The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a determination that a worker was not entitled to underinsured motorist benefits for an on-the-job injury caused by an inattentive driver. Case: Preston v. Progressive…

Ganezza’s Visual Identity: A Dynamic Branding Journey

Wildlife photography fans now have a unique opportunity to own a true collector’s piece from renowned wildlife photographer David Lloyd. For the first time, David...

The post Now you can own this rare collector’s edition book set of wildlife fine art photography appeared first on DIY Photography.

If you’re looking for a tried-and-true lighting technique, then it doesn’t come much more stress-tested than this one. In fact, this is a lighting technique...

The post Lighting setup: Still life portrait appeared first on DIY Photography.

Finding power on location can be tough, especially when those locations are out in the middle of nowhere. It’s been getting a lot easier in...

The post Bluetti’s new Elite200 V2 wants to power your camera gear on location appeared first on DIY Photography.

Stories are everywhere. When they don’t exist we make up the narrative — we join the dots. We make cognitive leaps and fill in the bits of a story that are implied or missing. The same goes for websites. We make quick judgements based on a glimpse. Then we delve deeper. The narrative unfolds, or we create one as we browse.

Mark Bernstein penned Beyond Usability and Design: The Narrative Web for A List Apart in 2001. He wrote, ‘the reader’s journey through our site is a narrative experience’. I agreed wholeheartedly: Websites are narrative spaces where stories can be enacted, or emerge.

Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media Studies, and Professor of Literature at MIT, wrote Game Design as Narrative Architecture. He suggested we think of game designers, ‘less as storytellers than as narrative architects’. I agree, and I think web designers are narrative architects, too. (Along with all the multitude of other roles we assume.) Much of what Henry Jenkins wrote applies to modern web design. In particular, he describes two kinds of narratives in game design that are relevant to us:

Enacted narratives are those where:

[…] the story itself may be structured around the character’s movement through space and the features of the environment may retard or accelerate that plot trajectory.

Sites like Amazon, New Adventures, or your portfolio are enacted narrative spaces: Shops or service brochures that want the audience to move through the site towards a specific set of actions like buying something or initiating contact.

Emergent narratives are those where:

[…] spaces are designed to be rich with narrative potential, enabling the story-constructing activity of players.

Sites like Flickr, Twitter, or Dribbble are emergent narrative spaces: Web applications that encourage their audience use the tools at their disposal to tell their own story. The audience defines how they want to use the narrative space, often with surprising results.

We often build both kinds of narrative spaces. Right now, my friends and I at Analog are working on Mapalong, a new maps-based app that’s just launched into private beta. At its heart Mapalong is about telling our stories. It’s one big map with a set of tools to view the world, add places, share them, and see the places others share. The aim is to help people tell their stories. We want to use three ideas to help you do that: Space (recording places, and annotating them), data (importing stuff we create elsewhere), and time (plotting our journeys, and recording all the places, people, and memories along the way). We know that people will find novel uses for the tools in Mapalong. In fact, we want them to because it will help us refine and build better tools. We work in an agile way because that’s the only way to design an emerging narrative space. Without realising it we’ve become architects of a narrative space, and you probably are, too.

Many projects like shops or brochure sites have fixed costs and objectives. They want to guide the audience to a specific set of actions. The site needs to be an enacted narrative space. Ideally, designers would observe behaviour and iterate. Failing that, a healthy dose of empathy can serve. Every site seeks to teach, educate, or inform. So, a bit of knowledge about people’s learning styles can be useful. I once did a course in one to one and small group training with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. It introduced me to Peter Honey and Alan Mumford’s model which describes four different learning styles that are useful for us to know. I paraphrase:

1. Activists like learning as they go; getting stuck in and working it out. They enjoy the here and now, and are happy to be dominated by immediate experiences. They are open-minded, not sceptical, and this tends to make them enthusiastic about anything new.
2. Reflectors like being guided with time to take it all in and perhaps return later. They like to stand back to ponder experiences and observe them from many different perspectives. They collect data, both first hand and from others, and prefer to think about it thoroughly before coming to a conclusion.
3. Theorists to understand and make logical sense of things before they leap in. They think problems through in a vertical, step-by-step logical way. They assimilate disparate facts into coherent theories.
4. Pragmatists like practical applications of ideas, experiments, and results. They like trying out ideas, theories and techniques to see if they work in practice. They positively search out new ideas and take the first opportunity to experiment with applications.

