It seems self explanatory - Graphic Design is work done on the design of graphics. It's not that simple though. Graphic Designers do much more than work with photos and illustrations. They also work with typography - the placement of words, size color, and style of fonts. And they work with the placement of imagery and words on pages to convey not only information but also moods and emotions.
Designers are the link between the client and the audience. Clients may be too close to their business and their own needs to get a clear picture of their audience's needs, and they also may not understand there is more than one way to convey the same message. Graphic designers work with their client to understand the purpose and the content of a message.
Designers may work with many other people such as photographers, and printers. Some of the visual medium they work to produce are; business logos, magazine ads, album covers, posters, flyers, graphics and web designs. Before I read the description of what a graphic designer does at http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/guide-whatisgraphicdesign I knew the basics but I didn't realize the description of graphic design was so involved and complex.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
How Twitter Works: It May Not Be How You Think
When you think about Twitter you may think of it as an online text messaging site where people talk about mundane daily activities or actors tweet to their fans. These are just a couple of the myths about Twitter listed in an article on HowStuffWorks.com. People are not just talking about the coffee they had for breakfast. Twitter has gained an enormous amount of users in its short existence and people are using it for everything from micro-blogging, business marketing and even political organizing.
In the past couple of years twitterers have kept the world updated on attacks in other countries and Iranians used it to organize protests. There is no right way or wrong way to use Twitter. It can be a powerful tool for businesses when implemented correctly. Businesses can embed APIs into their websites and use Twitter to make quick and easy updates to their sites. Or Twitter can be used simply for fun and chatting.
Some of the greatest features I like about Twitter is that it’s quick, easy and portable for use on mobile phones. You can login from your cell phone and read or post updates instantly. If it’s linked to your website then your website has just been updated too. You don’t have to worry about going into your website and messing up the code. All you have to do is hit send and you’ve killed two birds with one stone by continuing your twitter connections or marketing and updating your news on your website.
Michele Simon
In the past couple of years twitterers have kept the world updated on attacks in other countries and Iranians used it to organize protests. There is no right way or wrong way to use Twitter. It can be a powerful tool for businesses when implemented correctly. Businesses can embed APIs into their websites and use Twitter to make quick and easy updates to their sites. Or Twitter can be used simply for fun and chatting.
Some of the greatest features I like about Twitter is that it’s quick, easy and portable for use on mobile phones. You can login from your cell phone and read or post updates instantly. If it’s linked to your website then your website has just been updated too. You don’t have to worry about going into your website and messing up the code. All you have to do is hit send and you’ve killed two birds with one stone by continuing your twitter connections or marketing and updating your news on your website.
Michele Simon
Monday, April 5, 2010
Web Page Optimization for Faster Download Time
It just makes sense. The more you have on a web page and the more you load it down with cool extras like flash, the longer it will take to download. But is this such a big problem with all the super speedy computers that we have nowadays? Apparently according to statistics around 30% of users are still using dial up. So if you want to casually disregard that 30% then go ahead and pile it on.
For those who prefer to target 100% of users Webmonkey has several tutorials that help you to optimize your site for quick and easy loading. The first tutorial makes several suggestions about trimming out excess from your site and using the correct image formats for your graphics. It also covers when to compress images and using interlacing graphics and progressive loading to speed things up. One good suggestion from the first tutorial is: if you reuse the same images, like logos and headers, on pages then they will be loaded into the user's cache and it will speed up the download times.
The second Webmonkey tutorial covers webpage layout. Tables can be a nightmare for browsers and can really slow down the download times if they are not implemented correctly. Simple tables when formated correctly are best, but when you nest table you start slowing down. The more tables you nest the long it takes the browers to read and create them. CSS is a new formating language for browsers that has become very popular and is fast becoming the standard for formating webpages. With CSS you don't need tables and you can remove all excess formatting code from the html pages. This speeds things up.
I don't think people should jump right in and start cutting down their sites before they take a look at their target market. For example how likely is it that a business that sells upscale diamond jewelry is going to be selling to someone using dial-up? I did a little research on the internet on dial-up users today and found some artciles that said most people using dial-up have the ability to upgrade but continue to use it out of choice. With competition on the web becoming fiercer every year, it doesn't make a lot of sense to dumb down your site, and make it less visually stimulating and appealing, to cater to these diehards. But still for businesses and informational sites that want to reach the largest possible amount of their target audience the challenge is in making a sweet compromise.
