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why the Web Spreads Information and Misinformation Equally Well
https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/why-the-web-spreads-information-and-misinformation-equally-well
“A lie gets halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” That’s a great line, but who originally said it? Was it Mark Twain, always good for an epigram, or the oft-quoted Winston Churchill? According to The New York Times, it’s an adaptation of something written three centuries ago by famed satirist Jonathan Swift: “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it.”
“Truth is the first casualty of war.”
Served up by content-management systems that algorithmically compose documents from multiple sources, the modern Web gradually converged with Nelson’s vision for transclusion—with one key difference: The Web offers no single source of truth, nor any ultimate reference to a set of trusted sources. Instead, everything points to everything else (or to itself), which tends to make the Web appear to be fuller and more authoritative than it really is. That helps explain why conspiracy theories like QAnon are so difficult to root out.
It would only take a few subtle changes to nudge the Web away from the shifting sands of links and plant it firmly in the real world of universally accepted facts. The nature of these authoritative sources will be fought over, naturally, as fierce rivals battle it out to set the terms for defining the truth. Yet where we can build consensus, humanity would possess “a truth universally acknowledged”—to borrow a line that we can all agree belongs to Jane Austen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vastaisku huuhaalle ja sometietäjille – 5 oppia vaikuttavampiin terveyssisältöihin
https://www.allerideas.fi/blogi/vastaisku-huuhaalle-ja-sometietajille-5-oppia-vaikuttavampiin-terveyssisaltoihin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
GoogleBot Now Can Crawl Over HTTP/2
https://www.seroundtable.com/googlebot-crawl-http-2-30428.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
HIDASTAVATKO MATELEVAT VERKKOSIVUT YRITYKSESI KEHITYSTÄ?
- Kuinka verkkosivujen latautumista voi nopeuttaa?
https://www.creamedia.fi/fi/blogi/2020/hidastavatko-matelevat-verkkosivut-yrityksesi-kehitysta.html?fbclid=IwAR1kNzG8gTsjzKgAiWxamG_uZMG0-OVGUPdysc6MJLmiQGTOUUkJEJmH7Sk
Osa meistä muistaa modeemiajan, jolloin kuvat latautuivat sivustoille palkki kerrallaan. Nopeutuneiden yhteyksien vuoksi kovinkaan moni ei nykyään jaksa odottaa sivuston avautumista puolta sekuntia pidempään. Hitaus karsii osan kävijöistä jo alkumetreillä.
Palvelin vaikuttaa eniten verkkosivun nopeuteenNopea ja toimintavarma palvelintila on kaiken lähtökohta. Jos sivustolla on käytössä jokin julkaisujärjestelmä, kannattaa valita järjestelmän kannalta optimaalisin palvelu.
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://uk.businessinsider.com/things-that-make-people-dislike-you-2017-3
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Arizona State Parks Built A Content Library with 5000+ Rights-Approved Images
https://crowdriff.com/resources/blog/arizona-state-parks-content-library-rights-images
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nature Journals To Charge Authors Hefty Fee To Make Scientific Papers Open Access
https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/nature-journals-to-charge-authors-hefty-fee-to-make-scientific-papers-open-access/
Springer Nature, one of the giants of academic science publishing, announced this week its plans to allow researchers to make their articles free and open access to all, for a hefty fee. The move has been welcomed as a transition to open-access publishing by some, but its high price tag at the cost of the author has raised concerns among many scientists.
As of January 2021, authors publishing their research in the journal Nature and the 32 Nature primary research journals can make their work free to read for everyone, as long as they pay a fee of €9,500 (approximately $11,320).
As part of this new move, Springer Nature will also pilot a system that will give researchers the option of publishing open-access articles in six of their journals under a so-called “guided open-access pilot.” After paying a nonrefundable fee of €5,000 (around $5,950), the authors can submit their work to the publishers and editors will assess the work, judging whether it’s suitable for publication. If they do get accepted, they will then pay an additional fee for the work to become published in the journal.
Currently, many of the Nature journals are behind a paywall and require a subscription to read.
However, many researchers have taken objection to the large fee required to make the article open access. Many influential journals already charge a fee to make the articles open access, although these charges tend to be considerably less than the new fee introduced by Nature.
This new charge will put extra pressure on authors, funders, and research institutions. Funds set aside to carry out research may have to be redirected to publishing the research. Furthermore, many funders and foundations of scientific research, especially in Europe, also require their research to be published in an open-access format, so this new charge might have to be paid, effectively. Alternatively, it could push researchers to publish papers in other journals.