Usually people share two or more of these qualities. The weight of each can vary depending on the context. So how might learning styles manifest themselves in web browsing behaviour?

• Activists like to explore, learn as they go, and wander the site working it out. They need good in-context navigation to keep exploring. For example, signposts to related information are optimal for activists. They can just keep going, and going, and exploring until sated.
• Reflectors are patient and thoughtful. They like to ponder, read, reflect, then decide. Guided tours to orientate them in emergent sites can be a great help. Saving shopping baskets for later, and remembering sessions in enacted sites can also help them.
• Theorists want logic. Documentation. An understanding of what the site is, and what they might get from it. Clear, detailed information helps a theorist, whatever the space they’re in.
• Pragmatists get stuck in like activists, but evaluate quickly, and test their assumptions. They are quick, and can be helped by uncluttered concise information, and contextual, logical tools.

An understanding of interactive narrative types and a bit of knowledge about learning styles can be useful concepts for us to bear in mind. I also think they warrant inclusion as part of an articulate designer’s language of web design. If Henry Jenkins is right about games designers, I think he could also be right about web designers: we are narrative architects, designing spaces where stories are told.

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Thanks for all the positive support and reception to my Lightroom presets so far, especially to those who pulled the trigger and became my first customers! I’d love to hear your feedback once you try them out!
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Still time to enter the giveaway or to take advantage of the 50% sale! See my last post for full details and the link in my profile. ❤️ (at Toronto, Ontario)

I like the philosophy behind shooting with primes; that a photographer shouldn’t stand still but instead, continuously move closer, further, lower, or higher relative to his/her subject as a means of establishing a deeper connection. ????????
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Save 50% on my custom Lightroom presets with HOLIDAY50. Link in profile. (at Toronto, Ontario)

This is from my favourite shoot/photoset of all time. It was spontaneous, serendipitous, and simply beautiful. ☂️
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The edit: After applying my preset (I used Clean for this one), I bumped up the exposure and desaturated the yellows/oranges a bit. As a finishing touch, I used a graduated filter to brighten the top a bit and a radial filter on @sllychn to brighten and sharpen the focal point. That’s it! ✨ (at Toronto, Ontario)

Merry Xmas everyone! It’s giveaway time! ????????
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Thank you to all those who participated in my preset giveaway this week! The support makes all the hard work and extra effort worth it!
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Without further ado, the randomly drawn winners of my custom Lightroom presets are @l9lee @rchellau @bokeh.jay! Congrats and check your DMs soon for details! ????
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You still have until tomorrow to grab my presets (which this shot was edited with) for 50% off! They’ll be going back to regular price after so don’t miss out! ???? (at Toronto, Ontario)

I’ve gone subway hopping for photos in every city I’ve been to except the one I live in. ???? (at Toronto, Ontario)

This might as well be a Herschel ad. ???? (at London, United Kingdom)

Quick survey: on average, what time is it when you check Instagram for the first time on any given day? (Be sure to include your timezone!)
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PS: Thank you for all the incredible support on yesterday’s announcement. ❤️ (at Toronto, Ontario)

UX competitor analysis is a valuable user research method that focuses on understanding your products’ competitors, helping you better understand your market and goals. Idea Theorem™ has worked with many clients that required a UX competitor analysis to get actionable insights about their competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and mistakes to avoid and know what they are doing right.

I had a fantastic conversation with Jem Sophia today (our first actual conversation after years of talking online!) who pointed me in the direction of this fantastic article. I love the sentiment and the metaphor. Creating software to scratch an itch without any ambitions of ScAlInG and turning it into a capitalistic enterprise.

If you own an AirPort base station, you can use the Timed Access feature to control the days and times when users access the Internet. This could come in handy in a variety of situations. For example, if you own a cafe and provide free wi-fi access, you can configure the AirPort to block all access to the Internet when your business is closed. And if you have children, you can set time limits for specific devices in your home.