Michele Simon
For those who prefer to target 100% of users Webmonkey has several tutorials that help you to optimize your site for quick and easy loading. The first tutorial makes several suggestions about trimming out excess from your site and using the correct image formats for your graphics. It also covers when to compress images and using interlacing graphics and progressive loading to speed things up. One good suggestion from the first tutorial is: if you reuse the same images, like logos and headers, on pages then they will be loaded into the user's cache and it will speed up the download times.
The second Webmonkey tutorial covers webpage layout. Tables can be a nightmare for browsers and can really slow down the download times if they are not implemented correctly. Simple tables when formated correctly are best, but when you nest table you start slowing down. The more tables you nest the long it takes the browers to read and create them. CSS is a new formating language for browsers that has become very popular and is fast becoming the standard for formating webpages. With CSS you don't need tables and you can remove all excess formatting code from the html pages. This speeds things up.
I don't think people should jump right in and start cutting down their sites before they take a look at their target market. For example how likely is it that a business that sells upscale diamond jewelry is going to be selling to someone using dial-up? I did a little research on the internet on dial-up users today and found some artciles that said most people using dial-up have the ability to upgrade but continue to use it out of choice. With competition on the web becoming fiercer every year, it doesn't make a lot of sense to dumb down your site, and make it less visually stimulating and appealing, to cater to these diehards. But still for businesses and informational sites that want to reach the largest possible amount of their target audience the challenge is in making a sweet compromise.
Michele Simon
Monday, March 29, 2010
Universal Access and The Wireless Revolution
Back in 2003 Michael L. Best from the Program in Internet & Telecom Convergence at Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote on the then current wireless revolution and how it could effect the world if done right. This excerpt from his book, while outdated from a technological point of view contains interesting theories on where wireless was and is headed.
Best said universal access to the wireless infrastructure can make poor and rural markets profitable. There are three important critical innovations that are necessary. In order for this to happen we would need new and low-cost technologies. Also micro and small enterprises that provide services that can create value to the community while insuring that revenues stay up. In addition it needs to be supported by the public policy makers as a source of development and not a source of government revenue.
Many countries, including the US have licensed certain frequencies for business, and other use. For costs to remain low, allowing universal access to the wireless infrastructure, the signals need to transmit over unlicensed frequencies. That way small local networks will be able to provide access to the wireless infrastructure and these small networks when connected together could provide global communication and access to the internet at an affordable price. This is more important in poor areas and rural places that don’t currently have wired communications. Placing a wired structure in many of these areas would be too costly.
A good quote explaining this from Best’s book excerpt is: “Increasingly, policy experts agree that the concept of universal access should not end with basic voice services, but must also embrace value-added services, including the Internet. This is not simply because of the social and economic value of the Internet--although that would be reason enough—it is because the Internet is critical to the financial sustainability of rural access.”
In my opinion I think Best is correct. In many rural places and countries it would be almost impossible to facilitate the communications they need to thrive. The way to get this to happen quickly and at affordable rates is to let communities connect together and for now keep licensing free.
Best said universal access to the wireless infrastructure can make poor and rural markets profitable. There are three important critical innovations that are necessary. In order for this to happen we would need new and low-cost technologies. Also micro and small enterprises that provide services that can create value to the community while insuring that revenues stay up. In addition it needs to be supported by the public policy makers as a source of development and not a source of government revenue.
Many countries, including the US have licensed certain frequencies for business, and other use. For costs to remain low, allowing universal access to the wireless infrastructure, the signals need to transmit over unlicensed frequencies. That way small local networks will be able to provide access to the wireless infrastructure and these small networks when connected together could provide global communication and access to the internet at an affordable price. This is more important in poor areas and rural places that don’t currently have wired communications. Placing a wired structure in many of these areas would be too costly.
A good quote explaining this from Best’s book excerpt is: “Increasingly, policy experts agree that the concept of universal access should not end with basic voice services, but must also embrace value-added services, including the Internet. This is not simply because of the social and economic value of the Internet--although that would be reason enough—it is because the Internet is critical to the financial sustainability of rural access.”
In my opinion I think Best is correct. In many rural places and countries it would be almost impossible to facilitate the communications they need to thrive. The way to get this to happen quickly and at affordable rates is to let communities connect together and for now keep licensing free.
Are podcasts significant and profitable?