It’s worth highlighting that academic publishing works in a very different way to other forms of publishing, such as magazines or newspapers. Most media has to pay authors, writers, researchers, and editors to produce their content and the license to share it. In the scientific publishing world, the researchers’ work is paid for by others (typically public funding, charitable organizations, or corporations) outside of the publisher. Much of the editing is done through a process called peer-review, in which independent researchers in the same field review and critique the scientific validity of the work (this is unpaid work, something else that is contentious among scientists). Researchers then pay the journal a publishing charge upon acceptance for publication. If a study is not open-access, then anybody who wants to read it, including the scientific community and the wider media reporting on it, will also have to pay the journal to read it.
The costs of publishing, therefore, already lies heavily on the authors and their funders, not the journals.
The world of science and academia is pushing towards more open access, however. The new announcement by Springer Nature is partly spurred on by cOAlition S and Plan S, a movement — largely in Europe — to make all research freely available to everyone. cOAlition S said in a statement it “welcomes” the move by Springer Nature.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Where does journalism belong in an AI-powered news ecosystem?
https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/what-is-the-place-of-journalism-in-an-ai-powered-news-ecosystem-/s2/a772314/
The media is a long-time critic of how opaque algorithms polarise views and spread misinformation. Now it is our turn to be transparent about editorial decisions and focus on bridging the divides
Tomi Engdahl says:
Visualizing the Evolution of Global Advertising Spend (1980-2020)
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/evolution-global-advertising-spend-1980-2020/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Virtuaalitapahtuman järjestäjän opas: näin järjestät onnistuneen virtuaalitapahtuman
https://www.virtuaalitapahtumat.fi/nain-jarjestat-virtuaalitapahtuman/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Foreign Affairs:
Big Tech threatens democracy and one solution may be to take away their role as gatekeepers of content and let users choose the information presented to them — Among the many transformations taking place in the U.S. economy, none is more salient than the growth of gigantic Internet platforms.
How to Save Democracy From Technology
Ending Big Tech’s Information Monopoly
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-11-24/fukuyama-how-save-democracy-technology
Among the many transformations taking place in the U.S. economy, none is more salient than the growth of gigantic Internet platforms. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter, already powerful before the COVID-19 pandemic, have become even more so during it, as so much of everyday life moves online. As convenient as their technology is, the emergence of such dominant corporations should ring alarm bells—not just because they hold so much economic power but also because they wield so much control over political communication. These behemoths now dominate the dissemination of information and the coordination of political mobilization. That poses unique threats to a well-functioning democracy.
While the EU has sought to enforce antitrust laws against these platforms, the United States has been much more tepid in its response. But that is beginning to change. Over the past two years, the Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of state attorneys general have initiated investigations into potential abuses of these platforms’ monopoly power, and in October, the Justice Department filed an antitrust suit against Google. Big Tech’s critics now include both Democrats who fear manipulation by domestic and foreign extremists and Republicans who think the large platforms are biased against conservatives. Meanwhile, a growing intellectual movement, led by a coterie of influential legal scholars, is seeking to reinterpret antitrust law to confront the platforms’ dominance.
Although there is an emerging consensus about the threat that the Big Tech companies pose to democracy, there is little agreement about how to respond. Some have argued that the government needs to break up Facebook and Google. Others have called for more stringent regulations to limit these companies’ exploitation of data. Without a clear way forward, many critics have defaulted to pressuring platforms to self-regulate, encouraging them to take down dangerous content and do a better job of curating the material carried on their sites. But few recognize that the political harms posed by the platforms are more serious than the economic ones. Fewer still have considered a practical way forward: taking away the platforms’ role as gatekeepers of content. This approach would entail inviting a new group of competitive “middleware” companies to enable users to choose how information is presented to them. And it would likely be more effective than a quixotic effort to break these companies up.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hannah Natanson / Washington Post:
A report on student grades from Virginia reveals that online learning has led to a sharp drop in students’ academic performance — A report on student grades from one of the nation’s largest school districts offers some of the first concrete evidence that online learning is forcing …
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/fairfax-schools-more-failing-grades/2020/11/24/1ac2412e-2e34-11eb-96c2-aac3f162215d_story.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
How The Epoch Times Created a Giant Influence Machine
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/technology/epoch-times-influence-falun-gong.html
Since 2016, the Falun Gong-backed newspaper has used aggressive Facebook tactics and right-wing misinformation to create an anti-China, pro-Trump media empire.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s Easy Debunking Idiocy, the Problem is It Never Stops
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/politics/its-easy-debunking-idiocy-the-problem-is-it-never-stops
Claims of election fraud keep circulating, and circulating, and circulating.