There are two ways to use the timed access feature. You can create a default allow policy to allow all devices to access the Internet at any time, and then specify custom schedules for specific devices. Or you can create a default deny policy to prevent all devices from accessing the Internet according the schedule you specify, and then exempt specific devices by creating custom schedules.

Here's how to control AirPort network access with time limits:

1. Open the AirPort Utility application. (It's in Applications → Utilities.) The window shown below appears.
   
   
2. Click the AirPort Extreme's icon. The status pop-up window appears.
   
   
3. Click Edit. The settings window appears.
   
   
4. Select the Network tab. The window shown below appears.
   
   
5. Select the Enable Access Control checkbox.
   
   
6. Click Timed Access Control. The window shown below appears.
   
   
7. Select the Unlimited (default) option. By default, this allows all of the devices connected to your AirPort to access the Internet all day, every day, but you can change this to block Internet access for all devices (except the ones you specify later) during the times you set.
   
   
8. If you'd like to limit the days and times that a specific device can access the Internet, click the + button under the Wireless Clients field. The window shown below appears.
   
   
9. Enter a name for the device in the Description field.
   
   
10. Enter the device's MAC address in the MAC Address field. You can use the following tutorials to find the device's MAC address.
    
    • How to Find Your Mac's MAC Address
    • How to Find Your iPad's MAC Address
    • How to Find Your iPhone's MAC Address
    
    
11. Use the + button under the Wireless Access Times field to create a schedule for this device's Internet access.
    
    
12. Once you've added all of your devices and customized the schedules, click Save.
    
    
13. Click Update. The AirPort will restart to apply the changes.

Congratulations! You have successfully set time limits for the devices connecting to your AirPort network. The schedule you created is effective immediately.

Meet Your Macinstructor

Matt Cone, the author of Master Your Mac, has been a Mac user for over 20 years. A former ghost writer for some of Apple's most notable instructors, Cone founded Macinstruct in 1999, a site with OS X tutorials that boasts hundreds of thousands of unique visitors per month. You can email him at: matt@macinstruct.com.

Rob Ball
Untitled, Margate, England, 2014
From the Dreamland series
Website - RobBall.co.uk

Rob Ball is a British photographer and academic working on self-initiated projects and commissions. His work has been shown at numerous institutions and festivals including The National Portrait Gallery, Ways of Looking Festival, Format Festival and Bonnington Gallery, Nottingham. Interested in areas including materiality, process, landscape and the archive, Rob produces a variety of outputs including the publications Unremarkable Stories and Beyond the View (2014). Rob is Deputy Director of The South East Archive of Seaside Photography (SEAS).

““I always hated that word—marketing—and I hate it now. Because for me, and this may sound simplistic, the key to marketing is to make something people want. When they want it, they buy it. When they buy it, you have sales. So the product has to speak. The product is what markets things.””

- Interview with Tom Ford.

“

What is deceptive, especially in the West, is our assumption that repetitive and mindless jobs are dehumanizing. On the other hand, the jobs that require us to use the abilities that are uniquely human, we assume to be humanizing. This is not necessarily true. The determining factor is not so much the nature of our jobs, but for whom they serve.

‘Burnout’ is a result of consuming yourself for something other than yourself. You could be burnt out for an abstract concept, ideal, or even nothing (predicament). You end up burning yourself as fuel for something or someone else. This is what feels dehumanizing. In repetitive physical jobs, you could burn out your body for something other than yourself. In creative jobs, you could burn out your soul. Either way, it would be dehumanizing. Completely mindless jobs and incessantly mindful jobs could both be harmful to us.

A British Columbia (BC) teen from the Fraser Health region who was hospitalized with an earlier announced presumptive positive H5 avian flu infection is in critical condition, the province's top health official said today.

The county said the 32-hour workweek has attracted a host of new talent: Applications have spiked 85.5% and open positions are being filled 23.75% faster, while more employees are staying in their jobs -- separation (employees quitting or retiring) dropped by 48%. And 84% of employees said their work-life balance was better.