A podcast is a digital audio file made available for downloading from the internet through a feed, to your computer. It can be synched with your mp3 player. Podcasting is great because people can chose the media they want and listen to it when they want to. It also has made it a cheap way for anyone to become a radio producer and opened up the field of radio to the average person. For businesses it can be a powerful way to connect with customers and promote your business to them on a regular basis and it has opened the door for many people to become a recognized expert or celebrity in their niche.
In 2005 National Public Radio launched podcasts and within a week they were number one on iTunes for the most downloaded podcast. While NPR has offered repurposed material in their podcasts they also have offered some with new material. They try to present their audience with fresh material that isn’t offered on the air or web. NPR has been experimenting with different types of podcasts. They found that most people preferred smaller podcasts, like their “Story of the Day” which highlights their editorial picks, probably because they are multitasking and don’t have a lot of time to listen.
NPR is well known as free public radio with quality content, but they have to bring in money somehow to keep going. Sponsors and underwriters so far have provide much of their funds. NPR has found that podcasting is a new source of income that can help keep them alive. To make money on podcasting they have ads, but to prevent irritating their listeners they are very careful how often ads are played and what ads are offered. For a 30 minute podcast they usually have two ads placed at the beginning and end. They also try to look carefully look for ads that would be of interest their listeners.
Has NPR set a new model for businesses using podcasting? I think that having new material available for podcasts is likely to attract many people, and their brief updates are a good idea because not everyone can listen all day, or at certain times, and it’s a good way for them to still keep up and interested in the programming. Having carefully selected ads, such as for a political program offering an ad for a site you can go to, to get more information, seems like a great idea. Not all ads are bad. Many offer people more information and ideas that are helpful. If more producers were as careful about the ads they chose to air with their material, then people might not find them as irritating.
In 2005 National Public Radio launched podcasts and within a week they were number one on iTunes for the most downloaded podcast. While NPR has offered repurposed material in their podcasts they also have offered some with new material. They try to present their audience with fresh material that isn’t offered on the air or web. NPR has been experimenting with different types of podcasts. They found that most people preferred smaller podcasts, like their “Story of the Day” which highlights their editorial picks, probably because they are multitasking and don’t have a lot of time to listen.
NPR is well known as free public radio with quality content, but they have to bring in money somehow to keep going. Sponsors and underwriters so far have provide much of their funds. NPR has found that podcasting is a new source of income that can help keep them alive. To make money on podcasting they have ads, but to prevent irritating their listeners they are very careful how often ads are played and what ads are offered. For a 30 minute podcast they usually have two ads placed at the beginning and end. They also try to look carefully look for ads that would be of interest their listeners.
Has NPR set a new model for businesses using podcasting? I think that having new material available for podcasts is likely to attract many people, and their brief updates are a good idea because not everyone can listen all day, or at certain times, and it’s a good way for them to still keep up and interested in the programming. Having carefully selected ads, such as for a political program offering an ad for a site you can go to, to get more information, seems like a great idea. Not all ads are bad. Many offer people more information and ideas that are helpful. If more producers were as careful about the ads they chose to air with their material, then people might not find them as irritating.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The open source GNU Project; free software, free contributions - Free
Have you ever gotten “blue screens”, or system errors while working on your computer and had to wait an intolerable amount of time to get help from the manufacturer? Have you tried to build your own computer from scratch to cut down on cost, only to find the price of the operating system is twice what it cost you for the parts? In the early 80’s Richard Stallman announce a project to develop the GNU operating system, which is a free Unix-like operating system. GNU, which stands for ‘Gnu’s Not Unix’, is open source software that anyone can contribute to. Any one can also get it for free and copy and distribute it. Because of Richard Stallman and many other talented programmers willing to work without pay, we have now have a free operating systems like the united GNU/Linux.
The GNU Manifesto, found at http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html , was written by Richard Stallman when he first began the GNU project to ask for participation and support. Stallman personally did not like to have to sign licenses and ‘intellectual property’ rights. He believed that software should be free, just like air, and used the example of a space station in which everyone had to pay for air per breather and liter: It would be better to support the production of air by taxes than charge the breathers.
In the GNU Manifesto Stallman tried to address many of the concerns and questions that people had about free software such as support, distribution and the effect on programmers. Today millions of people are now using GNU/Linux. It has a reputation of being one of the safest operating systems available and, if you know how to get it, it’s free. Many talented programmers have also willingly contributed to the project.