Rational Debate Challenge Accepted
Tomi Engdahl says:
The best bet for 2030 #programming
Via https://www.commitstrip.com/en/2020/12/01/the-best-bet-for-2030/?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Selvitys: maalittamisen erillinen kriminalisointi ei ratkaise ongelmaa, someyhtiöille suurempi vastuu
https://www.oikeusmedia.uutisparkki.com/2020/12/03/selvitys-maalittamisen-erillinen-kriminalisointi-ei-ratkaise-ongelmaa-someyhtioille-suurempi-vastuu/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Maalittaminen vahingoittaa koko yhteiskuntaa
https://www.oikeusmedia.uutisparkki.com/2020/12/03/selvitys-maalittamisen-erillinen-kriminalisointi-ei-ratkaise-ongelmaa-someyhtioille-suurempi-vastuu/
Selvityshenkilö Mika Illmanin mukaan maalittaminen on tyypillisesti tietoverkossa tapahtuvaa järjestelmällistä toimintaa, jossa kohdetta uhataan tai loukataan esimerkiksi levittämällä hänen yksityiselämäänsä kuuluvia tietoja tai esittämällä hänestä perättömiä tai muuten halventavia tietoja.
Maalittamisella pyritään vaientamaan kohde tai muuten vaikuttamaan hänen toimintaansa. Maalittamisen pelko vaikuttaa siihen, mitä puheenaiheita julkisuudessa käsitellään ja millä tavoin.
Maalittaminen vahingoittaa oikeusvaltiota, koska sillä pyritään vaikuttamaan päätöksentekoon hallinnossa ja lainkäytössä. Maalittaminen myös vahingoittaa laajemminkin demokraattista yhteiskuntaa, koska se vähentää ihmisten halukkuutta osallistua demokraattisiin prosesseihin ja ottaa julkisesti kantaa yhteiskunnallisiin asioihin. Tämän lisäksi maalittaminen kaventaa yleisön oikeutta saada tietoa siitä, mitä yhteiskunnassa ajatellaan ja tapahtuu.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Selviä somekonfliktista 1–10–100 -säännöllä
https://kaikuhelsinki.fi/blogi/selvia-somekonfliktista-1-10-100-saannolla/?fbclid=IwAR1rmAaS1GktqPwd4A86Xt7M5jC8rXGxW-d3-KdmzpT_0CicFlloa2iv9mI
Mitä teen, jos joudun inhottavaan tilanteeseen sosiaalisessa mediassa?
Somekohut ja -konfliktit huolettavat meitä kaikkia. Olitpa sitten yritys- tai organisaatiotilin ylläpitäjä tai omalla nimelläsi somessa viestivä asiantuntija, olet takuuvarmasti törmännyt Twitterissä, Facebookissa tai muussa kanavassa tukalalta tuntuviin tilanteisiin.
Me Kaiku Helsingin sosiaalisen median valmentajat suosittelemme hengittämään syvään, hakemaan kupin kahvia ja sen jälkeen turvautumaan somekonfliktien 1–10–100 -sääntöön. Se menee näin:
Somekonfliktin 1–10–100 -sääntö
Hankalassa sometilanteessa on yleensä 1 ihminen, joka luo ongelman. Hän kenties kommentoi julkaisuasi epäasiallisesti, vääristelee sanojasi, syyttää sinua jostain mihin et ole voinut vaikuttaa, kääntää puheenaiheen väkisin omaan agendaansa, tai muuten vain käyttäytyy huonosti.
Tuo 1 ihminen saa liikkeelle 10 muuta ihmistä, jotka saapuvat väittelemään äänekkäästi. Osa heistä on “vastustajasi” puolella, osa on sinun puolellasi ja osa hämmentää keitosta ihan vain huvikseen. Heillä on mielipiteitä ja he haluavat antaa niiden kuulua.
rauhoitu ja muista, että 1 lietsoja tai 10 äänekästä kommentoijaa eivät itse asiassa ole tärkeimpiä tässä somekeskustelussa. Härdellin ulkokehällä nimittäin on 100 hiljaista sivustaseuraajaa. He eivät kommentoi suuntaan tai toiseen, eivät tykkää tai uudelleentwiittaa. Mutta he seuraavat keskustelua ja tekevät omat johtopäätöksensä siitä, kuka on fiksu ja kuka on asiaton öykkäri. Nämä 100 ovat varsinainen yleisösi.
