Jan 2022

The Prussian semaphore telegraph system

The history of communication technology is not just a collection of – often curious – inventions and developments, but also a valuable reminder that even most things we consider "innovative" today likely have roots far back in time. A recent blog post motivated me to finally write up one of these historical curiosities I encountered in the most unlikely of places: the countryside outside Berlin.
2022

Are link-in-bio platforms trying to be the new Geocities?

Initially invented as minimalist solutions to circumvent the social media platforms' limitation of external links so-called "link in bio" platforms appear to be slowly evolving into complex tools to build a personal online presence.
2022

Responsible Data Handbook

responsibledata.io

Co-written by 12 authors, this handbook builds on and makes tangible the Responsible Data Forum’s working definition for “responsible data”. The mission, stated in the introduction chapter, is to illustrate where the responsibilities in dealing with data are and present strategies to deal with that responsibly.
2022

Reflecting about adopting more technology

lawriephipps.co.uk

Starting with an analogy to tech in orienteering sports, Lawrie Phipps looks at the excluding factor of the growing reliance of a certain stack of technology:
[…] practices in education have shifted, and we now have more technology as a […]
#design-for-all
2022

Differentiating online variations of the Commonplace Book: Digital Gardens, Wikis, Zettlekasten, Waste Books, Florilegia, and Second Brains

boffosocko.com

Chris Aldrich provides a thorough run-down of various traditions of Commonplace Books and Zettelkästen, a valuable collection on the history of such concepts. It is extended by a view on the recent emergence of “Digital Gardens”. In the end, he […]
2022

Kids who grew up with search engines could change STEM education forever

theverge.com

She asked each student where they’d saved their project. Could they be on the desktop? Perhaps in the shared drive? But over and over, she was met with confusion. “What are you talking about?” multiple students inquired. Not only did they […]
2022

Algorithmic Transparency

maggieappleton.com

Maggie Appleton has a “Patterns” section in her digital garden that I very much enjoyed strolling through as we’re obviously thinking along the same lines. The statement on algorithmic transparency cannot be overstated in today’s omni-automated world:
When an automated system recommends a piece of content, it should include an Epistemic Disclosure message explaining why it suggested it, and what factors went into that decision.
2022

How-to: Accessible heading structure

a11yproject.com

Hands-down the most comprehensive treatment of semantic HTML heading structures, with special focus on accessibility, this How-to by Rian Rietveld answers close to any questions both beginners and advanced users may have. Side note, as it’s closely […]
#design-for-all
2022

This is WCAG

thisiswcag.com

“This is WCAG” is a community-driven effort (GitHub repo) to translate the WCAG criteria for accessible websites into plain english, actionable test statements:
It’s not a catch-all list for things which you feel should be […]
#design-for-all
2022

How to correctly mark up a headline "kicker

twitter.com

Joschi Kuphal and some of his contacts discuss the optimal HTML semantics for a “kicker” (the little pre-heading on top of a headline, sometimes also called “eyebrow”; “Dachzeile” in German) from an accessibility […]
#design-for-all
2022