Stuart Smith is currently investigating the use of mobile technologies as part of his work for MIMAS, a national data centre based at the University of Manchester. MIMAS hosts large and varied data sets including repositories of learning materials. Stuart is involved in giving usability advice to colleagues delivering learning materials in both the Higher and Further Education sectors and views mobile technologies as highly significant in the future of learning. Stuart has 10 years experience in Web development and has published papers on Accessibility. As well as working in the academic sector he has experience in information management and public relations for a national charity and has worked in the mobile phone sector. Stuart facilitated a workshop session on "Portable Devices for Learning: A Whistlestop Tour".

Dan Smith has been the lead CMS developer for the University of Southampton for four years, initially leading the University's CMS pilot and procurement projects. For the last three years, Dan has lead the implementation of the University's strategic CMS, Interwoven TeamSite. Prior to joining the University of Southampton, Dan was a CMS developer at Ordnance Survey. Dan facilitated a workshop session on "Implementing a Content Management System: Can you Avoid the Pain?".

The "Call for speakers and workshop facilitators" page has been created. [21 Jan 2008]

The "Call for speakers and workshop facilitators" was sent to the web-support JISCMail list. [22 Jan 2008]

The "Call for speakers and workshop facilitators" was sent to the website-info-mgt JISCMail list. [22 Jan 2008]

A reminder of the "Call for speakers and workshop facilitators" was sent to the web-support JISCMail list. [21 Feb 2008]

A reminder of the "Call for speakers and workshop facilitators" was sent to the website-info-mgt JISCMail list. [21 Feb 2008]

The "Call for speakers and workshop facilitators" was sent to the lis-link JISCMail list. [21 Feb 2008]

Details of the parallel sessions available for delegates to attend are now available from the Web site. [05 May 2008]

Details of the plenary talks to be given at the workshop are now available from the Web site. [07 May 2008]

Information on additional accommodation for Monday 21 July is now available. [22 May 2008]

This year Innovation Competition has now been launched. [03 June 2008]

Details of use of Twitter at IWMW 2008 are now available. [08 June 2008]

The University of Aberdeen Sport and Recreation department are able to offer all delegates preferential rates for using the Sports facilities for the duration of the conference. [11 July 2008]

Ranjit Sidhu is a Sitestat Account Manager for Nedstat, European leader in Web site analytics. Nedstat are the Gold Sponsors for this year's workshop. Ranjit has been at Nedstat since the end of 2004, working closely with the University Sector to understand their Web analytics requirements. He now account manages over 20 UK universities that are using Sitestat to improve their online performance. He played an important role in the creation of benchmarking statistics for the university sector (Sector Statistics) and Nedstat's 'Get more online Education' free event in April 2006. Previously, Ranjit attained a law degree at University of Leeds and LPC from College of Law. He has worked within the Education and Government sector including Kings College University and The Western Austalian Governement. Ranjit gave a plenary talk on "Sector Stats". Ranjit can be contacted at R.Sidhu@nedstat.com.

Kate Forbes-Pitt has 15 years experience of working with electronic document management systems. She started working with paper based systems, electronically generated, at London Borough of Lambeth in 1991. She joined the LSE in 1999 to procure and implement a new electronic document management system. In addition, during the last 15 years, she has completed two degrees at LSE, and now pursues document and content management as areas of academic research. She has spoken about document management at many conferences, has recently published on the structure of documents and content and is currently researching the effects of electronic documents on work ownership and identity. Kate gave a plenary talk on "Delivering Information: Document vs. Content". Kate can be contacted at K.Forbes-Pitt@lse.ac.uk

Keith Brooke has worked for the University of Essex since 1998, first as Web Officer, then as Web Support Manager, and now as Web and Learning Technology Manager. He is currently responsible for teams covering Web development, training, support and learning technology. As if that wasn't enough, he also teaches creative writing in the University's Literature department, using a mix of traditional classroom work, workshopping, e-mail, online resources and Facebook silliness. Keith has recently published his fifth science-fiction novel: The Accord. Keith chaired the day 2 afternoon back-end session.