Et voi koskaan voittaa 1:tä räyhääjää puolellesi, mutta vastaamalla hänelle asiallisesti, jämptisti ja sivistyneesti teet vaikutuksen 100:an. Siitä on sinulle hyötyä pitkässä juoksussa.
1–10–100 käytännössä
Miten sitten toteutat 1–10–100 -sääntöä käytännössä? Tässä muutama vinkki tai pohdinnan aihe:
• Harkitse, tarvitseeko sinun vastata someöykkärille ollenkaan. Miten 100 tulkitsisivat sen, jos antaisitkin 1:n vain olla, etkä reagoisi häneen lainkaan?
• Riittääkö tykkäys tyynnyttämään öykkärin? Joskus vastaamatta jättäminen saattaa lietsoa öyhöttäjän entistä pahempaan aggressioon. Mutta varsinaisen vastaamisen sijaan saattaa riittää, jos tykkäämällä todistat, että olet nähnyt hänen viestinsä.
• Jos vastaat riidankylväjälle, kerta riittää.
• Älä suhtaudu alentuvasti. Typeriin kysymyksiin tekee välillä mieli antaa typeriä vastauksia ja nuijia öykkäri verbaalisesti maanrakoon, mutta se ei ole fiksua ison kuvan kannalta. 100 saavat sinusta paremman kuvan, jos kohtelet kaikkia asiallisesti.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google, Intel, Zoom and others launch a new alliance to get enterprises to use more Chrome
https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/10/google-intel-zoom-and-others-launch-a-new-alliance-to-get-enterprises-to-use-more-chrome/?tpcc=ECFB2020
A group of industry heavyweights, including Google, Box, Citrix, Dell, Imprivata, Intel, Okta, RingCentral, Slack, VMware and Zoom, today announced the launch of the Modern Computing Alliance.
The mission for this new alliance is to “drive ‘silicon-to-cloud’ innovation for the benefit of enterprise customers — fueling a differentiated modern computing platform and providing additional choice for integrated business solutions.”
https://chromeenterprise.google/moderncomputing/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Correspondent, De Correspondent’s English-language site, is shutting down on Dec. 31
The company saw “a projected loss of 900,000 euros in 2021, against only 1 million euros in revenue.”
https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/12/the-correspondent-de-correspondents-english-language-site-is-shutting-down/
After a splashy $2.6 million crowdfunding campaign (one that cost $1.8 million to run) to launch a New York–based site — which, it gradually became clear, would actually just be an English-language site based in The Netherlands — De Correspondent is shutting down said English-language site, The Correspondent.
The Dutch press first reported the news.
The Correspondent will shutter as of December 31, 2020.
De Correspondent had originally promised that The Correspondent would be headquartered in New York City. It tapped “ambassadors” like Nate Silver, David Simon, and Baratunde Thurston to help spread the word about the crowdfunding campaign, and Jay Rosen appeared on The Daily Show to talk up the U.S. product. But after the money was raised, the news gradually trickled out that De Correspondent’s founders weren’t planning to launch a site in the United States at all.
“I felt like it was a betrayal, and we had raised funds on false pretense,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
“This dystopian reality, where boys have seen rape pornography before their first kiss and girls base their value on sexy selfies, is belied by the warm, fuzzy straplines and mission statements of technology companies. It is perhaps not surprising that when young people, traumatised by digital exposure and with no solid sense of self, turn online, searching for an authoritative framework to make sense of their feelings, they often fall prey to a censorious, tyrannical groupthink.
Mocking the plethora of new sexual and gender identities as an adolescent fad is too easy; however ridiculous, there is real suffering underscoring internet-informed delusions. These are not just the growing pains of a new generation — they are serious symptoms of a deep-seated social malaise. Technology has wrenched mind from body; far from bringing us together, the digital world is breaking us apart.”
The dehumanising danger of social media
https://thecritic.co.uk/the-dehumanising-danger-of-social-media/
Josephine Bartosch says that far from facilitating an enriching meeting of minds, the online world is producing a dystopian world that is breaking us apart
The pandemic has been a technologist’s wet dream: forcing people online has accelerated what were already inevitable changes. Social distancing started a long time before the threat of contagion, sometime around 2005 with the spread of high-speed internet. In the previous decade, technologists shared a utopian vision of the digital world as a space where, freed from prejudice, mind could meet mind.
