Three Quick Checks for Effective Visual Hierarchy

This is another of those posts where I grab someone else's great ideas and squirrel it away here for future reference. Dominic Harkness posted these little gems on what he calls his "3 Ws." Any effective webpage design should immediately answer these questions for anyone who happens to view it. These are simple ideas, but they're often overlooked. It's good to remind ourselves of these basics from time to time.

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On Net Neutrality

In 2015 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted the Open Internet Order in which Internet service providers were banned from discriminating against different types of traffic or charging big Internet companies like Netflix and Amazon for the privilege of having their content delivered by higher speed connections. Having been enacted and maintained by popular public support, net neutrality laws are nevertheless under constant attack from corporate service providers and politicians alike.

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Knowledge Threatens the Pioneer Spirit

Hofstadter breaks his analysis of the history of matters of intellect in America by looking at three broad areas: religion, education in relation to labor movements and politics and changing philosophies on how children should be educated. While I found the discussion of historical labor movements to be uncompelling as it relates to the grand topic of the book, his review of religion and approaches to education in this country are as relevant today as they were when the book was written in 1963.

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Linus Explains Big Data

For a media ethics class I'm taking, I was given an assignment to "persuade the audience to be either for or against big data." What made it fun was that I was told I could select the format I wanted to use to present the argument: a presentation, an essay or any other format I'd like. There's nothing better than to be given free reign with respect to format. Naturally, I chose to present my argument in the form of a Peanuts strip.

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The Ethics of ‘Facebook Live’

In the absence of a method to prevent the live streaming of murders and other violence, Zuckerberg remains personally responsible for the consequences of this service offering. By not suspending the service until a screening system is in place and functioning, he has made the decision that the ethical problems associated with Facebook Live are subordinate to the monetary benefit it confers to his company.

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