Ranjit Sidhu (or SiD) is founder of statistics into Decisions (or SiD). Around 1998 Ranjit fell into the internet space whilst trying to run away from a career in law. Since then he has worked at several internet based companies, but has found his niche in analysis and helping clients understand what is going on in the internet ether and how to use that information to improve what they do. Around 4 years ago he set up SiD, Statistics into Decisions in Sydney - since then the company has, happily, found a market for its basic ethos on making information relevant and something that can be used so much so that it now works with many top blue chip companies as well as governmental clients both in the UK and Australia. SiD's second office is in Perth, Scotland. Ranjit will be giving a plenary talk entitled "'So what do you do exactly?' In challenging times justifying the roles of the web teams".

Keith Brooke has worked for the University of Essex since 1998, first as Web Officer and since 2001 as Web Support Manager. He is currently responsible for a team of ten covering Web development, training, support and learning technology. As if that wasn't enough, he also teaches creative writing in the University's Literature department, using a mix of traditional classroom work, workshopping, e-mail, online resources and Facebook silliness. Keith facilitated a workshop on "Hands Up if You Haven't done Yours Yet..." with Debbie Nicholson.

Keith Doyle is Web Content Architect at the University of Salford. He is also responsible for the intranet framework, and has direct involvement with the University intranet home pages. He is passionate about how intranets and portals can support administrative activities, and also about usability and information architecture issues. In his spare time, Keith runs a WordPress blog on information architecture. Keith give a plenary talk on "The Promise of Information Architecture" and facilitated a workshop session on "How Do I Implement Enterprise Information Architecture?"

The Institutional Repository (IR) had a meteoric rise to fame. In a brief blaze of glory, it was heralded as the facilitator of a free exchange of information within the academic research community - a faster, cheaper and more effective way to conduct scholarly communications in the twenty-first century. Then, just as quickly, fame changed to infamy. The technology, the ownership, and the very ideal of the IR has been called into question by many and varied voices in the wider academic community and beyond. I would like to explore the really controversial aspects of the IR, and ask my audience to consider that perhaps, just perhaps, there was something useful there all along.

Rob Bristow, JISC as Programme Manager for e-Administration gives a plenary talk on Institutional Responses to Emergent Technologies - What JISC is Doing. As users of all sorts become more familiar with new technologies (including both Web 2.0 type software tools and user-owned devices) and become used to, and expectant of, managing their own data through 'self-service' applications and systems, questions are asked of institutions as to how they will respond to these new demands. JISC has been investigating this area through strands within its e-Learning and Users and Innovation programmes which have been focussed in the main on the learners' and users' experience. JISC has recently funded a further series of projects that address the way that institutions are responding to these new challenges, looking at organisational policies, practice and strategies, as well as funding pilot projects that demonstrate actual institutional responses. This work is in its early stages but the scope of the responses to the call for projects and some of the early results of the landscape study will provide some interesting real life information about institutional responses from across the sector. This talk will describe the work that JISC is doing and relate it to the Institutional Web Manager world.

Starts: Tue, 04 Feb 2025 18:30:00 -0500
02/04/2025 04:00:00PM
Location: Montreal, Canada

Smart planning policies and room for expansion is ensuring Melbourne keeps its affordability and acclaimed quality of life as it becomes Australia’s biggest city over the next few decades. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Melbourne will overtake Sydney in population by 2053, projected to be home to over 7.7 million people. Currently 4.35 million people live in Melbourne compared to 4.76 million in Sydney but more people are moving to Melbourne than other Australian capital city, drawn by a vibrant and cosmopolitan culture, great public amenities and transport infrastructure and a geographical location that allows the city to expand outwards to accommodate new arrivals at lower cost than other major Australian cities.

A new wearable pressure sensor has been developed which could be used to monitor people’s health at anytime and anywhere. Researchers from Monash University’s Departments of Chemical Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, produced the new sensor by sandwiching ultrathin gold nanowire-impregnated tissue paper between two polymer sheets.

Australia remains a top 10 global destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) for a third straight year after attracting US$50 billion in foreign direct investment in 2013, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) World Investment Report 2014. Over the three years to 2013, FDI flows to Australia rose nearly 55 per cent to US$171 billion from US$110 billion over the previous three years. This impressive growth has expanded Australia’s share of global FDI inflows to 3.8 per cent in 2011-13 from 2.5 per cent in 2008-10. In contrast, developed economies’ share of world FDI inflows fell to 44 per cent in 2011-13 from 53 per cent in 2008-10.