John Perry Barlow’s stirring 1996 Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace described it as a world “both everywhere and nowhere … not where bodies live”. The unmooring of mind from body has left people adrift, navigating a turbulent online world without the reassuring markers humans evolved to recognise.
This internet-fuelled crisis of sexuality and identity is pulling in youth across the world
Infamously in 2014 Facebook changed the site to offer 72 “gender options” rather than the two sexes.
It seems “who we really are” is now determined by how one chooses to present on social media, what we “want” rather than what we are. One year later and Facebook changed the “gender” option to an open text box for self-description: the ultimate individualised identity.
Whether the “Genderqueer generation” are, as some research suggests, autistic kids turning online to make sense of not fitting in, or simply typically self-absorbed adolescents indulging in some time-honoured teen angst, it is clear that time online has shaped their identities and sexuality.
In the US there is now an emerging market in cosmetic surgeries whereby bodies can be cosmetically altered to match a client’s internal sense of self as “outside the gender binary”.
This internet-fuelled crisis of sexuality and identity is pulling in youth across the world.
Technology is not neutral. It is an industry where the libertarian views of Silicon Valley’s founding fathers meets with the commercial imperative.
From selfies to sexting, many women’s online life has been reduced to sexualised performance
Arguably, to some degree, we each now advertise and curate our online selves as products; mindful that the wrong tweet or “like” could cause reputational damage, or even end our careers
There is an additional catch to sites such as Only Fans. As with social media, popularity is measured and monetised by numbers of followers. Explaining the psychological impact of what keeps women on the site, Ginger says: “It’s a boost to know that men find you attractive enough to buy your nudes, even if you aren’t attracted to them. It becomes addictive.”
Indeed, it could be argued that the use of internet to facilitate an orgasm is itself a fetish, because the device, whether phone, laptop or virtual reality headset, is a proxy for mutual sexual enjoyment.
This dystopian reality, where boys have seen rape pornography before their first kiss and girls base their value on sexy selfies, is belied by the warm, fuzzy straplines and mission statements of technology companies. It is perhaps not surprising that when young people, traumatised by digital exposure and with no solid sense of self, turn online, searching for an authoritative framework to make sense of their feelings, they often fall prey to a censorious, tyrannical groupthink.
Mocking the plethora of new sexual and gender identities as an adolescent fad is too easy; however ridiculous, there is real suffering underscoring internet-informed delusions. These are not just the growing pains of a new generation — they are serious symptoms of a deep-seated social malaise. Technology has wrenched mind from body; far from bringing us together, the digital world is breaking us apart.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pinterest Predictions For 2021: How The Pandemic Has Influenced Trends
http://on.forbes.com/6185HOm5f
Pinterest is leveraging its search data to look ahead to the biggest trends of 2021, and marketers should pay attention. After all, 8 out of 10 of the social media company’s 2020 predictions were correct, and that’s true even after the giant toxic wrench of a pandemic that was thrown unexpectedly into the mix.
https://business.pinterest.com/en-gb/content/pinterest-predicts/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.mainostoimistoinnovatorsclub.fi/mika-on-facebook-pikseli/?fbclid=IwAR07Nq0m53lUXZLZGfv0e7K-aT2TEIZzGE2lL6a_L22vexo8fvtGkFUcXDA
Tomi Engdahl says:
When a squirrel dies: The rapid decline of local news
https://theconversation.com/when-a-squirrel-dies-the-rapid-decline-of-local-news-82120
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Record Number Of Journalists Were Arrested In 2020, Most Covering Racial Unrest
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/12/14/a-record-number-of-journalists-were-arrested-in-2020-most-covering-racial-unrest/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie
A record number of journalists were arrested this year in the United States, according to a report released Monday by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which found a “staggering” increase in detentions and assaults—a vast majority of which occurred during national unrest following the death of George Floyd.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google outage: YouTube, Docs and Gmail knocked offline
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55299779
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackers hide web skimmer inside a website’s CSS files
https://www.zdnet.com/article/hackers-hide-web-skimmer-inside-a-websites-css-files/
Previously, security researchers found web skimmers (Magecart scripts) inside favicons, site logos, live chat windows, and, most recently, in social media sharing buttons