Personally I don’t like how Stallman casually dismissed what he thought would be the decline of high paid programming jobs. I have an inkling that Stallman may be one of those talented individuals that programming comes easy to and he doesn’t realize how difficult it can be to countless people. In music, art, literature, science and even programming, which at the highest level requires a great deal of talent, creativity and innovation, there are individuals that excel and make significant contributions and advancements to their vocation. Such a decline as he suggested would be a travesty. In the footnotes though, he later added - “The custom software business would continue to exist, more or less unchanged, in a free software world. Therefore, I no longer expect that most paid programmers would earn less in a free software world.”
The GNU Manifesto, found at http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html , was written by Richard Stallman when he first began the GNU project to ask for participation and support. Stallman personally did not like to have to sign licenses and ‘intellectual property’ rights. He believed that software should be free, just like air, and used the example of a space station in which everyone had to pay for air per breather and liter: It would be better to support the production of air by taxes than charge the breathers.
In the GNU Manifesto Stallman tried to address many of the concerns and questions that people had about free software such as support, distribution and the effect on programmers. Today millions of people are now using GNU/Linux. It has a reputation of being one of the safest operating systems available and, if you know how to get it, it’s free. Many talented programmers have also willingly contributed to the project.
Personally I don’t like how Stallman casually dismissed what he thought would be the decline of high paid programming jobs. I have an inkling that Stallman may be one of those talented individuals that programming comes easy to and he doesn’t realize how difficult it can be to countless people. In music, art, literature, science and even programming, which at the highest level requires a great deal of talent, creativity and innovation, there are individuals that excel and make significant contributions and advancements to their vocation. Such a decline as he suggested would be a travesty. In the footnotes though, he later added - “The custom software business would continue to exist, more or less unchanged, in a free software world. Therefore, I no longer expect that most paid programmers would earn less in a free software world.”
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Clay Shirky on Web 2.0
When the Industrial Revolution came about, people suddenly found they had a lot of free time available to them. According to Clay Shirky first they spent that time consuming alcohol, then when TV was invented they soaked up much of their time in front of the set. The invention of the Internet has changed that. Now people are choosing to spend a lot of their free time in front of a computer participating on social sites, such as YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia.
Shirky has published a video on Blip.tv about this subject. While the topic is interesting, I found Shirky’s anti-TV and pro-social networking on sites such as Wikipedia incredibly biased and a little silly. Wikipedia, while interesting to study from a cultural point of view, is incredibly useless and a phenomenal waste of human cognitive time that could be better put to use elsewhere. You can’t trust anything you read on Wikipedia.
Social networking may not be just a fad. It may be just the beginning of something that is here to stay. But arguing that sitting in front of a computer wasting time on useless social networking sites is better than sitting in front of the TV is laughable. Television, while having the potential for many to abuse also has many education channels and shows that are produced for people to easily understand and enjoy. Many brilliant writers and producers have created stories, such as “The Day After” (1983) and “The Burning Bed” (1984) that have shocked the world and made people really question what was going on in our society. TV and Web 2.0 both have the potential for people to misuse. But they both also have their potential to captivate and affect our society.
Web 2.0 does give people the power to create and produce and participate. Right now, it does have enormous potential, but whether it will be the savior of our society or the downfall is still unknown.
Michele Simon
Shirky has published a video on Blip.tv about this subject. While the topic is interesting, I found Shirky’s anti-TV and pro-social networking on sites such as Wikipedia incredibly biased and a little silly. Wikipedia, while interesting to study from a cultural point of view, is incredibly useless and a phenomenal waste of human cognitive time that could be better put to use elsewhere. You can’t trust anything you read on Wikipedia.
Social networking may not be just a fad. It may be just the beginning of something that is here to stay. But arguing that sitting in front of a computer wasting time on useless social networking sites is better than sitting in front of the TV is laughable. Television, while having the potential for many to abuse also has many education channels and shows that are produced for people to easily understand and enjoy. Many brilliant writers and producers have created stories, such as “The Day After” (1983) and “The Burning Bed” (1984) that have shocked the world and made people really question what was going on in our society. TV and Web 2.0 both have the potential for people to misuse. But they both also have their potential to captivate and affect our society.
Web 2.0 does give people the power to create and produce and participate. Right now, it does have enormous potential, but whether it will be the savior of our society or the downfall is still unknown.
Michele Simon
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